Afiatic words, in Roman letters, a fubject that ought to be strictly attended to by ftudents in Oriental literature, as the caprice fhewn by different writers in fpelling Afiatic words, has occafioned great confufion, and many mistakes. His next dissertation is on the gods of Greece, Italy, and India; wherein he enters into a most learned and ingenious investigation to prove the affinity between the fyftems of Polytheifm that prevailed among the Greeks and Romans, and the popular worship of the Hindus; and moreover to fhew that, in fact, they refemble the ftrange religions of Egypt, China, Perfia, Phrygia, Phenicia, Syria, and, perhaps, fome of the islands and northern kingdoms of America: that as to the Gothic fyftem which prevailed in the northern regions of Europe, it was not merely fimilar to thofe of Greece and Italy, but almoft the fame in another drefs, with an embroidery of images apparently Afiatic. He then draws a curious parallel between the gods of the Indian and European heathens, and infers from it, that a connection actually fubfifted between the old idolatrous nations of Egypt, India, Greece and Italy, "long before they emigrated to their feveral fettlements, and confequently before the birth of Mofes; but that the truth of this propofition in no degree affects the truth and fanctity of the Mofaic hiftory, which, if confirmation were neceflary, it would rather tend to confirm." An inquiry into the chronology of the Hindus comes next; and our author fathoms the fubject with great depth of learning as well as with fingular ability. He leaves no part of it unexplored: and he displays a very extenfive and accurate knowledge of aftronomical fcience, A moft learned and fcientific differtation on the antiquity of the Indian zodiac follows the above inquiry; and he has demonftrated, in the moft fatisfactory manner, in confutation of the opinion maintained by the ingenious M. Montúcla, "that the Indian divifion of the zodiac was not borrowed from the Greeks or Arabs, but has been known by the Hindûs from time immemorial, and was probably invented by the firft progenitors of that race, before difperfion." His next tract is on the literature of the Hindûs, in which he gives a fuccinct account of the principal books extant among them, taken from a Sanfcreet book, intituled, a view of learning, communicated to him by a learned Pandit. To this account he has fubjoined an interesting commentary, fhewing the progrefs which the Brahmans have made both in practical and fpeculative knowledge. Among a variety of very curious facts, he informs us, Mohfani Fáni, the author of the Dabiftàn, defcribes in his first chapter a race of old Perfian fages, who appear, from the whole of his account, to have been Hindûs; and we cannot doubt that the book of Mahábád or Menu, which was written," he fays, "in a celeftial dialect, means the Véda; fo that as Zoroafter was only a reformer, we find in India the true fource of the ancient Perfian religion. From the Védas," continues fir William, " "are immediately deduced the practical arts of chirurgery and medicine, he only drifts, but does not entirely remove, the cenfure which is, to be attached to him. Mental entertainment is an object, we hesitate to fay a fubordinate one, at which books of travels aim; and although we are not able, perhaps, to exhibit paffages which claim the praife of elegance of narration or grandeur of defcription, ftill we frequently, during the perufal of the book, found our attention engaged and our curiofity gratified. Yet, if mental entertainment was intended, mental difguft muft be the fure confequence of feveral parts of the work, which are obnoxious to the feelings and opinions of the generality of readers. Some paffages, a regard to delicacy fhould have expunged; and fome fhould have writer, we have to wish that, to a mind fraught with knowledge, had been added a better judgement; and that he had formed his ftyle on chafter models. If his language be fometimes nervous, it is feldom pure; when he attempts grandeur, he is only gorgeous; and he is concile and abrupt, without being impreffive and energetic. In a word, had he been lefs defirous of fwelling his volume, hemight have made greater additions to the ftock of knowledge; and, with a more moderate ambition of faying things fplendidly and forcibly, he might have deferved the praife of having adorned and enforced the dictates of truth. 6 Vols. 4to. 1799. been fuppreffed from a becoming The Works of Sir William Jones, in refpect for the prejudices of mankind. The pomp of language but imperfectly conceals the obfcenity of ideas; and images of corrupt enjoyment may be feen through the veil of a writer's allufions. Religion, of whatever kind, or denomination, is invaded fometimes by infinuation, and fometimes by direct and open attack. The follower of Mohammed and the difciple of Chrift feem to be alike objectionable to Mr. Browne; and he fpeaks of an infernal hatred which two divinely infpired religions could alone infpire. His ftyle, comprehending under that term images and their figns, is open to great reprehenfion. Yet, after all abatements have: been made from the praife of the author, mach múft remain to him. As a traveller, he appears to poffefs many excellent qualities; patience, courage, addrefs, vigilance of obfervation, and acutenefs of difcernment. Eftimating him as a THE Tained in these volumes, HE greater part of the tracts,. contained have been in the poffeffion of the public for fome years back, and. have already received the attention due to productions of their distinguifhed merit; their value has been. too long known, and too juftly eftimated to require on our part any detailed examination of their respec tive merits; we shall therefore content ourselves with giving a gene-. ral account of the feveral eflays, &c. in this work, and with pointing out thofe more peculiarly deferving notice. To the first volume, the editor has prefixed the difcourfe delivered by lord Teignmouth to the Afiatic Society, on the death of their illuftrious prefident. This volume contains the whole of fir William's Difcourses to the Afiatic Society that are published in their Researches. In the preliminary difcourfe, he opens the plan of the inftitution, by taking a comprehenfive view of its nature and object, and by fhewing, with equal truth, ability and eloquence, the beneficial effects, which, through, induftry and perfeverance, it would infallibly produce. And it is, perhaps, the higheft praife we can beftow on this performance, to fay, that the hopes which it exprefies ure now completely realized. In the fecond anniverary difcourfe, he develops more fully the principles of thofe fubjects which it belonged to the fociety to inveftigate, and draws a general and pleafing picture of the ftate of the arts and sciences in Afia, which he represents as containing many hidden treasures, that, when brought to light, would not only be valuable to philofophy, but ferviceable to the political and commercial interefts of mankind. The third anniverfary difcourfe contains an elegant epitome of the natural hiftory of the Hindus. He commences with a geographical defcription of India, upon the most enlarged fcale, which he confiders nearly equal in extent to the continent of Europe. He then proceeds to give a few outlines of the character of the Hindûs, and quotes a beautiful paffage from the geographical poem of Dionyfius, to prove that this extraordinary people have notchanged either in theirappearance or manners, during a long courfe of ages. The learned prefident next oblerves, that their civil hiftory, 66 beyond the middle of the nineteenth century, from the prefent time, is involved in a cloud of fables," and that we poffefs only four general media of fatisfying our curi ofity concerning it, namely, "their languages and letters, their philofophy and religion, their old fculpture and architecture, and the written memorials of their sciences and arts." Of all thefe, he gives a most leárned and interefting account; and from the whole he draws this conclufion," that the Hindûs had an immemorial affinity with the old Perfians, Ethiopians, and Egyp tians; the Phenicians, Greeks, and Tufcans; the Scythians or Goth and Celts; the Chinese, Japanese, and Peruvians; and that, as no reafon appears for believing that they were a colony from any one of those nations, or any of thofe nations from them, it may be fairly inferred, and that they all proceeded from fome central country." The fourth difcourfe gives a concife account of the Arabs previous to the Mahommedan revolution, together with fome admirable philological remarks on their language, and fome obfervations on their ancient religion, monuments, and arts. Of their religion, he obferves, we may fafely pronounce, that before the introduction of Mahommedanifm, the noble and learned Arabs were Theifts, but that a ftupid idolatry prevailed among the lower orders of the people. That until their emigration, no trace of any philo fophy but ethicks, is to be found among them; and that even their fyftem of morals, generous and enlarged as it feems to have been in the minds of a few illuftrious chieftains, was on the whole miferably depraved for a century, at leaft, before Mahommed."-" The diftinguishing virtues, which they boafted of inculcating and practifing, were, a contempt of riches, and even of death; but in the age Kk 3 of of the feven poets, their liberality had deviated into wild profufion, their courage into ferocity, and their patience into an obftinate spirit of encountering fruitlefs dangers." The refult of the learned author's inquiries concerning Arabia feems to confirm the hypothefis, that the Hindus and Arabs are totally diftinct races of people; but that a commercial intercourfe had fubfifted between them from time immemorial. Tartary, which an elegant writer has, by a strong metaphor, denominated the foundery of the human race," is the fubject of the learned prefident's fifth discourse. He gives a general but accurate defcription of that vaft region; he takes a view of the manners of its inhabitants; of their languages and letters; of their progrefs in civilization; of the fpirit of their religion and laws; of their civil hiftory; of their ancient monuments; and of their proficiency in arts and fciences antecedent to the age of Zengiz Khân: and the general corollary which he forms from the whole of the facts and circumftances brought forward in this and the two preceding discourses, is to the following effect; namely, "That the far greater part of Afia has been peopled, and immemorially poffefled by three confiderable nations, called Hindûs, Arabs, and Tartars; each of them divided and fub-divided into an infinite number of branches, and all of them fo` different in form and features, language, manners, and religion, that if they sprang originally from a common root, they muft have been feparated for ages. In his fixth difcourfe he describes the ancient empire of Iran, better known by the name of Perfia, and gives a deeply-learned and moft mafterly diflertation on the three dialects of that country, the Zend, the Pahlavì, and the Pársì. The Zend and Old Pahlavì, he informs us," are almost extinct in Iràn: for among fix or feven thoufand gabrs, who refide chiefly at Yezd, and in Cirmàn, there are very few who can read Pahlavì, and scarce any who can even boast of knowing the Zend; while the Pársì, which remains almost pure in the Shálinámah, has now become, by the intermixture of numberlefs Arabic words, and many imperceptible changes, a new language exquifitely polished, by a feries of fine writers in prose and verse, and analogous to the different idioms gradually formed in Europe, after the fubverfion of the Roman empire.” This laft language, fo formed, is that which is written and spoken by the modern Perfians, and which is as generally understood in all the polished nations of Afia, but particularly in India, as the French is in Europe: it is the current language of courts, and that in which all ftate affairs are tranfacted. The Zend, which was the learned language of ancient Perfia, and in which the Zeratujht, or Zoroaster,* wrote, fir William Jones, inconteftably proves to have been a dialect of the Sanferêet. And he is decidedly of opinion that the Pah M. Anquetil du Perron, the author of the Zendaveftà, which he afferts was written by Zoroafter, but which is, in fact, a mere modern fabrication, has given vocabularies of the Zend and Pahlavì dialects, that the Parfiis at Surat enabled him to compile, and that confirms the opinion of fir William Jones. lavi was derived from the Chaldaick. 66 Of the primeval religion of Iràn, he obferves, That it was that which fir Ifaac Newton calls the oldest of all religions, namely, a firm belief that one fupreme God made the world by his power, and continually governed it by his providence; a pious fear, love, and adoration of him; a due reverence for parents and aged perfons; a paternal affection for the whole human fpecies, and a compaffionate tendernefs even for the brute creation."Nothing furely can. be more truly fublime, than fuch a fyftem of devotion; 66 a fyftem which," as fir William well obferves, was too pure to be of long duration among mortals." It was fucceeded by the theology of Zoroafter, which was, in fact, a corruption of the Brahminical fyftem. 66 The feventh difcourfe treats of the Chinese; refpecting whom he confines himfelf to a philofophical inquiry into their origin, which he traces to the fanie fource as that of the Hindus. And he obferves, in our opinion with the moft perfect accuracy, that the Buddha of the Hindus, was unquestionably the Foe of China. There is indeed fufficient evidence now in our poffeffion, to juftify us in faying without referve, that the religion of the Chinefe and Japanese, is, with a few inconfiderable exceptions, the fame in its principles, as that of the avowed followers of Buddha in the ifland of Ceylon, in the Pegue or Burman empire, in Siam, and in Butan and Thibet. This religion is fuppofed to have been introduced into China about the first century of the Chriftian æra. In the eighth difcourfe he takes a wide furvey of the borderers, mountaineers, and islanders of Asia, Hecommences in the Red Sea; and, after making fome remarks on the Aby finians, and paying a just compliment to the talents and accuracy of the celebrated Mr. Bruce, he encircles all Afia, obferving the characters, languages, and religions of the inhabitants of its principal iflands and mountains; and concludes with a general defcription of the ancient Greeks and Phrygians, and the flanders in the Mediter ranean. His ninth difcourfe, On the origin of families and nations, forms a general corollary to the foregoing differtations, and is certainly the moft ingenious, and not the leaft learned, or finished of his lucubrations on Afiatic literature. But whether his reafoning be as conclufive, as it is fplendid and plaufible, is a queftion of too much importance to be lightly difcuffed, and which we fhall therefore poftpone until a future occafion. It is fufficient at prefent to obferve, that he endeavours to establish the hypothefis that all the various races of mankind originally migrated from Perfia. His concluding paragraph, however, contains fo much truth, expreffed with fo much force and elegance, that we cannot deny ourfelves the pleafure of citing it. 66 My defign," fays he, "of tracing the origin and progrefs of the five principal nations, who have peopled Afia, and of whom there were confiderable remains, in their feveral countries, at the time of. Mahommed's birth, is now accomplifhed; fuccinctly, from the nature of thefe eflays; imperfectly, from the darknels of the fubject, and fcantinels of my materials; but Kk4 clearly |