the fide of rivulets or fountains, but either amidst the confusion of a metropolis, the hurry of travel, the diffipation of publick places, the avocations of more necessary ftudies, or the attention to more useful parts of literature. To return there is a manuscript at Oxford* containing the lives of an hundred and thirty five of the finest Perfian poets, most of whom left very ample collections of their poems behind them: but the verfifiers, and moderate poets, if Horace will allow any. fuch men to exift, are without number in Perfia.

This delicacy of their lives and fentiments has infenfibly affected their language, and rendered it the softest, as it is one of the richeft, in the world: it is not poffible to convince the reader of this truth, by quoting a paffage from a Perfian poet in European characters; fince the sweetness of found cannot be determined by the fight, and many words, which are foft and mufical in the mouth of a Perfian, may appear very barsh to our eyes, with a number of confonants and gutturels: it may not, however, be abfurd to fet down in this place, an Ode of the poet Hafiz, which, if it be not sufficient to prove the delicacy of his language, will at least fhow the liveliness of his poetry:

Ai bad nesimi yârdari,

Zan nefhei mufhcbâr dari:

* In Hyperoo Bodl. 128. There is a prefatory difcourfe to this curious work, which comprifes the lives of ten Arabian poets.

Zinhar

Zinhar mecun diraz-defti!

Ba turrei o che câr dari?

Ai gul, to cuja wa ruyi zeibash?
O taza, wa to kharbâr dari.
Nerkes, to cuja wa cheshmi mestesh?
O ferkhofh, wa to khumâr dari.
Ai feru, to ba kaddi bulendesh,
Der bagh che iytebâr dari ?
Ai akl, to ba wujûdi ishkesh
Der deft che ikhtiyâr dari?
Rihan, to cujâ wa khatti febzesh?
O mufhe, wa to ghubâr dari.
Ruzi bures bewafli Hafiz,
Gher takati yntizâr dari.

That is, word for word, O fweet gale, thou beareft the fragrant fcent of my beloved; thence it is that thou hast this musky odour. Beware! do not steal: what haft thou to do with her treffes? O rofe, what art thou, to be compared with her bright face? She is fresh, and thou art rough with thorns. O narciffus, what art thou in comparison of her languishing eye? Her eye is only fleepy, but thou art fick and faint. O pine, compared with her graceful ftature, what honour haft thou in the garden? O wisdom, what wouldst thou choose, if to choose were in thy power, in preference to

her

ber love? O fweet bafil, what art thou, to be compared with ber fresh cheeks? they are perfect musk, but thou art foon withered. Come, my beloved, and charm Hafiz with thy prefence, if thou canft but stay with him for a single day. This little fong is not unlike a fonnet, afcribed to Shakefpear, which deferves to be cited here, as a proof that the Eaftern imagery is not fo different from the European as we are apt to imagine.

The forward violet thus did I chide:

"Sweet thief! whence didft thou fteal thy fweet that smells,

¢

If not from my love's breath? The purple pride,

"Which on thy foft cheek for complexion dwells,
"In my love's veins thou haft too grossly dyed."
The lily I condemned for thy hand,

And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair;
The rofes fearfully on thorns did ftand,
One blushing shame, another white despair;
A third, nor red, nor white had ftol'n of both,
And to his robb'ry had annex'd thy breath;
But for his theft, in pride of all his growth,
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.
More flow'rs I noted, yet I none could fee,
But fweet or colour it had ftol'n from thee.

Shakespear's Poems. p. 207.

The

The Perfian ftyle is faid to be ridiculously bombaft, and this fault is imputed to the flavifh spirit of the nation, which is ever apt to magnify the objects that are placed above it: there are bad writers, to be fure, in every country, and as many in Afia as elsewhere; but, if we take the pains to learn the Perfian language, we shall find that those authors, who are generally esteemed in Perfia, are neither flavish in their sentiments, nor ridiculous in their expreffions: of which the following paffage in a moral work of Sadi, entitled Boftân, or, The Garden, will be a fufficient proof.

Shinidem ke, der wakti nezi rewan,

Be Hormuz chunin gufti Nufbirewan :
Ki khatir nigehdari derwishi bash,
Ne der bendi âfaïshi khishi bash :
Neâfaïd ender diyari to kes,
Chu âfaïfbi khifbi khahi wa bes.
Neyayid benezdiki dana pesend,
Shubani khufte, wa gurki der kuspend.
Beru; pafi derwishi muhtâji dar,

Ki fbah ez raiyeti bûd tâji dar.

Raiyet chu bikheft wa foltan dirakht,

Dirakht, ai pifer, bashed ez bikhi sakht.

That is; I have heard that king Nufhirvan, just before his death, spoke thus to his fon Hormuz: Be a guardian, my fon, to the poor and helpless; and be not confined in the chains of thy own indolence. No one can be at ease in thy dominion, while thou feekeft only thy private reft, and fayeft,. It is enough. A wife man will not approve the fhepherd, who fleeps, while the wolf is in the fold. Go, my fon, protect thy weak and indigent people; fince through them is a king raised to the diadem. The people are the root, and the king is the tree, that grows from it; and the tree, O my fon, derives its strength from the root..

Are these mean sentiments, delivered in pompous language? Are they not rather worthy of our most spirited writers? And do they not convey a fine leffon for a young king? Yet Sadi's poems are highly esteemed at Conftantinople, and at Ifpahan; though, a century or two ago, they would have been fuppreffed in Europe, for fpreading, with too ftrong a glare, the light of liberty and reafon.

As to the great Epick poem of Ferdufi, which was compofed in the tenth century, it would require a very long treatise, to explain all its beauties with a minute exactness, The whole collection of that poet's works is called Shahnâma, and contains the hiftory of Perfia, from the earliest times to the invafion of the Arabs, in a series of very noble poems; the longest and most regular of which is an heroick poem of one great and interesting action, namely, the delivery of Perfia by Cyrus, from the oppreffions of Afrafiab, king of the Tranfoxan Tartary, who, being affifted by the emperours of India and China, together