the' Persians and Hindu s, 1S1 



A' volume might be filled with fimilar paffages from the Sufi poets ;. 

 fromSA'iB, Orfi\ Mi'r Khosrau, Ja'mi, Hazi'n, andSA'mK, who 

 are next in beauty of compofnion to Ha'fiz and Sadi, but next at aeon- 

 fiderable diftance r from Mesi'hi, the moft elegant of their Turki/Ii 

 imitators; from a few Hindi poets of our own times, and from Ibnul 

 Fared, who wrote myftical odes in Arabick ; but we may clofe this ac-. 

 count of the Sufis with a paffage from the third book of the Bust an, the 

 declared fubjeet of which, is divine love-, referring you for a particular detail 

 of their metaphyficks and theology to the Dabifia.i of Moiisani Fani, and 

 to the pleafing effay, called the Junction of two... Seas > by that amiable and un- 

 fortunate Prince, Da'ra' Shecu'h.; 



" The love of a being compofed, like thyfelf, of water and clay, def-» 

 ** ftroys thy patience and peace of mind; it excites thee, in thy waking hours 

 f with minute beauties, and engages thee, in thy fleep, with vain ima- 

 *' ginations ; with fuch real affection daft thou lay thy- head on tier foot, 

 «' that the univerfe, in comparifon of her, vaniihes into nothing before 

 " thee; and, fince thy gold allures not her eye, gold and -mere earth ap-r 

 " pear equal in thine. Not a breath doit thou utter to any one el£e, for 

 " with her thou haft no room for any other ; ithou declare!!, that her abode 

 " is in thine eye, or, when thou clofeft it, in thy heart; thou haft no' fear 

 u of cenfure from any man ; thou haft no power to be at reft for a moment ; 

 " iffhe demands thy foul, it runs.- inftantly to thy lip ; and if Hie waves a 

 "- cimiter over thee, thy head falls immediately under it. Since an abfurd 

 " love, with its bails on air, affects thee To violently, and commands, with 

 " a fway fo defpotick, canft thou wonder, that they, who walk in the true 

 " path, are drowned in the fea of myfterious adoration ? They difregard 

 '*■ life through affection for its giver ; they abandon the world through re- 



