It is remarkable how very little the average general reader knows regarding the great Persian poet Saádí and his writings. His name is perhaps more or less familiar to casual readers from its being appended to one or two of his aphorisms which are sometimes reproduced in odd corners of popular periodicals; but who he was when he lived and what he wrote are questions which would probably puzzle not a few even of those who consider themselves as "well read " to answer without first recurring to some encyclopædia.