with, of oriental fables, is the Thoufand and one Tales, commonly called The Arabian Nights Entertainment. This book, as we have it, is the work of Monf. Galland of the French Academy, who is faid to have tranflated it from the Arabick original. But whether the tales be really Arabick, or invented by Monf. Galland, I have never been able to learn with certainty. If they be oriental, they are tranflated with unwarrantable latitude; for the whole tenor of the ftyle is in the French mode: and the caliph of Bagdat, and the emperor of China, are addreffed in the fame terms of ceremony, which are ufugl at the court of France. But this, though in my opinion it takes away from the value of the book, because I wish to fee Eaftern manners in an Eastern tale, is no proof, that the whole work is by M. Galland: for the French are fo devoted to their own ceremonies, that they cannot endure any other; and feldom fail to feason their tranflations, even of the graveit and moft antient authors, with the fashionable forms of Parisian civility. "As the Arabian Nights Entertainment is a book which most young people in this country are acquainted with, I need not draw any character of it, or remark that it exactly answers the account already given of oriental fable. There is in it great luxury of defcription, with out any elegance; and great variety of invention, but nothing that elevates the mind, or touches the heart. All is wonderful and incredible; and the astonishment of the reader is more aimed at, than his improvement either in morality, or in the knowledge of nature. Two things, however, there are, which deferve commendation, and may entitle it to one perufal. It conveys a pretty juft idea of the governinent, and of fome of the customs, of those eaftern nations; and there is fomewhere in it a story of a barber and his fix brothers, that contains many good ftrokes of fatire and comic defcription. I may add, that the character of the Caliph Haroun Alrafchid is well drawn; and that the ftory of forty thieves destroyed by a flave is interefting, and artfully conducted. The voyages of Sinbad claim attention: they were certainly attended to, by the author of Ġulliver's Travels. "Tales in imitation of the oriental have oft been attempted by English, and other European, authors: who, together with the figu rative ftyle, and wild invention of the Afiaticks, (which, being extravagant, are easily imitated) endeavour alfo to paint the customs and manners of that people. They give us good ftore of gold and jewels; and eunuchs, flaves, and necromancers in abundance: their perfonages are all Mahometan, or Pagan, and fubject to the defpotic government of caliphs, vifirs, bathaws, and emperors; they drink fherbet, reft on fophas, and ride on dromedaries. We have Chinefe tales, Tartarian tales, Perfian tales, and Mogul tales; not to mention the tales of the Fairies and Genii; some of which I read in my younger days: but, as they have left no trace in the memory, I cannot now give any account of them. "In the Spectator, Rambler, and Adventurer, there are many fables in the eastern manner; most of them very pleafing, and of a moral tendency. Raffelas, by Johnfon, and Almoran and Hamet, by Hawkefworth, are celebrated performances in this way. The former is adınirable in defcription, and in that exquifite train of fublime morality by which the writings of this great and good good man are fo eminently diftin guifhed:-of the latter, the ftyle is rhetorical and folemn, and the fentiments are in general good, but the plan is obfcure, and fo contrived as to infufe perplexing notions of the divine providence ; a fubject, which the elegant writer feems to have confidered very fuperficially, and ve BUT ry confufedly. Addifon excels in this fort of fable. His vifion of Mirzah, in the fecond volume of the Spectator, is the finest piece of the kind I have ever feen; uniting the utmost propriety of invention with a fimplicity and melody of language, that melts the heart, while it charms and fooths the imagination.' The EFFECT PRODUCED by DON QUIXOTE. UT the final extirpation of chivalry and all its chimeras was now approaching. What laws and force could not accomplish, was brought about by the humour and fatire of one writer. This was the illustrious Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. He was born at Madrid in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-nine. He feems to have had every advantage of education, and to have been a master in polite learning. But in other refpects fortune was not very indulgent. He ferved many years in the armies of Spain, in no higher station, than that of a private foldier. In that capacity he fought at the battle of Lepanto, under Don John of Auftria, and had the misfortune, or, as he rather thought, the honour, to lofe his left hand. Being now difquali fied for military fervice, he commenced author; and wrote many dramatic pieces, which were acted with applaufe on the Spanish theatre, and acquired him both money and reputation. But want of economy and unbounded generofity diffipated the former and he was actually confined in prifon for debt, when he compofed the first part of The History of Don Quixote; a work which every body admires for its humour; but which ought alfo to be confidered as a most useful performance, that brought abou. a great revolution in the manners and literature of Europe, by banishing the wild dreams of chivalry, and reviving a tafte for the fimplicity of nature. In this view, the publication of Don Quixote forms an im portant era in the history of mankind. "Don Quixote is reprefented as a man, whom it is impoffible not to esteem for his cultivated understanding, and the goodness of his heart: but who, by poring night and day upon the old romances, had impaired his reafon to fuch a degree, as to mistake them for hif tory, and form the defign of going through the world, in the character, and with the accoutrements, of a knight-errant. His distempered fancy takes the most common occur. rences for adventures fimilar to those he had read in his books of chivalry. And thus, the extravagance of thofe books being placed, as it were, in the fame groupe with the appear ances of nature and the real bufinefs of life, the hideous difproportion of the former becomes fo glaring by the contraft, that the moft inattentive obferver cannot fail to be ftruck with it. The perfon, the pretenfions, and the exploits, of the errant knight, are held up to view in a thousand ridiculous attitudes. In a word, the humour and fatire are irrefiftible; and their effects were instantaneous. "This work no fooner appeared, than chivalry vanifhed, as fnow melts before the fun. Mankind awoke as from a dream. They laughed at themselves for having been fo long imposed on by abfurdity; and wondered they had not made the difcovery fooner. It astonished them to find, that nature and good fenfe could yield a more exquifite entertainment, than they had ever derived from the moft fublime phrenzies of chivalry. For, that this was indeed the cafe: that Don Quixote was more read, and more relished, than any other romance had ever been, we may infer, from the fudden and powerful effects it produced on the fentiments of mankind; as well as from the declaration of the author himself; who tells us, that upwards of twelve thousand copies of the first part were fold, before the fecond could be got ready for the prefs: an amazing rapidity of fale, at a time when the readers and purchasers of books were but an inconfiderable number compared to what they are in our days. "The very children, (fays he) handle it, boys read it, men understand, and old people applaud the performance. It is no fooner laid down by one, than another takes it up; fome ftruggling, and fome entreating, for a fight of it. In fine, (continues he) this history is the moft delightful, and the least prejudicial, entertainment, that ever was feen; for, in the whole book, there is not the least shadow of a dishonourable word, nor one thought unworthy of a good catholic." "Don Quixote occafioned the death of the old Romance, and gave birth to the new. Fiction henceforth divefted herself of her gigantick fize, tremendous afpect, and frantick demeanour; and, defcending to the level of common life, converfed with man as his equal, and as a polite and chearful companion. Not that every fubfequent romance writer adopted the plan, or the manner of Cervantes: but it was from him they learned to avoid extravagance, and to imitate nature. And now proba bility was as much studied, as it had been formerly neglected. OBSERVATIONS on the SPEECHES of the ANCIENT [From the Abbé DE MABLY'S Two Dialogues concerning the Manner of Writing History.] EADERS who feek only amufement will not reproach the hiftorian that pleases them; and thofe who, endued with a more exalted understanding, rfue their ftudies that they may reap additional instruction, are fenfible that thefe fpeeches were not, at any time, pro nounced; but they wish to gather from them the motives, the thoughts and interefts of the perfons who are brought upon the fcene of action; they expect that the historian, whofe duty it was to have investigated all thefe particulars, fhould enlighten and guide their judgment; and, therefore, therefore, do they thank him for giving his work that turn which ftrikes forcibly upon their imagination, imparts double life to the impreffion, and renders truth ftill more agreeable to their reafon. Thofe harangues animate the narrative; we, during fome moments, forget the hiftorian; we maintain an intercourfe with the greatest perfonages of antiquity; we dive into their fecrets; and their leffons are the more deeply engraved upon our hearts. On thefe occafions, I think myself prefent at their deliberations, and in the midst of all their bufinefs. The whole ceafes to prove a relation, and becomes an action of which I am the eye-witnefs. "Never, Theodofius! can we expect to find an history at once agreeable and inftructive without fpeeches. Strive for example, to fupprefs them in Thucydides, and you will fink the work into a lifeless narrative. In fuch a cafe, this book, which, under its prefent form, princes and minifters ought to read, every year, or rather get by heart, would drop unnoticed from your hands, because you could not difcover from it either the genius or the paffions or the enterprifes of the Greeks, when degenerated from their ancient virtue. Take from Livy his harangues; and, at once, you take from him one of thofe chief or naments by the aid of which he roufes up my imagination and animates my heart. It is from Livy that I have gathered what little knowledge I poffefs of politics. Admiring his work, I become immediately inftructed; and, perhaps, it would have difgufted me, if, fpeaking in his own name, he had given way to long, and, confequently, to cold and uninteresting reflections. "But these speeches are fubject to the dominion of rigid laws; and Not the hiftorian who dares to violatė them is punished by being converted into a miferable declaimer. I muft lay it down as a preliminary condi tion that they never appear except in a cafe of abfolute neceffity; that they fhall not be employed but on important occafions, where the point in queftion is either the preferva tion, the fafety, or the glory of the ftate; or the atchievement of fome bold and mighty enterprize. Nor is even all this fufficient. It is requi fite that the matter under difcuffion fhould admit of being examined, by obfervers of great talents and quick peneration, in different points of view. Above all things, let the historian avoid the common-place parade of college-eloquence. a fingle fyllable must be introduced for the fake of fhew and oftentation. Confult only reafon; give proofs; lead me thus along; and render it impoffible that I should refift your force of argument. And, here, Theodofius! let me obferve to you that you must perceive the neceffity of not neglecting any one of thofe ftudies which I have mentioned as the indifpenfable preparatives for the talk of writing hiftory. At one mo ment the hiftorian, under a borrowed mafk, will afcend up to the first principles of natural law, and explain the conditions upon which nature permits focieties to continue in a state of happiness. At another moment, this hiftorian, exclufively directing his powers to the province of inftructing me concerning that polity of the paffions which govern and agitate the world, would enable me to difcover, amidft their caprices and their errors, that conftant track in which they move, and to unravel before hand, from the fpeches of the perfon who engages my attention, the caufes of either the good or ill fortune which is the confequence f his proceedings. Making thefe remarks I only defcribe what I have experienced from the perufal of the Roman Hiftory by Livy. Often have I read it; and always with fresh pleasure. Again and again fhall I read it; and perpetually fhall I find beauties in it which had before ef. caped me. The facts with which I am the most acquainted will still please me, becaufe I do not know them as Livy has related them. I have not forgotten that after the capture and conflagration of Rome, the Romans wanted to forfake their country, and to tranfport themselves to Veii; and that Camillus oppofed an inclination fo pernicious. Falling from the pen of any common hiftorian, this fact is nothing; but when Camillus becomes the speaker, I feel myself interested; I actually enjoy the review of all thofe hopes which aggrandize the virtues of the Romans, and are to conduct them to the fovereignty of the world. Rome iffues from her ruins to acquire dominion. I love to follow this republic in its progrefs. Does the affair of Canna, fill the mind with the circumftances of the battle of Allia Scipio, deftined to conquer Hannibal, is a fecond Camillus. The fpeech in which he revives the drooping fpirits of the Romans, almoft determined to defert their country, affuages the inquietude of the reader. I do not fink under the terror which I teel. Like Scipio, I cherish hope, and build my expectation upon that bold, animated, conftant, and fublime fyftem of politics which is to lead ultimate ly to the triumph of the republic. "Thus far as to what concerns inftruction: but with refpect to that from which we must receive agreeable amufement, you feel at once how principally harangues contribute to this delightful acquifition. They 1783. awaken the attention of the reader they break the monotony of the narration; and they authorise or rather compel the historian to recur alternately to all the tones of an eloquence, at one moment gentle and attempered, and, at another mos ment glowing, rapid, and fublime The hiftorian, without appearing exprefsly to throw light upon this part of the fubject in particular, will lay open to me the opinions, the manners and the characters of every eye; he, with fuccefs, will put into the mouths of the perfons whom he brings forward as the fpeakers. remarks which would offend when coming from himfeil. Tafte, in this inftance, is the flave of confiftency; and it admires in Camillus that reliance upon auguries which it could not tolerate from Livy, whose hiftory, written under the reign of Auguftes, fhould not bear upon it the flightest impreffion of ancient fuperftitions. Thefe fpeeches ferve, alfo, to fix in the mind of the reader the principal object which ought to engage his attention, and which will give an interesting turn to even the moft trivial details. If an hif torian, in order to aflift my memory, and bring his own remarks into a clearer point of view, fhould call back circumftances and fituations to which he has before referred me, he muft difpleafe me, because he has loft the power of pleasing me unex pectedly. I am, at leaft, fo unjust as to believe that I could not poffibly have forgotten what he repeats to me; and I, of course, complain of this unneceffary prating. But it is far otherwife when either a captain or a magiftrate addreffes himself to thofe whom he is defirous to convince and to perfuade. I then mix (if the expreffion be allowable) amongft bis auditors; and i approve in this captain or this magistrate that |