The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-07-26


the age was the late Sir Richard Burton, the
English Oriental scholar and traveller. He
devoted his life to the study of the languages,
literature, and the customs of the Oriental
peoples. Ancient and modern Arabic litera-
ture had special fascination for him, and he
undertook and completed an original trans
lation Of the "Araban Nights" which created
a big sensation when published, or printed
rather, for it was never published In the
proper sense of the word. "The Arabian
Nights as known to the young people OF the
world is a collection Of fantastic Oriental
fairy tales with hardly suggestion in them of
anything that would bring "the blush of
shame to the cheek Of innocence" to use Gill
bert's phrase. But the original Arabic tales,
as Sir Richard Burton found, were OF far
different sort. They dealt with the passion Of
love in a frank, Oriental manner that nothing
in modern French literature equaled, and Sir
Richard turned them into English without
expurgation or change. So racy were they
that the work when printed was circulated
privately and cost large sum. The edition
was not large, and 1t was gotten up In hand
some style with numerous illustrations. A
few copies of the work were purchased in
Washington by lovers of the recherche in
literature.
Having completed his translation of 1.-THE
Arabian Nights" Sir Richard then took up
another Arabic manuscript, which also dealt
with the passion of love and to which, as he
himself put it, 1.-The Arabian Nights was as a
baby tale. He called his translation Of this
work 'The Scented Garden" and to 1t he de-
voted the last years Of his life. He completed
it the very day before his death, but the world
will never see 1t. The fate which befell the
manuscript only became known a short time
ago, through public statement OF Lady Bur
ton. According to her story, the day before
Sir Richard died he called her into his room,
where he was at work on the last half page of
the Arabic manuscript. He said it would be
finished the following day and that he would
never write another book dealing with the
subject. 81 am afraid" he said, 'that this
book will make great row in England, be-
comparison to It,"
Sometime after his death, Lady Burton read
the manuscript of 'The Scented Garden' and
found 1t fully as sensationally erotic as her
husband had indicated. According to her
own statement, she was painfully disturbed
by the responsibility that devolved on her.
1t had evidently been her husbands desire to
have 1t printed. He had for fourteen years
been gathering and studying the Arabic manu-
scripts and he regarded 1t as the greatest
work of his life. But Lady Burton was filed
with horror at the thought of allowing what
she regarded as 80 much evil to go out to the
world. Her husband she declares, was one
| OF the purest, most refined and modest Of
men, and he devoted himself in the spirit
| of the scientist to the study of the passion
| of love. He saw no evil in the erotic stories
| of the Orientals and preserved his mind pure
| through all his studies. Lady Burton debated
| long time whether it was not her duty as
| Christian woman to destroy the manuscript of
! "The Scented Garden" She was in torture
| about it and found no help in the advice of
| friends While she was hestating she was
| offered $50, 900 for the manuscript. Her hus-
band had left her with very limited means
and $50, 900 was a comfortable fortune. This
| was sore temptation and she was greatly
moved to yield to the advice of friends who
told her to turn the manuscript over to some
male friend and let him do as he thought best
| with it. Her conscience told her that If this
was done the result would be the publication
| OF the manuscript She said to herself 81
| can take in the world by this subterfuge, but
cannot deceive God Almighty, who holds my
husbands soul in his hands" So at last, page
by page, she burnt the manuscript and sacrl-
| feed the $4,000
The action of Lady Burton has aroused
| widespread comment in England and In this
| country among literary men and those who
have taste for the class of literature OF
| which "The Scented Garden" seems to have
been such an extreme example. She has been
condemned unsparingly for disregarding the
| wishes Of her dead husband and destroying
the work of SO many years of his life. But no
| doubt this criticism will not disturb Lady
Burton as long as she has the approval of her
own conscience