17$ Om the Mistical Poetry of 



" O branch of anexquifite rofe-plant, for whofe fake doflthou grow? 

 «• Ah ! on whom will that fowling rofe bud confer delight ? 



'« The rofe would have difcourfed on the beauties of my charmer, but 

 " the gale was jealous, and Hole her breath, before me fpoke. 



" In this age, the only friends, who are free from blemiih, areaflalk of 

 S€ pure wine and a volume of elegant love fongs. 



" O the joy of that moment, when the felf-fufficiency of inebriation 

 " rendered me independent of the prince and of his minifter !" 



Many zealous admirers of -Ha'fiz infill, that by wine he invariably 

 means devotion; and they have gone fo far as to compofe a dictionary of 

 •words in the language, as they call it, of the Sufis : in that vocabulary Jleep 

 is explained by meditation on the divine perfections, and perfume by hope of 

 the divine favour ; gales are illapfes of grace ; k?ffes and embraces, the raptures 

 of piety ; idolaters, infidels, and libertines are men of the purdt religion, and 

 their idol is the creator himfelf j the tavern is a retired oratory, and its keeper^ 

 a fage inftructor j beauty denotes the perfection of thefupreme being; trejfes 

 are the expanjion of his glory ; lips, the hidden myftcries of his tflence j 

 down on the cheek, the world of fpirits, who encircle his throne ; and a 

 black mole, the point of indivifible unity; Iaftly, wantonnefs, mirth, and ebriety 

 mean religious ardour and abftraction from all terreftrial thoughts. The 

 poet himfelf gives a colour in many paffages to fuch an interpretation ; and 

 without it, we can hardly conceive, that his poems, or thofe of his numer- 

 ous imitators, would be tolerated in a Mufelman country, efpecially at Con* 

 ftantinople, where they are venerated as divine compofjtions : it mufl be 

 admitted, that the fublimity of the myflical allegory, which, like me? 





