O thou who didst fancy the mirage to be water when I quoted to thee what I quoted! I thought not that my guile would be hidden, or that it would be doubtful what I meant. By Allah, I have no Barrah for a spouse; I have no son from whom to take a by-name. Nothing is mine but divers kinds of magic, in which I am original and copy no one: They are such as Al Asma'i tells not of in what he has told; such as Al Komayt never wove. These I use when I will to reach whatever my hand would pluck: And were I to abandon them, changed would be my state, nor should I gain what I now gain. So allow my excuse; nay, pardon me, if I have done wrong or crime. Then he took leave of me and passed away, and set coals of the _ghada_ in my breast. THE SIXTH ASSEMBLY (CALLED "OF MERAGHAH," OR "THE DIVERSIFIED")[20] Al Harith, son of Hammam, related: I was present in the Court of Supervision at Meraghah when the talk ran of eloquence. Then agreed all who were there of the knights of the pen, and the lords of genius, that there remained no one who could select his diction, or use himself freely in it as he willed: and that since the men of old were gone, there was none now left who could originate a brilliant method, or open a virgin style. And that even one marvelous among the writers of this age, and holding in his grasp the cords of eloquence, is but a dependent on the ancients, even though he possess the fluency of Sahban Wa'il. Now there was in the assembly an elderly man, sitting on the outskirts, in the places of the attendants: and as often as the company overran in their career, and scattered fruit, good and bad, from their store, the side-glance of his eye and the up-turning of his nose showed that he was one silent to spring, one crouching who would extend his stride: that he was a twanger of the bow who shapes his arrows, one who sits in wait desiring the conflict. But when the quivers were empty, and quiet returned; when the storms had fallen, and the disputer was stayed, he turned to the company and said, Ye have uttered a grievous thing; ye have wandered much from the way: for ye have magnified moldering bones; ye have been excessive in your leaning to those who are gone; ye have contemned your generation, among whom ye were born, and with whom your friendships are established. Have ye forgotten, ye skilful in testing, ye sages of loosing and binding, how much new springs have given forth; how the colt has surpassed the full-grown steed; in refined expressions, and delightful metaphors, and ornate addresses, and admired cadences? And, if any one here will look diligently, is there in the ancients aught but ideas whose paths are worn, whose ranges are restricted; which have been handed down from them through the priority of their birth, not from any superiority in him who draws first at the well over him who comes after? Now truly know I one who, when he composes, colors richly; and when he expresses,