felf to be pursuing his prey, or attacking an enemy: but, whether this be really the cafe, or whether thofe appearances may not be owing to fome mechanical twitches of the nerves or mufcles, rendered by long exercise habitual, is a point on which nothing can be affirmed with certainty. Infants a month old fmile in their fleep; and I have heard good women remark, that the innocent babe is then favoured with fome glorious vifion; but that a babe should have vifions or dreams before it has ideas, can hardly be imagined: this is probably the effect, not of thought, but of fome bodily feeling, or merely of fome tranfient contraction or expanfion of the muscles. Certain it is, that no fmiles are more captivating; and Providence, no doubt, intended them as a fort of filent language to engage our love, even as by its cries the infant is enabled to awaken our pity, and command our protection.'

IV.

No perfon is lefs an enemy, than I am, to wit and humour, to finging and dancing. Iprefume that the Deity would not have qualified us for thefe amufements, or made them profitable to health and to virtue, if he had not meant that we should enjoy them.'

V.

We are told that, in the age of Richard the Second, about four hundred years ago, the peaks or tops of the fhoes worn by people of fashion, were of fo enormous a length that, in order to bear them up, it was neceffary to tie them to the knee: and we learn from Cowley, that in his days ladies of quality wore gowns as long again as their body; fo that they could not ftir to the next room without a page or two to carry their train. What ridiculous difproportion! we exclaim; what intolerable inconvenience! Is it poffible that the taste of our forefathers could be fo perverted as to endure fuch a fashion! But let us not be rash in condemning our forefathers, left we fhould unwarily pafs fentence upon ourselves. Have we never feen, in our time, forms of VOL. III.

drefs equally inconvenient, and yet equally fashionable? Does a fhoe of four and twenty inches in length dif figure or encumber the one extremity of the human body more than a headdress two feet high does the other? Or is it a greater hindrance to the amufements, or more hurtful to the health, of a fine lady, to drag after her two dozen fuperfluous yards of filk, than to fit two hours in a morning under the difcipline of the curling-iron, or totter upon a sharppointed fhoe-heel which every moment threatens her ancle with diflocation?'

VI.

Some people contract ftrange habits of what may be called external affociation. I call it fo, because the body is more concerned in it than the mind, and external things than ideas: they connect a certain action with a certain object fo, that without the one they cannot eafily perform the other; although, independently on habit, there is no connection between them. I have heard of a clergyman who could not compofe his fermon except when he held a foot-rule in his hand; and of one who, while he was employed in study, would always be rolling between his fingers a parcel of peas, whereof he conftantly kept a trencher-full within reach of his arm. I knew a gentleman who would talk a great deal in company by the help of a large pin, which he held between his thumb and fore-finger; but when he loft his pin, his tongue feemed at the fame inftant to lofe it's vo lubility; and he never was at eafe till he had provided himself with another implement of the fame kind. Locke fpeaks of a young man who, in one particular room where an old trunk ftood, could dance very well; but in any other room, if it wanted fuch a piece of furniture, could not dance at all. The Tatler mentions a more probable inftance of a lawyer, who in his pleadings ufed always to be twisting about his finger a piece of packthread; which the punters of that time called, with fome reafon, the 3 A

thread

thread of his difcourfe. One day, a client of his had a mind to fee how he would acquit himself without it, and ftole it from him: the confequence was, that the orator became filent in the middle of his harangue, and the client loft his caufe.

Such examples may be uncommon; but many perfons are to be met with who have contracted fimilar habits. You may fee a boy, while repeating his catechifm, button and unbutton his coat a dozen times; and, when learning to write, fcrew his features unknowingly into a variety of forms, as if he meant by the motion of thofe parts to imitate that of his pen. Some men there are, who no fooner bid you good morrow, than they thrust a fnuff-box into your hand; and fome can hardly either fpeak or think without gnawing their nails, fcratching their head, or fumbling in their pockets.'

this practice were more general: it would at least be of great advantage to those who follow a learned profeffion, and would prevent many of the evils incident to a thoughtful and fedentary life. Let us not be afhamed or averfe to ply the ax or chiffel, or the hammer, and the anvilt. If we acquire a dexterity in any healthy mechanic exercife, which one may do in a perfect confiftency with literary ambition, we fhall poffefs an inexhauftible fund of recreation; and, in order to unbend the mind after the fatigue of study, shall not be obliged to join in thofe dangerous amufements that give fcope to malevolent or inflammatory paffions.'

IX.

A king in Spain is faid to have cenfured the arrangement of the planetary fyftem, impioufly afferting that he could have made a more regular world himself. His prefumption, we know, was the effect of ignorance; he took upon him to find fault with that which he did not understand: had he known the true aftronomy, he must have been overwhelmed with astonishment at the regularity with which the heavenly bodies perform their revolutions.'

X.

I have heard of a gentleman in the army whofe imagination was fo eafily affected in fleep with impreffions made on the outward fenfes, that his companions, by fpeaking foftly in his ear, could caufe him to dream of what they pleased. Once, in particular, they made him go through the whole procedure of a duel, from the beginning of the quarrel to the firing of a piftol, which they put in his hand for that purpofe, and which, by the explosion, awaked him.'

• When

XI.

When we have an uncommon dream, we ought to look-not forward with apprehenfion, as if it were to be the forerunner of calamity, but rather backward, to fee if we can trace out its caufe, and whether we may not, from fuch a difcovery, learn fomething that may be profitable to us. I dream, for example, that fome of my teeth drop out: that, fay the vulgar, betokens the lofs of friends. No doubt, if I have any friends, and fhould happen to outlive them, the time must come when I fhall lofe them: but the dream has nothing to do with either the lofs or the acquifition of friends; nor does it direct my thoughts to futurity at all. I wish rather to know to what ftate of my body this dream may have been owing; which, if I can find out, who knows but I may draw advantage from my dream? My teeth feemed to drop out; perhaps at that time my gums were affected with fome painful fenfation, or convulfive motion: might not this be occafioned by too heavy a fupper, or by an ill-digefted dinner? Let me eat lighter food, and in less quantity, for fome time, and obferve whether the fame vifion makes a fecond appearance. I make the trial; and I find that my fleep is founder, and my dreams more agreeable. This is making a right ufe of dreams: and in this way, I am perfuaded, that perfons, who diveft themselves of fuperftition and prejudice, might make important difcoveries in regard to their health.”

XII.

The knight-errant was the declared enemy of the oppreffor, the punisher of the injurious, and the patron of the weak: and as women were more expofed to injury than men, and as ladies of rank and merit were, for reasons already given, the objects of veneration to all men of breeding, the true knight was ambitious, above all things, to appear the champion of the fair-fex. To qualifyhimself for this honour, he was careful to acquire every accomplishment that could entitle

him to their confidence: he was courteous, gentle, temperate, and chaste. He bound himself, by folemn vows, to the performance of thofe virtues: fo that, while he acted with honour in his profeffion, a lady might commit herfelf to his care without detriment to her character; he being, in regard to thofe virtues, as far above fufpicion as a clergyman is now.

Thofe who can relish the above extracts, will find many paffages really inftructive and amufing: and there are a great number of valuable remarks in the Differtation on the Theory of Language, which occupies about a third part of the work.

In what we have transcribed, fome ungrammatical fentences will be apparent to the attentive reader; and there are, on the whole, a much larger portion of fuch inaccuracies than we expected to have seen from the pen of Dr. Beattie.

ART. II. Obfervations on the Paffage to India, through Egypt, and across the Great Defart; with Occafional Remarks on the adjacent Countries, and alfo Sketches of the different Routes. By James Capper, Efq. Colonel in the Service of the Honourable East India Company. 4to. 4s. 6d. Robfon.

SUCH is at prefent the state of

our East India affairs, that every thing relating to that country muft be particularly acceptable.

Colonel Capper's Obfervations are thofe of an intelligent and well-informed gentleman, who fpeaks of what he knows in an eafy and familiar manner, and whofe remarks are always liberal and juft.

It is well known, that the Turks, during the late war, published a firmaun, prohibiting Europeans in general, and our countrymen in particular, from going to India by the way of Suez; but the true nature and caufe of this prohibition has not, we believe, been hitherto very generally underftood.

It feems, that there is a fort of annual 3 A 2 fair

fair held at Gedda, a fea-port within fixty miles of Mecca, by the Mahommedan pilgrims and others, who pay a duty of ten per cent. on all imported goods, to the Sherreef or High-prieft of Mecca, in whom the government of Gedda is in fact vefted; though, to obtain the protection of the Turks, he allows the Grand Signior to fend a Bashaw there, and fometimes tranfmits a few purfes to Conftantinople, to keep the Ottoman Porte and his ministers in good humour.

In the year 1774, the Governor General of Bengal propofed to fome merchants in Calcutta to fend a fhip to the Red Sea, loaded with a proper affortment of goods for the Turkish markets, and instead of landing them at Gedda, to proceed with them directly to Suez; by which means he expected to establish a new trade equally beneficial to us and to the Turks in general, and alfo to open a new channel for tranfmitting intelligence backwards and forwards, between India and Europe. It is not neceffary in this place to confider the merits of the commercial part of this plan; fuffice it to fay, that the Sherreef of Mecca very foon took the alarm, and ufed all his influence both fpiritual and temporal to put a stop to it's continuance: in his negociation at the Porte in this bufinefs, he was alfo zealoufly affifted by a large body of Turk, ifh merchants, who were apprchenfive of fuffering by the prices of India goods being lowered in their markets, which must have totally put an end to the old established trade of Boffora and Aleppo. By fuch a weighty concurrence of intereft, a firmaun was obtained from the Grand Signior, which, ftripped of it's official tautology, and oriental hyperbole, contains no more than what follows.

"Hiftorians inform us, that the Christians, an enterprizing and artful race, have from the earliest times conftantly made ufe of deceit and violence to effect their ambitious purpofes. Under the difguife of merchants they formerly introduced them

felves into Damafcus and Jerufalem; in the fame manner they have fince obtained a footing in Hindoftan, where the English have reduced the inhabitants to flavery; fo now likewise, encouraged by the Beys, the fame people have lately attempted to infinuate themselves into Egypt, with a view, no doubt, as foon as they have made maps of the country, and taken plans of the fortifications, to attempt the conqueft of it.

"In order to counteract these their dangerous defigns, on first hearing of their proceedings, we enjoined their ambaffador to write to his court, defiring their veffels might not be allowed to frequent the port of Suez; which requifition having been fully complied with, if any of their veffels prefume hereafter to anchor there, the cargo fhall be confifcated, and all perfons on board be imprisoned, until our further `pleasure be known."

If it were neceffary, the Chriftians might very eafily vindicate themselves from the afperfions contained in this firmaun, and with great truth and juftice recriminate upon the Mahomedans.

It is univerfally known, that the dogma of their religion, and the principles of their government, inculcate in them a fpirit of conqueft and oppreffion; infomuch, that wherever their religion and government are eftablifhed, the firft fubject is only the first flave in the empire, and confequently any one of them may be deprived either of his property or life without the leaft form of a trial: how ridiculous then does it appear, to hear a Mahomedan defpot lament, that the inhabitants of any country should be reduced to flavery? But the Grand Signior's hiftorians have mifled him ftrangely concerning the proceedings of the Mahomedans and the English in Hindoftan, or he would hardly have ventured to make a comparison between them.

Both parties are equally ftrangers in that country; the Mahomedans firft appeared there with an avowed

intention

intention of making conquefts; whereas the Chriftians in general, but the English in particular, never committed any act of violence in India, until they were compelled to take up arms in felf-defence. After Surage ul Dowla had unjuftly put a number of our countrymen to death in Calcutta, can we be blamed for refenting fuch cruelty and unmerited ill-treat ment? And, having drawn the fword in a juft caufe, and punished the aggreffor, would it have been prudent in us to have quietly laid down our arms again, and fubjected ourselves to the oppreffions of the new Nabob, who very early betrayed a treacherous and hoftile difpofition towards us? Surely not! It would have been folly in the extreme to have depended upon the good faith of those who were not to be restrained by the ties of honour and gratitude*.

Thus then it appears, that avarice and ambition brought the Mahomedans into Hindoftan: but the hope of honeft gain acquired by a fair trade introduced us there; and that if we afterwards flept out of that line, it was at firft only on the admiffible principle of felf-prefervationt. It must be acknowledged, fince that time we have, like others, been infected with the vice of ambition: ftill, however, no charge can be brought against us of having reduced the inhabitants to flavery; they have been flaves to the Moguls,

but are not fo to us. It is true, the country has been more impoverished under our government than it was under theirs; but that is because we have brought away the fpecie to Europe, whereas they required more mo ney from the people; but then, as they never quitted Hindoftan, that fame money, in the regular courfe of things, returned into circulation within the bounds of the empire. Other caufes alfo have concurred to render our government more prejudicial to the country, although lefs oppreffive to the people: but, not to wander too far from the fabject of the firmaun, the Grand Signior evidently declares in it the fentiments of others, and not his own; for did he think as unfavourably of us as he there expreffes himself, he would not only exclude us from the port of Suez, but alfo compel us to leave every other part of his dominions; but, on the contrary, it is well-known, that he allows us to have factories at Conftantinople, Smyrna, Aleppo, and many other places in Turky, without fhewing the leaft apprehenfion of our feizing on his cities, or enflaving his people. We may therefore reafonably confider the Sherreef of Mecca as the principal author of this fcurrilous libel, who hoped thereby to keep the trade of the Red Sea in it's old channel.

Every man acquainted with India, must know, that it is of the highest

importance