In accordance with my purpose of reproducing the Nights, not
virginibus puerisque, but in as perfect a picture as my powers
permit, I have carefully sought out the English equivalent of
every Arabic word, however low it may be or "shocking" to ears
polite; preserving, on the other hand, all possible delicacy
where the indecency is not intentional; and, as a friend advises
me to state, not exaggerating the vulgarities and the indecencies
which, indeed, can hardly be exaggerated. For the coarseness and
crassness are but the shades of a picture which would otherwise
be all lights. The general tone of The Nights is exceptionally
high and pure. The devotional fervour often rises to the boiling
point of fanaticism. The pathos is sweet, deep and genuine;
tender, simple and true, utterly unlike much of our modern
tinsel. Its life, strong, splendid and multitudinous, is
everywhere flavoured with that unaffected pessimism and
constitutional melancholy which strike deepest root under the
brightest skies and which sigh in the face of heaven: --

Vita quid est hominis? Viridis floriscula mortis;
Sole Oriente oriens, sole cadente cadens.

Poetical justice is administered by the literary Kazi with
exemplary impartiality and severity; "denouncing evil doers and
eulogising deeds admirably achieved." The morale is sound and
healthy; and at times we descry, through the voluptuous and
libertine picture, vistas of a transcendental morality, the
morality of Socrates in Plato. Subtle corruption and covert
licentiousness are utterly absent; we find more real"vice" in
many a short French roman, say La Dame aux Camelias, and in not a