1860.] On certain Mediceval Apologues. 15 



Who worked for hire and so gained his bread ; 



He wrought for that horseman and built him his house, 



Long he wrought in that house for hire, 



But ere he received his due, he fell down and dietl, 



And in that purse was the hire, which the youth carried away. 



Again, that blind oíd man in his young days of sight 



Had spilt the blood of his murderer's father ; 



The son by the law of retaliation slays him to-day, 



And gives him reléase from the price of blood in the day of retri- 

 bution !" 



In neither of the foregoing apologues have we been able to trace a 

 Rabbinical origin, though there are grounds for believing that both 

 originally may have come from a Jewish source ; but in the next 

 story, I have lately discovered the original Jewish versión, which 

 aífords a strong presumption that a more careful search might iden- 

 tify the others too. The subject in itself may seem of small import, — 

 but it is not of small import to trace the progress of ideas among 

 nations ; and each of these apologues has a professed philosophical 

 aim. They are not mere fables, whose marvels serve only to excite 

 amusement or wonder, — they are myths, like those in Plato, with an 

 intended meaning, and they passed current from the thinkers of one 

 nation to those of another because they carne borne to all with a cer- 

 tain reality and power of their own. At the same time, if we could 

 trace a Jewish origin to all the three, it would be a new and interest- 

 ing proof of the wide influence which the medieval Jewish mind ex- 

 ercised upon its contemporaries, in spite of the contempt and persecu- 

 tion which universally strove to keep it down. 



This next apologue is one which, I believe, was given by Voltaire, 

 but I have not verified the passage in his works. It has been more 

 than once copied from him, as for instance by Lord Byron in the 

 notes to one of his poems. 



The Persian versión is found in the first book of the Masnavi of 

 Jaláluddín Kúmí, who died A. D. 1272 (A. H. 671.) To understand 

 the story aright, we must remember the oriental notions of Solomon's 

 power over the elements and the genii. 



One simple of heart carne in the morning 



Eunning into Solomon's judgment-hall, 



