fir William Jones. Narayena is the active spirit of God, for God is expreffed by different words, according to his different energies and powers. Brehm is the Supreme Deity who created Brehma; or rather the former is God, and the latter term is applied to fignify his creative power. If the following ftanzas are found to be highly fublime, the effect, on a little reflection, will appear to arife from the fplendour of eastern mythology, joined to the majestic energy of Milton; which is, perhaps, fomewhat leffened by the measure of the ode.

Wrapt in eternal folitary fhade,

Th'impenetrable gloom of light intense,
Impervious, inacceffible, immenfe,
Ere fpirits were infus'd or forms difplay'd,
Brehm his own mind furvey'd,

As mortal eyes (thus finite we compare

With infinite) in fmootheft mirrors gaze:
Swift, at his look, a fhape fupremely fair
Leap'd into being with a boundless blaze,
That fifty funs might daze.

Primeval, Maya was the goddefs nam'd,
Who to her fire with love divine inflam'd,
A cafket gave with rich ideas fill'd,

From which this gorgeous universe he fram'd;
For, when th' Almighty will'd

Unnumber'd words to build,
From unity diverfified he sprang,

While gay creation laugh'd, and procreant nature rang,

First an all-potent all-pervading found

Bade flow the waters-and the waters flow'd,
Exulting in their measureless abode,

Diffufive, multitudinous, profound,

Above, beneath, around:

Then o'er the vast expanse primordial wind
Breath'd gently, till a lucid bubble rofe,
Which grew in perfect shape an egg refin'd;
Created fubftance no fuch luftre fhews,
Earth no fuch beauty knows.

Above the warring waves it danc'd elate,
Till from its bursting fhell with lovely state
A form cerulean flutter'd o'er the deep
Brighteft of beings, greatest of the great;
Who, not as mortals fteep,
Their eyes in dewy fleep,

But heav'nly-penfive on the lotos lay,

That bloffom'd at his touch and fhed a golden ray.'

Our readers will alfo perceive the original of many of the thoughts, and fome of the expreffions, in the following ftanza; but, on the whole, it is highly poetical and beautiful.

• Om

Omnifcient Spirit, whofe all-ruling pow'r
Bids from each fenfe bright emanations beam;
Glows in the rainbow, fparkles in the stream,
Smiles in the bud, and gliftens in the flow'r
That crowns each vernal bow'r ;

Sighs in the gale, and warbles in the throat
Of ev'ry bird, that hails the bloomy fpring,
Or tells his love in many a liquid note,
Whilft envious artifts touch the rival string,
Till rocks and and forests ring;

Breathes in rich fragrance from the fandal grove,
Or where the precious muk-deer playful rove :
In dulcet juice from cluft'ring fruit diftills,
And burns falubrious in the tafteful clove:
Soft banks and verd'rous hills,

Thy prefent influence fills;

In air, in floods, in caverns, woods, and plains;
Thy will infpirits all, thy fov'reign Maya reigns.'

The poetry is occafionally light and pleasant; fometimes of the narrative and defcriptive kind. The images are frequently new; and the whole is a pleasing collection: we found it only too small.

The pieces of profe are tales, chiefly moral, and, in one inftance, exceedingly pathetic, or collections for fome future hiftorian. Thofe which relate to the Marattas, and their origin, though lefs entertaining than the reft, are more valuable. We shall select a story from the Guliftan of Sadi, as a fpecimen.

Having become weary of the company of my friends at Damafcus, I retired into the defart of Jerufalem, and affociated with the brutes; till I was taken prifoner by the Franks, and configned to a pit in Tripoly, to dig clay with fome Jews. But one of the principal men of Aleppo, with whom I had formerly been intimate, happening to pass that way, recollected me; asked me how I came there; and in what manner I spent my time? I answered:"

• Strophe.

"I fled into the mountains and deferts to avoid mankind;
Seeing, that on God alone reliance can be placed.
Conjecture, then, what must now be my fituation,
Forced to affociate with wretches, worse than men !"

'Diftich.

"To have our feet bound with chains, in company

friends,

Is preferable to being in a garden with ftrangers."

with our

He took compaffion on my condition: redeemed me for ten dinars from the Franks; and took me with him to Aleppo. He had a daughter whom he gave me in marriage, with a

hün

hundred dinars for her dower. When fome time had elapfed the difcovered her difpofition, which was ill-natured, quarrelfome, obftinate, and abufive; fo that the deftroyed my happiness, in the manner as has been faid.

Verfe.

A bad woman, in the houfe of a good man,

Is his Hell in this world.

Take care how you connect yourself with a bad woman.
Defend us, O Lord, from this fiery trial!

'Once the reproached me, faying, "art not thou him whom my father redeemed from captivity among the Franks for ten dinars?" I answered, "Yes, he ranfomed me for ten, and put me into your hands for a hundred."

• Verfe.

'I have heard that a great man delivered a lamb from the claws of a wolf.

And the night following applied a knife to his throat.
The expiring lamb complained, crying,

You delivered me from the claws of a wolf;

But I have feen you at length act the part of that very wolf . towards me.'

We have given various fpecimens of this pleafing miscellany, to gratify the curiofity of those who cannot procure it, and to excite that passion in others who are more favourably fituated. We are happy to find that we shall probably receive other obligations of the fame kind from thefe elegant authors.

Sylva; or, the Wood. 8vo. 5s. in Boards. Payne and Son. IF every man of genius, reading, or obfervation, were to

catch the cafual fuggeftions of the moment, reflections on common occurrences, or to purfue a train of thought, which the companions of his leifure hours have contributed to raife, he might foon form an useful and interefting mifcellany. In this way the Wood before us feems to have been reared, from tender faplings, which did not, in fome inftances, appear capable of improvement, and which, in other hands, might not have received it. The author poffeffes much acquired knowlege; and is not deficient in that genius which gives an originality to common things, and that peculiar turn which, in many cafes, renders them interefting. We have formerly remarked, that we love these oblique views; not so much as the author profeffes, to teach us to think, as to direct our thoughts from the beaten path: knowlege is acquired by viewing things on different fides; but the difficulty which every thinking man has felt is to change the fides of an object.

By

By this fimple manoeuvre we could frequently reduce many volumes of controversy to fewer pages. In this plan Mr. Heron fucceeded well; and for this we continue to regard him, in fpite of all his refentment, and of his many errors.

If we furveyed this Wood in the style of a naturalist or a furveyor, we might remark that the trees were generally vigorous and fturdy. The nervous ufeful oak occafionally occurs: the lighter beech fometimes fpreads its luxuriant branches; and the colours are diverfified by the whiter ash, the deepercoloured fir, or the comparatively ufelefs fycamore. Some trees of rapid growth are occafionally planted to fill the wood, or to protect the younger trees; and others are transplanted from different nurferies, perhaps for the fame purpose. It is needless to mention the subjects of this collection: the fubject is not quicquid agunt homines; but what they fay, what they have thought or written. Ancient authors are often introduced; and many quotations from Latin and Greek writers occur in almost every page. Let us infert the author's account of his object, and a fhort defence of this mode of writing, which have for these laft fifty years been styled pedantic.

And now, after fuch an exordium, many will be curious and eager to ask, what gentlemen, who thus complain of a redundancy of books, can poffibly mean by adding to the number?-perhaps it might fuffice to fay, perituræ parcere chartæ quid prodeft? but we add, that we would not have ours confidered as a book: we would rather call it (if we durft) the Beauties of books. There are the Beauties of Shakspeare, where a felection is made of his moft brilliant paffages, by doctor Dodd. There are, if we mistake not, the Beauties of Mufic and Poetry: and there are the Beauties of Fox, North, and Burke, which contain (we fuppofe) the beauties of politics. We would make ours, if we could, the Beauties of Knowledge, Wit, and Wisdom; felected from all indifcriminately who can furnish them, and brought more clofely and compendiously together. For the great object of our work is to make men wiser, without obliging them to turn over folios and quartos; to furnish matter for thinking, instead of reading.

Complaints will doubtlefs be preferred against us for the numerous quotations we have made, thofe efpecially from learned or foreign languages: but it must be noted, that quotations are effential to our plan, which is to inftruct and amuse by story and anecdote, not by deduction or chains of argument; by example chiefly, not by reafoning. We have, however, generally given the fubftance, and often a tranflation, of the paffages we quote.-Mean while, it need not be diffembled, that this work is not fo much intended for the mere illiterate English reader, as for men who have been liberally trained, and are not unacquainted with languages; men, who may with to

have fome pabulum mentis, or mental fodder, always at hand, but whofe profeffions and fituations in life do not permit leifure to turn over volumes.'

The ftyle of these remarks is fometimes peculiar, and fometimes incorrect; but it is animated and forcible. The impreffion feems to have been strong, and the language partakes of its force; the sketch is a hafty one, and, of course, not always polished. From the circumftances interfperfed in these remarks, we have tried more than once to guess at the profeffion of its author. He is, at times, a phyfician and a lawyer; a determined whig, and a fupporter of monarchy; but he eludes the grafp, and, like a Protheus, again is neither. The work is a pleasing collection, but fo miscellaneous, that we must be content with an example: its general character we have already endeavoured to ascertain.

Of King's Friends." The king of France," fays Machiavel, fuffers nobody to call himself of the king's party, because that would imply there was a party against him." Difcors. iii. 27. With us, by affecting to be diftinguished as king's friends, many minute things have crawled up to fituations, both in church and state, which (to use the poet's language) may reafonably make one wonder, how the devil they got there.-The king of England has no enemies."

There is much good fenfe in the following paffage; and there is an idiosyncracy in it which will well mark the author's manner. He has told us, fua cuique indoles, fua cuique opinio;' may we not then adopt a medical term to mark the conftitutional diftinctions' as well as the opinions?'

Jefting in illness, or at the point of death, is reckoned not barely indecent, but almost profane: as, when one, who was proceeding to the gallows, advifed his conductors not to carry him through fuch a street, left a merchant, who lived there, fhould arreft him for a debt; or, as when a dying Catholic, upon the priest's approaching for extreme unction, and asking where his feet were, which pain it feems had made him pull up, replied with feeming gravity, at the end of my legs. And numbers, I doubt not, have had hard work to reconcile fir Thomas More's piety with his mirth upon the fcaffold; namely, in defiring the executioner to put his beard afide, fince "It had not committed any treafon." They have thought, perhaps, that, as we come whining into the world, fo it is decent to go whining out of it.

There is, however (and it ought to be noted) an extreme oppofite to whining, which is no lefs weak and unmanly; and that is, an affectation of mirth and gaiety at this folemn period for folemn, at leaft, it moft certainly is. Hume never appears to me under a more unphilofophic attitude than when he

sports