li (translated by Ockley, London, 1718)
afford a just and favorable specimen of Arabian wit. * Note: Compare the
Arabic proverbs translated by Burckhardt. London. 1830--M.]

[Footnote 41: Pocock (Specimen, p. 158-161) and Casiri (Bibliot.
Hispano-Arabica, tom. i. p. 48, 84, &c., 119, tom. ii. p. 17, &c.) speak
of the Arabian poets before Mahomet; the seven poems of the Caaba
have been published in English by Sir William Jones; but his honorable
mission to India has deprived us of his own notes, far more interesting
than the obscure and obsolete text.]

[Footnote 42: Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 29, 30]

[Footnote 43: D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 458. Gagnier, Vie de
Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 118. Caab and Hesnus (Pocock, Specimen, p. 43, 46,
48) were likewise conspicuous for their liberality; and the latter
is elegantly praised by an Arabian poet: "Videbis eum cum accesseris
exultantem, ac si dares illi quod ab illo petis." * Note: See the
translation of the amusing Persian romance of Hatim Tai, by Duncan
Forbes, Esq., among the works published by the Oriental Translation
Fund.--M.]

The religion of the Arabs, [44] as well as of the Indians, consisted in
the worship of the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars; a primitive and
specious mode of superstition. The bright luminaries of the sky display
the visible image of a Deity: their number and distance convey to a
philosophic, or even a vulgar, eye, the idea of boundless space:
the character of eternity is marked on these solid globes, that seem
incapable of corruption or decay: the regularity of their motions may
be ascribed to a principle of reason or instinct; and their real, or
imaginary, influence encourages the vain belief that the earth and
its inhabitants are the object of their peculiar care. The science of
astronomy was cultivated at Babylon; but the school of the Arabs was
a clear firmament and a naked plain. In their nocturnal marches, they
steered by the guidance of the stars: their names, and order, and daily
station, were familiar to the curiosity and devotion of the Bedoween;
and he was taught by experience to divide, in twenty-eight parts, the
zodiac of the moon, and to bless the constellations who refreshed, with
salutary rains, the thirst of the desert. The reign of the heavenly orbs
could not be extended beyond the visible sphere; and some metaphysical
powers were necessary to sustain the transmigration of souls and the
resurrection of bodies: a