d! the difference between us is like that between
a mustard-seed and Mount Meru." In the same speech of Sakuntala the
Sanskrit introduces a striking simile which Schack omits as too
specifically Indic:

_murkho hi jalpatam pumsam srutva vacah subhasubhah
asubham vakyam adatte purisam iva sukarah
prajnas tu jalpatam pumsam srutva vacah subhasubhah
gunavad vakyam adatte hamsah ksiram ivambhasah_
(_Mbh_. 74. 90, 91.)

"The fool having heard men's speeches containing good and evil
chooses the evil just as a hog dirt; but the wise man having heard
men's speeches containing good and evil chooses the worthy, just
as a swan (separates) milk from water."[232]

We believe that these illustrations will suffice to give an idea of the
relation which Schack's poems bear to the originals.

* * * * *

His fondness for things Oriental finds also frequent expression in his
own poems. In _Naechte des Orients_ (vol. i. p. 7 seq.),[233] like Goethe
before him, he undertakes a poetic Hegira to the East:

Entfliehen lasst mich, fliehn aus den Gewirren
Des Occidents zum heitern Morgenland!

So he visits the native towns of Firdausi and Hafid and pays his
respect to their memory, and then penetrates also into India, where he
hears from the lips of a Buddhist monk an exposition of Nirvana
philosophy, which, however, is unacceptable to him (p. 111). The
Oriental scenes that are brought before our mind, both in this poem as
well as in "Memnon" (vol. vii. p. 5 seq.), are of course portrayed with
poetic feeling as well as scholarly accuracy. The _haji_ who owns the
wonderful elixir,--which, by the way, is said to come from India (p.
33),--and who interprets each vision that the poet lives through from
the standpoint of the pessimistic sceptic, shows the influence of 'Umar
Xayyam. In fact he indulges sometimes in unmistakable reminiscences of
the quatrains of the famous astronomer-poet, as when he says:

Wie Schattenbilder, die an der Laterne,
Wenn sie der Gaukler schiebt, voruebergleiten,
So zieht die bloede, willenlose Herde,
Die Menschheit mein' ich, ueber diese Erde. (p. 55.)

This is very much the same thought as in the following quatrain of 'Umar
(Whinf. 310; Bodl. 108):

[Arabic]
[Arabic]
[Arabic]
[Arabic]

which stands first in Schack's own translation of the Persian poet and
is