Thou wert reading just now in a packet, full of fuch crooked and extraordinary figures as I never faw before, and yet it cannot have been written? No; that it was not; thou wilt know it to be printed? Printed? Printed? No; the idea is altogether foreign to me. Tell me, then, in what confifts the difference between this and writing? In this; that 150 men could not write in a day the half of what one fingle man can print within that fpace of time; that it is fairer, more uniform, and more lafting, than the other method; and that the price of it does not amount to one-fixth part of the former. Important advantage! indeed very important! exclaimed the inquifitive thing, while he gently laid the forefinger of the left hand on his aquiline nofe. An invention by which literature and the communication of arts and sciences must have been great gainers! No doubt! And the inventor of this useful art? I have all poffible veneration for him. Who was he? A countryman of mine; a Ger man. He does thee honour, friend. He muft have had a good head-piece. I would have given a great deal for fuch a one. But my curiofity is not yet fatisfied. Thou haft there another contrivance that gave the hour with astonishing exactitude; what might that be? What but a repeating watch. A watch? Hum! in my time we only knew of water-clocks, fand-velfels, and fun dials; but not to mention their bulky fize, their inconvenience and expenfivenefs, they were extremely defective and uncertain. Ifhould think, that a thing fo eafily carried about in the pocket, and that is fo exact in its notices, must be an excellent companion on long jourEd. Mag. May 1796. nies, must be of equal utility both to the traveller and the merchant. I am glad to fee that thou art fo quick at gueffing the utility of things, which to my great furprize thou feemeft ftill unacquainted with.Who art thou then? Of what epocha dost thou pretend to be? Aye, what epocha! Why art thou fo curious? Tell me firft, who invented this? Likewife a German. A noble race! It deferves my praife. A German!-Who would have thought it of those blue-eyed barbarians-But let it be Now that I have once begun to question thee, my old motto comes into my mind: Never turn about at half-way. Thou haft yet another thing, that imitated thunder and lightning in miniature; and, heaven knows how, even ftruck into that door, tho' at fo great a distance. What name doft thou give it? A piftol, And the nature of it? The manner whereby it produces this effect? The German, who was now once entered into conversation, took out the other piftol, fhewed him all, explained to him its construction, the quality of the powder, its force in great and little; and, in fhort, gave him as good an idea of it as could be done in few words. The wonder of the curious inquirer now rofe to its highest pitch. How useful muft this be in war! exclaimed he. How ferviceable in taking ftrong places! How quickly decifive in battle! Oh, I pray thee, tell me : Who invented it? Who elfe but a German! The fpirit-for why should we any longer conceal that it was a fpirit?-here ftarted three steps back. wards. Always German, and again a German!-Whence in all the world did you come by fo much wifdom? Know, that as fure as I ftand here X X before or at least they may be fuch.-Does And thou longeft to fee how thy countrymen, or at least the greatest part of them, appear to us! Oh from my very heart! Well, wait but a few moments.I understand a little of the black art; I will employ it now to give thee fatisfaction. He gave a nod, and there prefently appeared a Savoyard on each fide of the street. Kauft Hecheln! Kauft! Raree fhow, fine raree fhow against the wall! Fine madame Catarina dance upon the ground! Who fees? who fees the galantee. fhow? refounded from both fides of the ftage. before thee, I was once, to mention it without vanity, the fpirit of Cicero, the wifest man of his times, the father of his country, the conqueror in peace, the-but who does not know me? Rather let me preferve the fame modefty, as a fpirit, which was my ornament in life. But in my times, to fpeak honeftly, thy countrymen were the ftupideft fet of people that ever the fun fhone upon: rude and even favage, deftitute of agriculture and arts, totally ignorant of all fciences, for ever hunting, perpetually at war, wrapped up in the fkins of beafts, and they themselves no better than brutes. Yet to all appearance you must have undergone a great alteration fince. When I now reflect on my ancient fellow-citizens, according to the vaft progrefs they had made beyond you; great both in peace and war; orators, poets, hiftorians, lords of half the world, and the first nation under the fun. Oh, for certain, they muft by this time border on divine perfection!-That I could but fee them! Yet a few minutes, and the coming The fpirit was petrified with filent on of the first hour compels me back amazement. The clock of a neighto the world below, from whence, bouring steeple ftruck one, and he perhaps in the next 1800 years I may feemed to vanish away in disgust. not be able to depart; and mult only mutter by myfelf in fome vaft defart, because it feems to the growling fellow Minos as if I had formerly above been too loquacious at times. The German filed. Such as I ́am, faid he, are all my countrymen, Behold, refumed the German, behold, O Cicero, thus do thy pofterity, the ancient masters of the world, the foremost among mankind, the nation with the mighty progrefs, beyond us, thus do they moftly appear to us. Do they please thee? But in much greater did the noble Venetians rife up from their feats; took their leave with frozen fmiles, and would have revenged themfelves by affaffination, had not the prince, and the chamberlain difappeared the next day. REMARKS ON PERSIAN POETRY. F the ancient poetry of Perfia, fo fcanty are the fpecimens that have defcended to our days, that the industry of many, who made it the object of their research, feems to have been employed in vain; to af certain, therefore, what it may have been, must be the refult of inveftiga tion more fuccefsful. The learned prefident of the Afiatic Society could discover but a few lines of the ancient Pahlàvi; and the ingenious biggrapher of the Perfian poets could trace them little further than the time of the Arabian conqueft. Yet, the climate of the country, the man ners, have undergone a total change, or we must conclude, that ancient Perfia could boaft of its poetical productions; its modern inhabitants being a race, which may be faid to lifp in numbers; among whom, the cultivation of their language is an important care, and who believe of poetry, as the ancient Greeks did of mufic, that it poffeffes a fafcinating power, and thence they have ftiled "Lawful magic." ners, and very nature of men, muft thus mentions his Perfian friends, "Ufing always to me the greatest compliments, and most courteous fpeeches, &c. in which, and in all other cuftoms, (for I have remarked, and fhall, perhaps fome day, commit them to paper as a curiofity, drawing a parallel in infinite refpects,) it appears to me, that the Perfians refemble, very strongly, the people of Naples, &c." and this ingenious author, in many other parts of his work, takes notice of this refemblance; but I have as yet fought in vain, and, indeed, am ftill ignorant, whether he ever fulfilled his defign of publishing the parallel mentioned in the above quotation. it, It will therefore be found, that there is fearce any fpecies of compofition, which the Perfian poets have not cultivated with fuccefs, from the didactic or moral fentence, to the finished epic or heroic poem; through. every gradation of Bacchanalian ode, elegiac, and amorous fonnet, allegories amusing or inftructive, and romances founded on history, or fable: compofitions breathing all the warmth of a luxuriant foil, and decorated with every adventitious grace that the moft flowery language can bestow, And in this refpect the Perfians are peculiarly fortunate, their native tongue, from the fimplicity of its conftruction, and facility in verfification, being, like the Italian among us, most happily adapted to all the purposes of poetry, particularly that of the erotic kind, which feems to be naturally the favourite of the tender and voluptuous Perfian. A very striking fimilarity of fentiment and imagery may be difcovered in the works of the Italian and Perfian poets; I fhall not here dwell on this refemblance which has been pointed out by others. The fonnets of Petrarch have been compared with thofe of Sádi; nay, a general fimilarity of manners and cuftoms has been remarked by one, who, an Italian by birth, was rendered capable, by long refidence in Perfia, of judging with accuracy. The famous traveller, Pietro della Valle, writing from that country near two centuries ago, a Between many paffages in the Greek and Perfian poets, a refemblance alfo has been found. We are to confider, that the climate of Greece furnishes, in many inftances, the fame fubjects for glowing and flowery defcription with that of Afia; and that many of the Greek lyric poets were by birth Afiatics; from which circumftance, and from the fimilarity of fubject and imagery, ufed in their poems, the most learned orientalist of the prefent age, fcarcely fcruples, in his Latin Commentaries, to clafs them among the poets of Afia: and, it fhall be my object, in a future work, to demonftrate, that Homer and Anacreon, unequalled as they are, might not blush to have produced the heroic poem of Firdaufi, of the lyric odes of Hafez. To deny pre-eminence to thofe claffics, would befpeak a taste as corrupt, and a judgment equally prejudiced, as thofe of the grammarian, who quaintly afferts, that in comparifon with a particular branch of oriental literature, "the Graces of the Greeks and Re mans are graceless." Dejected and melancholy I fly to unfre quented places: The city without thee becomes irksome 1 feek the folitude of the defart. Since you have forfaken this conftant boXx 2 fom If the road lead not to thee, I should feem to walk amid sharp thorns and rugged rocks. I faid unto my vital fpirit, "Leave me! I will exift no longer without her I love;" Fairy fyftem among us, furely the abfence of the Perfian Peries is much more to be regretted; of whom, none were mischievous or malignant, like many of the Fairies, none deformed or diminutive; but all fo amiable in difpofition, and fo lovely in afpect, as to be the direct contrast, or oppofite to the Dives, a race of cruel, hideous, and wicked ereatures vice and virtue, or any qualities perof the imagination, as oppofite as fectly incompatible, Thus the poet Jami, expreffes his aftonifhment, that one of thofe evil spirits could be an inmate with a Peri." 66 Keh deewy ba Peri hemkbáney bashy. Notwithstanding this excellence of It replied, "O Jami! a while be pa their nature, the Perfian Peries feem tient; thy life is on the eve of departo be a diftinét fpecies of imaginary ture." Obfervations on the Perfian PERI. From the fame. On the subject of fictitious beings, as every person is at liberty to form what idea will most please, so we might naturally expect to find various opinions, entertained by the poets of the Peri fpecies. Without deftroying the general and principal characteristics of gods and goddeffes, the Greek and Roman poets affign to each, properties and attributes, as beft fuit the immediate purpose of their poems: and we accordingly find fcarce of the claf any fical divinities free from fome degrading stain. Their celeftial minds were actuated by the moft irregular paffions; they were vindictive, cruel, and unrelenting in their anger, and guilty of every debauchery and fcandalous excefs, that could difgrace even mortals. But the Perfian Peries, however vaguely defined as to fpecies and appearance, are uniformly defcribed, as beneficent, beautiful, and mild; and if the elegant Marmontel had reafon to lament the decline of the beings, and I know not any clafs of airy creatures, in which they can, with exact propriety, be ranked. However they may correfpond in beauty with our idea of angels, they cannot well be fuppofed thofe beings whom the Hebrews called and the Greeks Ayyshev; fince, of both words, the theme is "to fend," for the Peries are not commiffioned from above on any occafion; befides, the Perfians have the term," Ferifhteh," to exprefs the diftinct race of angels, or heavenly meffengers. &c. nor to the genii of the Romans, who watched over mortals given from their birth (à gignendo) into their charge; nor are they by any means thofe celeftial virgins, whofe charms are to reward the pious muffulman in future ftate, and whom the Arabs call Houri." Yet thofe gentle beings, poffeffing exquifite beauty, the poet Sadi knows not, "whether his miftrefs be an Houri of Paradise, an angel, a daughter of man, or a Peri. Houri nedaunem ya mulluk firzendeh audim ya Peri. To continue this negative defcription of the Perfian Peries, I find that they by no means accord with our Shakspeare's idea of the Fairy race. However fond they may be of perfumes, (and fragrant odours are their only nourishment,) we do not read of their being employed in Killing cankers in the mufk-rofe buds; Nor of their being compelled To ferve the Fairy queen, here and there, And hang a pearl in every cowflip's ear. I cannot discover that the Perfian Peries have ever been fuppofed so diminutive in ftature, as to 66 war with rere mice for their leathern wings, to pals through key-holes, or to hide in the bells of flowers." But the fublime idea which Milton entertained of a Fairy vifion, correfponds rather with that which the Perfian poets have conceived of the Peries; Their port was more than human as they flood -I took it for a fairy vision, Of fome gay creatures of the element, That in the colours of the rainbow live, And play in th' plighted clouds-I was awe-ftruck, And, as I pass'd, I worshipp'd. This fine paffage gives me, I confefs, a much clearer idea of the light, airy, yet fublimely beautiful Peries than any other I have met with. The ingenious Mr Richardson informs us, that altho' fuppofed to live very long, the Peries are not faid to be exempt from the common fate of mortals; their existence probably is not to clofe but with the final diffo lution of this univerfe; for if we may believe Ariofto, "No Fairy can die as long as the fun moves round, or the heavens remain in their prefent state. Morir non puote alcun' Fata mai, My obfervations hitherto having tended principally to fhow what the Perfian Peries are not like, I shall candidly acknowledge my inability of afcertaining what they may be faid to resemble; that exquifite beauty is their most obvious characteristic, appears from the poets, who, when they wish to compliment, in the most flattering manner, an admired object, compare her to one of this aerial race. I have no doubt that the name is derived (as that of our Fairy,) from the Hebrew, beauty, elegance, &c. and I can venture to affirm, that he will entertain a pretty juft idea of a Perfian Pery, who fhall fix his eyes on the charms of a beloved and beautiful mistress. SKETCH OF AN HISTORY OF POLAND. FROM LETTERS FROM SCANDINAVIA, &c. THE kingdom of Poland verging towards its final diffolution for the authority of the crown is now rather nominal than real; and powers merely nominal do not long furvive their independence the kingdom of Poland, at the present moment, naturally calls back our at tention |