To wise and worthy men your life devote, But from the worthless keep your walk remote; Dare to take poison from a sage's hand, But from a fool refuse an antidote. 263. L. N. Line 2 is in metre 17. 264. I flew here, as a bird from the wild, in aim Up to a higher nest my course to frame, But, finding here no guide who knows the way, Fly out by the same door where through I came. 264. C. L. N. A. I. J. 265. He binds us in resistless Nature's chain, And yet bids us our natures to restrain; Between these counter rules we stand perplexed, «Hold the jar slant, but all the wine retain.» 265. L. N. In line 3 scan _nahyash_. So Lord Brooke in «Mustapha»; Ward's English Poets, i. 370. 266. They go away, and none is seen returning, To teach that other world's recondite learning; 'Twill not be shown for dull mechanic prayers, For prayer is naught without true heartfelt yearning. 266. C. L. N. A. I. The _formal_ prayers of Moslems are rather ascriptions of praise, and repetitions of texts, than petitions. 267. Go to! Cast dust on those deaf skies, who spurn Thy orisons and bootless prayers, and learn To quaff the cup, and hover round the fair; Of all who go, did ever one return? 267. C. L. N. A. B. I. J. An answer to the last. 268. Though Khayyam strings no pearls of righteous deeds, Nor sweeps from off his soul sin's noisome weeds, Yet will he not despair of heavenly grace, Seeing that ONE as two he ne'er misreads. 268. C. L. N. A. B. I. J. _Tauhid_, or Unitarianism, is the central doctrine of Islam. So Hafiz, Ode 465. 269. Again to tavern haunts do we repair, And say «Adieu» to the five hours of prayer; Where'er we see a long-necked flask of wine, We elongate our necks that wine to share. 269. C. L. N. A. B. I. J. _Takbir_, or _tekbir_ the formula «_Allah akbar_,» in saying which the mind should be abstracted from worldly thoughts; hence «renunciation.» See Nicolas. 270. We are but chessmen, destined, it is plain, That great chess-player, Heaven, to entertain; It moves us on life's chess-board to and fro, And then in death's dark box shuts up again. 270. L. N. B. _Hakikati_, see Bl., Prosody 3. 271. You ask what is this life so frail, so vain, 'Tis long to tell, yet will I make it plain; 'Tis but a breath blown from the vasty deeps, And then blown back to those same deeps again! 271. C. L. N. A. I. J. Some MSS. read _naksh_. Deeps, _i.e._, the ocean of Not-being. 272. To-day to heights of rapture have I soared, Yea, and with drunken Maghs pure wine adored; I am become beside myself, and rest In that pure temple, «Am not I your Lord?» 272. C. L. N. A. I. J. _Alasto birabbikum_, Allah's words to Adam's sons: Koran vii. 171. So in Hafiz, Ode 43 (Brockhaus). 273.