ridiculed by Samuel Johnson. We have Jenyns's assurance that

To all inferior animals 'tis given
To enjoy the state allotted them by Heav'n.

And (_quatrain_ 75) we may profitably turn to Coleridge:

Oh, what a wonder seems the fear of death!
Seeing how gladly we all sink to sleep;
Babes, children, youths and men,
Night following night, for threescore years and ten.

We should be reconciled, says Abu'l-Ala (_quatrain_ 76), even to
the Christian kings of Ghassan, in the Hauran. These were the
hereditary enemies of the kings of Hirah. On behalf of the Greek
emperors of Constantinople they controlled the Syrian Arabs. But
they disappeared before the triumphant Moslems, the last of their
kings being Jabalah II., who was dethroned in the year 637. His
capital was Bosra, on the road between the Persian Gulf and the
Mediterranean. Nowadays the district is chiefly occupied by
nomads; to the Hebrews it was known as Bashan, famous for its
flocks and oak plantations. We can still discern the traces of
troglodyte dwellings of this epoch. The afore-mentioned Jabalah
was a convert to Islam, but, being insulted by a Mahometan, he
returned to Christianity and betook himself to Constantinople,
where he died. But in the time of Abu'l-Ala, the Ghassanites were
again in the exercise of authority. "These were the kings of
Ghassan," says Abu'l-Ala, "who followed the course of the dead;
each of them is now but a tale that is told, and God knows who is
good." A poet is a liar, say the Arabs, and the greatest poet is