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government, advances maxims of political freedom, which, a century or two ago, would not have been endured by any country in Europe.

Of the contents of the Boostan, Sâdee gives a short analysis in his Introduction, which we shall present to the reader in English.

'When I constructed this royal palace, I made in it ten doors. The first leads to justice, the government of an empire, and the fear of God. At the second, I have laid the foundation of that gratitude which the successful ought to offer to the Almighty. The third points to love, its enthusiasm and its transports, but not that degrading passion to which man becomes a voluntary slave. The fourth is the path to humility. The fifth to resignation. The sixth leads to the praise of renowned recluses. The seventh to the management of worldly affairs. The eighth to the commendation of contentment. The ninth, the righteous road, conducts to repentance. The tenth leads to prayer, and concludes the book. Vol. I. fol. 96.

Dr. Franklin's fable against persecution, in imitation of the scripture style, is well known; and some have been led to question its originality. Several sources of imitation have been pointed out, and the Boostan of Sâdee among the rest. A gentleman at Calcutta, in the year 1789, was the first, we believe, who made this remark; and to shew the ground of his conjecture, he printed Dr. F.'s Fable and the Hakaeet from the Boostan, in the first volume of the New Asiatic Miscellany. That Dr. Franklin did not understand Persian is certain. That he might have met with a translation, however, of some parts of the Boostan in France or elsewhere, is highly probable. For the reader's amusement we shall place the Doctor's fable and the Hakaeet to which he is supposed to have been indebted, with a few alterations from the Calcutta copy, in parallel columns, thus enabling our readers to judge for themselves. Whatever reverence we may feel for the talents and the integrity of Dr. F. we must own the coincidence appears to us far too complete to be accidental. The original commences with the following couplet:

Dr. Franklin's Parable, in imitation of the Style of the Holy Scriptures.

"And it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat in the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun; and behold a man bent, with age, coming from the way of the wilderness, leaning on a staff: and Abraham arose and met him, and said unto him, turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all

Story from the Boostan of Sidec.

شنیدم که یک هفته ابن السبیل سراي خليل نیامد بمهمان

'I have heard that once during a whole week, no son of the road (traveller) came to the hospitable dwelling of the friend of God, (Abraham) whose ainiable mind led him to observe it as a rule not to eat in the morning, unless some needy person arrived from a journey?

night; and thou shalt arise early in the morning, and go on thy way. And the man said, nay, for I will abide under this tree. But Abraham pressed him greatly so he turned, and they went in unto the tent. And Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat. And when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he said unto him, Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high God, the creator of heaven and earth? And the man answered, and said, I do not worship thy God, neither do I call upon his name; for I have made unto myself a god, which abideth always in my house, and provideth me with all things. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man; and he arose, and fell upon him, and drove him forth with blows into the wilderness.

"And God called unto Abraham, and said, Abraham, where is the stranger?

"And Abraham answered and said, Lord, he would not worship thee, neither would he call upon thy name; therefore have I driven him from before my face into the wilderness. And God said, I have borne with him these hundred and ninety and eight years, and nourished him, and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against me; and couldst not thou, who art thyself a signer, bear with him for one night ?"

He went out and turned his eyes towards every place: he viewed the valley on all sides, and beheld in the desart a solitary man, resembling the willow, whose head and beard were whitened with the snow of age. To encourage him he called him friend; and agreeably to the manners of the munificent, gave him an invitation, saying, O apple of my eye, perform an act of cour tesy, by partaking of my bread and salt! He assented, arose, and stepped forward readily, for he knew the disposition of his host, on whom be peace! The associates of Abraham's hospitable dwelling seated the old man with respect. The table was ordered to be spread, and the company placed themselves around. When the assembly began to utter, in the name of the most merciful and compassionate God! [the Mohammedan grace before meat] and not a word was heard to proceed from the old man. Abraham addressed him in such terms as these: O old man, stricken in years, thou appearest not to me to be in faith and zeal like other old men for is it not a positive law to invoke, at the time of eating thy bread, that divine providence from whence it is derived? He replied, "I take in hand no custom which I have not heard from my priest who wor shippeth fire." The holy prophet per ceived this depraved old man to be a Guber, and finding him an infidel, drove him away in miserable condition: the polluted being rejected by those who are pure. The angel Gabriel descended from the glorious and omnipotent God with this severe rebuke: O friend, I have supported him through a life of one hundred years, and thou hast conceived an abhorrence for him at first sight. If a man pay adoration to fire, shouldest thou therefore withhold the hand of liberality?" Vol. I. p. 124.

Not having room particularly to describe the smaller pieces contained in the second volume, we shall confine ourselves to a few observations on the mixture of the Arabic with the Persian. Though Sâdee was born and educated at Sheeraz, where the pure Persian was spoken and highly cultivated, yet he seems to have had a strong predilection for the Arabic, and uses it in his writings as Cicero did the Greek, but with a more liberal hand. By this, he may appear to many to have enriched his native tongue. But we ought previously to contemplate the circumstances under which he wrote. The language of all

barbarous and uncultivated nations must necessarily be feeble, poor, and inexpressive, except as to those matters which concern the natural wants of mankind, and the ideas which are connected with them. When a people of this sort rise out of their barbarous state, and the sciences and arts become cultivated among them, they are obliged to borrow terms from nations farther advanced in refinement, not only to express those arts and sciences, but also the various modifications of thought which follow in their train. Had this been the condition of the people or the language of Sâdee, the Asiatic philologist would have felt himself indebted to the skilful hand, which had judiciously interspersed Arabic pearls among the Persian diamonds. But the case was totally different: Sheeraz was the Rome, or, as it has been called, the Athens of the Persian empire; and the time of Sâdee, the 13th cen. tnry, was the Augustan age of the Persian tongue. Hence, however rapidly the custom might then be prevailing, there was no kind of necessity to borrow from another language. The Persian is of itself sufficiently copious, and possesses power of producing, from its own unfailing principles, compound terms adequate to the expression of every possible idea. Never was a more unnatural scyon grafted on a vigorous stock, than the Arabic on the Persian; a language with which it has no kind of affinity, and with which it requires no small art to make it coalesce;-Inseritur verò ex fætu nucis arbutus horrida. Nothing but a spirit of the most abject adulation, enforced by terror, could ever have induced the Persians to incorporate with their melodious tongue the rugged accents of their conquerors. Ferdoosi, who wrote in the 10th century, before this influence became extensive, has very few Arabic words in the whole sixty thousand couplets of his Shah Nameh; yet his diction is exuberant, his fancy animated, his figures various, his descriptions natural and bold, his versification fluent and harmonious: while Sâdee, with equal command of language, is continually borrowing from the Arabic even to affectation and pedantry. His Arabic Odes are in character: but we cannot bestow the same praise on those that he distinguished by the name of Persian, which are replete with needless Arabisms, and in which whole lines and couplets of these naturalized aliens are often forcibly obtruded among his delicate Persian stanzas, for no other apparent purpose than to prove his orthodoxy or exhibit his skill. The Mulumaat is the strangest medley that ever offended the eye of literary taste. The first ode in this piece is composed of alternate couplets of Arabic and Persian; the three last couplets excepted, which are all Persian. In the second ode the first half couplet is Persian,'

the second Arabic: in the second couplet the first line is Arabic, and the next Persian. Then we are treated with alternate couplets in each of these languages; and this plan is continued, with a few fantastic deviations, to the end of the chapter. In this ridiculous manner has the poet sacrificed propriety and manly sense, in order to delight the poetic Neros, and curry favour with the theologic Jameses, of his day. We would not disturb the soul of the fortunate Sheekh;' but we must say, that, greatly as we admire the ingenuity displayed in this hotch-pot Mulumâät, it is excelled by at stanza lately placed over the door of an inn in the Austrian Netherlands.

In questa casa trovarete

Tout ce que l'on peut souhaiter:
Vinum, panem, pisces, carnes;

Coaches, chaises, horses, harness.

Absurd, however, as this childish fancy must appearand we may add reprehensible, when employed by a genius formed for much nobler purposes--the mischief is now irreparable: the Persian language scarcely exists; and grammarians are obliged to invent new rules, to shew in what manner the Arabic is compounded with it. The result of this heterogeneous mixture is not an improved language, but a new dialect, differing almost as widely from the two eastern tongues, out of which it is manufactured, as the Italian does from the Latin; a mongrel, which must neither be called Persian nor Arabic, but Arabico-Persian.

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Had not our observations on this edition already extended. to so great a length, (which, however, the novelty and importance of the subject, we hope, will at least excuse,) we should bave gratified ourselves and our readers by introducing some interesting extracts from Sàdee's preface to the Boostan, which is altogether one of the most elegant and sublime pieces of Mohammedan devotion on record. We had also intended to delineate the character and talents of the author, as a Poet, a Philosopher, and a Moralist; and exemplify our remarks by a few quotations. But this gratification inust at any rate be deferred, till we have an opportunity of reviewing Mr. Gladwin's edition of the Gulistan.

Art. II. A View of Spain; comprising a descriptive Itinerary of each Province, and a general statistical Survey of the Country, including its Population, Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce and Finances; its Government; civil, and ecclesiastical Establishments; the State of the Arts, Sciences and Literature; its Manners, Customs, Natural History, &c. &c. Translated from the French of Alexander de Laborde. 5 vols. 8vo. price 31. 13s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1809.. I cannot be doubted that our acquaintance with the geography, as well as with the rural and political economy

of Spain, taken generally, is extremely imperfect. The inhabitants of that unhappy country are about as ill, informed on these subjects, as on most others which require the labour of thought and observation; but it is somewhat to be regretted that the intelligent travellers of other nations should have so unanimously consented to pass over topics of real and permanent interest, for the sake of being tedious and diffuse on points of momentary duration, and subordinate importance. Descriptions we have had, without number, enlivened with sunshine and clouded with storms; lamentations to satiety of bad roads, and wretched posadas; and reiterated invec-. tives against that miserable policy, which has degraded the character and imprisoned the faculties of a people once noble and free. But a work was yet to be desired, (and recent events have testified how much*) which might serve as a full and complete directory to the more sober part of mankind: which might explain the exact state of the country without acrimony or exaggeration; which might present a clear statement of facts, as a basis for opinion; and which, admitting the complicated evils existing in the civil and ecclesiastical administration of the country, might point out the precise mode of their operation and the most probable means of their removal.

It would afford us real pleasure to say that these objects are fully accomplished by the present ponderous performance. It certainly contains much that is curious and valuable it evinces great ardour and persevering minuteness of research; and affords a large collection of interesting facts and observations. But it also contains a vast deal that is trifling and inaccurate; the inquiries, though minute, are far from comprehensive; and the work is throughout confused and contradictory, possessing neither unity of design nor cohesion of arrangement. M. Laborde has added another name to the catalogue of those, who are more qua. lified to accumulate materials, than to employ them.

The author, to do him justice, is not insensible of his defects; and he has accordingly, with great cheerfulness, paid the penalty of an apology.

It is quite obvious that the distresses of our army on the peninsula, originated principally in a deficiency of geographical information, and a scanty supply of necessaries; and it is painful to observe the enemy's superiority in both these respects. While the confederates were straggling wide of each other, ignorant of their respective operations and positions, the French were combining their movements with the certainty of mathematical calculation: and were provided with an admirably regulated com. missariat, while our bravecountrymen were starving.

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