could have had more salutary consequences, though none has been less attended to, than the encouragement of the study of the languages of princes with whom we must treat, people with whom we must trade, subjects whom we must govern. "That the languages of a country where a man resides, and with whose natives he has much intercourse, are highly important to him, is a position unnecessary to be inforced, because universally admitted; nor is the conclusion less obvious, that if such knowledge is to the highest degree useful to individuals, how much more consequential must it be to the representatives of a great commercial body, whom a revolution unparalleled in the annals of any nation has placed as sovereigns over countries extensive, populous, and rich. So circumstanced, however, to still be under the necessity, in every transaction of moment with the powers of those countries, to correspond and converse with them by the intermediation of interpreters, whose ignorance perhaps is only to be equalled by their perfidy, is not only tedious, indecisive, and dangerous, but illsuited to the dignity of Britain, as a powerful and learned nation. "To enlarge on the innumerable inconveniences to which the East India Company have been often exposed from the too general ignorance of their servants, in the languages of Hindostan, and on the dangerous necessity arising from thence of employing the natives in negotiations of the greatest secrecy and importance, would be idle, because lamented by many of the most able writers on India affairs, and confirmed by every gentleman who has returned from those countries. The frauds which accident has discovered in the department of revenue afford strong presumption that many more have been committed undetected; and the reachery of Poniapah, interpreter to General Lawrence, is sufficient, were there no other examples, to set in the strongest light the danger to which their affairs have been in a variety of circumstances subjected from this cause alone." p. ix-xi. "The proper name of the poet from whose works they are extracted, was Mohammed Shemseddin, though much better known by the title of Hafez, which among other significaVOL. I. tions, implies a man of great memory. He was born at Shiraz, the capital of Farsistan, the ancient Persis, under the dynasty of the Modhafferians, and lived at the period when the great Timur or Tamerlane defeated the Sultaun Shah Mansor. He died in the year of the Hejira 797 (about 1394 of the Christian æra) and was interred at Shiraz precisely at the time that sultan Baber made himself master of that city; over which spot Mohammed Mimai, preceptor to that prince, afterwards built a chapel, and erected a monument to his memory. His poems were collected after his death into one volume, by Seid Cassem Anovar, and have been much admired in the East for the sublimity of stile, the variety of thought, the brilliancy of sentiment, the elegance and ease of expression; but above all, on account of the mystery which many of the Mohamedans have pretended to discover in them, being distinguished by some with the epithet of Lissane ghaib, the language of mystery." p. xiv, xv. The leading object in this specimen has been to render the prose translation as literal as the idioms of the languages would admit; and as the learner is often perplexed with the compounds, and finds great difficulty in tracing the derivatives to their respective roots, the Editor has endeavoured to guide him with all the perspicuity in his power, by analyzing every word. The learned may possibly think that he has descended *The learned in Bengal were so fully persuaded of the importance of this poet's works, that Hafez was one of the first that .came from the Calcutta press. So eager was the demand, or so small the number of impressions, that few found their way out of the country; and in England this edition is as scarce as the most precious MS. This edition of Hatez, in one volume folio, was printed in the beginning of 1790; it contains the original Persian text, and an introductory account of the author. Vid. "Oriental Collections," vol. I. p. 181. and "Flowers of Persian Literature," p. 52, note. We are happy to add, that the same laudable spirit seems to pervade the literati of Europe, and that proposals for publishing "the whole works of Hafez, with a Latin translation," were circulated by Mr. Hill, of Haile, in Saxony, in October, 1801. The subscrip tion is to remain open till July 1, 1802; and the work is to be printed in a new Taalik type. We heartily wish the undertakers success. EDIT, 3 F to too great minuteness, which to them may appear unimportant, and that the repeated analysis of the same word, occurring in different passages of the original, was superfluous; but trifles to the intelligent are serious matters to those who are yet to learn, and too much assistance and encouragement can hardly be given to those who wish to acquire languages at first view so seemingly rugged and formidable." p. xviii, xix. In the body of the work we observe, that the author has arranged his matter according to that plan which seems best adapted to facilitate the advancement of the student. In the first place he has given the ode as it stands in the original Persian; after which follows a poetical paraphrase; then a literal translation with historical and grammatical notes; and lastly, an analysis, in which every word is separately taken, and .its full force and meaning exactly pointed out. As a specimen of the author's method we shall extract the first couplet, which, as well as all the others, is given according to the rules of scansion. It is as follows: ninski's Gram. 4to. p. 40, and Erpenius's Arab. Gram. p: 22 "Edar, the 2d person imperative of the Arab. verb edare of the 4th conjugation (from the root dar for dur) to carry, turn round, push about, &c. "Kasan. This word is pronounced kasan and not kasa, because of the two oblique strokes over the top of the elif: it is the accusative of kas, a cup full of wine, and like our word glass, is often used to express wine itself. "We is the copulative" conjunction and. "Nawilha. Nawil is the 2d person imperat. of the Arabic verb nawil, of the 3d conj. (from the root nal) to give, offer, present, &c. ha is the inseparable Arab. fem. pronoun it, agreeing with kasan. Wine, in the Arabic language, and every utensil or vessel employed in the making or holding it, is feminine, though their terminations may be masculine. "Ke. This particle is both the conjunction for, since, because, &c. and the relative pronoun who or what. "Ishk implies love of the most ardent kind. "Asan, easy, convenient, pleasant. "Numud, 3d pers. pret. sing. of muden, which has both an active and a neuter sense, as to shew, and to ap Ke ishk asan numud ewwel weli eftadi pear. "Ela, ya, and eiyuh are Arabic interjections or exclamatory particles, signifying helloa, ho, hark ye, come, &c. "Essaki. El here pronounced es not el, is the Arabic article, signifying the; saky is properly a water-carrier, but here means a cup-bearer. The lam in the Arabic article, is never pronounced, when the word to which it is prefixed begins with any of those characters, which the Arabic grammarians call solar letters; but these letters, over which is generally placed the mark Teshdid, are sounded as if they were doubled, ex. gr. essaky, a water-carrier, &c. esshems, the sun, and not elaky nor elshems. See Me "Ewwel, the Arab. ordinal number first. "Well, the Arab. adversative con junction but. Eftadi, 3d person pret. sing. of eftaden, to fall, fall out, happen, &c. it is pronounced eftadi by poetic li cence, on account of the measure. Mushkelha, difficulties. Mushkel signifies both difficult and a difficulty: ha marks the plural of inanimate nouns. See Jones's Gram. p. 22. Though this noun is in the plural it here agrees with the verb in the singular: an idiom borrowed from the Arabians." p. 4-8. In page 25 is the following pas the Lord Jehovah is equal to a thousand of our years. Avicenna and other Arabian philosophers, assert the eternity of the world; and Thabari in his Universal History relates a curious tradition on this subject, which Vabeb ben Manbeh reported he had from Mohammed, that God at the creation had built a city twelve thousand parasangs in circumference, adorned with twelve thousand porticoes, under which were the same number of magazines full of mustard seed, destined for the support of one bird, at an allowance of one grain a day; and that the destruction of the world, and the general resurrection was fixed at the period when the whole should be consumed. Thabari was highly esteemed both as a writer and a man: his Universal History in Arabic commences at the creation, and comes down to the year 300 of the Mohammedan hegira, corresponding nearly to the year 900 of the Christian æra. It was translated into Persian by Abou Ali Mohammed, vizier to the sultan Abou Saleh Mansour, of the dynasty of the Samnides, who has enriched it with many curious historical facts and observations, and rendered it still more valuable than the original *." In p. 44 is the following literal translation of a couplet: "O my moon of Canaan, the throne of Egypt is your own, "This is the time that thou shouldst bid farewell to prison." And in p. 45, the following observation occurs upon it: 46 The patriarch Joseph, figuratively stiled the Moon of Canaan, has been much celebrated in the East. The loves of Joseph and Zeleikha (daughter of Pharaoh and wife of Potiphar) have given subject for some of the most elegant poems in the Persian language, particularly those of Jami and Nezami. He is painted as so exceedingly beautiful, that no woman could behold him with eyes of indif Concerning this curious historical work, see the "Flowers of Persian Literature,' ference, Zeleikha herself being represented as a paragon of chastity before she saw him. This passage points to that part of his history where he was promoted from a prison to be chief ruler of the kingdom of Egypt." This note is further illustrated by an extract from the Koran in p 76, et seq. In p. 60, occurs a curious passage on the superstition of the Mohamme dans, which, because it contains some circumstances but little known to Europeans, we shall here insert : "The Mohammedans believe that the world was inhabited before the creation of man by the genii, and that God having ordered them to prostrate themselves before Adam, and acknowledge him as their superior, the Peris, or good genii obeyed, whilst the bad genii, or Dives, at the head of whom was Eblis (the devil) rebelled, in consequence of which they were driven from paradise, and have ever since continued the enemies of the human race. They say that God, when he resolved to create Adam, sent the angel Gabriel to the earth to bring seven handfuls of the different strata of which the terrestrial globe was composed, against which the earth remonstrated, under for the formation of whom she was to the apprehension that the creature furnish materials would rebel, and draw on her the wrath of God: Gabriel moved with compassion carried her remonstrance to heaven. Michael was then sent, and after him Asrafel, who both returning with reports of the earth's reluctancy, the Supreme Being, displeased at her obstinacy, dispatched Azrael, who seized by force the seven handfuls of her mass, and bore them to heaven: in consequence of which Azrael, who in the execution of this office had displayed the stern unfeelingness of his nature, had the charge consigned to him of separating the souls from the bodies of this new creation, and thence received the appellation of the Angel of Death. From the different colours and qualities of the earths made use of in the creation of man arise, say the Mohammedans, the different colours and temperaments of his poste. Fity. "Eblis, they add, being full of resentment against this new creature, associated himself with the serpent and the peacock, who, after various arts, having at length prevailed upon Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, the glorious robes with which they had been clothed immediately dropped off, when, struck with shame and surprise, they hid themselves among some fig-trees, where they did not long remain before they heard the awful voice of God pronouncing their banishment from paradise. They were all in consequence thrown headlong to the earth: Adam fell upon a mountain in the island of Serendib or Ceylon (now called Pico d'Adam); Eve at Gidda, on the Red Sea; Eblis at Missan, near Bassora; Hindostan received the Peacock, and Ispahan the Serpent. Adam, after suffering much as a punishment for his disobedience, was at length permitted to meet Eve on Mount Arafat, from whence he conducted her to Serendib, where they passed the remainder of their lives. "The moral of this verse seems to recommend a cheerful enjoyment of the present hour, without indulging too great curiosity, or giving way to melancholy, by thinking too despairingly on the time to come; for Adam, not contented with the delights of paradise, but wishing to pry into futurity, was suddenly punished for his presumptuous folly, and banished for ever from those mansions of bliss." In p. 67, are given "Additional Notes and Illustrations," which contain a variety of matters worthy the perusal of the student in oriental lite "I SHOULD hardly have ventured to have troubled the world with this publication, had I not flattered myself with the idea, that any person who will take the trouble of perusing the following Essays, will, on the whole, be inclined to say, This is the work of an author who seems to • have directed his attention to sub'jects connected with public utility and national in provement, and whose favourite object was, not to have lived in vain." Essay Observa ions on 'he Nature and Advantages of Statis cal Inquiries; with a Sketch of an Introduc tion to the proposed Analysis of the Statistical Account of Scotland.II. Observations on the Means of enabling a Cottager to keep a Cow, by the Produce of a small Portion of Arable Land.-III. Hints as to the Advantages of old Pastures. and on the Conversion of Grass Lands into Tillage.-IV. Hints regarding Cattle.V. On the Improvement of British Wool; containing the Substance of an Address to a Society, constituted at Edinburgh for that Purpose, on Monday, January 31, 1791. VI. Address to the Board of Agriculture, on the Cultivation and Improvement of the Waste Lands of the Kingdom, presented to the Board by Sir John Sinclair, (then President,) on the 17th November, 1795 — VII. Substance of a Speech in a Committee of the whole House, on the Means of improving the System of Private Bills of Inclosure, and the Resolutions of the Select Committee upon that Subject.VIII. Hints regarding certain Measures calculated to improve an extensive Property, more especially applicable to an Estate in the Northern Parts of Scotland.-IX. Account of the Ori. gin of the Board of Agriculture, and its Progress for three Years after its Establishment, originally drawn up, an. 1796.-X. Proposals for establishing by Subscription a new Institution, to be called The Plough; or Joint Stock Farming and Experimental Society, for ascertaining the Principles of agi cultural Improvement.-XI. Letter to the Proprietor of an extensive Property, on the Means of promoting the Comfort, and improving the Situation of the People in his Neigh bourhood.-XII. On Longevity. bours in a line of great utility, we As a specimen of this author's lagive the following extract from his first Essay. After considering what those advantages or blessings are, to which every individual member of a political society seems to be justly entitled: viz. Animal pleasures (as food, clothing, and shelter)—social gratifications and mental enjoyments; the worthy Baronet proceeds to consider "what are the most likely means of rendering them as generally attainable as possible?"-To this be an ficent sovereigns, or by well-intentioned ministers, who wished to ameliorate the condition of the people whom they governed; and sometimes by philosophers, or literary men, as More, Harrington, &c. who formed systems in their closets, founded on imaginary doctrines, and consequently incapable of being ever carried into effect. Nor is this to be wondered at: as well might an ignorant and presumptuous individual, attempt to build a lofty and splendid edifice, without any real knowledge of the materials of which it ought to be composed, as the ingenious philosopher, secluded from the scenes of active life, can expect to form a system calculated for the present state and order of society. "Nor does it appear, that those beneficent rulers, who endeavoured to improve the situation of those they governed, were much more successful. Indeed, how could it be expected, unless they had previously made those minute and extensive in. quiries, without which they must probe in the dark, and were as likely to do infinite mischief as to effect much good. Without a knowledge of facts, connected with any intended alteration in the laws, or in the political establishments of a state, how is it possible to judge whether the change can be brought about, without inconvenience, or to much advantage. For the important purpose of legislation therefore, inquiries on a great scale are essential. Real patriots, and practical statesmen, can be no longer satisfied with partial and defective views of the situation of a country, but must wish to know the actual state of its agriculture, its manufactures, and its commerce, and the means of improvement of which they are respectively capable;-the amount of the population of a state, and the causes of its increase or decrease ;the manner in which the territory of a country is possessed and cultivated; -the nature and amount of the various productions of the soil;-the value of the personal wealth or stock of the inhabitants, and how it can be augmented;-the diseases to which the people are subject, their causes and their cure;-the occupations of the people,-in what cases they are entitled to encouragement, and where they ought to be suppressed;-the condition of the poor, the best mode of exciting their industry, and furnishing them with employment;-the state of schools, and other institutions founded for the purposes of public utility; -the state of villages and towns, and the regulations best calculated for their police and government; and above all, the state of the manners, the morals, and the religious principles of the people; and the means by which their temporal and eternal interests can best be promoted. "I know that some political authors have maintained very opposite principles, and contend that matters should be left to themselves, that things will always find their own level, or, in other words, that a government should think of nothing but of war, of foreign intrigues, and of internal taxation: and I am ready to confess, that much benefit cannot be expected from any information thus accumulated, unless the rulers of a nation are not only able men, and well disposed to promote the happiness of the people, but that the frame of the government is such, as to impose proper checks upon those who govern, otherwise almost every information thus obtained, may not merely be lost, but may, in the progress of human affairs, be perverted to the worst of purposes. But the principle that I maintain is this, that as no individual can improve his private property, without knowing exactly its extent, the soil of which it consists, the number of farmers by whom it is occupied, the state of the buildings erected on it, the crops which it is capable of producing, the best means of cultivating it, &c. &c. &c. neither can any government improve a country, nor better the situation of its inhabitants, without entering into minute enquiries of a similar nature, for the purpose of at least removing all obstacles to improvement. For what is a nation but a great estate? What is a country but a large farm? and the same principles which are applicable to the improvement of the one, must necessarily be calculated to promote the interests and happiness of the other. |