ge: Faridu
'd-Din 'Attar, who died in the year 1229, when over a hundred years old,
was considered the most perfect Sufi[21] philosopher of the time in
which he lived. His father was an eminent druggist in Nishapur, and for
a time Faridu 'd-Din followed the same profession, and his shop was the
delight of all who passed by it, from the neatness of its arrangements
and the fragrant odours of drugs and essences. 'Attar, which means
druggist, or perfumer, Faridu 'd-Din adopted for his poetical title. One
day, while sitting at his door with a friend, an aged dervish drew near,
and, after looking anxiously and closely into the well-furnished shop,
he sighed heavily and shed tears, as he reflected on the transitory
nature of all earthly things. 'Attar, mistaking the sentiment uppermost
in the mind of the venerable devotee, ordered him to be gone, to which
he meekly rejoined: "Yes, I have nothing to prevent me from leaving thy
door, or, indeed, from quitting this world at once, as my sole
possession is this threadbare garment. But O 'Attar, I grieve for thee:
for how canst thou ever bring thyself to think of death--to leave all
these goods behind thee?" 'Attar replied that he hoped and believed that
he should die as contentedly as any dervish; upon which the aged
devotee, saying, "We shall see," placed his wooden bowl upon the ground,
laid his head upon it, and, calling on the name of God, immediately
resigned his soul. Deeply impressed with this incident, 'Attar at once
gave up his shop, and devoted himself to the study of Sufi
philosophy.[22]

[21] The Sufis are the mystics of Islam, and their poetry,
while often externally anacreontic--bacchanalian and
erotic--possesses an esoteric, spiritual signification:
the sensual world is employed to symbolise that which is
to be apprehended only by the _inward_ sense. Most of
the great poets of Persia, Afghanistan, and Turkey are
generally understood to have been Sufis.

[22] Sir Gore Ouseley's _Biographical Notices of Persian Poets_.

The death of Cardinal Mazarin furnishes another remarkable illustration
of Saadi's sentiment. A day or two before he died, the cardinal caused
his servant to carry him into his magnificent art gallery, where, gazing
upon his collection of pictures and sculpture, he cried in anguish, "And
must I leave all these?" Dr. Johnson may have had Mazarin's words in
mind when he said to Garrick, while being