Having spoken of Hindu poetry, we cannot do better than illustrate its simplicity by the following beautiful extract from the late Colonel Broughton's specimens-premising that the lotus is the symbol of beauty, and that a mirror is a customary ornament of woman in many parts of Hindustan. Describing a lover holding a silent conference with his mistress,

"He with submissive reverence due

A lotus to his forehead pressed:

She raised her mirror to his view

Then turned the image to her breast."

If this is not the elegance of simplicity it has no existence.

An Epitome of the History of Ceylon, compiled from Native Annals: and the First Twenty Chapters of the Mahawanso. Translated by the Hou. George Turnour, Esq. Ceylon Civil Service. Ceylon: 1836. (Not for Sale.)

THE records of Ceylon are so imperfectly known that we can scarcely venture to determine upon a single point of its earlier history; and the absence of all dates has been a source of incessant confusion and distrust. Nevertheless we assume that statements should not be neglected solely on account of the difficulties they present; since a concurrence of facts in one place may often tally with a date or an ascertained point of history in another, and the collation of the two thus afford many an opportunity for filling up the gaps of our present defective information in all that regards the East.

It is clear that the absence of dates denotes a rude age, and the mere infancy of history; but though thus vague and insufficient, the very defects are the evidence of a peculiar value, namely, that of the earliest antiquity in writing. The traditions then of the first ages are rendered tangible, if we do not choose to reject them on the single ground of their failing to evince the exactness which is a want of later times only. For the cotemporaries of events in the earliest ages of the world could not be supposed to contemplate the curiosity of long subsequent posterity. We distinctly avow our opinion that in Ceylon will be found the relics of much that we desire to know of the past, not merely as regards that island itself, but also various countries of the East. We hail, therefore, the promise held out by the intended translation of the Mahawanso, as one of the most important documents of the early human race; and Mr. Turnour has judged wisely in obtaining the assistance of a native in rendering from so difficult a tongue as the Pali.

The attempt was made before, but most inefficiently, in England: yet under circumstances that might have procured more indulgence for Mr. Upham, who at least led the way, sensible as he was of its importance; but who, from his assumption of Eastern studies only late in life, was in

capable of executing it with advantage. We regret that a tone of blame against this certainly superficial labourer pervades Mr. Turnour's otherwise judicious and unquestionably most able introduction.

This volume is a mere Prospective Specimen of the work itself, shortly to be brought before the public; and we trust on its earliest appearance to bring it in some detail under the reader's eye. We sincerely hope that this forthcoming accession, not merely to our literature, but to our knowledge also, will meet with the support it so well deserves from the public. When we find the Ceylonese language approaching often to that of Scandinavia, we confess to no ordinary portion of curiosity as regards the history of either. The classical reader too will be surprised to find parallels to his favourite pages in these records of an unnoticed land. One fact is worth more than all we can say on this head. The details given by Homer of the landing of Ulysses on the island of Circe, the imprisonment of his men by, and his own rencontre with, that enchantress, are clearly identifiable with the adventures of a hero who reaches Lanca, or Ceylon, and in similar circumstances.

Is it in nature that all the coincidences of Greek and Indian history should be accidental? This would indeed be the credulity of scepticism.

Quinti Horatii Flacci Opera Omnia recensita et cum Versione Germanica edita. Pars Prior, continens Carminum Libros Quinque. Lipsiæ. 1837. Quintus' Horatius' Flaccus' Werke. Deutsche Uebersetzun gmit dem Urtexte zur Seite. Erster Theil, enthaltend die funf Bücher der Oden. Leipzig. 1837.

THERE is no Latin poet, perhaps no poet of antiquity, or even of modern times, so generally quoted as Horace; and consequently it can excite no surprise that his admirers of every nation have been anxious to familiarize their countrymen with this poet of practical life. Horace is the very reverse of Wordsworth; not a sentiment, not a line, not a phrase, but is strictly applicable to the active impulses and real business of the world in its various phases, whether of judgment, emotions, affections; affording maxims and rules of conduct either by simple dictation or by implication.

Horace, like Boileau and Pope, appears to have written expressly to be quoted desiring less to live undivided in his works, than to exist in portions in the memories of mankind. Hence that terseness of style, that curious felicity of expression; originated by and at the same time necessitating, purity of thought, severity of arrangement, and clearness of original conception. Hence too it is a touchstone for translators.

The volume before us certainly rivals some former translations of Horace into German, and is equal to those of Passow, Preiss, and Gunther. It does not however always render happily the metre of the original, to say nothing of the sense or even the harmony-the voice of the real poet. To English readers our meaning will be obvious, if they only compare the graceful cadence of the Latin with the dryness and

imperfection of the literal English, in the line addressed to the ship that bore Virgil, and entreating

"Et serves animæ dimidium meæ."

How indifferently is this rendered by

"And mayst thou preserve the half of

my soul!"

The volume before us has considerable merit, but might be much improved.

:

Grammatica Linguæ Armeniacæ. Auctore H. Petermann, Doct. Phil. et Prof. Extr. in Univers. Liter. Berolin. Berlin 1837. A CLEAR and succinct Grammar, materially simplifying the learner's progress in the difficult tongue it undertakes to teach; and the value and antiquity of which has been always either over or under rated.

The Armenian is neither the original and primitive language which its native assertors affirm of it; for older forms of its words and the fragments of a ruder grammar exist: nor is it the corruption that is pretended by others of various modern and neighbouring tongues, since it contains in its pure state none of the words peculiar to these, and what it possesses in common with them is constantly in a more primitive form. We exclude of course the terms and corruptions incidentally but necessarily introduced into it by commercial and political intercourse.

We recommend the grammar of M. Petermann with perfect confidence.

Versuch einer Geschichte der Armenischen Literatur, nach den Werken der Mechitaristen frei bearbeitet. Von Carl Frederich Neumann. 8vo. Leipzig. 1836. (Essay towards a History of Armenian Literature, freely drawn up from the Works of the Monks of the Convent of Mechitar, at Venice.) By Chas. Fred. Neumann.

It is now exactly one hundred years since the Messrs. Whiston published in London, an edition of the Armenian History of Moses of Chorene; and considering how few aids they had in their undertaking, it is astonishing, observes the author of the present work, that they were able to give so correct a text, and to accompany it with such an excellent translation. Since that time we are not aware that any publication has appeared in England on the subject of Armenian literature, although it might have been expected that even in a commercial point of view the Christian rulers of the mighty empire of India would have found it for their interest to cultivate, in some degree, the literature, and with it the friendship and good-will of the Christian people of a neighbouring country-whose inhabitants are also the most trading and industrious of the East. In France the late M. Saint Martin powerfully contributed by his valuable writings to increase our knowledge of Armenia, and his premature death has put a stop to many interesting inquiries on this sub

ject. Although we, however, have been but too indifferent in this respect, our ambitious and active neighbours-for such, at least in regard to India, we must now call the Russians-have not been idle or inattentive spectators; witness the numerous important works that have been published in Russia of late years, on the Geography and History of Armenia, which indeed may be fairly considered a province of the former power. A remarkable proof, also, of the influence possessed by Russia over that people in other countries recently occurred, when a colony of 40,000 Armenians left the Persian province of Aderbaidschan, and settled within the Russian dominions. An interesting account of this migration was published in the latter language, and translated into German in 1834, by the author of the present work. But independent of political motives the literature of Armenia is deserving the attention of the learned of Europe in no ordinary degree, from the circumstance that translations of Greek writers, the originals of which are lost, are still preserved in that country. Its language is admirably adapted for translation from the Greek, which it closely resembles in its structure. In this manner the Whistons re-translated from Armenian into Greek the Apocryphal Letters of the Corinthians to St. Paul, and the Apostle's reply; and who, as Niebuhr remarks, that is ignorant of the facts, could discover in these the hand of a translator? The complete works of Philo-Judæus are also said to be extant in an Armenian version, and. would be published by learned natives, if sufficient encouragement were held out. The remarkable discovery, within the last twenty years, of an Armenian translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius, filling up many lacuna in the original, is a striking inducement to pursue researches thus bappily rewarded. An edition of this Chronicle was published in Armenian and Latin in 1818, by Dr. Aucher, of the Convent of St. Lazarus, and a Latin translation appeared in the same year at Milan by Messrs. Zohrab and Mai. The additions to our knowledge, derived from this discovery, and their efficiency for the elucidation and settlement of many historical points of great uncertainty and importance, are made the subject of a most learned and elaborate Memoir, by the lamented Niebuhr, in the first volume of his "Kleine Historische und Philologische Schriften," to which we refer our classical readers for details that will surprise and gratify them by their novelty and importance. We cannot conclude this hasty notice without recommending Mr. Neumann's work, as a most useful assistant in all researches into this interesting but neglected field of Oriental Literature.

1. Pacto y Ley Fundamental de la Confederacion Peru-Boliviana. Reimpresa por orden de Don Vicente Pazos, Consul-General en la Gran Bretana. London. 1837.

2. Contra-Manifiesto al Publicado por el Gobierno de Buenos-Aires, sobre las Razones con que pretende lejitimar la Guerra que declara la Confederacion Peru-Boliviana. Lima. 1837.

3. The Counter-Manifesto, &c. Lima. 1837.

THE first of these is a beautifully printed edition of the Code put forth by the new Mango Capac of Peru. The perfect freedom of trade,

impartiality of protection for property, and the careful regulation of the most important interests, foreign and domestic, of this country, evince an enlightened spirit, and we trust will be acted upon hereafter, as it has been hitherto, in perfect good faith.

The second work is a long and wordy defence of the conduct of the government against its present belligerent neighbours. The details are often lengthened out with a minuteness perfectly distracting to the attention. There is a total want of a simple and comprehensive view of the question; a serious defect, and most of all in diplomatic composition. The style is fluent, and often elegant, in the original. The translation is literal, and therefore exaggerating all the faults of the native work, so as to render the perusal impracticable except to those sufficiently interested to disregard these defects.

Selections from the Bostán of Sadi, by Forbes Falconer. Paris, Berlin, London. 1838.

THESE selections comprise about one-third of the Bostân, and are printed in the Taleek hand, most carefully. They will facilitate the reading of Persian MSS., which all students find a work of no ordinary difficulty, particularly when the transition is made at once from Nishkee to the irregular, arbitrary, fanciful, and negligent style of the various MSS.

The known talents and learning of Mr. Falconer are displayed to sufficient advantage in this work, which has been laboriously collated with everything that could give it value. To the student it is therefore invaluable; the more, as it saves the reader's eye.

Of Mr. Falconer himself we are disposed to require however something more hereafter. This honoured pupil of Silvestre De Sacy, and the friend of G. De Tassy, we trust will yet rouse himself to follow the example of his great master; and, casting aside all needless timidity, achieve in Oriental literature the distinction which few can deserve so well.