--"If
the elegant verses of Dhoair Fariabi fall into thy hands, steal them,
though it were in the sacred temple of Mecca itself." But the wildness
of license appears in poetical praises of the Sultan:--"When his bow
moves, it is already the last day [for his enemies]; whom his onset
singles out, to him is life not appointed; and the ghost of the Holy
Ghost were not sure of its time."

But when once the works of these poets are made accessible, they must
draw the curiosity of good readers. It is provincial to ignore them. If,
as Mackintosh said, "whatever is popular deserves attention," much more
does that which has fame. The poet stands in strict relation to his
people: he has the over-dose of their nationality. We did not know them,
until they declared their taste by their enthusiastic welcome of his
genius. Foreign criticism might easily neglect him, unless their
applauses showed the high historic importance of his powers. In these
songs and elegies breaks into light the national mind of the Persians
and Arabians. The monotonies which we accuse, accuse our own. We pass
into a new landscape, new costume, new religion, new manners and
customs, under which humanity nestles very comfortably at Shiraz and
Mecca, with good appetite, and with moral and intellectual results that
correspond, point for point, with ours at New York and London. It needs
in every sense a free translation, just as, from geographical position,
the Persians attribute to the east wind what we say of the west.

Saadi, though he has not the lyric flights of Hafiz, has wit, practical
sense, and just moral sentiments. He has the instinct to teach, and from
every occurrence must draw the moral, like Franklin. He is the poet of
friendship, love, self-devotion, and serenity. There is a uniform force
in his page, and, conspicuously, a tone of cheerfulness, which has
almost made his name a synonyme for this grace. The word _Saadi_ means
_Fortunate_. In him the trait is no result of levity, much less of
convivial habit, but first of a happy nature, to which victory is
habitual, easily shedding mishaps, with sensibility to pleasure, and
with resources against pain. But it also results from the habitual
perception of the beneficent laws that control the world. He inspires in
the reader a good hope. What a contrast between the cynical tone of
Byron and the benevolent wisdom of Saadi!

Saadi has been longer and better known in the Western nations than any
of his