all available manuscripts and a careful collation of other
text sources we cannot arrive at a tolerably settled Arabic text. And
that is, so far as I can conclude from my not quite insignificant
material, not very probable. At all events a searching examination of
all the manuscripts in the great Paris library is essential. The various
texts of the book are considerably divergent. Arbitrariness and
carelessness of transcriber have disfigured Ibn Moqaffa's work of art
just because it presently became a favourite book of entertainment. The
language at all events remains approximately correct in the manuscripts.

Grammatical mistakes easy of correction are not seldom met with but pure
vulgarisms occur only in a few copies like that of Berlin. The
numberless variants have not much significance for the translator when
it is only a question of synonyms, since for them the same European
expression can do duty. And though it is not certain whether in the case
of a multitude of non-essential or wholly analogous expressions the
shorter or the extended text is the original one, that does not
substantially affect the translation. There is scarcely any harm in
curtailing the frequent tautology of this chapter. We should be well
advised in case of successive synonymous abstract nouns and verbs such
as occur frequently in Arabic to translate by a simple expression with
an emphatic adjective or adverb. But not seldom the difference becomes
great. It is a difficult situation when we are uncertain whether the
passage which is found in several manuscripts and not in others is the
original one. As a rule we have to decide in favour of the majority but
as sometimes we do come across actual interpolations in some, so their
existence is not impossible in others, although we can not be positive
on the subject.

[Sidenote: A monumental piece of literature.]

The matter would have been less troublesome for me had I been able
straight way to declare as the best the tradition of any of the
manuscripts familiarly known to me or any old translation. That,
however, is not so. I have to judge each case by itself and to proceed
eclectically as much as my philological conscience permits. Finally, by
means of my rendering I believe I have reproduced the import of this
monumental piece of literature without showing absolute partiality to
the Arabic document. My rendering is wanting doubtless in the elegance
with which Ibn Moqaffa handles the language w