| In the late
1890s, famed Cambridge orientalist Edward G. Browne met Bahá'u'lláh,
the only Westerner to meet Him and leave an account of his experience. Browne, who visited
Bahá'u'lláh in His home at Bahji, recorded the meeting this way: The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe
it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority sat on that
ample brow.... No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who
is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!
A mild dignified voice bade me be seated, and then
continued:--"Praise be to God that thou hast attained!... Thou hast come to see a
prisoner and an exile... We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the
nations; yet they deem us as a stirrer up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and
banishment... These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as
one kindred and one family.... Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let
him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind."
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