Arabian Literature.

The subject of Professor Toy's third lecture, given last night in Upper Boylston was "Arabian Literature."

At the time of Mohammed, Semitic thought, as an active motive power in literature had almost disappeared from the world. There existed, however, among the roving tribes of Arabia, a lyric poetry of great excellence. War, love and hunting furnished the theme but there was no study of nature for its own sake. Sconery was introduced only as an appendage to human action. The elegance of diction and the happy flow of language showed the work of many generations of poets. There was, however, no unity of conception, and the poems were merely a string of aneedotes without beginning or end. The longer poems were composed in forms regulated by strict rules of composition.

The life of the Arabian poets was like that of the medixval troubadours. The minstrels wandered from place to place, and sang their own poems to intelligent and critical audiences at public gatherings. Trials of skill were frequent, and great rewards fell to the share of the victor.

The greater part of the old poetry perished before the period when the cultivated Arabs began to collect the poems of their ancestors. The language of the Bedouins was the standard of purity during the highest period of Mohammedan civilization.

The Arabs were successful imitators of the culture of other nations. The unstable state of society gave them no opportunity to show whether they were capable of originating, and the turkish invasion checked the progress of thought.

A lighter verse characteristic of a gay pleasure loving society prevailed under the Caliphs of Bagdad. The stern precepts of the Koran had yielded under the attack of Persian free thinking, and the brilliant verses of the period were produced by sceptical poets who were entirely indifferent in all matters of religion. Poetry was cultivated by all classes of society, but the themes had changed. The excellence of the prince was celebrated by the poet in place of his own exploits.

The Semetic races seem incapable of epic or dramatic poetry. Their creations are subjective, and the poets cannot sing on subjects unconnected with themselves. It is in story telling, like that of the "Thousand and OneNights" that the epic impulses of the Semites find their scope. These tales are constantly undergoing invention and amplification at the present day. The stories themselves probably came from India through Persian translations, but they have been adapted to Arabian surroundings by numberless delicate and graceful touches.

The history of the Arabs is the least creditable part of their literature, being usually a disjointed mass of anecdotes and chronicles. The state of society and the evolution of customs are never described. The critical spirit, moreover, is entirely lacking and although the sources of information are given with painful minuteness, their trustworthiness is seldom ascertained.

Numerous selections from Arabian poetry were read, and the lecture was concluded with a series of stereopticon views.