never utters a syllable to gentle Pen. of the two children he had by Calypso, and the one, or, as Hesiod affirms, the two borne to him by Circe. Well, perhaps the ever-wise and prudent son of Laertes never shewed more wisdom and prudence than on this occasion. Let husbands judge! The Batrachomyomachia is an excellent burlesque poem, commonly attributed to Homer. Some of the moderns, however, dispute its legitimacy, but " several of the ancients," says Chalmers, seem of another opinion, and Statius, who wrote under Domitian, makes no doubt of it."* The subject of the war is the death of Psycharpax, a mouse, son of Toxartes, who, mounted on the back of Physignathus, a frog, undertook a voyage to his palace, to which he had invited him. On the way, the frog Physignathus suddenly beheld an hydra making toward them, -At this sight Down went Physignathus and the hapless mouse, after many vain endeavours, was drowned. Physignathus being suspected of having done this designedly, the mice demanded satisfaction, and unanimously declared war against the frogs. The frogs at length find themselves in imminent danger, and Jupiter interfering, sends them auxiliaries, which are curiously * On this question we shall take the liberty of transcribing a MS. note in our possession, of that accomplished scholar, Mr. Capel Lofft, whose numerous comments have so adorned and illustrated the booksellers' late edition of Pope's Homer. After pointing out many words in this piece that are not Homeric, being neither in the Iliad nor in the Odyssey, Mr. L. thus acutely observes: "I think it will be impossible for any one to doubt whether the Batrachomyomachia must not be ascribed to a different age than that of Homer. It was anciently attributed to Pigres, the brother of Artemisia, the celebrated queen of Caria, celebrated in arts and arms. Considering how much is said of sweetmeats and of female works in it, there might possibly be fair reason to ascribe it to Artemisia herself. This would make about four centuries and an half later than Homer. I cannot think its antiquity at most greater. And I should rather suspect it to be yet nearer to the age of Aristophanes, and consequently between two and three centuries nearly later than on the former supposition. "It is somewhat remarkable that the parodies on verses of Homer are few in this ingenious little poem. But the several colour of diction and of numbers is well imitated, particularly the Cesuras in the first foot, and the occasional dis pondæus in the close." 3 DVOL. XIV. described in the mock-heroic style. Jove's "smouldering bolt” dismissed in vain sudden they came. Broad back'd They were, and smooth like anvils, sickle-claw'd, And crabs their name. They, seizing by his leg, The whole version of this poem is admirably executed. Here ends all that Mr. Cowper has translated of Homer, allowed or supposed. The hymns were, perhaps, not unworthy of his notice, especially the one to Venus, which has been well turned by Congreve, and better by Mr. Ritson. But let us not waste that time in ungrateful regret about these trifling omissions, which should be wholly employed in admiring and extolling the great and masterly performances which he has, in the plenitude of genius, and with unwearied labour, bequeathed to posterity for their instruction and delight. O for a muse like thine, while I rehearse In thee rise worthy of their sacred source !* Until the existence of this version, the mere English reader has -heard of the deathless bard of Greece, but could never know him.-At present he is all our own: "Thy country, Homer! we dispute no more; CowPER has fix'd it to his native shore!" It would be unjust to conclude without expressing our approbation of the accuracy of the present edition, which is due to the careful attention bestowed on it by its learned and worthy editor, the Reverend Mr. Johnson. *Miss J. Cowper to Mr. Pope, among the recommendatory poems prefixed to his works. How much more applicable to her namesake! Maurice's History of Modern India. Part II, We have already presented our readers with such ample extracts from the first part of this volume, and have taken so comprehensive a survey of the plan and purpose of the author in composing a work so interesting to all lovers of oriental history, that we have little more to do at present than to report progress, and inform them that, in this final portion of volume the first, the detail of Indian events is brought down nearly to the close of the fourteenth century. Mr. M. himself, in the elegant preface to this second part, tells us that “The third part, of which a considerable portion is composed, will bring the history down to the termination of the seventeenth century, while the interesting and important transactions of the eighteenth century will occupy the whole of the fourth and final part. I must again beg permission to acquaint the reader, that in these limited pages, he must only expect a very general sketch of the series of magnificent events that are perpetually occurring in the history of the empire of Hindostan. Those who are desirous of more circumstantial accounts will naturally consult the various authors who are my guides through the mighty labyrinth which I have attempted to explore. "The materials for the present undertaking, at first scanty and jejune, are now become abundant, and I trust that in the two works, I mean its ANCIENT and its MODERN History, now before the indulgent public, notwithstanding it was necessary to compress as much as possible, consistently with perspicuity, there will still be found whatsoever is really important to be known concerning India, either in its fabulous or its serious history, during the extended period of nearly four thousand years; in the mythological part, from Brahma floating in his egg, on the primordial waters, to the last fatal avatar, beneath the resounding hoof of whose winged courser creation is to crumble into dust; in the portion of it unconnected with fable, from the sanguinary victories of an ALEXANDER and a TIMUR, to the necessary warfare, and justifiable conquests of a CORNWALLIS and a HARRIS! "It will not fail to be observed, that in one part of this work Mr. Gibbon and myself tread nearly the same ground; but it will also be remembered, that the ground in question is properly mine, and that Mr. Gibbon digressed,, when his eloquent pen pourtrayed the martial character and heroic feats of the greatGengis Khan. In respect to his history, that Tartar sovereign was a very remote actor on the historic drama; but, in regard to mine, he is a very near and important one, since the vast plains of Tartary form the northern boundary of Hindostan, and have ever cherished a hardy race of warriors, the scourge of her feebler progeny. The valour of Gengis, in particular, crushed the renowned Charazmian dynasty established on its western frontier; and his blood rolled down, unviolated, through the veins of Timur, to Akber, and Aurungzeb. However, the field is immense; and though we meet, we do not clash. Both our orbits are rather eccentric, but the grand object of enquiry is never forgotten. "The coloured map of India, according to its modern divisions and govern ments, promised my subscribers in the first portion, and given in the present, will, I trust, meet with their approbation. It is the work of that excellent geographer, Mr. Arrowsmith, and, together with that of ancient India, from the same hand, in the first volume of Indian Antiquities, is amply sufficient for all the general purposes of information. Major Rennell's comprehensive charts must be consulted by those who wish for minute particulars; but, alas! the ravages of time, and the desolating hand of barbarous invaders, have contributed to annihilate many of the proudest cities of the paradise of Asia.” Mahmud, the great Mahommedan conqueror of the combined Indian rajahs, left his dominions in that quarter to the princes his successors, of the GAZNAVIAN dynasty, of whom some were warlike as himself, and others weak and effeminate. However, speaking generally, Hindostan continued for nearly two centuries tributary to this celebrated dynasty, after which, together with the empire of GAZNA itself, it fell under the control of the sultans of GAUR, and of CHARASM, two vast kingdoms, founded by characters intrepid and ferocious as Mahmud on its north-western frontiers. At length, about the year 1200, CUTTUB, of the Gauride line, founded the first great dynasty of Mahommedan kings of Delhi, and this race flourished, with various fortune, on the throne of that capital, till the invasion of the great TIMUR BEC, in A. D. 1398, at which momentous period, so fraught with the direst caJamities for ravaged India, this second part, and with it the first voJume terminates. During the 400 years, the events occurring in which are here regularly, but concisely sketched, no subject arises more important to the investigator of Asiatic annals, than the terrible irruption into southern Asia of GENGIS KHAN, in A. D. 1218, and therefore we have selected that portion of the present publication, as most likely to entertain our readers. This irruption shook all the thrones of Asia, and in its consequences subverted most of them, particularly the INDIAN, which was seized upon by the Mogul princes, descended from Gengis, about two centuries after, and from them the present miserable and blinded king of Delhi immediately derives his lineage and his crown; the last crown that probably any of that once illustrious line will ever wear! "GENGIS KHAN'S INVASION OF SOUTHERN ASIA. "Triumphant on every field where his banners had hitherto been displayed, they represent to us the emperor of the Moguls as content with his large acquired moiety of divided Asia, as anxious to cultivate friendship and commerce with the Charazmian monarch, as sending successive ambassadors to announce these friendly sentiments, and confirming them by ample presents of the richest productions of his country. The stern, suspicious, unaccommodating nature of the sultan, led him to consider those presents as snares, and those ambassadors as spies. His haughty soul brooked not a rival, especially an infidel rival; and secretly meditated that dreadful blow which, though it convulsel Asia, and plunged myriads of human beings into the abyss of eternity, he seemed to think deserving of the great Mohammed, in the full career and confidence of victory, to strike. The species of insult which he offered to Gengis, was of a nature never to be forgotten or forgiven. In every age, and among the most barbarous people, the character of an ambassador, the image of the sovereign, has ever been held sacred. The arrestation and murder, by his order, of three ambassadors and a caravan of peaceable merchants at Otrar, instantly became the bloody signal of a war interminable, unextiguishable, but by the death of one or of the other of the royal champions. Called upon by fresh ambassadors, dispatched by the policy of Gengis to demand an explanation of the fact, the sultan returned no other answer than a repetition of the daring crime; and the heads of three other noble Moguls, severed by the sabres of his attendants, while delivering their master's commands, stained with blood the foot of the throne of the perfidious tyrant. Gengis, on receiving this intelligence, in the fury and anguish of his heart, is said to have separated himself for three days and three nights, from his family, and during that space, to have devoutly supplicated the assistance of Heaven against a monster black with so many crimes. It is added, but by a Christian historian, (Abulfarajius,) that, on the third night, a person in the habit of a Christian monk appeared to him in a dream, and encouraged him to fear not, but instantly lead his troops to battle ;* a relation justly rejected by his more modern biographer, as unworthy a Christian monk, and the God of Christianity, The spirit that incited Gengis to arms was the dæmon ambition, and the vision which he beheld was the vast and beautiful landscape of southern Asia, full of noble cities, abundantly stored with the costly articles of a luxurious commerce reciprocal among various and distant nations, that had grown rich under the protection of the more peaceable sultans of the Gaznavide and Seljuk dynasties. Though plunder and aggrandizement were the real, the primary object of Gengis, yet the murder of his ambassadors was a theme on which he neglected not to expatiate in terms of the warmest and bitterest invective, imparting in a bold and manly strain of eloquence, the fire and vengeance that glowed in his own bosom, to those of his sons and his courtiers. The battalions of his immense army were instantly put in motion; the arms of the common men were the sabre, the bow, the quiver full of arrows, and the battle-axe. All the officers of this army were clothed in complete suits of mail, and their horses also wore breastplates of iron, and other defensive armour, impenetrable by the arrows of the enemy. The positive order of Gengis was, that every man should fight in his station til he conquered or fell; the flight of individuals or of single squadrons, was to be punished with instant death, by their nearest comrades. By a singular law of the military code of Gengis, it was ordained, that if ten commanders at the head of their combined squadrons, the whole army being divided into bodies regulated by that number, should think it necessary to retreat, they were at liberty to do so; but smaller parties, by a retrogade movement, rushed only on inevitable destruction + In this manner disciplined and armed, the soldiers of Gengis, under the command of himself and his four valiant sons, marched forth to battle, and on a review previous to the engagement, were found to consist of no less than seven hundred thousand men ; MEN, says the historian, of an athletic make, of high-braced vigorous sinews, Hist. Gengis, p. 153. * Abulfarajii Hist. Dynast. p. 28. |