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النشر الإلكتروني

PARALLEL OF THE SEXES.

There is an admirable partition of qualities between the sexes, which the great Author of being has distributed to each with a wisdom which calls for our admiration. Man is strong, -woman is beautiful. Man is daring and confident,—woman is diffident and unassuming. Man is great in action,-woman, in suffering. Man shines abroad,-woman, at home. Man talks to convince,-woman, to persuade and please. Man has a rugged heart,—woman, a soft and tender one. Man prevents misery,—woman relieves it. Man has science,-woman, taste. Man has judgment,-woman, sensibility. Man is a being of justice, woman, of mercy.

FEMALE SOCIETY.

The following remarks come with peculiar force from one of such querulous and unconnubial habits as John Randolph :—

You know my opinion of female society: without it we should degenerate into brutes. This observation applies with tenfold force to young men, and those who are in the prime of manhood. For, after a certain time of life, the literary man makes a shift (a poor one, I grant) to do without the society of ladies. To a young man nothing is so important as a spirit of devotion (next to his Creator) to some amiable woman, whose image may occupy his heart and guard it from the pollution that besets it on all sides. A man ought to choose his wife as Mrs. Primrose did her wedding-gown,-for qualities that will "wear well." One thing at least is true, that, if matrimony has its cares, celibacy has no pleasures. A Newton, or a mere scholar, may find enjoyment in study; a man of literary taste can receive in books a powerful auxiliary; but a man must have a bosom friend, and children around him, to cherish and support the dreariness of old age.

WIFE-MISTRESS-LADY.

Who marries for love takes a wife; who marries for convenience takes a mistress; who marries from consideration takes a lady. You are loved by your wife, regarded by your mis

tress, tolerated by your lady. You have a wife for yourself, a mistress for your house and its friends, a lady for the world. Your wife will agree with you, your mistress will accommodate you, your lady will manage you. Your wife will take care of your household, your mistress of your house, your lady of appearances. If you are sick, your wife will nurse you, your mistress will visit you, your lady will inquire after your health. You take a walk with your wife, a ride with your mistress, and join parties with your lady. Your wife will share your grief, your mistress your money, and your lady your debts. If you are dead, your wife will shed tears, your mistress lament, and your lady wear mourning.-From the German.

Moslem Wisdom.

SHREWD DECISION OF ALI, CALIPH OF BAGDAD. IN the Preliminary Dissertation to Dr. Richardson's Arabic Dictionary the following curious anecdote is recorded :— Two Arabians sat down to dinner: one had five loaves, the other three. A stranger passing by desired permission to eat with them, which they agreed to. The stranger dined, laid down eight pieces of money, and departed. The proprietor of the five loaves took up five pieces and left three for the other, who objected, and insisted on having one-half. The cause came before Ali, who gave the following judgment :-"Let the owner of the five loaves have seven pieces of money, and the owner of the three loaves one; for, if we divide the eight loaves by three, they make twenty-four parts; of which he who laid down the five loaves had fifteen, while he who laid down three had only nine. As all fared alike, and eight shares was each man's proportion, the stranger ate seven parts of the first man's property, and only one belonging to the other. The money, in justice, must be divided accordingly."

THE WISDOM OF ALI.

The Prophet once, sitting in calm debate,
Said, "I am Wisdom's fortress; but the gate
Thereof is Ali." Wherefore, some who heard,
With unbelieving jealousy were stirred;
And, that they might on him confusion bring,
Ten of the boldest joined to prove the thing.
"Let us in turn to Ali go," they said,
"And ask if Wisdom should be sought instead
Of earthly riches; then, if he reply
To each of us, in thought, accordantly,

And yet to none in speech or phrase the same,
His shall the honor be, and ours the shame."
Now, when the first his bold demand did make,
These were the words which Ali straightway spake:-
"Wisdom is the inheritance of those

Whom Allah favors; riches, of his foes."
Unto the second he said:-"Thyself must be
Guard to thy riches; but Wisdom guardeth thee."
Unto the third:-"By Wisdom wealth is won;
But riches purchased Wisdom yet for none."
Unto the fourth :-" Thy goods the thief may take;
But into Wisdom's house he cannot break."
Unto the fifth:-"Thy goods decrease the more
Thou givest; but woe enlarges Wisdom's store."
Unto the sixth :-"Wealth tempts to evil ways;
But the desire of Wisdom is God's praise."
Unto the seventh :-"Divide thy wealth, each part
Becomes a pittance. Give with open heart
Thy wisdom, and each separate gift shall be
All that thou hast, yet not impoverish thee."
Unto the eighth :-"Wealth cannot keep itself;
But Wisdom is the steward even of pelf."
Unto the ninth :-"The camels slowly bring
Thy goods; but Wisdom has the swallow's wing."
And lastly, when the tenth did question make,
These were the ready words which Ali spake :-
"Wealth is a darkness which the soul should fear;
But Wisdom is the lamp that makes it clear."
Crimson with shame, the questioners withdrew,
And they declared, "The Prophet's words were true:
The mouth of Ali is the golden door

Of Wisdom."

When his friends to Ali bore

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These words, he smiled, and said, "And should they ask

The same until my dying day, the task

Were easy; for the stream from Wisdom's well,
Which God supplies, is inexhaustible."

MOHAMMEDAN LOGIC.

The laws of Cos discountenance in a very singular manner any cruelty on the part of females towards their admirers. An instance occurred while Dr. Clarke and his companions were on the island, in which the unhappy termination of a love-affair occasioned a trial for what the Mohammedan lawyers casuistically describe as "homicide by an intermediate cause." The following was the case: a young man desperately in love with a girl of Stanchis eagerly sought to marry her, but his proposals were rejected. In consequence, he destroyed himself by poison. The Turkish police arrested the father of the obdurate fair, and tried him for culpable homicide. "If the accused," argued they, with much gravity, "had not had a daughter, the deceased would not have fallen in love; consequently he would not have been disappointed; consequently he would not have swallowed poison; consequently he would not have died; but the accused had a daughter, the deceased had fallen in love," &c. Upon all these counts he was called upon to pay the price of the young man's life; and this, being fixed at the sum of eighty piastres, was accordingly exacted.

THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY.

Said Omar, "Either these books are in conformity with the Koran, or they are not. If they are, they are useless, and if not, they are evil: in either event, therefore, let them be destroyed."

Such was the logic that led to the destruction of seven hundred thousand manuscript volumes.

Excerpta from Persian Poetry.

DEATH AN ILLUSION.

FROM the mists of the Ocean of Truth in the skies

A Mirage in deluding reflections doth rise,

There is naught but reality there to be seen;

We have here but the lie of its vapory sheen.-Hafiz.
HEAVEN AN ECHO OF EARTH.

'Tis but a shadow of the earth's familiar bliss,

Bright mirrored on the sky's ethereal fonts,
That fills our breasts with longings nothing can dismiss,
In tremulous and glimmering response.

A MORAL ATMOSPHERE.

It is as hard for one whom sinners still prevent

From prayer, to keep his virtue, yet with them to dwell, As it would be for a lotus of sweetest scent

To blossom forth in beauty 'mid the flames of hell.

FORTUNE AND WORTH.

That haughty rich man see, a merely gilded clod;

This poor man see, pure gold with common dust besmeared. Start not: in needy garb was Moses girt and shod,

When waved and shone before him Pharaoh's golden beard!

BROKEN HEARTS.

When other things are broken they are nothing worth,

Unless it be to some old Jew or some repairer;

But hearts, the more they 're bruised and broken here on earth, In heaven are so much the costlier and the fairer.

TO A GENEROUS MAN.

To cloud of rain refreshing all the land,

It is not fit to liken thy free hand;

For as that gives it weeps meanwhile,

But thou still givest with a smile.

BEAUTY'S PREROGATIVE.

Thy beauty pales all sublunary things,

And man to vassalage eternal dooms,

The road before thee should be swept with brooms

Made of the eye-lashes of peerless kings,

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