• He who fruftrates the intended effects of great charities, commits an atrocious fin, which however there are means of atoning; but ingratitude is a crime which can never be done away.

To cut off the teats of a cow; to occafion a pregnant woman to miscarry; to injure a Bramin; are fins of the most aggravated nature: but more atrocious than those, is ingratitude.'

In the second and laft Specimen,' we find a system of morality equally fublime and interefting with that of the former, but cloathed in a more agreeable drefs. Didactic precepts moft feelingly impress and delight the mind, when they are blended and enlivened with the brilliant fallies of imagination; and it has therefore been the conftant practice of the philofophers of Afia to deliver their precepts in the way of parable and pleafing allegory. The Heetopades, a translation from Sanferit, by Mr. Wilkins, though already in part known to the world under the title of "Fables of Pilpay," is a remarkable and beautiful inftance of this oriental mode of propagating the principles of morality and wifdom. Jefus Chrift himself, the greatest teacher that ever appeared among men, adopted this method of promulgating the pure dogmata of the nobleft religious and moral code ever given to the world.

The NELLA-RAJAH is a Hindoo romance; abounding with picturesque and fervid imagery, and opening to the European investigator of Afiatic antiquities a wide field of amusement. From the text, new light is reflected on a fubject very little known, the mythology of the fouthern region of India; and from the notes, always inftructive and judicious, on the fame fubject, much additional information relative to the general religious rites and cuftoms of the Hindoos is to be gleaned, It is valuable also as a powerful diffuafive from gaming: a vice which infects not only the Eastern world, where it has immemorially reigned triumphant, but alfo the ftill more licentious empires of the Weft. Chefs, and many other games in high repute, had their birth in Afia; and one of its greatest monarchs, Shah Rukh, derived his name from his having been. born at the moment in which his father Timur, engaged at chefs, had just made the stroke which the Perfians call Shah Rukh; that is, when the rukh, which we name the knight, has given chec to the king. In a part of the world, therefore, in which gaming is fo predominant, a production of this kind could not fail deeply to intereft, and have an excellent moral effect. The story is, briefly, as follows:

Nella Rajah, the fovereign of a vaft empire, poffeffed of fplendid talents of mind and great perfonal accomplishments, was united to a princess, young, affectionate, and of exquifite

*The cow is held facred by all Hindoos,'

beauty,

beauty. They lived in the enjoyment of every accumulated bleffing to which their elevated ftation entitled them, till the fpirit of gaming, (perfonified by Shunnee) entered into the former; who, in one fatal hour, left his throne, his treasures, and every appendage of grandeur, and, with his beautiful wife, was obliged to take fhelter in the defart from the fcoffs and infults of his lately devoted and submissive fubje&s. Here the bittereft anguish corrodes the heart of the repentant monarch, while the foothing and tender confolations offered by his faithful confort only aggravate his grief, and harrow up with remorfe his wounded foul. Here he proves how treacherous is the proffered friendship of those who furround the throne of princes; how interefted is their adulation; and in general how deeply ftained with baseness and ingratitude is the heart of man in this his degraded flate. His fituation and diftra&tion in this dreary defart are defcribed in the following animated manner :

Having cheered the drooping fpirits of his wife with thefe flattering affurances, intermingled and fweetly enforced with fond embraces, they proceeded on their way; which Shunnce, whofe malice was yet unfatiated, took care to render as dreadful as poftible. Impervious darkness fuddenly spread around them, while the unfortunate travellers were now obstructed by rocky heights, now hurled down fearful declivities. The king, though furrounded with multiplied horrors, yet animated by the remonftrances and example of his queen, maintained his fortitude; and both of them fervently adoring the great preferver VEESH NOO, were by him invitioly led to pools of water, where they refted from their toils, and allayed their raging thirst. Here loft in pitchy darknefs, ignorant of the courfe they were purfuing, and oppreffed with extreme fatigue, they laid themfelves down on the bare ground, where fleep infenfibly fealed the eyes of the exhausted Tummai-untee, (the queen). The king, however, remained on the watch, and as was natural in this melancholy retirement, gave way to the moft mournful reflections. His own infatuation and folly; the infolent cruelty of the Peojb-carroh-Rojah; the adventure of the deceitful birds; all paffed in difmal review before his recollection: but nothing occafioned him fuch keen fenfations of anguifh, as the confideration of the undeferved diftrefs into which he had involved Tummai-untee.

"Oh

Turning his lang id eyes towards his fleeping bride. gods!" cried he, "there on the hard earth, has funk, under the preffure of calamity, my lovely mate! like the fickly lotus, whofe juicy ftock has been withered by the fierce rays of a vertical fun. Every ordinary princ is repoles at t. is hour on foft beds, and their moft fanciful wants are officioufly fup,ned by obfequious attendants; while friendlets, ar 1 famified lies there te aunnay-gaited queen!Oh God! I can no longer endure to withels the tileries I bave brought on this matenleis woman Perhaps, nay it is highly probable, if I now leave her, when light returns, abandoned by me, and recollecting the way which I pointed out as leading to Feederaprora

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poor, he will bend her fteps thither; which, while I am prefent, fhe never will confent to do. There, in the arms of her parents and children, he will at least be delivered from the hardships of this vagabond life." The more he confidered the fubject, the more did he approve the plan of quitting her while fhe was afleep; till finally refolving on the meafure, he started from the ground; and tearing off four cabits length of the only cloth that was left to both, he prepared, almolt choked with excefs of agony, to part with his only remaining comfort:-incomparably more precious to him than life. Tearing himself away from the dear fpot, he had fcarce left her before his heart failed him, and his rebellious feet infenfibly brought him back to his fleeping love: "Why, my Tummai-untee!" exclaimed he, as he hung over her charms; "why did you fo rafhly reject the king of Daivers in favour of a finful mortal and oh! what crimes can I have formerly committed to caufe me to be the inftrument of fuch mifery to this harmless innocent!-But huth my foul;no beings whatever can control the decrees of BRUMA; fhall an earthly mortal then difpute them?" Obferving her fair neck expofed, he firft kiffed, then gently covered it with the cloth, and again attempted to leave her : but again his treacherous feet led back the love-bound monarch to his Tummai-untee. That refplendent countenance which ftill beamed beauty through the cloud of her misfortunes; that form of fymmetry more graceful than the figure of the heavenly aunnays; that fingular difplay too of manly wifdom and fortitude, combined with the tender attachment and obedience, which on this fevere trial the had e hibited; all confpired to fwell his bursting heart, till exhaufted nature, unable to fupport fuch a continued conflict of paflion, funk under the weight, and left the Rajah fenfelefs on the ground.

Recovering, however, from this fituation, and afhamed of his weakness, he made another effort to quit her; but fill, ftill in vain. And thus for three hours was the enamoured monarch moved forwards and backwards by contending paflions, as a fwing agitated by varying winds. At length, fummoning up his courage, he finally departed, after calling down upon her the bleiling of Heaven in the following terms. "Oh, mighty VEESHNOO! who beholdeft this innocent fufferer, preferve her, I befeech thee, from all the dangers of this fcene of horrors; guard her from the latent ferpent, from the ferocious tiger, the wild elephant, and all the deadly inhabitants of these woods; protect her more especially from the more fell grasp of human villainy; and convey her in fafety to her parents and children." With this fervent ejaculation he finally quitted the unconfcious Tummaiuntee; and had aiready made confiderable progrefs into the immense wilderness; when his inveterate and powerful enemy Shunnee prepared for him another trial of fortitude.'

The Prince and Princefs thus feparated, (not, we think, greatly to the honour of the Rajah's gallantry,) they respectively undergo a variety of adventures, which make room for the agency of the principal characters in the Indian mythology, extravagant indeed, but not improperly introduced into a profelled romance. The refult is, that, after three years abfence

from

from each other, after the fevereft trials of her connubial conftancy, and after the expiation of his offence by a variety of fufferings, they are again united, and re-eftablished on their throne with increafed fplendour and felicity, founded on a more durable bafis.

The doctrine of the pre-existence of fouls alfo pervades every page of this inftructive allegory; that peculiar and ardent love which the Hindoos poffefs for their children, breaks forth in many affecting paffages; the folar and lunar fuperftition of the Hindoos is conftantly in view; and the Lotos gives birth to not lefs brilliant fimilies than the productions of Benares. The fyftem of mythology therefore is the fame, however the inferior machinery may vary; Madura and Mattra pour the fame fong to Vefhnoo; and the Deity fhines forth with equal fplendour, as an Avatar, in Crifhna at the latter place, as in Rama near the fouthern promontory. Could there be any doubt of this fact, or were there any apparent foundation for fuppofing with Mr. Chambers, in the Afiatic Researches, that a very different fyftem of devotion from that of the Brahmins reigns on the fouthern extremity of the peninfula, it would ftill be destroyed by the fpecimens of fculptures and paintings, copied on the spot from venerable temples or choultries, prefented to the reader in the final fection of this volume. We recommend to the European artift an attentive infpection of the ftyle of architecture, and of the minutely elaborate decorations of the columns, which the plates reprefent; and, to the amateur of Afiatic antiquities, an accurate examination of the mythological figures engraven on them. The firft plate in the work exhibits to us the Hindoo Cupid, riding on a parrot, with a fugarcane for his bow, and with a flowery arrow. The fecond difplays the Treemourtee, or divine triad of India, which (says our author) is commonly expreffed by three faces on one body, but here the unity of this triad is ftill more diftinctly noticed by three feparate bodies on one leg.' The third plate reprefents Shivven (or Seena) dancing in his anger, with the infernal goddess Caullee; or Time, the deftroyer..

On the whole, thefe fpecimens of Hindoo literature cannot fail to amply gratify both the European and the Afiatic reader. The former will have his heart improved by the benevolent fyftem of Hindoo ethics, and his fancy delighted with a new train of poetical imagery; the latter will find his knowlege of oriental mythology and history extended and enlarged, with this additional fatisfaction, that his information springs from a genuine fource.

ART.

ART. XX. Polyanus's Stratagems of War; tranflated from the original Greek, by R. Shepherd, F. R. S. 4to. pp. 366. 18s. Boards. Nicol. 1793.

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T HE very title of this work expreffes a fatire on the art of war; for the term ftratagems, though it implies ingenuity, at the fame time implies deceit. What judgment muft philosophy form of an art which only teaches men to cheat and to murder one another! The whole current of hiftory contradicts the affertion of the present tranflator, that war does not neceffarily involve in it defolation, oppreffion, and diftraction.' In all its operations, it counteracts fo many of the best principles of the human heart, and is productive of fo many mischiefs, moral as well as natural, that we are loth to concede to him his pofition that war is a neceffary evil; or to admit that the defirable objects of fecurity and peace might not be preferved to a great nation without armies. We are inclined to indulge the hope that experience will, in procefs of time, give men fuch an univerfal conviction of the folly of war, that they will unanimously agree to convert " their fwords into ploughfhares, and their fpears into pruning hooks."

As long, however, as the unwife fyftem of war fubfifts, ftratagems will be practised, and defcriptions of ftratagems will be acceptable to military men ;-and though, fince the introduction of gun-powder, the art of war has undergone fuch material alterations that no officer would think of ftudying it in Polyænus, nor in any other antient writer, yet a large collection of anecdotes, respecting the manner in which the most celebrated commanders of antiquity conducted their operations, cannot be wholly either unamufing or uninftructive; especially as, under the general head of ftratagems, are introduced, however improperly, many memorable examples of heroic virtue.

Polyænus, who was by birth a Macedonian, and flourished about the middle of the fecond century, was well qualified to execute the task which he undertook. He had paffed the early part of his life in armies, and, when he was far advanced in years, drew up his collection of ftratagems as a brief subsidiary of military science; dedicating it to the Emperors Antoninus and Verus, for the benefit of their commanders in an expedition against Perfia. The original work, which contained nine hundred ftratagems, is incomplete, and the text is in a very great degree mutilated and corrupted; and where the text is perfectly preferved, it can boaft few graces of compofition, beyond mere perfpicuity. Each story is a plain and confiftent statement of a fact; and, in a long fucceffion of these, the reader cannot fail of perceiving a tedious uniformity. Thefe circumftances have induced Mr. Shepherd fometimes to deviate from