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of Southampton. Esq. F. A. S. With a map and plate 4to. £1 11s. 6d.

By Percival Lewis,

BIBLICAL LITERATURE.

The dedication of the Biblia Polyglotta, to King Charles the II. By Brian Walton, folio, 7s. reprinted from a fine original copy, just imported.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The London catalogue of books, with their sizes and prices, corrected to Angust 1811. 8vo. 7s. 6d. half bound.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE.

P. Virgilius Maro in Usum Scholarum Ex Editione Chr: Gottl. Heynii: excisis disquisitionibus, excursibus, et notarum iis, quæ Puerorum usibus minus accommodatæ videbantur. 8vo. 10s. bound.

Euripidis Orestes ad fidem manuscriptorum emendata, et brevibus notis emendationum potissimum rationes reddentibus instructa. In usum studiosæ juventutis. Edidit Ricardus Porson, A. M. Græcarum Literarum apud Cantabrigienses Professor. 8vo. 3s. sewed.

The Universal Piece Writer; the Reader and Reciter. A collection of detached moral sentences, in prose and verse, designed for weekly or occasional specimens of penmanship in the four hands usually practised in Schools. To the pieces under each hand is subjoined a select number of Latin and French sentences. To which are added, a copious number of Poetical extracts, for mottos and quotations, &c. By J. Blake, Hallwood Academy, near Runcorn, Cheshire. 8vo, 7s, bound.

EDUCATION.

Dix's Juvenile Atlas; containing forty-four maps, with directions for copyiug them, designed for junior classes. 4to. 10s. 6d. coloured, 14s. half-bound.

An Analysis of a New System of General Education; in which the Lancasterian principles are discussed and enlarged, in a project for the erection of a grand public Academy at Glasgow, to be supported by public markets in the suburbs of that City, but applicable to every large Town. Addressed to the Heritors of the Barony of Gorbals, and accompanied with plans of Glasgow and the neighbourhood. 8vo. 10s. 6d. half-bound.

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The Edinburgh Annual Register, for 1800. 2 vol 8vo. 11. 4s.

A new Weather Guide, for the curious; showing the state of the atmosphere, by animal and vegetable barometers; and the hour of the day, in summer, by a botanical clock. By Joseph Taylor. 18mo. 1s. 6d.

A letter to William Gifford, Esq. on a late edition of Ford's plays; chiefly as relating to Ben Johnson. By Oc tavius Gilchrist, Esq. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

Part 1, containing five numbers, of Town Talk; or Living Manners, 8vo. 2s. 6d.

Patriarchal Times; or the Land of Canaan; in seven books. Comprising interesting events, incidents, and cha

racters; local and historical; founded on the Holy Scriptures, By Miss O'Keeffe. 2 vol. [2mo. 10s. 6d.

The Harleian Miscellany; volume the eighth, a new edition, with notes and a supplement, by Mr. Park. Royal 4to. 31. 3s.

Essays, in a Series of Letters to a Friend. By John Foster. Fourth edition, 8vo. 10s. 6d.

An account of London daily Newspapers, to which is added a plan for the management of a Weekly Provincial Paper. By James Savage. 8vo. 2s 6d.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

Number III. of the American Review of History and Politics, and general and State repository of Literature Papers. 6s.

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of Dr. Townson's works, and the Author of a Discursory Consideration on the Hypothesis, that St. Luke's Gospel was the first written, discursorily canvassed; in two letters to the Rev. Ralph Churton, Archdeacon of St. David's, from a Country Clergyman. 8vo. 5s. sewed.

The works of Mr. Archibald McLean, of Edinburgh, vol. 5. Comprising a paraphrase and commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. 12mo.

A Sermon, delivered at HoxtonChapel, on Thursday Evening, August 15, 1811, on occasion of the much-lamented death of the Rev. Thomas Spencer; including a brief memoir of his life, and of the affecting circumstances of his death, together with some extracts from his Letters. To which is added, an address to the students of the Academy, with a view to their improvement of the event. By Henry Forster Burder, A. M. one of the Tutors of Hoxton Academy. 8vo. 2s.

A Sermon, occasioned by the lamented death of the Rev. Thomas Spencer, late of Liverpool, with Extracts from Mr. Spencer's Letters, and a Preface relat ing the circumstances of his death. By the Rev. John Styles. Price 1s. 6d...

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CORRESPONDENCE.

We have received the letter of B. I. R., and feel duly sensible of his kindness in expressing such great solicitude for our reputation and consistency. We assure him that we were not actuated by any personal or unworthy motives in drawing up the article to which he alludes: but we are convinced that so sensible a writer as he is, could not have his judgement so singularly blinded against the admission of truth as his letter proves it to be, unless he were under the most powerful operation of some personal motive,-whether worthy or unworthy we pretend not to decide. As to the writers whose cause he advocates, while he condemns their principles, they are doubtless liable to err though they are not, it seems from this writer's account of them, Christians; we have yet to learn why it should be unchristian to guard the public against their errors.

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THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

For NOVEMBER, 1811.

Art. I. The Ramayuna of Valmeeki; with a Prose Translation and Explanatory Notes. By William Carey and Joshua Marshman. Vol. II. Containing Part of the Second Book. 4to. pp. 522. Price 30 Rupees. Serampore. 1808.

SOME time since, a number of our pages were occupied

with an account of the first volume of this work, and with a few observations suggested by it, relative to the quality of those accessions which our literature is beginning to derive by sluices from the vast reservoir of the Sanscrit, where every fish is a god, every shell a shrine, and every group of weeds along the edge a sacred grove. We took the opportunity, by the way, of congratulating those exalted and refined spirits who, sickening at the insipidity of all that has been supplied by European intellect and Christian revelation, had been confidently hoping for a renovation of life and joy, from quaffing, at last, these sacred waters.

It appears to be the settled intention of the missionaries, to bring the whole of this enormous poem within the confines of English literature, though no less than eight volumes must follow the present one to accomplish the purpose. And for such an intention, they may allege the reasons which are given for selecting the Ramayuna to be the first of a number of works, to be translated in succession-that it exhibits a lively view of the manners, moral notions, and mythology, of the Hindoos; and that it has been held in the utmost reverence, over an immense space of country, and for a long series of ages. Indeed it is striking to reflect, that the precise contents of this book,that the extravagant fictions, the pictures of deities and heroes, and the moral maxims, now for the first time drawn out to VOL. VII. 4 H

view from within the darkness of these black and dense lines of Sanscrit characters, which occupy the upper part of the pages before us,-have been the subjects of reverential attention to hundreds of millions of the human race; that the composing of these lines, by one particular mortal, whether in temple, bower, cave, or hut, whether in the hours of morning or evening, was an act which was to operate in creating the mental condition of a countless number of successive generations; that these very sentences, perpetuated in these very letters, have, with invariable power over faith and imagination, been perused and dwelt on in solemn thought as divine emanations, by the authoritative teachers of an immense people, during all the changes of European literature, polity, and religion, from remote ages to the present time.-Regarded in this point of view, a performance still more destitute, if that be possible, of all marks of vigorous intellect, and therefore of all truly sublime or beautiful operations of fancy, than even the Ramayuna, might possibly claim to borrow the English language to interpret a portion of its puerility and raving to the readers of the Bible, and Milton, and Locke.

A slight abstract of the fable, as carried forward in this volume, will perhaps not be unentertaining to some, whose patience would fail in any attempt on the story at large. In this second stage, the narrative acquires a character somewhat different from that which it exhibited in the first book. Not that it becomes substantially much more rational; but it is a good deal more tame. The manner in which it set off, as compared with that in which it is here proceeding, reminds the reader of his having sometimes seen a stage coach starting in the midst of a town, and dashing along the street with a most furious clatter, and shout, and blast of horn, all which impetuosity and uproar have declined into a comparatively sober and noiseless movement by the time the vehicle has got some little distance on the road. Or he may recollect having observed, on the evening of the fifth of November, the reduced spirits and vociferation of a company of imps, after they have expended all their squibs and rockets, and have only a more ordinary kind of combustibles and blaze left to prolong their amusement. The first part was crowded with a mob of prodigious shapes, of the same quality as the Giant Orgoglio in the Fairy Queen, who proved, on Prince Arthur's lopping off his head, only a superficial bulk inflated with air; and the turbulence of these monsters, tossing about islands, continents, or worlds, and beating

Chaos itself into a foam, produced events excellently adapted to exemplify the silliness of greatness essayed by a feeble intelligence.

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Amidst the noise of those transactions, prince Rama, the old monarch Dusha-rutha's eldest son, the hero of the work, and who was nothing less than an incarnation of Vishnoo, the Preserving Power, (appointed to fight and destroy Ravuna, a dreadful tyrant that annihilated men and frightened the gods,) had contrived to grow up to the age of seventeen, the favourite of his father and of all, but one or two, of his father's subjects. The poet, having first deeply inhaled the incense of his own praises, styling himself the divine sage, who at one view comprehends the universe' glorious as the sun,' and his work a divine poem, which destroys all sin and fear, and procures wealth, fame, long life, and posterity, an astonishing ocean, filled with the jewels of the Veda,'-a work the 'hearing and repeating of which is holiness, and will obtain present felicity, and after death an entrance among the blessed,'-at the first recitation of which all the sages were astonished, and crowded around by thousands, with eyes fixed through joy and wonder, uniting in a joyful burst of applause, "Excellent! excellent! oh! this poem! the very expression of nature! Oh! the exquisite story of the divine Rama!"-the modest bard, having thus settled all questions as to the merits of himself and his work, and forestalled the critics, may afford to lavish his praises on the eldest son of old king Dusha-rutha, with a boundless profusion. But we must complain that, in doing this, he most needlessly amplifies his eulogium, by enumerating virtues which every one would have known to belong, as matter of course, to such a personage; for instance, his keeping the most virtuous company, his temperance, and his intense application to study. A slight extract, from about the conclusion of the former volume, will give some notion of the character of this Indian prince..

Rama, the chief of men, possessed of every excellent quality, was the source of pleasure to his father, his mother, his friends, and the whole kingdom: to all he constantly spake in the most affectionate and pleasing manner; addressed by any in reproachful terms he did not return an unlovely word. With those eminent in wisdom and religion, in age and excellent qualities, he constantly spent his time in conversation. He was learned, generous, and of quick per. ception; first in addressing a person, of pleasing speech, heroic, not elated with his own great valour; of incomparable address, wise, revering the aged, peculiarly attached to those devoted to him; the delight of his subjects, compassionate, of subdued anger, honouring

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