This is undoubtedly a very original way of stating the philosophic axiom
of the Augustan poet,

"The lord of boundless revenues,
Do not salute as happy."

I have spoken of the wit of these verses, which is certainly one of
their distinguishing qualities. It is quite Attic in its flavor and
exquisitely delicate in its combined good-humor and freedom from rancor.
An epigram, according to the old definition, should be like a bee; it
should carry the sweetness of honey, although it bears a sting at the
end. Sometimes the end has a point which does not sting, as in the
following quatrain of an Arabic poet:--

"When I sent you my melons, you cried out with scorn,
They ought to be heavy and wrinkled and yellow;
When I offered myself, whom those graces adorn,
You flouted, and called me an ugly old fellow."

Martial himself could not have excelled the wit of an epigram addressed
to a very little man who wore a very big beard, which thus concludes:--

"Surely thou cherishest thy beard
In hope to hide thyself behind it."

To study a literature like that of the Arabians, even partially and in a
translation, is one of those experiences which enlarge and stimulate the
mind and expand its range of impressions with a distinctly elevating and
liberalizing effect. It has the result of genuine education, in that it