to reprobate it, and attempt a change. But as I know he speaks the sentiments of numerous philanthropists, I shall answer the question in the language of the excellent Cowper. 'I was born of woman, and drew milk, How then should I, and any man that lives, While Mr. Forbes felt thus, like a wise and good man, from the abominable institutions of Hindostan, he could sympathize with whatever was good in the character of the people, and treat their prejudices with tenderness and respect. The inhabitants of Dhuboy requested that their fellow-citizens, the monkeys, and the water-fowl who frequent their lake, might not be fired at by the Europeans of the garrison; alleging as a reason for this request not merely their own belief, but that those creatures were useful in keeping the city and the tank free from dirt, nuisance, and reptiles. The monkeys, indeed, as well as the peacocks, and many other birds, destroy great numbers of the deadly serpents with which India is infested; the monkey knows where the danger lies from these deadly reptiles, seizes the snake by the neck, and grinds down the head upon the gravel or upon a stone, then tosses the writhing body to its young for a play thing. Mr. Forbes readily granted the request; and the protection which was asked for these creatures, who had the public claim to it, he extended to all, and prevailed upon his countrymen never to fire a shot within the fortress. Every bird therefore which flew over the walls found an asylum; every house was crowded with squirrels as well as monkeys, trees were filled with peacocks, doves, and parrots, the lake covered with aquatic fowl, and the surrounding groves enlivened with bulbuls and warblers of every kind. The Brahmins, encouraged by this compliance, asked another favour of more importance, the greatest indeed which could be conferred upon them; it was, that he would give an order forbidding beef to be killed in the city, or publicly exposed to sale. They knew, they said, the English soldiers would have beef if it were procurable, but they hoped that if Mr. Forbes could not prevent the slaughter he would keep it as private as possible. "It would have been cruel as well as impolitic," he observes, "to have refused them so innocent and reasonable a request. I only wished the rest of my countrymen there had been as indifferent to this food as myself, and their feelings should not have been wounded." Sometimes, Mr. Forbes says, he almost envied these Hindoos the pleasures which they enjoyed in the performance of their re ligious duties, and the delight of social worship, for during four years he was deprived of all the sacred ordinances of Christianity. They often asked him this important question, Master, when an Englishman dies, does he think he shall go to his God? and the remark upon his answer was usually to this effect-Your countrymen, Master, seem to take very little trouble about that businessthe Hindoos, the Mahomedans, the Parsees, the Roman Catholic Christians, all duly perform the respective ceremonies of their religion: the English alone appear unconcerned about such things. Mr. Forbes himself, to his great astonishment, fell under an imputation of a very different kind. When he had been about two years at Dhuboy a rumour prevailed that he worshipped the devil, or at least that he performed ceremonies, and paid some kind of adoration, to the evil principle-and the rumour was traced to his own servants. The mystery was soon explained: he had frequently pea-fowl at his table; the gizzard was, in English fashion, sent from the table to be broiled and seasoned, and when it was returned thus bedevilled, and the guest took a glass of wine after it, the servant, who was a stranger to the manners, customs, and language of the master, and understood nothing but the name, actually, and not very unreasonably, believed that this was a sacrifice performed to the devil himself. The Works of Gray, with Memoirs of his Life and Writings, by W. Mason; to which are subjoined Extracts Philological, Poetical, and Critical, from the Author's original MSS. selected and arranged by Thomas James Mathias. 2 Vols. 4to. [Mr. Mathias, the present editor of Gray, has been for some time generally reputed the author of the Pursuits of Literature, though he has never publicly avowed the work, and still delights to shroud himself in that mysterious obscurity which sheds such dignity and interest over the character of Junius. We think the notes by Mr. M., in the present publication, afford the strongest possible internal evidence of having been written by the author of the notes and prefaces to the Pursuits of Literature. They are in the same very peculiar style, fraught with the same rich variety of learning, and manifesting the same intimate familiarity with the higher Greek, and the Italian classics, and breathing the very spirit of "that nameles bard, whose honest zeal For law, for morals, for the public weal, [From the British Critic.] Ed. An. Ir is with a surprise bordering upon indignation that we have heard this publication censured in a very high assembly with the contemptuous terms of severity and reproach. The needless magnificence of the volumes, and the inutility of the new matter which they were represented to contain, formed, if we remember right, the prominent objects of attack. That they are adorned with a brilliancy which does credit to the art of printing we readily allow; but that the splendour in which they are clothed is unworthy of them, or that the expensive form in which they now appear, is either useless or extravagant, we resolutely deny. That brilliant specimens of typography reflect honour upon the age and country in which they are produced, no one, we trust, will be inclined to dispute; the question then will arise, upon what literary work should they be expended, and whose labours should they illustrate and adorn. Our answer would be, those works doubtless, which the common consent of mankind has pronounced worthy of such a monument; those works, which, by their dignity and value, add solidity to splendour, and reflect back the lustre which they thus receive. The most magnificent editions of Shakspeare and Milton have been given to the public, nor have they been thought unworthy of the admiration of the learned, or of the patronage of the great. And surely among those mighty masters of the song, whose labours have passed the ordeal of posthumous criticism, and are now consecrated to immortality, is to be numbered, even in the foremost rank, the name of GRAY. There are few poets to be found in any language, who, like himself, could temper the fire of genius with the most commanding discrimination, and could submit the brilliancy of imagination to the severest laws of critical accuracy, without weakening its vigour or impairing its lustre. There is simplicity both in his pathos and in his sublimity, which even in our earliest years finds its way to the heart; and there is a classical elegance and a subdued majesty of diction which in our maturer age confirms our admiration and satisfies our judgment. Such is the power of perfection which predominates in all his works, that nothing can be added without encumbrance, nothing detracted without loss, and little altered without evident injury. Between himself and the other great poets of our country, we shall not attempt to institute a comparison, because neither in the direction of their genius, nor in the objects of their exertions, is any strong resemblance to be traced. While the genius, whether of Shakspeare, of Milton, of Dryden, and of Pope, delighted to expand itself in almost infinite space, that of Gray appeared to collect and concentrate its powers; till they formed one gem "richer than all its tribe," and consecrated by the increasing admiration of every succeeding age. To encourage and to possess a splendid edition of the works of this immortal bard, is below neither the discrimination nor the dignity of those who would have themselves thought the friends of scholarship, and the patrons of literature. The promotion of such honours to the memory of the brightest ornaments of our British poesy, is an object far more worthy of the attention of scholars and of men, than the trifling and childish pursuit of useless curiosities, or black-letter bargains. Deep, indeed, must the mind of that man be sunk in the darkness and the dust of bibliomaniac impotence, and closed must be the avenue of his heart to all the legitimate charms of poetry, and to every feeling of national pride, who shall deny to Gray the splendour in which he now stands invested. The nation, however, has been told, that all this new matter is but the refuse of the common-place book of Gray, which Mason thought unworthy to meet the public eye. We very much doubt whether any one who could venture so hardy and so sweeping an assertion, had ever read the volume in question; and we doubt, *In the Quarterly Review, which speaks rather contemptuously of this edition. Ed. An. still more, if he had read it, whether he had learning enough to understand, or soul to relish these treasures of sound and varied information. But they are now before the world, who will pass its final sentence upon their merits, and will determine whether their detention or their publication would have been most injurious to the cause of learning, and degrading to the memory and to the name of their immortal author. The second volume, which is dedicated entirely to the new matter, is divided into four sections, to each of which is prefixed an introduction by the editor. The first is entitled METRUM, and contains the observations of Gray upon English metre, the Pseudo-Rhythmus and the use of Rhyme: to which are subjoined some very curious and interesting remarks upon the poems of Lydgate. These will be read with greater avidity by those who may remember that Gray in his life time announced to the public, that he had once thoughts, in concert with his friend Mason, of giving the "History of English Poetry." In these observations is shown a deep and accurate acquaintance with all our earlier poets; their rythm and their measures are discussed at considerable length, and their cæsuras calculated with a precision which Porson himself would have approved and admired. The curious and difficult subject of rhyme is treated with much learning, and we know of no account from which the reader will derive so much information. It does not appear to have been used by the Anglo-Saxons till toward the time of the Norman conquest; as before that period a sort of alliteration, or the introduction of similar consonants in the beginning of three or more words in the same distich, appears to have supplied its place. "Yet though this kind of versification (Rhyme) prevailed by degrees, and grew into general use, it is certain that we retained even so late as Edward the 3d's reign, and above a hundred years after, our old Saxon or Danish verse without rhyme; for the version of Peirce Plowman, a severe satire upon the times, written by Robert Langland in 1350, is wholly in such measure, as, for instance, "I looked on my left halfe, As the lady me taught, • Pourfilé, Fr. bordered. †Pelure, farrs, from pellis, Lat. |