Al-Mutanabbi,
and--what MS. be this? What, a Book of Verse spawned in the
cellar? Indeed, the very embryo of that printed copy we read in
Cairo, and which Shakib and his friends would have us translate
for the benefit of the English reading public.

For our Scribe is the choragus of the Modern School of Arabic poetry.
And this particular Diwan of his is a sort of rhymed inventory of all
the inventions and discoveries of modern Science and all the wonders
of America. He has published other Diwans, in which French morbidity
is crowned with laurels from the Arabian Nights. For this Modern
School has two opposing wings, moved by two opposing forces, Science
being the motive power of the one, and Byron and De Musset the
inspiring geniuses of the other. We would not be faithful to our
Editorial task and to our Friend, if we did not give here a few
luminant examples of the Diwan in question. We are, indeed, very
sorry, for the sake of our readers, that space will not allow us to
give them a few whole qasidahs from it. To those who are so fortunate
as to be able to read and understand the Original, we point out the
Ode to the Phonograph, beginning thus:

"O Phonograph, thou wonder of our time,
Thy tongue of wax can sing like me in rhyme."

And another to the Brooklyn Bridge, of which these are the opening
lines:

"O Brooklyn Bridge, how oft upon thy back
I tramped, and once I crossed thee in a hack."

And finally, the great Poem entitled, On the Virtue and Benefit of
Modern Science, of which we remember these couplets:

"Balloons and airships, falling from the skies,
Will be as plenty yet as summer flies.
* * * * *
"Electricity and Steam and Compressed Air
Will carry us to heaven yet, I swear."

Here be rhymed truth, at least, which can boast of not being poetry.
Ay, in this MS. which Shakib is packing along with Al-Mutanabbi in the
bottom of his trunk to evade the Basilisk touch of the Port officials
of Beirut, is packed all the hopes of the Modern School. Pack on,
Shakib; for whether at the Mena House, or in the hasheesh-dens of
Cairo, the Future is drinking to thee, and dreaming of thee and thy
School its opium dreams. And Khalid, the while, sits impassive on his
trunk, and Im-Hanna is cooking the last dinner of _mojadderah_.

Emigration has introduced into Syria somewhat of the three prominent
features of Civilisation: namely, a little wealth