Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers

Flowers from a Persian Garden
and Other Papers

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Other
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Title: Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers
Author: W. A. Clouston
Release Date: October 26, 2005 [EBook #16949]
Language: English
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PERSIAN GARDEN ***

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"The smiling Garden of Persian Literature": a Garden which I would

describe, in the Eastern style, as a happy spot, where lavish Nature with
profusion strews the most fragrant and blooming flowers, where the
most delicious fruits abound, which is ever vocal with the plaintive
melancholy of the nightingale, who, during day and night, "tunes her
love-laboured song": ... where the voice of Wisdom is often heard
uttering her moral sentence, or delivering the dictates of
experience.--SIR W. OUSELEY.

FLOWERS FROM A PERSIAN GARDEN,
AND
OTHER PAPERS.
BY W. A. CLOUSTON,
AUTHOR OF 'POPULAR TALES AND FICTIONS' AND 'BOOK OF
NOODLES'; EDITOR OF 'A GROUP OF EASTERN ROMANCES
AND STORIES,' 'BOOK OF SINDIBAD,' 'BAKHTYAR NAMA,'
'ARABIAN POETRY FOR ENGLISH READERS,' ETC.
LONDON: DAVID NUTT, 270, 271, STRAND. MDCCCXC.

TO E. SIDNEY HARTLAND, ESQ.,
FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES; MEMBER OF
THE COUNCIL OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY, ETC.
MY DEAR HARTLAND,
Though you are burdened with the duties of a profession far outside of
which lie those studies that have largely occupied my attention for
many years past, yet your own able contributions to the same, or
cognate, subjects of investigation evince the truth of the seemingly
paradoxical saying, that "the busiest man finds the greatest amount of
leisure." And in dedicating this little book to you--would that it were

more worthy!--as a token of gratitude for the valuable help you have
often rendered me in the course of my studies, I am glad of the
opportunity it affords me for placing on record (so to say) the fact that I
enjoy the friendship of a man possessed of so many excellent qualities
of heart as well as of intellect.
The following collection of essays, or papers, is designed to suit the
tastes of a more numerous class of readers than were some of my
former books, which are not likely to be of special interest to many
besides students of comparative folk-lore--amongst whom your own
degree is high. The book, in fact, is intended mainly for those who are
rather vaguely termed "general readers"; albeit I venture to think that
even the folk-lore student may find in it somewhat to "make a note of,"
as the great Captain Cuttle was wont to say--in season and out of
season.
Leaving the contents to speak for themselves, I shall only say farther
that my object has been to bring together, in a handy volume, a series
of essays which might prove acceptable to many readers, whether of
grave or lively temperament. What are called "instructive"
books--meaning thereby "morally" instructive--are generally as dull
reading as is proverbially a book containing nothing but jests--good,
bad, and indifferent. We can't (and we shouldn't) be always in the
"serious" mood, nor can we be for ever on the grin; and it seems to me
that a mental dietary, by turns, of what is wise and of what is witty
should be most wholesome. But, of the two, I confess I prefer to take
the former, even as one ought to take solid food, in great moderation;
and, after all, it is surely better to laugh than to mope or weep, in spite
of what has been said of "the loud laugh that speaks the vacant mind."
Most of us, in this work-a-day world, find no small benefit from
allowing our minds to lie fallow at certain times, as farmers do with
their fields. In the following pages, however, I believe wisdom and wit,
the didactic and the diverting, will be found in tolerably fair
proportions.
But I had forgot--I am not writing a Preface, and this is already too
long for a Dedication; so believe me, with all good wishes,

Yours ever faithfully, W. A. CLOUSTON. GLASGOW, February,
1890.

CONTENTS.
FLOWERS FROM A PERSIAN GARDEN.
I Sketch of the Life of the Persian Poet Saádí--Character of his
Writings--the _Gulistán_, or Rose-Garden--Prefaces to Books--Preface
to the _Gulistán_--Eastern Poets in praise of Springtide
II Boy's Archery Feat--Advantages of Abstinence--Núshirván on
Oppression--Boy in terror at Sea--Pride of Ancestry--Misfortunes of
Friends--Fortitude and Liberality--Prodigality--Stupid
Youth--Advantages of Education--The