Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

It seems that like a column left alone,
The tott'ring remnant of fome fplendid fane,
'Scap'd from the fury of the barbarous Gaul,
And wafting Time, which has the rest o'er-
thrown,

Amidft our houfe's ruins I remain
Single, unpropp'd, and nodding to my fall.
Edwards.

There is a paffage in the tenth Letter of Pope ftill more to the point.

The thought in the last line of the following well-known ftanza of Collins, in his Dirge, is justly admired by every reader of feeling:

Each lonely scene shall thee restore,

For thee the tear be duly fhed; Belov'd till life can charm no more;

And mourn'd till Pity's felf be dead. It will be no detriment to the fame of the matchlefs bard above-mentioned to compare the following elegant, though forgotten, lines, which form a part of an elegiacal epitaph on Mrs. E. Filmer, by R. Lovelace, Efq. with his paffage :

Thus, although this marble must,
As all things, crumble into duft;
And though you finde this fair-built tombe
Ashes, as what lies in its wombe;
Yet her faint-like name fhall thine
A living glory to this fhrine,
And her eternal fame be read,
When all but very Virtue's dead.

Lucalta, 1649. Londo

When B. Jonfon wrote thefe lines, had he not Shakespeare in his eye? Speaking of C. Marlow, he fays,

And that fine madness still he did retain, Which rightly fhould poffefs a Poet's brain.

A Cenfure of the Poets.

The following are among Maflinger's many imitations of Shaketpeare: will it ever be ?

That to deserve too much is dangerous,
And virtue when too eminent a crime.
See Shakespeare's As You Like It,
Scene 2.

Know you not, master, to fome kind of men
Their graces ferve them but as enemies?
No more do yours; your virtues, gentle
master,

Oh, what a world is this, when what is Are fanctified and holy traitors to you. comely

Envenoms him that bears it !

The following exclamation is of the fame kind with one in Lear :

Why are these men in health, and I fo heartfick? Old Law. Scen. 2.

This paffage in Leap is more impaffion ed, yet it feems to have been Maflinger's prototype:

Why should a dog, a horfe, a rat have life, And thou no breath at all!

[blocks in formation]

-ultima femper

Expectanda dies homini, dicique beatus
Ante obitum nemo, fupremaque funera
debet.
Ver. 135.

Our immortal Gray may, I think, be fometimes faintly traced in the poetry of Thomfon. His comparison of Music to a Stream, in his Progrefs of Poetry, which has been much criticifed, and is certainly, at beft, but confufed and embarraffed, is not unlike Thomson's comparison of Eloquence to a Torrent, Liberty, Part II. ver. 256.

The following lines of the Castle of Indolence, Cant. I. Stan. 14, reminds us of a ftanza in his Church-Yard:

No

[blocks in formation]

Driven from your friends, the funfine of the foul.

Thom. to the Mem. of Ld Talbot. The tear forgot as foon as shed, The funfbine of the breaft.

Gray.

But perhaps the fecond Canto of the Caftle of Indolence, Stan. lii. liii. will bring Gray to remembrance yet more ftrongly.

The following line of Thomfon feems borrowed from Pope :

And fweet oblivion of vile earthly care.
Caft. of Ind. Cant. i. 27.

Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care.

Eloif. to Abel. ver. 298.

The expreffion of low-thoughted care is from Milton's Comus, line 6.

It is, I believe, faid by fome of Shakefpeare's Commentators, that the following fimile in Titus Andronicus, is fufficient of itself to prove that Shakespeare had a hand in writing the play:

Upon his bloody finger he doth wear
A precious ring that lightens all the whole :
Which like a taper in fome monument,
Doth fhine upon the dead-man's earthly cheeks,
That fhews the ragged entrails of this pit.
Scene 6.

Spenfer, of whom Shakespeare was both a reader and a borrower, has an idea of

the fame kind, though of confiderable lefs beauty:

ANECDOTE

Thaving had fome chagreement with
HE Muficians of the Prince Efterhafi,

the officers of his houfhold, offered to quit
his fervice, which was accepted, from a
perfuafion that they would foon change
their humour. The day, however, of
their departure was fixed, and the even-
ing before they performed the last concert
they were to give the Prince, the celebrat-
ed Haydn compofed on this occation a
Symphony, the conclufion of which
is of an extraordinary kind; it is
an Adagio, in which each inftrument
plays, one after the other, a Solo: at the
end of each part Haydn wrote these words,
Put out your candle and go about your
VOL, XL

The fight of whom, though now decay'd and marr'd,

And eke but hardly feen by candle-light;
Yet like a diamond of rich regard
In doubtful shadow of the dark fome night,
With ftarry beams about her thining bright,
Thefe merchants fixed eyes did fo amaze, &c.

Faery Qu. B. VI. Cant. ii. Stan. 13.

I do not remember to have ever feen it ning, "Twas in the land of Learning," remarked, that Shenftone's verfes begin&c. were fuggefted by Sir J. Denham's poem on a Quaker, &c.

All in the land of Effex, &c.

The following pafiage from Milton's Comus, which breathes the fpirit of Plato, may be compared with a paffage in Mar fton's Scourge of Villany:

but when luft,

[blocks in formation]

But most by rude and lavish act of fin,
Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
The foul grows clotted by contagion,
Imbodies, and imbrutes, 'till the quite lofe
The divine property of her firit being.
Verie 471

-For that fame radiant shine,
That luftre wherewith natures Nature deck'd
Our intellectual parts, that gloffe is toyled,
With ftayning fpots of vile impiety
And muddy dirt of fenfualitie.

Book ii. Sat. 6. Milton has a fingular ufage of the word bow'd. See Comus, fo15. Where the bow'd welkin flow doth tend.

The fame word applied to the fame element occurs in the forgotten poetry of Henry More, edit: 1647. p. 305.

Nor can their careful ghofts from Limbo lake
Return, or liften from the bowed fkie,
To hear how well their learned lines do
take.
Cupid's Conflict.

of HAYD N. bufinefs. In fact, the firft Hautbois and the fecond French Horn went away firft; after them the fecond Hautbois and firft Horn; then the Balloons, and fo on with the rest of the performers. There were left behind only two Violins to finish the Symphony. The Prince, quite aitonished, afked the meaning of all this. Haydn told him that the Muficians were going away, and that their carriages were at the door waiting for them. The Prince had the generofty to fetch them back: he reproached them feelingly upon the manner in which they were going to defert fo good a master: they threw them felves at his feet, and entered again into his fervice.

E

THE

[blocks in formation]

Letters on Egypt, with a Parallel between the Manners of its ancient and modera Inhabitants, the prelent State, the Commerce, the Agriculture, and Government of that Country; and an Account of the Defcent of St. Levis at Damietta Extracted from Joinville and Arabian Authors. Illuftrated with Maps. By Mr. Savary, Author of the Life of Mahomet, and Tranflator of the Coran. In two Volumes. 8vo. G. G, J. and J. Robinion. London. 1786.

THERE is, perhaps, no nation whofe hiftory is more intimately connected with ancient religions, with primitive cuftoms, with the progrefs of arts and science, or with the various changes of empire which have happened in the world, than that of Egypt. The fubject of thefe Letters, therefore, is alone fufficient to render them intering to a curious and intelligent reader: wherever the author is fuccefsful in his arguments and illuftrations, bis Letters become ftill more interesting; and wherever he fails in thefe, there is then a larger field open for minute attention, for pertinent obfervations, and for friendly corrections. But a difputatious reporter of facts must expect, and indeed ought, fome time or other, to meet with jealous critics: it is highly fit and proper that it fhould be fo; left, in many important cafes, the public fhould be put off with wild conjectures inftead of lober truth. However, as it is impoffible to divet ourfelves, at all times, of fufpicions, fo neither can we lay afide a ftrict regard to truth and justice. We fhall arrange our quotations and remarks, on this occation, into the following order on the country itfelf; on the ancient and modern cities of Egypt; on their public works and the remains of art; on their general manners; on their religion and peculiar cuftoms; on the various changes of their government; on the productions of nature in Egypt, fuch as plants, animals, &c. and on their commerce; following Mr. Savary as our general guide.

der the name of ancient Egypt. When its limits are marked out, we muft, therefore, enquire, whether this country had its origin in common with the lands of other nations. Egypt is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean; on the fouth by a chain of mountains, which fe parates it from Nubia; to the caft by the Red-Sea and the Ifthmus of Suez; and to the weft by the Deferts of Lybia. Its greateft length is from Sienna, fituated directly under the Tropic of Cancer, to Cape Burlos, the most advanced point of the Delta, which, as we fuppole, may be about thirty-one degrees caft longitude, more or lefs; and, as Mr. Savary fays, "almoft terminates the thirty-fecond de"gree of latitude:" but of this we have our doubts, for realons that will afterwards appear "Its greateft breadth, fays our author, is fixty-eight leagues, drawing a right line from the ruins of Pelufa to the Tower of the Arabs, formerly called Tapofiris." This country is divided into Upper and Lower Egypt; the former of which begins at Sienna, and ends at Grand Cairo, no great dif tance from the ancient Memphis. There are two chains of mountains which take their rife from the laft cataract of the Nile: their direction is from fouth to north, until they reach the latitude of Cairo, where feparating to the right and left, one of them takes the direction of Mount Colzoum, on the cait, and the other terminates in banks of fands near to Alexandria, towards the weft. "tween thefe ridges of mountains is that On the country itfelf.-Mr. Savary" long plain, which is no more than difputes the origin of every inch of the "nine leagues broad, where it is the ground which was formerly known un- "wideft. Itis there that the Nile flows

:

"Bes

" between

[ocr errors]

" between two infurmountable barriers:
"now fmooth and tranquil, he flowly
purfues the courfe traced out by nature
"and by art: now an impetuous tor-
"rent, reddened with the fands of Ethi-
opia, he fwells and breaks over his
"boundaries, and overflows the country,
"which he covers with his waters for
"the space of two hundred leagues. It
"is, fays Mr. Savary, in this celebrated
valley, that mankind firft lighted the
torch of the fciences, whofe radiance
diffusing itself over Greece, has fuc-
"ceffively illuminated the rest of the
" world." This latt fentence is fhort,
but it feems to contain a great number
of errors. It fuppofes Upper Egypt to
have been the feat of fcience before Lower
Egypt; it fuppofes Upper Egypt to have
given birth to the fciences; it fuppofes
that Greece, with refpect to time, was
the fecond nation in fcience and arts; it
fuppofes that the rest of the world, Egypt
Excepted, borrowed fciences, and arts,
and their knowledge from Greece! Did
Grecian artists raile Babylon, and carry
it to the highest pitch of magnificence?
Were they Grecian architects who built
the palaces of great Nineveh? or, were
not thefe cities raifed before a town was
known even in Egypt? Did Ecbatana
owe its grandeur to the Greeks? or, were
Damafcus or Perfepolis founded by Gre-
cian artists? Did thofe mighty kingdoms
borrow their legiflation and principles of
government from Grecian lawgivers?
Surely not. Had our author,outhis fubje&t,
confulted Strabo, one of his molt faithful
guides, he would have told him, that the
Greeks knew nothing of the Eastern na-
tions but a very little while before the Per-
fian wars: that neither Babylon, Nineveh,
Ecbatana, nor the Syrian or Affyrian em-
pires were fo much as known even to
the travelling Homer.

"Lower Egypt, fays Mr. Savary, comprehends all that country between Cairo, the Mediterranean, the Ifthmus of Suez, and Lybia. To this immenfe country the Gricks gave the name of Delta. It is formed by the two branches of the Nile, which feparating below Cairo, fall into the lea; the one near Damietta, on the eaft; the other near Rofetta, on the welt." Here let it be obferved, that in former times the Pelufiack branch of the Nile flowed into the fea, almost as far to the east of Damietta, as the distance between Damietta and Rosetta; and that the branch which now empties itfelf into the fea below Damietta, was,, in the days of Herodotus, the middle ftream of the Nile,

which flowed on in nearly a trait line, through the midft of the Delta. Hence this ifland, the most fertile in the world, has loft much of its extent; fince it was formerly bounded by Canopa and Pelufium."

Our author next endeavours to prove, that the whole of the Delta originally formed a great gulph; that the fea bathed the feet of thofe mountains where the Pyramids now ftand; and that the whole of the Delta is a modern country lately raifed into existence, when compared with Upper Egypt. We shall not, here at least, enter into any difpute how far the Delta originally was or was not a deep gulph; while we mean juft to review, one by one, the arguments ufed by our author on this occafion, merely that the candid reader may have an opportunity of judging what degrees of credit are due to Mr. Savary, as a philofophical Historian. Thus he proceeds: "Now, that you have "a general idea of Egypt, Sir, fix your "attention on that rich count:v, and "purfue the revolutions it has undergone. "Beyond thofe times of which history "has preferved us any epoch, a people "defcended from the mountains near the "cataracts, into the valley which is over"flowed by the Nile; it was then an impe "netrable morafs, covered with canes and <reeds." That is, if we put this paffage into plain English, a people, of whole times the world never heard, of whofe origin no one can tell, defcended, but when no mortal ever know, from the mountains near the cataracts, into the valley which is overflowed by the Nile, although the valley was then an impenetrable morals. The reader will be pleafed to obferve, that all this, as well as the following paragraph, muit be understood of Upper Egypt. Many years elapfed before they thought of cultivating their naive plants. Neceffity awakened their indudry. Ofiris taught men, who were at that time cannibals, 'to feed on the fruits of the earth intera of numan fleth. Ifis, the fame with Ceres, taught them to cultivate corn, and were elevated to the rank of denies." Now we have no reason to believe that the Egyptians were ever cannibals: no one argument, or proof, is fo much as offered, to fhew that the first Egyptians fed on human hesh; we have no evidence of any k.nd to fupport us in maintaining, that they ever viewed Ofirs in this light, or confidered Is as the fame with Ceres. Neither the Egyptian, nor any of the great ancient nations in the Eait, were ever E 2

fuck

fuch rude barbarians, even in the infancy of their states. Thefe reafons are fufficient to vindicate us, in refufing our credit to fuch childish tales. But we shall foon leap into an highly cultivated plain, which fpringe up at once from a deep gulph, accompanied with religion and fav's. "Whilst the people of Upper "Egypt, fays Mr. Savary, were contending for their vaft moraffes with favage beafts, the fea, according to ancient accounts, bathed the feet of those "mountains where the pyramids are "built, and advanced on the fide of the "Tower of the Arabs, very far into

Lybia. It covered a part of the Ifth"mus of Suez; and every part of what we now call the Delta, formed a great "gulph. I pass over ages, and come to that period when the Egyptians, under the denomination of a religious worhip, and of laws, formed canals to carry off the ftagnant waters of the "Nile, oppofed ftrong dykes to its ravages, and, tired of dwelling in the ca"verns of the rocks, built towns on fpots elevated by art or nature." We fee what wonderful things may be fetched out, from beyond those times of which Hiftory has preferved us any epoch! and we fee, on this occafion, with what cafe a Philofopher can pafs over ages, and fet before us the Delta in all the grandeur of cultivation, without ever telling us when this great gulph was filled up; or where land first began to appear in it; or when the Egyptians began to difcover the Nile again, that had been fo long fwallowed up; or when they became religious; or when they firft formed canals; or how fpots began to appear elevated by art, in this wonderful gulph!

It may indeed be faid, that an account of the matter is afterwards given: but we anfwer, No; nothing is given that will folve any of the foregoing queries. An attempt is indeed made, which can only ferve to fhew, that Mr. Savary, in fact, had no account to give of any kind. The attempt itself is introduced with fome degree of skill: for after the Delta had been prefented, in all the beauties of cultivation, to the reader, and the fuppofed facts once affirmed, it was then much easier to evade a probable account of the Commencement and progrefs of fo wonderful a phenomenon as that of a fertile plain out of a deep and barren gulph of the fea. But our author's attempt muft be given, "Separated from the rest of the world, the Egyptians cultivated the arts and sciences, and extended the li

"mits of their empire, either by protect, "ing with banks the new dands they had "acquired, or by cutting deep drains to "dry up the marthy grounds. One of "the Kings of Egypt, forefeeing poffi"bly what must happen, undertook to

[ocr errors]

change the courfe of the river-for "meeting with an infurmountable obsta"cle to the right, it turned precipitately "to the left, and taking its courfe to the "fouthward of Memphis, it spread its "waters through the fands of Lybia. "The prince dug a new bed for it to the "eaft of Memphis, and by means of a

large dyke, made it difcharge itfelf into "the gulph that bathes the rock on "which is built the caftle of Cairo. The "ancient bed of the river was ftill to be "feen in the time of Herodotus.- Even "now the channel is not unknown.-It "is to the labours of the monarch whe "finished this great work, that Egypt " is indebted for the Delta. The en66 ormous weight of the waters of the "Nile, which throw themfelves into the "bottom of the gulph, occafions a re"flux of the fea. The fands and mud "that are carr'ed along with them, col"lected together in heaps; fo that the "ifle of the Delta, very inconfiderable "at first, arofe out of the fea, of which "it has repelled the limits. It was a gift "of the river." No King would ever undertake to turn the course of fuch a ri ver as the Nile, without fome profpect of advantage: this matter was too obvious to be overlooked: hence our author felt himself obliged to affign fome reafon ; and we fuppofe that he gave the best he could think of. One of their Kings forefeeing that a large plain, of the most fertile foil in the world, covered with the richeft productions of nature, would arife fome time or other, if he turned the enormous weight of the Nile into a deep gulph of the fea, undertook, therefore, to change the courfe of the river, and it was done! But here Mr. Savary again, as he did before, paffes over ages, during which the gulph was filling up by the waters of the Nile! without ever telling us when or where land firft began to appear in it; or when the Egyptians first difcovered the Nile again, diftinct from the gulph; or when they began to cultivate the new lands they had thus acqui ed. Men of inferior abilities to Mr. Svary would perhaps reafon thus: That the chang ng of the courfe of fuch a river as the Nile fuppofes previous cultivation; fuppofes previous art and managenient in thole parts through which they meant to

carry

« PreviousContinue »