Can ever travel hand in hand;
With breast oppos'd, and adverse aim,
On the same narrow path they stand.

Thus youth and age together meet,
And life's divided moments share;
This can't advance till that retreat,
What's here increas'd, is lessen'd there.

And thus the falling shades of night
Still struggle with the lucid ray,
And e'er they stretch their gloomy flight
Must win the lengthen'd space from day.

_Abou Alola_.

[32] Abou Alola is esteemed as one of the most excellent of the
Arabian poets. He was born blind, but this did not deter him from
the pursuit of literature. Abou Alola died at Maara in the year
449, aged eighty-six.


THE DEATH OF NEDHAM ALMOLK

Thy virtues fam'd thro' every land,
Thy spotless life, in age and youth,
Prove thee a pearl, by nature's hand,
Form'd out of purity and truth.

Too long its beams of Orient light