And these by Holy Ghost do strive
In love with fellow-man to live,

In soul and body so to prove

What is the heavenly Father's love,
Whose mercy is to them always:

That do they to God's thank and praise.
Thirdly, however, by this Cain,

The godless people are made plain,
Who mock and jeer at holy grace,
And faithless are in every place;
By their own reason, flesh and blood,
Taught what is right and what is good.
And so they know no fear nor shame,
And cast themselves in passion's flame;
In sin and blasphemy forget

What love hath God upon them set.

To them it is but idle sport

That men should bid them heed God's Word;

And so with murder, envy, hate,

On Satan's wicked will they wait.

His word into their ear is blown,

And safe he claims them as his own.
Fourthly, in God we plainly see
How great is his benignity;

How he doth stoop to all mankind
A way from sin and curse to find,
Through that same holy Seed foretold
To Adam and to Eve of old:

And this is Christ, our Savior Lord,
Who by the heavenly Father's word
From Mary's body has come forth,

And crushed the serpent's head to earth.
By cruel death upon the cross

He took away all wrath that was

'Twixt God and man by Adam's fall,

That we after earth's pain may all

Forever come with him to live:
That God may this in mercy give,
When endless joy our soul awakes,
With angels all, so prays Hans Sachs.

Translated by Frank Sewall.

TALE. HOW THE DEVIL TOOK TO HIMSELF AN OLD WIFE

Ο

NE day the Devil came to earth,

To try what is a husband's worth:
And so an aged wife he wed;

Rich but not fair, it must be said.
But soon as they two married were,
There rose but wretchedness and fear.
The old wife spent the livelong day
In nagging him in every way;

Nor could he rest when came the night,
For so the fleas and bugs did bite.
He thought, Sure here I cannot stay,-
To wood and desert I'll away;
There shall I find the rest I need.
So fled he out, and with all speed
Into the wood, and sat him down
Upon a tree, when passed from town
A doctor with his traveling-sack
Of remedies upon his back.

To him the Devil now did speak:-
"We both are doctors, and do seek
Men of their troubles to relieve,
And in one fashion, I believe."

"Who are you?" then the doctor said. —
"The Devil: and woe be on my head,
That I have taken to me a wife,
That makes a torment of my life;
Therefore take me to be your slave,
And I will handsomely behave."
He showed the doctor then the way
That he his devilish arts could play.
In short, they soon agreed, and so
The Devil said:- "Now I will go
Unto a burgher in your town,
Who's rich enough to buy a crown:
And I will give him such a pain
That soon as you come by again,

You enter in, and pray me out;
That is, upon a ransom stout,-

Some twenty gulden fair laid down,

At which the rich man will not frown.

So then between yourself and me

The money even shared shall be."

The

[The tale goes on to state how the plot was successfully carried out. doctor, however, obtaining thirty instead of twenty gulden for his reward, thought to deceive the Devil, whom he found again in the wood; and he offered him the ten gulden as his share, retaining the twenty for himself. The Devil detecting the doctor's trick, to avenge himself purposes now to go and infest with pain the rich owner of a fortress near by; which being done, and the doctor being called in to allay the dreadful pain in the baron's stomach, the Devil now refuses to come out. In this unlooked-for emergency, the doctor now bethinks himself of the Devil's wife: and running into the chamber he cries out to the Devil, telling him that his wife is down-stairs with a summons from the court of justice, bidding him return to his marital duty; whereupon the Devil is so frightened that he flees without more delay, and hastens back to hell and to his companions there, where he finds more rest than he could ever hope to in the house of the old woman he had taken as a wife. Thereupon the poet adds this: -]

CONCLUSION

BY THIS tale every one shall know
How it with man and wife will go,
When every day there's quarreling,
And neither yields in the least thing,
But ever one the other scolds,
In fear and hate and anger holds,
With endless fretting and complaining,
No peace nor sunshine entertaining.
Truly such married life might be
Of devils in hell for aught we see.
From which may God keep us away,
And grant us rather in our day,

In marriage peace and unity,

And kindness's opportunity,

That to this virtue e'er may wax

True wedded love,- so prays Hans Sachs.

Anno Salut. 1557. On the 13th day of July.

Translation of Frank Sewall.

SA'DI

(1184-1291 ?)

BY A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON

A'DĪ of Shīrāz, the moral teacher and didactic poet,- the "Nightingale of a Thousand Songs," as he has been termed in the Orient,-is one of the Persian authors whose name is best known in the Occident. He may rightly claim a place in "the world's best literature" for the excellence of his short moral stories in prose intermingled with rhyme, and for the merit of his poetical reflections, which abound in sound wisdom presented in a charming and appropriate style. His "discourse is commingled with pleasantry and cheerful wit," as he says of himself in his masterpiece, the 'Gulistan'; and he adds that "the pearls of salutary counsel are strung on the thread of his diction, and the bitter medicine of advice is mixed up with the honey of mirthful humor." These words of his own admirably characterize his work; because good sense, high thought, religious feeling, human sympathy, and knowledge of man, combined with a general naturalness and simplicity, mark his best productions.

Sa'di has not the epic force nor the romantic strain of Firdausī or Nizāmī, nor again the mystic elevation and abstract introspection of Jāmī and Jalāl-ad-din Rūmī, nor has he the lyric ecstasy for which Hafiz is renowned; but he possesses certain qualities that none of the others can claim, and which give to his writings a peculiar attractiveness, an enduring element, that insures their lasting throughout time. Flourishing at a period when Europe had yet to feel the quickening touch of the revival of learning, Sa'dī stands in the East as a bright light of higher aim and nobler purpose, as a character of generous open-heartedness and liberal-minded thought. In his long life devoted to study and travel, or spent in productive activity and repose, he gave to the world a vast fund which he had gathered, of sound wisdom, wholesome philosophy, broad ethics, good judgment, and common-sense. Enjoying the personal favor of potentates, he seems to have availed himself of the privileges which money confers, chiefly for the purpose of bestowing gifts in charity or for advancing worthy causes; he religiously felt and practiced what he preachedthe doctrine of contentment and resignation.

Sa'di's life was of such unusual length that it could not but be somewhat eventful. He was born in 1184 at Shiraz, then the capital of Persia. His father died while he was still a child, as we know from the touching lines on the orphan in the Būstān' (ii. 2, 11). The boy now received the exalted patronage of the ruling Atābeg Sa'd bin Zangi of Fars, and he was educated upon a fellowship foundation at the Nizamiah College of Baghdad. For thirty years (1196-1226) he was a student and earnest worker, imbibing the principles of Sufiism, and gaining a deep insight into the doctrines and tenets of the Moslem faith. It was his pious good fortune to make no less than fourteen pilgrimages, at different times, to the shrine of Mecca. The second period of his life, from the age of forty to seventy (1226– 1256), was spent in travel, east and west, north and south. He not only visited the cities of the land of Iran, but he journeyed abroad to India, Asia Minor, and Africa. Among other places he resided at Damascus, Baalbec, and Jerusalem; and was taken prisoner by the Crusaders in Tripolis, as is shown by the incident connected with his married life that is recorded in the selections given below. When already a septuagenarian he returned to his native city of Shīrāz, and there he spent the third or remaining part of his life (1256–1291). He once more enjoyed courtly favor, this time from the son of his former royal patron; and he devoted his time to producing or completing the literary work which was prepared for, or doubtless partly composed, during the long preceding period of his career.

In the world of letters, therefore, Sa'di presents the peculiar phenomenon of one whose writing seems to have been done late in life. The 'Būstān' (Garden of Perfume) was finished in one year (1257). It is written in verse, and comprises ten divisions. Sa'di's themes are justice, government, beneficence and compassion, love, humility, good counsel, contentment, moral education and self-control, gratitude, repentance and devotion, or the like, as a summary of the titles of the work shows. The 'Gulistān' (Rose-Garden) was completed in the following year (1258); and this work, by which Sa'di's name is best known, has been familiar to Western students since the days when Gentius published a Latin version entitled 'Rosarium Politicum,' in Amsterdam, 1651. The 'Gulistan' is written in prose, with intermingled verses, and it comprises eight chapters. Like the 'Bustan' it is didactic in tendency, but it is lighter and more clever; it is a perfect storehouse of instructive short stories with moral design, entertainingly presented, and abounding in aptly put maxims, aphorisms, or sententious sayings, which make the work entertaining reading. Sa'di's productiveness, however, was not confined to the ethical and didactic field; he was also under the influence of the lyrical strain, and he composed a series of odes, dirges, elegies, and short poems,