LITERATURE OP THE ARABS. 



rowed from these nations, there is scarcely a single 

 poem. Neither Homer nor Pindar,, Virgil nor Ho- 

 race, were allowed to enter into a comparison with 

 their own writers ; and consequently none of those 

 relics of classical genius were judged worthy of 

 translation. A Syriac version of the bard of Troy 

 was made so early as the reign of Haroun al Raschid 

 by Theophilus, a Christian Maronite of Mount Li- 

 banus ; but much as the Oriental muse delighted 

 in the themes of love and wine, she was an entire 

 stranger to the effusions of Ovid and the lyrics of 

 Sappho and Anacreon. The heroes of Plutarch, and 

 Livy, and Tacitus, were left to slumber in oblivion ; 

 and the eloquence of Koss and Horairi superseded 

 that of Cicero and Demosthenes. 



Fully to appreciate the beauties of Arabian poe- 

 try would require an acquaintance with the pro- 

 ductions of the country, and with the manners and 

 peculiarities of the inhabitants. For want of this 

 knowledge the Oriental muses have been criticised 

 with extreme severity and injustice. Nor is it per- 

 haps very surprising that those who have read the 

 most celebrated compositions of the Eastern poets, 

 in Latin or French translations only, should feel 

 but an indifferent relish for their charms, or form a 

 cold judgment of their merits. Comparisons and 

 similes founded on local objects have a point and 

 beauty that can only be felt in the land that gave 

 them birth ; though we may easily comprehend what 

 force and propriety such metaphors as the odour of 

 reputation and the dews of liberality must have 

 had in the mouths of those who so much needed re- 

 freshment on their journeys, and were accustomed 

 to regale their senses with the sweetest fragrance in 



