Penny Dreadfuls, 1900 · page 23 of 142
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the Salaman and Absal of Jami — page 23: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from what appears to be an introduction or critical essay about Omar Khayyam, titled "The Astronomer-Poet of Persia" (page xiii). The text presents poetic quatrains attributed to Omar addressing divine justice and suffering, then discusses a "Bodleian Quatrain" on pantheism and atonement. It concludes with a reviewer's comparison of Omar to the Roman poet Lucretius, noting both were intellectually gifted men who rejected false religion but failed to replace it with a better moral philosophy. The page contains handwritten annotations in the margins.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE ASTRONOMER-POET OF PERSIA. | xiii mother asked about his future fate. It may be rendered thus :— “ Oh Thou who burn’st in Heart for those who burn “Tn Hell, whose fires thyself shall feed in turn ; “ How long be crying, ‘ Mercy on them, God !’ “ Why, who art Thou to teach, and He to learn ?” The Bodleian Quatrain pleads Pantheism by way of Justification. “Tf I myself upon a looser Creed “ Have loosely strung the Jewel of Good deed, “ Let this one thing for my Atonement plead : “That One for Two I never did mis-read.”’ The Reviewer, to whom I owe the Particulars of Omar’s Life, concludes his Review by comparing him with Lucretias, both as to natural Temper and_ Genius, and as acted upon by the Circumstances in which he lived. Both indeed were men of subtle, strong, and cultivated Intellect, fine Imagination, and Hearts passionate for Truth and Justice; who justly revolted from their Country’s false Religion, and false, or foolish, Devotion to it; but who fell short of replacing what they subverted by such better Hope as others, with no better Revelation to guide them, had yet made a Law to themselves. Lucretius, indeed, with such material as Epicurus aed f w: Ae | o Cvur figt: ZA vt GOMmIG DOOKS.CO© =)