of duty or affection to family or friends, his moft prevailing im-, pulfe is the love of eafe; and indolence and vanity at once direct his choice to religious retirement. The multitude flatter with their admiration the penitential devotee; and motives, perhaps merely temporal, falfely obtain the praife of exalted piety.

It will be obvious from hence, fince population is oppofed by two fuch powerful bars as ambition and religion, how great a diminution in the number of inhabitants must inevitably be the refult, In fact, the higher orders of men, entirely engroffed by political or ecclefiaftical duties, leave to the husbandman and labourer, to thofe who till the fields, and live by their induftry, the exclufive charge of propagating the fpecies. P. 170.

(To be continued.)

Perfian Lyrics, or fcattered Poems, from the Diwan-i-Hafiz : with Paraphrafes in Verfe and Profe, a Catalogue of the Gazels as arranged in a Manufcript of the Works of Hafiz in the Chetham Library at Manchefter, and other Illuftrations, 4to. 15. Boards. Beards. Harding. 1800.

THE lyric odes of the Perfians, and indeed of all the oriental nations, are denominated ghazels, or as the prefent author, following the orthography of fir William Jones, writes it in the publication before us, gazels. They are generally dedicated to fubjects of love and wine, and poffefs an occafional intermixture of moral fentiments, and reflexions on the virtues and vices of mankind. Like the Italian founet, the gazel is limited in its length and its rhymes: yet, unlike the fonnet, which confifts but of one thought or idea from its commencement to its clofe, the gazel admits of the most fudden and abrupt change in every beit or ftanza of which it confifts, In a legitimate ode these ftanzas are never fewer than five, nor more, according to Meninfki, than eleven; beyond which number the gazel affumes the denomination of raffide or elegy. The elegant and accomplished baron Revinski afferts, however, that the gazel may extend to thirteen beits without forfeiting its purity; and D'Herbelot, that it is still a pure and claffical gazel if protracted to not less than eighteen. To an European, the abrupt and unconnected fentiments of which thefe different beits confift, give the Perfian ode the appearance of defect and want of arrangement; but the bard of Iran is not within the jurifdiction of an European tribunal, nor fubject to the fame fyftem of laws; and confequently we have no right to condemn him for deviations from a code to which he will not fubmit. All oriental poetry exhibits fomething of this fudden and precipitous wandering from thought to thought, from fubject to fubject; -and it is impofible to perufe even the Song of Solo

mon, which has confiderable pretenfions to regularity, and is the finest paftoral that ever was written in human language, without perceiving fome degree of the fame poctical infraction.

But the gazel has more apology to offer for fuch abrupt tranfitions, if it were neceffary, than any other fpecies of metrical compofition. It pretends to be an extemporaneous rhapfody, fpoken at a public banquet, and over the moft deJicious wines, when imagination takes the lead of judgement, and the whole foul yields itself over to the capricious fallies of wit, and the fwiftly glancing emotions of tenderness and love. Dr. Darwin has happily compared the detached and isolated pictures of which his Botanic Garden confifts to feftoons of flowers united by the medium of a fine and delicate ribband; and the comparifon, if we were in want of one, would equally, apply to the disjunctive and independent couplets of the gazel, But Hafiz himself, the great matter of the Perfian lyre, has fornithed us with an analogy of more beauty and brilliance ftill; he illuftrates the different ftanzas of his ode, conjoined and harmonious, though feparate and unconnected, by a row of pearls ftrung with carelefsnefs, and the fprinkling of the ftars in the firmament. It is thus he concludes the most elegant gazel, perhaps, that he ever composed:

jog

غزل گفتی

حانظ"

و در سفتي بيا و خوش بخوان

که بر نظم تو افشاند فلکا عقد ثریارا

Thou haft accomplished thy gazel, and ftrung thy pearls-Come, recount them fweetly, O Hafiz!

For heaven has fprinkled over thy poetry the bright and lucid circle of the Pleiades.'

The Perfian Lyrics' in the volume before us are felections from the Diwan, or complete productions, of this inimitable inftrel. The work is written by Mr. Hindley, and dedicated to W. Oufeley, efq. now fir W. Oufeley, a gentleman whofe critical knowledge of eaftern literature the public have been long acquainted with; and it opens with fome valuable introductory obfervations' on the Perfian language, and particularly the ftyle of Hafiz; and the expediency of encouraging the ftudy of the Perfian tongue in Great Britain, now that the interefts of Afia are fo minutely connected with our own, and fo large a portion of Hinduftan is become a part of the British empire. From thefe obfervations we fhall felect the following paragraphs:

To give a literal or perfect tranflation of our author metrically, or even profaically, into English, may be confidently pronounced

impoffible. An obvious proof of this affertion will be found, on confidering for a moment thofe oppugnancies, which occur fo generally in the idiomatic conftructions of the languages of England and Iran, and which must ever most effectually militate against fuch clofeness of verfion. Whatever might be looked for from favourable analogies, the frequent and varied allutions from words of fimilar found and formation, though generally of exactly oppofite fignifications, as well as the lively and often recondite lufus verborum fo common in the Arabic and Perfian, and which, though range, if not trifling, to an European ear, are, to the habitual feelings of the Afiatic, both choice and exquifite. Thefe obftacles, I fay, muft alone render every chance of tranflative imitation in this cafe completely hopeless.

Another infuperable impediment is prefented to us in the pcculiar genius of the Perfian language, which, independent of its extreme melodioufnefs, its fimplicity, and the delicacy of its construction, fo abounds in compounds, as at times to croud whole stanzas with compound epithets. This luxuriance, however graceful in its own idiom, is too exuberant, we apprehend, ever to be easily, if at all, appofitely imitable in ours. Nor is it as yet by any means certain, that we have acquired a fufficiently extenfive knowledge of the Perfian particles, or of their force in compofition, to do full juftice to a work fo replete with them as the Diwan of Hafiz.

'We meet with a farther, and not lefs formidable difficulty, in the mysterious and often fublime allufions fo commonly reprefented to us in the Sufi poetry, under objects of fenfual and voluptuous gratification. The delicate management of this imagery, fo as to comport with the moral feelings of an English reader, muft require the greatest nicety in a tranflator, and demand the conftant exercife both of his tafte and judgment. Although it may conftitute a peculiar grace in the origina', it can only be copied with a very wary and cautious hand. It would, therefore, on this occafion, be prudent, if poffible, to avail himself of fome of the more celebrated commentaries, particularly thofe written in the Turkish language by Feridun and Sudi, especially the latter, not only on account of his eminent fuccefs in correcting the exuberances of this fanciful and extravagant mode of interpretation, but of the fingular happinefs with which he has illuftrated the ambiguous and more obfolete allufions of the poet; and to read again and again what has been already faid upon this fubject by two of the first authorities in Perfian literature.' P. 5.

Were it neceffry to mention the languages, in our opinion, beft calculated to produce this effect, (viz. a genuine and accurate verfior) many reafons might incline us to felect, for that purpose, the Latin and the Italian. A variety of obvious caufcs, however, ftrongly tend to preclude, and, we truft, will continue to preclude, the general adoption of any language but our own, as a medium for conveying the more valuable reliques of Afiatic genius to our

countrymen. If the Perfian language abounds in compofition worthy the intimate knowledge of any nation in Europe, every motive, literary as well as political, muft clearly concur in pointing out fuch Oriental compofitions as objects of more particular attention to the people of Great Britain. But it must at the fame time be evident, that we can never look to the attainment of thefe defirable objects, viewing them in ever fo diftant a perfpective, with any feasible hope of universal fuccefs, except through the natural and moft promifing channel of the English language.' P. 17.

We cannot pay the English language the ill compliment which Mr. Hindley here advances. We are ready to admit the difficulties attendant upon a fpirited, yet faithful verfion, of Perfian poetry into any European tongue, whether ancient or modern but instead of judging the English language more unfit for the purpofe than the Italian or the Latin, we fhould prefer the former to all European tongues whatsoever, and think the two latter fhould even yield to the German and the Greek. The diftinctive characteristic of the Perfian is its facility of creating compound epithets, and hereby of exciting ideas, either altogether original, or more delicate, and, at the fame time, more powerful, than can be aroused by the disjunctive ufe of the radicals of which thofe compound epithets confift. But the Greek tongue has this happy peculiarity nearly in an equal degree with the Perfian itfelf; and, from the unrivalled mellifluence of its enunciation, poffeffes by far the advantage of the Latin. And great as is the merit of the accomplished Reviníki's Latin verfion of two of the gazels of Hafiz, fubfixed to the prefent work, we cannot but think that it yields to the fidelity and fuavity of the exquifite idyll of fir W. Jones which accompanies it, and is a Greek verfion of another gazel by the fame poet. For the reafon that we prefer the Greck to the Latin, we fhould recommend the English or even the German before the Italian. The Perfian itfelf has not a greater aptitude of creating compounds adjuncts than the German, and the English is not far behind it in the poffeffion of this curious felicity. The Italian, undoubtedly, has the advantage in volubility and foftnefs; but, like the Latin, it is extremely deficient in this treasure of incftimable value. The hraith and guttural genius of the German may be fuppofed, at fift fight, to make it an inadequate vehicle for the elegance of Perfian founds; but under the dedalian power of Gefner, the gazel of Iran might be tranflated into German profe, and of Klopftok into German metre, without any great detriment to its acknowledged euphony. At the fanie time we contend that the German tongue is naturally lefs mufical than the English, and on this account we decidedly prefer the latter, as a medium of communicating to an European the beauties of

Perfian poetry, either to the former or to any other with which we are acquainted. It is not quite fo voluptuous as the Italian, and confequently not altogether fo well calculated to convey the tender tones that treat of love; but it is far more terfe and manly, and infinitely better qualified, independently of its power of creating compound epithets, for exhibiting the moral maxims with which all eaftern poetry abounds. Upon the whole, there is no language that can rival it for this purpose but the Greek: the Greek, however, is a dead tongue, and it is not to be supposed that the most accomplished scholar can employ it with the fame dexterity and fuccefs that he can his own. It is an old and a juft obfervation, that mankind are always most interested in the productions of an author whose history is rendered familiar to them; and we were furprifed at the prefent introduction of the Perfian lyrift to an English audience. without a fingle memoir or anecdote of his life. It is a defect not easily to be accounted for, and which we fhall endeavour to fupply by the following brief biography.

Mohammed Shemfeddin, on account of the retentive faculties of his mind, furnamed (1) Hafidh, or, as it is commonly written by Europeans, Hafiz, a man of great memory,' was born at Shiraz, the capital of Farfiftan, the ancient Perlis, under the dynasty of the Modhafferians, and flourished in the period when Timur, or Tamerlane the Great, defeated the fultan Shah Manfor. He was much careffed by Tamerlane, as alfo by the fultan Ahmed Ilekhani, both of whom, but particularly the latter, tempted him with the moft fplendid offers to refide at their refpective courts. But Shemfeddin was not ambitious of riches or honours: his foul was formed for retirement and eafe, and he preferred a life of feclufion, in the midst of a few fele&t friends, to the pomp and pageantry of a palace. In the delightful and umbrageous Valley of Mofellay, the Tempe of Perfia, about two miles diftant from the city of Shiraz, and cooled by the lucid waters of the Rocknabad, he fixed his peaceful abode; and it is here his tomb was erected upon his death with as enthufiaftic a regard for his memory as that of Rouffeau in the garden of Ermenonville. The inhabitants of Shiraz ftill affemble in the fummer feafon in this romantic retreat, and chaunt over his remains a variety of the verfes of their favourite bard. He died in the year of the Hegira 797, correfponding with the year 1394 of the Chriftian æra, at the very time when the fultan Bahar was triumphantly entering into his native city. His poems, which were never perfectly arranged during his life time, were collected after his death into one volume by Seid Caffem Anovar, and have become the fubject of univerfal admiration among the nations of the East. To a rich variety and brifiancy of thought, which