countrymen. By turns, a student, a water-carrier, a traveller, a
soldier fighting against the Christians in the Crusades, a prisoner
employed to dig trenches before Tripoli, and an honored poet in his
protracted old age at home,--his varied and severe experience took away
all provincial tone, and gave him a facility of speaking to all
conditions. But the commanding reason of his wider popularity is his
deeper sense, which, in his treatment, expands the local forms and tints
to a cosmopolitan breadth. Through his Persian dialect he speaks to all
nations, and, like Homer, Shakspeare, Cervantes, and Montaigne, is
perpetually modern.

To the sprightly, but indolent Persians, conversation is a game of
skill. They wish to measure wit with you, and expect an adroit, a
brilliant, or a profound answer. Many narratives, doubtless, have
suffered in the translation, since a promising anecdote sometimes
heralds a flat speech. But Saadi's replies are seldom vulgar. His wit
answers to the heart of the question, often quite over the scope of the
inquirer. He has also that splendor of expression which alone, without
wealth of thought, sometimes constitutes a poet, and forces us to ponder
the problem of style. In his poem on his old age, he says,--"Saadi's
whole power lies in his sweet words: let this gift remain to me, I care
not what is taken."

The poet or thinker must always, in a rude nation, be the chief
authority on religion. All questions touching its truth and obligation
will come home to him, at last, for their answer. As he thinks and
speaks will intelligent men believe. Therefore a certain deference must
be shown him by the priests,--a result which conspicuously appears in
the history of Hafiz and Saadi. In common with his countrymen, Saadi
gives prominence to fatalism,--a doctrine which, in Persia, in Arabia,
and in India, has had, in all ages, a dreadful charm. "To all men," says
the Koran, "is their day of death appointed, and they cannot postpone or
advance it one hour. Wilt thou govern the world which God governs? Thy
lot is cast beforehand, and whithersoever it leads, thou must follow."
"Not one is among you," said Mahomet, "to whom is not already appointed
his seat in fire or his seat in bliss."

But the Sheik's mantle sits loosely on Saadi's shoulders, and I find in
him a pure theism. He asserts the universality of moral laws, and the
perpetual retributions. He celebrates the omnipotence of a virtuous
soul. A cert