Page:Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages.djvu/16

 The hint of the next poem, or The Palace of Fortune, was taken from an Indian tale, translated a few years ago from the Persian by a very ingenious gentleman in the service of the India-company; but I have added several descriptions, and episodes from other Eastern writers, have given a different moral to the whole piece, and have made some other alterations in it, which may be seen by any one, who will take the pains to compare it with the story of Roshana, in the second volume of the tales of Inatulla.

I have taken a still greater liberty with the moral allegory, which, in imitation of the Persian poet Nezami, I have entitled The Seven Fountains, the general subject of it was borrowed from a story in a collection of tales by Elm Arabshab, a native of Damascus, who flourished in the fifteenth century, and wrote several other works in a very polished style, the most celebrated of which is An hiftory of the life of Tamerlane: but I have