hemence, so that he soon became dead and motionless. The ichneumon then running backward drew her prey very nimbly over the walk into the standing grass. This spider would be deposited in some hole where the ichneumon would lay some eggs; and as soon as the eggs were hatched, the carcase would afford ready food for the maggots.

Perhaps some eggs might be injected into the body of the spider, in the act of stinging. Some ichneumons deposit their eggs in the aurelia of moths and butterflies.—WHITE.

In my Naturalist's Calendar for 1795, July 21st, I find the following note:

"It is not uncommon for some of the species of ichneumon flies to. deposit their eggs in the chrysalis of a butterfly; some time ago I put two of the chrysalis of a butterfly into a box, and covered it with gauze, to discover what species of butterfly they would produce but instead of a butterfly, one of them produced a number of small ichneumon flies."

There are many instances of the great service these little insects are to mankind in reducing the number of noxious insects, by depositing their eggs in the soft bodies of their larva; but none more remarkable than that of the ichneumon tipula, which pierces the tender body and deposits its eggs in the larva of the tipula tritici, an insect which, when it abounds greatly, is very prejudicial to the grains of wheat. This operation I have frequently seen it perform with wonder and delight.-MARKWICK.' Vol. ii. P. 231.

From the remarks on vegetables we shall select one circum→ stance only,

FAIRY-RINGS.

The cause, occasion, call it what you will, of fairy-rings, subsists in the turf, and is conveyable with it: for the turf of my gardenwalks, brought from the down above, abounds with those appearances, which vary their shape, and shift situation continually, discovering themselves now in circles, now in segments, and sometimes in irregular patches and spots. Wherever they obtain, puff-balls abound; the seeds of which were doubtless brought in the turf.—WHITE? Vol. ii. P. 258,

On the whole, we should have been better pleased if the former volume had been re-printed entire; and, with respect to the additions, though very amusing, they add little to the stock of science. They would perhaps have agreeably enlivened conversation, but for publication were scarcely of sufficient importance. They will, however, have their utility, if they lead recluse observers to minute their remarks; but we would wish also that such would connect and compare them with those of others, either to confirm, confute, or to suggest doubts of what has been hitherto noticed,

ART. VIII.-The Flowers of Persian Literature: containing Extracts from the most celebrated Authors, in Prose and Verse; with a Translation into English: being a Companion to Sir William Jones's Persian Grammar. To which is prefixed an Essay on the Language and Literature of Persia. By S. Rousseau, Teacher of the Persian Language. 4to. 18s. Boards. Sewell.

1801.

THE editor of the volume before us is not only, as expressed in his title-page, a teacher, but a printer of the Persian language: and the intention of the present work is to supply Oriental students with a book of instruction, promised them by sir William Jones in the preface to his very excellent Persian grammar, but which the multitudinous engagements he afterwards contracted prevented him from compiling. Our author, in his character of public instructor, has long felt the difficulty accruing from the great scarcity of Persian books in this country, so deeply lamented by the late illustrious Asiatic president, to whose unperformed promise he has adverted in the following passage.

The deficiency of proper books was well known to sir William Jones, who, in his Grammar, published in 1771, says, "It was my first design to prefix to the grammar a history of the Persian language from the time of Xenophon to our days, and to have added a copious praxis of tales and poems extracted from the classi cal writers of Persia; but as those additions would have delayed the publication of the grammar, which was principally wanted," (and so it certainly was at the time when sir William Jones wrote, there not being any Persian grammar conveyed by means of the English tongue; all the grammars, as those of De Dieu, Graves, &c. being in Latin, and very scarce,)" I thought it adviseable to reserve them for a separate volume, which the public may expect in the course of the ensuing winter." This work, however, although promised so long as thirty years ago, never appeared, and the public were still left to labour under the greatest embarrassment in their Oriental inquiries. But by the publication of the following pages, compiled from a variety of expensive works, we hope the difficulty will be in some measure overcome.

• In the first part is given an Essay on the Language and Literature of Persia, exhibiting a concise history thereof from the earliest accounts to the present time; interspersed with anecdotes of the most celebrated Persian authors, and the unbounded munificence of the eastern sovereigns to the literati, who were invited to reside at their courts; where they were carefully watched, lest, in the hour of discontent, they should make their escape to the capital of some other monarch.

The second part contains a large selection of entertaining and useful pieces from different authors, which are given in Persian and

English, so literal, that any person, who has acquired the rudiments of the language, may, with very little trouble, turn them out of Persian into English.'

P. vi.

Our national connexion with the East is every day so considerably augmenting, that-independently of the innumerable beauties and attractions of Oriental literature, which are of themselves amply sufficient to repay every difficulty to be encountered in the acquisition of the Persic and Arabic languagesthe study of these languages must necessarily, in a short time, constitute a part of public instruction. He, therefore, who has the hardihood to step forward as a literary pioneer, and voluntarily undertakes, by clearing the rugged path before us, to facilitate our progress, and develop the enchanting scenery of the country, is conferring an obligation of no small magnitude upon the public, and is entitled to no small portion of general gratitude.

The introductory Essay on the language and literature of Persia' is tolerably patched up from the antecedent writings of sir William Jones, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Champion, sir William Ouseley, and other English orientalists. It commences with an account of its language in the earliest æras of which we have any narrative, when the rustic Pahlavì was the vernacular dialect; traces the change from the Pahlavì to the courtly and elegant Deri, during the dynasty of the Sassanian monarchs; the continued use of the Parsì, of which the Deri was only a more polished pronunciation, after the irruption of the Tartars, and the subjugation of the country by those Oriental Goths; and its intermixture with Arabic upon the subversion of the empire of Iraun by the triumphant arms of Mohammed about the middle of the seventh century-from which intermixture was formed the language of the modern Persians. The oidest poems known to Europeans are those of Ferdusi, who flourished at the close of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries; and whose history has been so often detailed or referred to in prior numbers of this journal, that we shall pass him by at present, without any further notice than observing that the language of his ali ol (Shah-námeh), or collection of heroic poems on the ancient histories of Persia-an immortal work, the English translation of which we are sorry to perceive relinquished by Mr. Champion-is very little adul terated by an admission of Arabic, and, in all probability, nearly approximates the vernacular dialect of Persia, at the time of the invasion of Mohammed.

The present is supposed to be an age of literature, which is said to be universally patronised and promoted. If we look to the habitations of our poets and our scholars, the proofs of such an assertion are not, however, very clearly ascertained;—and if

we compare this boasted patronage and protection with that which was afforded by the noble and the opulent in periods, and among people, which, for want of being better acquainted with, we are too generally apt to despise, there are few literary men who will not exclaim, Redeant Saturnia regna!

After enumerating the princely donations which were conferred on Abul Cassem Ferdusi, our author proceeds as follows.

Thus the princes of the East seem to have carried their attachment to men of genius to a very singular excess; even to imprisonment when they suspected them of an intention to retire. If any one of these persons happened to escape, an embassy with presents and apologies sometimes followed the man of learning; and peremptory demands were often made when more gentle methods had proved fruitless. These demands, however, were seldom complied with, especially if the power of the prince, with whom they had taken refuge, was nearly equal to that of their competitors. Khaukaunee, a very celebrated poet, requested leave to retire into the order of the dervishes. The sultaun refused him permission, and he fled; but being pursued, he was brought back and imprisoned for several months. Here he composed one of his finest elegies; but he was at length set at liberty, and soon after obtained leave to put his design in execution.

A literary rivalship seemed now to subsist among the Mohammedan princes who had dismembered the khalifat, every sultaun considering it is an object of the first consequence, to number among his friends the most celebrated poets or philosophers of their age. No expense was therefore spared to allure them to their courts, and no respect was wanting to fix a continuance of their attachment. In addition to the example of Khaukaunee abovementioned, we shall observe, that Mahmood, sultaun of Ghezna, having invited some persons of genius to the court of his son-in-law, the king of Kharezmee, the celebrated Avicenna, who was of the number, refused to go, and retired to the capital of the sultaun of Jorjan, Mahmood immediately ordered a number of portraits of this great physician to be copied; and sent them all around, in order to discover his retreat. The fame of his cures had, in the mean time reached the sultaun of Jorjan; who sent for him to visit a favourite nephew, whose malady had perplexed the faculty. Avicenna supposed it to be concealed love; and in the idea that the fair object might be one of the ladies of the king's haram, he desired the chamberlain to describe the curiosities of the palace while he felt the prince's pulse. On the mention of a particular apartment he perceived an uncommon emotion in his patient; but the naming of the lady who lived in it entirely removed his doubts. The sequel is a perfect counterpart of the famous story of Antiochus and Stratonice: the prince was made happy. The king conceiving a great desire to see a physician of such penetrating genius, sent for him; and discovered him the moment he appeared, by one of the portraits which he had received from the sultaun Mahmood: but no menaces could induce the king of Jorjan to deliver him up. He rewarded him on

the contrary, with riches and honours; and protected him, as long as he chose to continue at his court, against the powerful resentment of that formidable monarch.' P. 14.

The essay concludes with a few observations on the light which Eastern language and literature may throw upon ancient history and mythology;' in which we do not perceive any thing very new or instructive, or which needs detain us for a moment. While we admit that Mr. Rousseau, by the publication of the present volume, has presented the public with a book of great utility, we cannot avoid pointing out a few objections, which may easily be obviated in a new edition. Of these, our first objection is to his orthography of Oriental names, which seldom corresponds with the letters of the original, and does not always convey the native pronunciation. Asiatic scholars are indeed much divided as to the mode that should be adopted in this case ;-some preferring an adherence to the letters, and others to the sound, of a word. But, as Mr. Rousseau has professedly constructed his book upon the model of one projected by sir William Jones, and intends it as a sequel to his Grammar, he should certainly have adhered, wherever it was not very defective, to the system of orthography established by the illustrious president, especially as no man appears to have bestowed so much attention upon this subject as himself. So great, however, is our editor's deviation in this respect, that the mere English reader, and even the junior student, must be at a perpetual loss to reconcile the difference which so widely subsists between them. The following short table of comparison may best explain our meaning.

The manifest object of Mr. Rousseau is to represent that the Persian a, or, possesses the power of au, and the i or y (S) that of è or ee in the English language. But, without

crowding words with letters which do not pertain to them, how much better would it have been, with sir William Jones, to have