Ebn Bakiah was seized and
crucified at the gates of the city, by order of the conqueror.

CAPRICES OF FORTUNE[26]

Why should I blush that Fortune's frown
Dooms me life's humble paths to tread?
To live unheeded, and unknown?
To sink forgotten to the dead?

'Tis not the good, the wise, the brave,
That surest shine, or highest rise;
The feather sports upon the wave,
The pearl in ocean's cavern lies.

Each lesser star that studs the sphere
Sparkles with undiminish'd light:
Dark and eclips'd alone appear
The lord of day, the queen of night.

_Shems Almaali Cabus_.

[26] History can show few princes so amiable and few so unfortunate
as Shems Almaali Cabus. He is described as possessed of almost every
virtue and every accomplishment: his piety, justice, generosity, and
humanity, are universally celebrated; nor was he less conspicuous
for intellectual powers; his genius was at once penetrating, solid,
and brilliant, and he distinguished himself equally as an orator, a
philosopher, and a poet.

ON LIFE

Like sheep, we're doom'd to travel o'er
The fated track to all assign'd,
These follow those that went before,
And leave the world to those behind.

As the flock seeks the pasturing shade,
Man presses to the future day,
While death, amidst the tufted glade,
Like the dun robber,[A] waits his prey.

[A] The wolf.

EXTEMPORE VERSES[27]

Lowering as Barkaidy's face
The wintry night came in,
Cold as the music of his bass,
And lengthen'd as his chin.

Sleep from my aching eyes had fled,
And kept as far apart,
As sense from Ebn Fahdi's head,
Or virtue from his heart.

The dubious paths my footsteps balk'd,
I slipp'd along the sod,
As if on Jaber's faith I'd walk'd,
Or on his truth had trod.

At length the rising King of day
Burst on the gloomy wood,
Like Carawash's eye, whose ray
Dispenses every good.

_Ebn Alramacram_.

[27] The occasion of the following composition is thus related by
Abulfeda. Carawash, Sultan of Mousel, being one wintry evening
engaged in a party of pleasure along with Barkaidy, Ebn Fahdi, Abou
Jaber, and the improvisatore poet, Ebn Alramacram, resolved to
divert himself at the expense of his companions. He therefore
ordered the poet to give a specimen of his talents, which at the
same time should convey