goods of the subjects; then you will bestir yourself, and
snatch them from him, and will fill your treasury. But what good will
that do to your poor and miserable people?" The Caliph was ashamed, and
ordered the instant punishment of the offender.

It appears, from the anecdotes which Professor Graf has rendered from
the Calcutta manuscripts, that Saadi enjoyed very high respect from the
great in his own time, and from the Sultan of the Mongolian court,--and
that he used very plain dealing with this last, for the redress of
grievances which fell under his notice. These, with other passages, mark
the state of society wherein a shepherd becomes a robber, then a
conqueror, and then sultan. In a rude and religious society, a poet and
traveller is thereby a noble and the associate of princes, a teacher of
religion, a mediator between the people and the prince, and, by his
exceptional position, uses great freedom with the rulers. The growth of
cities and increase of trade rapidly block up this bold access of truth
to the courts, as the narrator of these events in Saadi's life plainly
intimates. "The Sultan, Abake Khan, found great pleasure in the verses.
Truly, at the present time, no learned men or Sheiks would dare to utter
such advice, even to a grocer or a butcher; and hence, also, is the
world in such bad plight as we see."

The Persians have been called "the French of Asia"; and their superior
intelligence, their esteem for men of learning, their welcome to Western
travellers, and their tolerance of Christian sects in their territory,
as contrasted with Turkish fanaticism, would seem to derive from the
rich culture of this great choir of poets, perpetually reinforced
through five hundred years, which again and again has enabled the
Persians to refine and civilize their conquerors, and to preserve a
national identity. To the expansion of this influence there is no limit;
and we wish that the promised republication may add to the genius of
Saadi a new audience in America.

THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS.

I hear, from many a little throat,
A warble interrupted long;
I hear the robin's flute-like note,
The bluebird's slenderer song.

Brown meadows and the russet hill,
Not yet the haunt of grazing herds,
And thickets by the glimmering rill
Are all alive with birds.

O Choir of Spring, why come so soon?
On leafless grove and herbless lawn
Warm lie the yellow be