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From the Persian of Hafez.

GIVE not thy tresses to the breeze,

Lest that mad breeze sweep through my heart; Touch not the house of flatteries,

Lest my life's house break and dispart.

Let but the firelight flush thy face,
I straight forget the rose-leaf's red;
Lift but thy stature's slender grace,
And the free cypress bows its head!

Court not the city's strident praise,
Lest I should flee to mountains dumb,
As Ferhad* fled through lonely ways,
By love of Shirin overcome.

Drink not the cup that aliens give,

My heart's blood thou wouldst drink for wine;

No kinsman in thy memory live,

That thou mayst live supreme in mine.

The blown rings of thine hair replace,—
Those rings my heart a captive bind;
Plunge not in glancing streams thy face,
Scatt'ring my senses to the wind.

No stranger whisper "Love!" to thee,
Lest jealousy should drive me mad;
Mourn not for others' misery,

For if thou mourn, can I be glad?

* Ferhad and Shirin were two lovers, famous in Persian literature.

Be not the lamp of feasts, I fear,
Lest that bright lamp set me afire;
Trifle no more, lest to the ear

Of Heaven itself my cry aspire.

Have mercy on me, weeping sore,

Ah, come! and silence my lament, Lest in the dust of Assaf's * door

My latest wailing breath be spent

Join not the pitiless skies in hate

Of Hafez, lest he sink and die; Beware! lest happier turns of fate Bring justice to such slaves as I.

* Assaf was the great vizir of Soloman.

Some Collecting Fads.

"Nugis addere pondus."-HORACE.

A MUCH needed work is a complete History of Fads. It would prove a fortune to an enterprising author, or at all events to his publisher. This history, it is true, would take some years to compile, and a revised edition would have to be issued almost annually. It would make a very large book, perhaps quite as big as Dr. Brewer's Phrase and Fable,' to which it would form a most admirable pendant. Failing, or rather awaiting, the appearance of this valuable contribution to the enlightenment of the human race, perhaps a brief review of some of the things which are "collected" may not be without interest: at all events it will show how very possible it is to be serious about trifles, and that, as Addison has suggested in one of the Tatler papers, "whatever appears trivial in the common notions of the world, looks grave and philosophical in the eye of the virtuoso." Goethe once said that the only thing a man could not preserve was his own life, which must, eventually, become the prize of the greatest collector of all. Those who have at all interested themselves in the subject of collecting will arrive at the conclusion that life indeed is the only thing which is not preserved.

The collecting mania is a direct result of the passion for religious relics so prevalent in medieval times. Hardicanute, in 1041, commissioned an agent at Rome to purchase St. Augustine's arm for one hundred talents of silver and one of gold. Henry III., deeply tainted with the superstition of the age, summoned all the English notables to meet him in London, when the king acquainted them that the great master of the Knight Templars had sent a phial containing "a small portion of the precious blood of Christ which he had shed upon the cross,"-attested to be genuine by the seals of the patriarch of Jerusalem and others! A procession between St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey was performed, although the road between the two places was "very deep and

miry." Herbert, in his life of Henry VIII., notices the great fall of the price of relics at the dissolution of the monasteries. "The respect given to relics, and some pretended miracles, fell; insomuch, as I find by our records, that a piece of St. Andrew's finger (covered only with an ounce of silver), being laid to pledge by a monastery for forty pounds, was left unredeemed at the dissolution of the house; the king's commissioners, who, upon surrender of any foundation undertook to pay the debts, refusing to return the price again."

Lord Cromwell's commissioners found, in St. Augustine's Abbey, at Bristol, some extraordinary relics, including "two flowers which bore blossoms only on Christmas day, Jesus's coat, our Ladie's smocke, part of the Last Supper, part of a stone on which Jesus sat in Bethlehem," and others. Henri Estienne, in the traité preparatif to his 'Apologie pour Hérodote,' speaks of a monk of St. Anthony having seen at Jerusalem an extraordinary assemblage of relics, among which were a bit of the finger of the Holy Ghost, as sound and entire as it had ever been; the snout of the seraphim that appeared to St. Francis; one of the nails of a cherubim; one of the ribs of the verbum caro factum; some rays of the stars which appeared to the three kings in the east; a phial of St. Michael's sweat when he was fighting against the devil; a hem of the garment which Joseph wore when he cleaved wood, and others, all of which the enthusiastic monk devoutly brought home with him to France. Such relics as these, to which may be added that of a tooth of our Lord's, which Guibert de Rogen describes as having operated many miracles, with the assistance of the monks of St. Medard de Soissons-such relics as these, we repeat, make all others hide their diminished heads. Doubtless it was some of these relics, or perhaps others manufactured at the same places, which that irreverent scoffer, Peter Pindar, saw in Paris.

"In France, some years ago-some twenty-three,

At a fam'd church, where hundreds daily jostle,

I wisely paid a priest six sols to see

The thumb of Thomas the Apostle.†

* This reference to Joseph's coat reminds us of a passage in Young's 'Love of Fame'

66

'How his eyes languish! how his thoughts adore

That painted coat which Joseph never wore!

He shows, on holidays, a sacred pin

That touch'd the ruff that touch'd Queen Bess's chin!"

†The finger of Galileo is said to be on view in the museum at Florence.

For six sols more, behold! to view, was bolted
A feather of the angel Gabriel's wing!
Whether 'twas pluck'd by force, or calmly molted,
No holy legends tell, nor poets sing,

But was it Gabriel's feather, heav'nly Muses?
It was not Gabriel's feather, but a goose's!"

Few of these venerable and impudent absurdities have survived the iconoclastic tendencies of the last few decades, whilst even the rival holy coats of Treves and Argenteuil are palpable swindles. The record of that of Treves goes back, it is true, to the year 1190, but as a relic it is as authentic as the feather from Gabriel's wing. Quite recently the Moslem population of Southern Russia were reported to be in a state of great excitement owing to the theft of a valuable casket containing three hairs from Mohammed's beard, accompanied by an Imperial firman certifying their absolute authenticity! The casket, with its precious contents, was sent as a present from Constantinople to Samarcand in Turkestan, but was stolen at Kharoff. Whether the thief has been caught or no, we cannot say, but if he is a Moslem, the chances are very slight indeed. A few months ago three genuine teeth of Tasso were sent to Signor Baccelli, the Italian minister of Public Instruction, by a priest who received them under seal of confession from a thief. The teeth had been stolen from the skeleton of the poet, and the robber, probably finding no market for them, took this method of returning them to their owner. A propos of teeth, it may be mentioned that some time ago a certain nobleman constantly wore a remarkable ring, in which was set a tooth of Sir Isaac Newton; it was purchased for £730 in 1815.

Personal relics, for which a greater age than four or five hundred years is claimed, may be regarded with extreme suspicion. Among the most remarkable of existing relics are those of the Black Prince which have been preserved in Canterbury Cathedral for over five hundred years. These include the embroidered velvet surcoat and parade shield, the helmet and crest, the latten gauntlets, and the scabbard. These are perhaps as genuine as anything of their kind in this country, but even these are not without their detractors. It is very probable that the surcoat and parade shield were those of Edward III. himself, rather than of his son, but this is a point which may be left to the antiquaries to decide. The gold cross and collar of Edward the Confessor came under the hammer of Thomas, King Street, Covent Garden, in January, 1828, and was purchased by a Mr. Atkinson for £16 58. 6d. Its authenticity appears to have been undisputed at the time. It was originally brought from Palestine by the British

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