STORIES FROM THE “GULISTAN.”

The Gulistan consists of short tales and anecdotes, to which are appended comments in prose and verse, and is divided into eight chapters, or sections:  (1) the Morals of Kings; (2) the Morals of Dervishes; (3) the Excellence of Contentment; (4) the Advantages of Taciturnity; (5) Love and Youth; (6) Imbecility and Old Age; (7) the Effects of Education; (8) Rules for the Conduct of Life.  In culling some of the choicest flowers of this perennial Garden, the particular order observed by Saadi need not be regarded here; it is preferable to pick here a flower and there a flower, as fancy may direct.

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It may happen, says our author, that the prudent counsel of an enlightened sage does not succeed; and it may chance that an unskilful boy inadvertently hits the mark with his arrow:  A Persian king, while on a pleasure excursion with a number of his courtiers at Nassala Shiraz, appointed an archery competition for the amusement of himself and his friends.  He caused a gold ring, set with a valuable gem, to be fixed on the dome of Asad, and it was announced that whosoever should send an arrow through the ring should obtain it as a reward of his skill.  The four hundred skilled archers forming the royal body-guard each shot at the ring without success.  It chanced that a boy on a neighbouring house-top was at the same time diverting himself with a little bow, when one of his arrows, shot at random, went through the ring.  The boy, having obtained the prize, immediately burned his bow, shrewdly observing that he did so in order that the reputation of this feat should never be impaired.

The advantage of abstinence, or rather, great moderation in eating and drinking, is thus curiously illustrated:  Two dervishes travelled together; one was a robust man, who regularly ate three meals every day, the other was infirm of body, and accustomed to fast frequently for two days in succession.  On their reaching the gate of a certain town, they were arrested on suspicion of being spies, and both lodged, without food, in the same prison, the door of which was then securely locked.  Several days after, the unlucky dervishes were found to be quite innocent of the crime imputed to them, and on opening the door of the prison the strong man was discovered to be dead, and the infirm man still alive.  At this circumstance the officers of justice marvelled; but a philosopher observed, that had the contrary happened it would have been more wonderful, since the one who died had been a great eater, and consequently was unable to endure the want of food, while the other, being accustomed to abstinence, had survived.