This quatrain is quoted by many of the Biographers of Abu'l-Ala to prove that he is a materialist. Which argument is easily refuted, however, with others quatrains taken at random from the Luzumiyat. LVII, LVIII and LIX Omar was also a confessed cynical-hypocrite. Thus runs the first line of the 114th quatrain of Heron-Allen's: "The world being fleeting I practise naught but artifice." And he also chafes in the chains of his sins. Following is the 23d quatrain of the same translation: "Khayyam, why mourn for thy sins? From grieving thus what advantage more or less dost thou gain? Mercy was never for him who sins not, Mercy is granted for sins; why then grieve?" Abu'l-Ala, in a quatrain which I did not translate, goes even farther in his questioning perplexity. "Why do good since thou art to be forgiven for thy sins?" he asks. LXII "Kaaba Stone," the sacred black stone in the Kaaba at Meccah. LXXVII The American poet, Lowell, in "The Crisis," utters the same cry: "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne." XC "And the poor beetle that we tread upon In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies." --Shakespeare: Measure for Measure. "To let go a flea is a more virtuous act than to give a dirham to a beggar."--Abu'l-Ala. XCIII and XCIV Omar too, in the 157th quatrain of Heron-Allen's-- "Had I charge of the matter I would not have come, And likewise could I control my going, where could I go?" XCV "Thy two soul-devouring angels," the angels of death and resurrection. XCVI "Nubakht," one of the opponents of the Prophet Mohammed. CIII "Rabbi," my lord God. CIV "And like the dead of Ind," referring to the practice of the Hindus who burn their dead. "Munker" and "Nakir," the two angels who on the Day of Judgment open the graves of the dead and cross-examine them--the process is said to be very cruel--as to their faith. Whosoever is found wanting in this is pushed back into the grave and thence thrown into Juhannam. No wonder Abu'l-Ala prefers cremation. CV He wrote his own epitaph, which is: "This wrong to me was by my father done, But never by me to any one." CVI "Izrail," the angel of death. CXV, CXVI and CXVII These will suggest to the reader Shakespeare's lines: "Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away; O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should stop a wall t'expel the winter's flaw." CXVIII Compare this with Omar's: "Thou hast no power over the morrow, And anxiety about the morrow is useless to thee: Waste not thou the moment, if thy heart is not mad, For the value of the remainder of thy life is not certain." PRESS AND PERSONAL NOTICES