THE KHALIPH RADHI BILLAH-SHEMS ALMAALI CABUS. 97

Cassim's son, Hosein, was Vizir to the Khaliph Moctader; and the other, Mohammed, to his successor, Kaher. Professor Carlyle says: "The sarcasm might apply to either without much impropriety; for Hosein was condemned to suffer punishment for his impiety, in the reign of Radhi; and Mohammed was the favourite minister of Kaher, who appears to have been the greatest monster that ever presided over the Khaliphat."

THE KHALIPH RADHI BILLAH.

The twentieth Khaliph of the house of Abbas, and the last of those princes who possessed any substantial power. He died in the 329th year of the Hegira, i.e., A.D. 951.

TO A LADY UPON SEEING HER BLUSH.

Leila! whene'er I gaze on thee
My alter'd cheek turns pale,

While upon thine, sweet maid, I see
A deep'ning blush prevail.

Leila, shall I the cause impart

Why such a change takes place?

The crimson stream deserts my heart,

To mantle on thy face.

This is one of the most elegant epigrams to be found in any language, and deserves particular attention.

SHEMS ALMAALI CABUS.

Ascended the throne of Georgia in the year of the Hegira 366, i.e., A.D. 988, reigned for thirty-five years, and was then deposed. He possessed almost every virtue and every accomplishment, and was es unfortunate as he was amiable.

ON THE CAPRICES OF FORTUNE.

Probably composed during the writer's exile in Khorassan,

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?

H

'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.

In the "Festoon" is a translation from the Greek of Solon, which well expresses the indifference of Fortune to worth:

Some wicked men are rich, some good men poor;
Yet I'd not change my virtue for their store.
Virtue's a sure possession, firm as fate,

While wealth now flies to this man, now to that.

One of the best epigrams on Fortune is by Samuel Wesley, the usher of Westminster School, which he says is "From a hint in the minor poets":

No, not for those of women born,
Not so unlike the die is cast;
For, after all our vaunt and scorn,
How very small the odds at last!
Him rais'd to Fortune's utmost top
With him beneath her feet compare;
And one has nothing more to hope,
The other nothing more to fear.

UNKNOWN AUTHORS.

ON TAHER BEN HOSEIN,
Who was ambidexter, and one-eyed.

A pair of right hands and a single dim eye
Must form not a man, but a monster, they cry:
Change a hand to an eye, good Taher, if you can,
And a monster perhaps may be changed to a man.

"Taher appears to have been the most celebrated general of his time. He commanded the forces of Mamun, second son to Haroun Alrashid, and it was chiefly owing to his abilities that Mamun arrived at the throne."--Carlyle.

"This epigram," says Professor Carlyle, "reminds us of the wellknown lines upon a brother and sister, both extremely beautiful, but

who had each lost an eye; and it is curious to observe how easily the same idea is modified by a different poet into a satire or a panegyric." The epigram alluded to is that on Acon and Leonilla by Amaltheus. The one on Taher might have been given under that singularly elegant piece, but the want of harmony between the two would injure both if brought into juxta-position.

TO A FRIEND UPON HIS BIRTHDAY.
When born, in tears we saw thee drown'd,
While thine assembled friends around,
With smiles their joy confest;
So live, that at thy parting hour,
They may the flood of sorrow pour,

And thou in smiles be drest!

It may interest some readers to see a translation of this very beautiful epigram, which is attributed to Sir William Jones:

On parents' knees, a naked new-born child,

Weeping thou sat'st, while all around thee smiled:
So live, that sinking to thy life's last sleep,

Calm thou may'st smile, while all around thee weep.

It can hardly be supposed that the old epigrammatist, Hayman, knew anything of Arabian poetry. The similarity, therefore, of the following distich, found among his "Quodlibets," may be considered as a coincidence of ideas (Book I. Quod. 55):

When we are born, our friends rejoice; we cry :
But we rejoice, our friends mourn when we die.

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, waits his prey.

The wolf.

An epigram by Samuel Wesley shows how the generations of men ive and pass away:

Some laugh, while others mourn;

Some toil, while others play;
One dies, and one is born:

So runs the world away.

MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS.

A.D. 1265-A.D. 1678.

DANTE ALIGHIERI.

Born, 1265. Died, 1321.

HIS OWN EPITAPH.

Translated by Hackett, in "Select and Remarkable Epitaphs," 1757.
Whilst Fate allow'd I sung of kings and gods,
Of Lethe's lake and Pluto's dire abodes.
But now the better part has wing'd its flight
To its great Author, and the realms of light.
Dante my name; my birth fair Florence gave,
But exil'd thence, a foreign clime's my grave.

Poccianti says that Dante wrote these lines for his own epitaph, when at the point of death. (Hackett.)

Leonidas of Tarentum, who is believed to have died in exile, having been carried captive from Tarentum by Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, wrote an epitaph for himself, which is singularly suitable to Dante (Jacobs I. 181, C.). The translation is by Merivale :

Far from Tarentum's native soil I lie,
Far from the dear land of my infancy.
"Tis dreadful to resign this mortal breath,

But in a stranger clime 'tis worse than death!

Call it not life, to pass a fever'd age

In ceaseless wanderings o'er the world's wide stage.

But me the muse has ever lov'd and giv'n

Sweet joys to counterpoise the curse of Heav'n,

Nor lets my memory decay, but long

To distant times preserves my deathless song.