In utter gloom: the river flows before me,
The boundary of the funeral ground, that winds
Through mouldering bones its interrupted way.
Wild raves the torrent as it rushes past,
And rends its crumbling banks; the wailing owl
Hoots through its skirting groves, and to the sounds
The loud, long moaning jackall yells reply.'

He hears a voice

so musical and wild,

That sounds like the affrighted osprey's cry-
It bursts not unfamiliar to my ear.'

It is the voice of Málati who has been seized as a human sacrifice; he rescues her, slays the priest, and from that time becomes an object of implacable hostility to the whole body of the Sivaite magicians. We regret that we cannot trace any farther the plot of this chef-d'œuvre of Babavhuti: the benevolent Buddhist, and her associate, triumph over the malignant powers of blood and darkness; and we abstain, with some unwillingness, from selecting an example of the poet's skill in describing natural sceneryin which the dramatic bards of India indulge with, apparently, the deepest delight.

In the Uttara Rama Cheritra, the continuation of the history of Rama, we have to make our weary way through many scenes of almost lifeless mythology, before we arrive at the better parts of the poem, the pathetic expressions of mutual love uttered by Rama, and his wife Sita, from whom he has been long separated; -for, says the Indian poet,

'How many are the forms affection takes,
And yet is one unchanged; as water seen
In bubbles, eddies, billows, is the same
Unaltered element.'

There is something very spirited and noble in the manner in which the two sons of Rama, who, unknown to their father, have been brought up in the hermitage of a holy recluse, burst, like Guiderius and Arviragus, into the battle, which rages near their retirement. Yet the celestial arms with which one of these youths arrests the battle, are purely Indian. It is by the magic powers of meditation that he brings a spirit of drowsiness over the whole army

CHANDADETA.

LAVA.

(Lava stands in the attitude of meditation.)
What is this?

The shouts are stilled.

So much for these revilers.

SUMANTRA. This is no common deed; the youth must wield

In fearful change, that equal pains the eye,
Alternate gloom to flashing lightning yields.
How like a painted army stands our host,
As the resistless charm subdues their senses.
And now along the sky dark vapours float
In masses ponderous as the peaks of Vindhya,
And blackness, gathered from the caves of hell;

Like molten brass, red sullen flames, by fits

Glow through the gloom, and loud the breeze awakens,

As 'twere the word of final dissolution.'

The recognition of his sons by Rama is not without fine touches.

RAMA.-In every look and act these youths display

The majesty that would become an empire;
Upon their forms has Nature set her signs,
Like rays of light within a costly gem,
Or drops of nectar on a lovely lotus,
That indicate such glorious destiny

As should alone to Raghu's sons pertain.
Dark as the dove's blue neck is their deep hue;
Such shoulders has the monarch of the herd;
Their dauntless looks are like the angry lion's ;
And like the deep-toned music of the drum
Of holy sacrifice, each mellow voice.

I see in each my own similitude;
And not alone my likeness, but in much
They wear the lovely semblance of my Sità,
The lotus countenance of Jánaki

Is even now before me-such those teeth
Of pearly whiteness, such the pouting lip,
The taper ear, and such the expressive eye,
Although 'tis tempered with a manly fierceness.
Their dwelling in these groves-the very same
Where Sità was abandoned-and so like-
And then the heavenly weapons-self presented,

That, as the sages say, would never quit

Our line without due cause-my queen's condition-
Burthened with promised joys; these thoughts distract
My heart, and fill my soul with hope and terror;
Nor can I learn the truth, nor ask these youths
The history of their birth.'

The most curious, however, of these plays, on account of its historical allusions, the intricacy of the plot, and the skilful delineation of character, is the Mudrà Rakshasa, or the signet of the minister. The fable of this drama relates to the reign of the celebrated Chandra-gupta, who dispossessed and exterminated the former sovereigns, the race of Nanda, from the throne of Patna, the ancient Palibothra. This monarch it is impossible not to identify

with

with the Sandracottus, or, as it is written by Athenæus, Sandracoptus, who reigned over the Gangaridæ, is said by Plutarch to have seen Alexander, and was the monarch with whom Seleucus Nicator entered into a treaty, and whose court was frequently visited by the historian Megasthenes. The Greek accounts describe this king as of low origin, the son of a barber; the Indian, though of royal birth, yet the son of a king who was himself born of a Sudra mother, by a woman of low extraction and it is curious that in the description of the allies led by an invader against Chandra-gupta, appear the Javanas, who may be converted without much difficulty into Ionians. The interest of the play turns on the character of the minister Chanakya, to whose consummate ability Chandra-gupta owes his elevation to the throne. Chanakya, having been cruelly insulted, loosed the single tuft of hair which adorns the head of a Brahmin, and made a solemn vow never to tie it up again till he had obtained full vengeance from the house of Nanda. He has succeeded in exterminating the elder royal race, and his only object is now to secure the throne of Chandra-gupta. For this purpose he must provide him with a minister of equal ability to himself. Rakshasa, the only man worthy of succeeding to his place, is, on the other side, endeavouring to raise, or has already organized, a formidable invasion of the kingdom. It is the object of Chanakya to detach this man from the service of the enemy, and to this end he weaves a web of Machiavellian policy, which might have moved the admiration and envy of the late Duke of Otranto, though we doubt whether M. Fouchè would have laboured with such disinterested magnanimity to elevate a worthy successor to his office. Wherever he turns, Rakshasa finds himself entangled in the inextricable toils which his wily antagonist has spun around him; his plots recoil on his own head; his mines are undermined; his spies are in the pay of his enemy; his most trusty agents are the agents of Chanakya; he becomes an object of jealousy, of suspicion to his own party, of which he is the life; and at length is brought to the feet of his master in the art of oriental policy; who, having attained the high and disinterested object for which he has plotted all his villanies, at once abdicates his own ministerial power, and bestows on his master Chandra gupta the only minister worthy to succeed himself. Of this intricate plot it is impossible for us to give a distinct outline, and the poetry, though vigorous and animated, rarely breaks out in passages likely, whether for elegance or power, to form striking extracts in the pages of a review. With one remarkable simile, therefore, we shall close these notices of the Indian drama :

'RAKSHASA.-See, what is the hour? ATTENDANT.-Near sunset, Sir.

RAKSHASA.

RAKSHASA. Indeed! so near the time when, like the slaves
That fly a lord whom fortune has abandoned,

The trees that cast their shadows at the dawn
With servile speed before the rising sun,

Now turn them backward from his downward course
As to the west he drives his jaded steeds,
To rest from their long circuit, and acquire
Reviving vigour for the morrow's toil.'

Mr. Wilson has performed a valuable service to the European public by his translation of the Hindu drama. We repeat that, to those who have formed rigid and exclusive canons of taste on classical, or even more recent models, these curious plays will afford little pleasure or amusement. By those, however, who take a wider range, and judge according to a more liberal philosophy at all events by all who are delighted with living and authentic pictures of the manners and of the genius of different nations--they will be read with very great delight and interest.

The rapid progress of the study of the Sanscrit language is a remarkable event in literary history. In the course of thirty years nearly seven hundred publications have appeared relating to a language to which, certainly, not a hundred scholars have applied, and with which not fifty are accurately acquainted. Such is the statement of Adelung in his recent catalogue of works on Sanscrit literature. The language is taught in the schools of Berlin, Breslau, and Bonn. About the university of Cambridge, M. Adelung, we suspect, is misinformed. In the list of three hundred and eighty works described by M. Adelung, are one hundred and seventy Indian, six Persian, sixty-three English, seventy-eight German, forty French, eight Danish, three Russian, four Dutch, one Polish, and one Greek. It is not perhaps generally known, that by the bequest of a munificent individual, the late Colonel Boden, a professorship of Sanscrit has been founded and liberally endowed in the university of Oxford. The university, no doubt, will be anxious to do justice to their important charge, and will be desirous to nominate that candidate who shall be best qualified for the office, from whatever quarter he may come; though we confess that we shall have some feeling of national disappointment if the situation shall be wrested away by the superior claims of some learned foreigner, who cannot have pursued the study with the same advantages as a resident in India. For the best qualified English candidates the university will naturally look to the servants of the East India Companya class of persons whose contributions, not merely to the study of the Eastern languages, but to the general literature of their country, have scarcely received their fair meed of applause. The

works

works of Orme, Sir J. Malcolm, Colonel Wilks, and many other living authors, it is almost invidious and unjust to make a selection, may claim a very high rank as historical compositions.

Among those whose names are before the public as Sanscrit scholars though we presume not to aver that there are not many of equal attainments-Mr. Wilson stands in the first rank.-He has rendered most valuable service to oriental literature, not only by the work which we have introduced to the reader, but by the far more laborious compilation of his Sanscrit dictionary. The want of a new, perhaps extended edition of this work, which cannot be obtained, retards the progress of the Sanscrit student,a want which is imperfectly supplied by the valuable but less comprehensive Radices Sanscrita' of Professor Rosen, and the 'Glossarium Sanskritum' of Bopp. But to whomsoever the lot may fall, independent of the religious advantages contemplated, we believe, by the founder, in encouraging the study of the parent language of the numerous dialects spoken throughout that peninsula, which is, no doubt, sooner or later, to partake in the blessings of Christianity, we confidently trust that we shall receive from the Oxford professor continual accessions to our treasures of Sanscrit literature, and be enabled to complete our yet imperfect history of this remarkable branch of the poetry and philosophy of man.

ART. II.-Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Straits, to co-operate with the Polar Expeditions. Performed in his Majesty's Ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey, R.N., in 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828. London. 4to. 1831.

MEN

EN of science continue to be much divided in opinion as to what is, and what is not, the sort of encouragement which the government of this country ought to give to scientific inquiry. The views of Mr. Babbage, and many others, have been abundantly explained to our readers in a late article; but these are strenuously opposed by persons equally eminent,-according to whom the case stands thus :

Whenever the investigation of certain topics would be useful to the public service, but, from whatever cause, such investigation is not likely to be undertaken by individual members of the community, it is the clear duty of government, acting as stewards or agents of the public, to employ the means placed in their hands for the advancement of such objects; but when the members