Notes: Volume 1 of this work can be found in Project Gutenberg's library. See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10315 A few original typesetter's errors (inconsistent spelling, superfluous quotation marks, and the like) have been corrected in the interests of producing a smooth-reading text. The reader will also occasionally find a line of asterisks between sections. These are found in the original and they indicate a missing section. It is not clear why the translator skipped these sections. Reference to another, complete, translation of the Gulistan shows no appreciable differences, in length or subject, between the sections included and those excluded. PERSIAN LITERATURE comprising THE SHÁH NÁMEH, THE RUBÁIYÁT THE DIVAN, AND THE GULISTAN Revised Edition, Volume 2 1900 With a special introduction by RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL, Ph.D. Professor of Rabbinical Literature and the Semitic Languages at Columbia University CONTENTS THE GULISTAN Introduction CHAPTER I. Of the Customs of Kings II. Of the Morals of Dervishes III. On the Preciousness of Contentment IV. On the Benefit of Being Silent V. On Love and Youth VI. Of Imbecility and Old Age VII. Of the Impressions of Education VIII. Of the Duties of Society THE GULISTAN BY SA'DI [Translation by James Ross] INTRODUCTION The Persian poet Sa'di, generally known in literary history as Muslih-al-Din, belongs to the great group of writers known as the Shirazis, or singers of Shiraz. His "Gulistan," or "Rose Garden," is the mature work of his life-time, and he lived to the age of one hundred and eight. The Rose Garden was an actual thing, and was part of the little hermitage, to which he retired, after the vicissitudes and travels of his earlier life, to spend his days in religious contemplation, and the embodiment of his experience in reminiscences, which took the form of anecdotes, sage and pious reflections, _bon-mots_, and exquisite lyrics. When a friend visited him in his cell and had filled a basket with nosegays from the garden of the poet with roses, hyacinths, spikenards, and sweet-basils, Sa'di told him of the book he was writing, and added:--"What can a nosegay of flowers avail thee? Pluck but one leaf from my Rose Garden; the rose from yonder bush lasts but a few days, but this Rose must bloom to all eternity."