for
having spoken.--_Stobaeus_: Flor. xxxiii, 12.

The Persian poet Jami--the last of the brilliant galaxy of genius who
enriched the literature of their country, and who flourished two
centuries after Saadi had passed to his rest--reproduces these sayings
of the four kings in his work entitled _Baharistan_, or Abode of Spring,
which is similar in design to the _Gulistan_.

Among the sayings of other wise men (whose names, however, Saadi does
not mention) are the following: A devotee, who had quitted his monastery
and become a member of a college, being asked what difference there is
between a learned man and a religious man to induce him thus to change
his associates, answered: "The devotee saves his own blanket out of the
waves, and the learned man endeavours to save others from drowning."--A
young man complained to his spiritual guide of his studies being
frequently interrupted by idle and impudent visitors, and desired to
know by what means he might rid himself of the annoyance. The sage
replied: "To such as are poor lend money, and of such as are rich ask
money, and, depend upon it, you will never see one of them again."

Saadi's own aphorisms are not less striking and instructive. They are
indeed calculated to stimulate the faltering to manly exertion, and to
counsel the inexperienced. It is to youthful minds, however, that the
"words of the wise" are more especially addressed; for it is during the
spring-time of life that the seeds of good and evil take root; and so we
find the sage Hebrew king frequently addressing his maxims to the young:
"My son," is his formula, "my son, attend to my words, and bow thine ear
to my understanding; that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy
lips may keep knowledge." And the "good and notable sentences" of Saadi
are well worthy of being treasured by the young man on the threshold of
life. For example:

"Life is snow, and the summer advanceth; only a small portion remaineth:
art thou still slothful?"

This warning has been reiterated by moralists in all ages and
countries;--the Great Teacher says: "Work while it is day, for the night
cometh when no man can work." And Saadi, in one of his sermons (which is
found in another of his books), recounts this beautiful fable, in
illustration of the fortunes of the slothful and the industrious:

It is related that in a certain garden a Nightingale had built his nest
on the bough of a rose-bush. It so happened that a poo