POSTSCRIPT. By-the-bye, have you found any friend that can conster LETTER VI. FROM ABDALLAH IN LONDON, TO MOHASSAN IN ISPAHAN. WHILST thou, Mohassan (happy thou!) And bear'st as many kicks and bruises And but left on till further orders! And caftan floating to the air, Who, while they boast their laws so Leave not one limb at liberty, But live, with all their lordly speeches, The slaves of buttons and tight breeches. 1 Alluding, I suppose, to the Latin advertisement of a Lusus Nature in the newspapers lately. I have made many inquiries about this Persian gentleman, but cannot satisfactorily ascertain who he is. From his notions of Religious Liberty, however, I conclu te that he is an importation of Ministers; and he has arrived just in time to assist the Pe and Mr. L-ck-e in their new Criental Plan of Reform. See the second of these Letters.-How Abdallah's Epistle to Ispahan found its way into the Twopenny Post Bag is more than I can pretend to account for. 3C'est un honnête homme,' said a Turkish governor of de Ruyter; 'c'est grand dommage qu'il soit Chrétien.' Sunnites and Shiites are the two leading sects into which the Mohammedan world is divided; and they have gone on cursing and persecuting Yet, though they thus their knee-panz fetter (They're Christians, and they know no In some things they're a thinking nation, 'Tis true, they worship Ali's name?— same (A Persian's heaven is easily made, We can't persuade the stubborn pack, each other, without any intermission, for about eleven hundred years. The Sunni is the cateblished sect in Turkey, and the Shia in Persia; and the differences between them turn chiefly upon those important points which our pious friend Abdallah, in the true spirit of Shiite ascendency, reprobates in this Letter. 5 Les Sunnites, qui étaient comme les cathcliques de Musulmanisme.'-D'Herbelot. In contradistinction to the Sounis, who in their prayers cross their hands on the lower part of the breast, the Schiahs drop their arms in straight lines; and as the Founis, at certain periods of the prayer, press their foreheads on the ground or carpet, the Schiahs,' etc. etc.Forster's Voyage. 7 Les Turcs ne détestent pas Ali réciproquement; au contraire ils le reconnaissent,' etc. etc. -Chardin. By bastinadoes, screws, or nippers, To wear the established pea-green slip. pers !1 Then-only think-the libertines ! They wash their toes, they comb their chins, 2 With many more such deadly sins! And (what's the worst, though last I rank it) Believe the Chapter of the Blanket! Nor wash his toes, but with intent As to the rest, they're free to do Which things, we naturally expect, Who disbelieve (the Lord be thanked) The tender Gazel 1 enclose GAZEL Rememberest thou the hour we past? To camels' ears the tinkling bell, With feather always touching feather, LETTER VII. FROM MESSRS. L-CK-GT-N AND CO. TO -, ESQ.4 And though Statesmen may glory in being unbought, "The Shiites wear green slippers, which the alludes is the Juftak, of which I find the followSunnites consider as a great abomination.'-ing account in Richardson :-'A sort of bird that Mariti. 2 For these points of difference, as well as for the Chapter of the Blanket, I must refer the reader (not having the book by me) to Picart's Account of the Mahometan Sects. 3 This will appear strange to an English reader, but it is literally translated from Abdallah's Persian; and the curious bird to which he is said to have but one wing, on the opposite side to which the male has a hook and the female a ring, so that, when they fly, they are fastened together.' From motives of delicacy, and indeed of fellow-feeling, I suppress the name of the author whose rejected manuscript was enclosed in this. letter.-See the Appendix. Hard times, Sir,-most books are too dear to be read Since the Chevalier C-rr took to marrying lately, Should you feer any touch of poetical glow, We've a scheme to suggest-Mr. Sc-tt, you must know And beginning with Rokeby (the job's sure to pay), Now, the Scheme is (though none of our hackneys can beat him) To start a fresh Poet through Highgate to meet him ; Who, by means of quick proofs-no revises-long coaches May do a few Villas before Sc-tt approaches Indeed, if our Pegasus be not curst shabby, He ll reach, without foundering, at least Woburn Abbey. Such, Sir, is our plan-if you're up to the freak, 'Tis a match! and we'll put you in training next week- Temple of the Muses. Yours, et cetera, 1 This alludes, I believe, to a curious correspondence which is said to have passed lately be tween Alb-n-a, Countess of B-ck-gh-ms-e, and a certain ingenious Parodist. a Paternoster Row. 296 LETTER VIII. FROM COLONEL TH-M-S TO --, ESQ. Born for each other's fond allegiance! COME to our Fête,1 and bring with thee | Hail, first of Actors !2 best of R-g-ts! When B--I's self inquired 'who made When Cits came wondering from the And thought thee Poet Pye, at least! Oh! come-(if haply 'tis thy week Bring thy best lace, thou gay Phi- (That lace, like H-rry Al-x--nd—r, Put all thy wardrobe's glories on, For that night only, means to hire The Romeo robe and Hobby jacket! This Letter enclosed a Card for the Grand 2 Quem tu, Melpomene, semel Thou great Tragic Muse! at the hour of his Let them say what they will, that's the man for my money, Give others thy tears, but let me have thy mirth. The assertion that follows, however, is not verided in the instance before us: sers Of Serious Farce both learned Profes sors Both circled round, for use or show, It takes to chalk a ball-room floor- And suns grow dim beneath their So passeth life-(thus Sc-tt would And spinsters read him with delight)— But, hang this long digressive flight! Illum non equus impiger Curu ducet Achaico. 3 To those who neither go to balls nor read tion that the floors of ball-rooms, in general, are the Morning Post, it may be necessary to menfanciful devices. chalked, for safety and for ornament, with various Hearts are not flint, yet flints are rent, After all, however, Mr. Sc-tt may well say to Hearts are not steel, yet steel is bent. than the Colonel), paov uwμelobai ʼn μipeiodai. the Colonel (and, indeed, to much better wage no; What falsehood rankles in their hearts, Thou'rt best-beneath a French cotil- And still com'st off, whate'er thy faults, To thy best works assigned by Fate- Thine boast a short life and a merry one; This festive Fête, in fact, will be tumes (These, P-rt-r, are thy glorious You'd swear Egyptians, Moors, and Bearing Good-Taste sonie deadly malice, But not-ah! not the same dear fishes- ones! So, 'stead of silver and of gold ones Promoted into Silver Fish, And Gudgeons (so V-ns-tt-t told J. T. APPENDIX. LETTER IV. Page 294, AMONG the papers enclosed in Dr. D-g-n-n's Letter, there is an Heroic Epistle in Latin verse, from Pope Joan to her Lover, of which, as it is rather a curious document, I shall venture to give some account. This female Pontiff was a native of England (or, according to others, of Germany), who at an early age disguised herself in male attire, and followed her lover, a young ecclesiastic, to Athens, where she studied with such effect, that upon her arrival at Rome she was thought worthy of being raised to the Pontificate. This Epistle is addressed to her Lover (whom she had elevated to the dignity of Cardinal), soon after the fatal accouchement, by which her Fallibility was betrayed. She begins by reminding him very tenderly of the time when they were in Athens-when C-rl-t-n H-c will exhibit a complete fac-simile, in respect to interior ornament, to what it did at the last Fête. The same splendid draperies,' etc. etc.-Morning Post. 2 The salt-cellars on the P-e's own table were in the form of an ass with panniers. |