of the poet in some part of his travels,
expressing his comment upon what he had seen and heard. His comments
generally take the form of practical wisdom, or religious suggestion. He
gives us the impression that he knows life and the human heart
thoroughly. It may be said of him, as Arnold said of Sophocles, he was
one "who saw life steadily, and saw it whole." On the other hand, there
is not the slightest trace of cynical acerbity in his writings. He has
passed through the world in the independence of a self-possessed soul,
and has found it all good, saving for the folly of fools and the
wretchedness and degradation of the depraved. There is no bitter
fountain in the "Rose Garden," and the old man's heart is as fresh as
when he left Shiraz, thirty years before; the sprightliness of his
poetry has only been ripened and tempered to a more exquisite flavor, by
the increase of wisdom and the perfecting of art.

Above all, we find in Sa'di the science of life, as comprising morality
and religion, set forth in a most suggestive and a most attractive form.
In some way or other the "Rose Garden" may remind us of the "Essays" of
Bacon, which were published in their complete form the year before the
great English philosopher died. Both works cover a large area of thought
and experience; but the Englishman is clear, cold, and sometimes
cynical, while the Persian is more spiritual, though not less acute, and
has the fervor of the poet which Bacon lacks, and the religious devotion
which the "Essays" altogether miss. The "Rose Garden" has maxims which
are not unworthy of being cherished amid the highest Christian
civilization, while the serenity of mind, the poetic fire, the
transparent sincerity of Sa'di, make his writings one of those books
which men may safely take as the guide and inspirer of their inmost
life. Sa'di died at Shiraz about the year 1292 at the reputed age of one
hundred and ten.

E.W.

CHAPTER I

Of the Customs of Kings

I

I have heard of a king who made the sign to put a captive to death. The
poor wretch, in that state of desperation, began to abuse the king in
the dialect which he spoke, and to revile him with asperity, as has been
said; whoever shall wash his hands of life will utter whatever he may
harbor in his heart:--"_When a man is desperate he will give a latitude
to his tongue, like as a cat at bay will fly at a dog_"--"at the moment
of compulsion when it is impossible to fly, the hand w