How, then, came the Bab to give Mirza Yahya such a name? Purely from cabbalistic reasons which do not concern us here. It was a mistake which only shows that the Bab was not infallible. Mirza Yahya had no great part to play in the ushering-in of the new cycle. Elsewhere the Bab is at the pains to recommend the elder of the half-brothers to attend to his junior's writing and spelling. [Footnote: The Tablets (letters) are in the British Museum collection, in four books of Ezel, who wrote the copies at Baha-'ullah's dictation. The references are--I., No. 6251, p. 162; II., No. 5111, p. 253, to which copy Rizwan Ali, son of Ezel, has appended 'The brother of the Fruit' (Ezel); III., No. 6254, p. 236; IV., No. 6257, p. 158.] Now it was, of course, worth while to educate Mirza Yahya, whose feebleness in Arabic grammar was scandalous, but can we imagine Baha-'ullah and all the other 'letters' being passed over by the Bab in favour of such an imperfectly educated young man? The so-called 'nomination' is a bare-faced forgery.
The statement of Gobineau that Subh-i-Ezel belonged to the 'Letters of the Living' of the First Unity is untrustworthy. [Footnote: _Fils du Loup_, p. 156 n.3.] M. Hippolyte Dreyfus has favoured me with a reliable list of the members of the First Unity, which I have given elsewhere, and which does not contain the name of Mirza Yahya. At the same time, the Bab may have admitted him into the second hierarchy of 18[19]. [Footnote: _Fils du Loup_, p. 163 n.1. 'The eighteen Letters of Life had each a _mirror_ which represented it, and which was called upon to replace it if it disappeared. There are, therefore, 18 Letters of Life and 18 Mirrors, which constituted two distinct Unities.'] Considering that Mirza Yahya was regarded as a 'return' of Kuddus, some preferment may conceivably have found its way to him. It was no contemptible distinction to be a member of the Second Unity, i.e. to be one of those who reflected the excellences of the older 'Letters of the Living.' As a member of the Second Unity and the accepted reflexion of Kuddus, Subh-i-Ezel may have been thought of as a director of affairs together with the obviously marked-out agent (_wali_), Baha-'ullah. We are not told, however, that Mirza Yahya assumed either the title of Bab (Gate) or that of Nukta (Point). [Footnote: Others, however, give it him (_TN_, p. 353).]