From "The Man in the Panther's Skin" we learn that the ideal hero of Rustaveli's times was distinguished for bravery, truthfulness, loyalty to promises, self-sacrifice, munificence, and burning love. "Falsehood's the root of all the thousand ills That curse our race. Lying and faithlessness twin sisters are. Why should I try to cheat my fellow-man? Is this the use to which my learning should be put? Ah, no! far other aims our hearts inspire, We learn, that we may near the angelic choir." The most famous line in the whole poem is, perhaps, the one which says:-- "A glorious death is better than a life of shame." And many a warrior has sought death, in the hour of defeat, with these words on his lips. Another verse which has become proverbial is:-- "That which thou dost on other's wants bestow, is thine, While that thou hoardest is all lost to thee." The ideas of love expressed by Rustaveli are partly of the Ovidian type, without any of the indelicacy of the Latin poet. But he had not studied Plato for nought, and we see in his work traces of those metaphysical theories which S. Bonaventura, Dante, and many of their contemporaries and successors found in Christianity. In the last strophe we have a prophecy, conscious or unconscious, of the evil days that were about to dawn. "Their deeds are ended, like a dream at night. With them their golden age has ended too. Far other days have dawn'd. Such is that old deceiver Time; he makes That which at first did everlasting seem As short as is the twinkling of an eye." As far as style is concerned, we find that Rustaveli strikingly resembles the European writers of his own time, to wit the troubadours, and we can easily imagine that his career was not unlike that of some of those sweet singers who enjoyed the favour of the noble ladies of France and Italy. Among the great poets of Europe, Ariosto and Tasso are, perhaps, the ones who are most akin to Rustaveli. The Platonism of the latter furnishes another ground of resemblance, in addition to the similarity of theme. The poem in its present form consists of about 1600 quatrains. There are sixteen syllables in each line, and the four lines end with the same rhyme. The rhythm is due to the accents, as in English verse, and may be called hexametric, i.e. there are in each line six feet, divided into two sets of three by means of the cæsura; the fourth line invariably begins with the particle i, which does not count as a syllable. As far as I know, the poem has not been translated into any European language; although fragments and abstracts of it have been published in Russian and Polish magazines, and I have seen the name of "Rostavvelo" quoted in one of Gioberti's works. By the publication of a carefully collated text, about a year ago, Georgian critics have prepared the way for those who may wish to make the national epic known to European readers.