in a very ancient Syriack manuscript of the New Testament. To the collectors of Arabick and Persian MSS. this is an invaluable work, as it contains an accurate description of that very extensive and rich collection of oriental MSS. which adorn the Medicean Library. This work is frequently referred to in the celebrated Lectures of Professor MICHAELIS. VI. ABUL PHARAJIUS. Historia Dynastiarum, &c. Arabice edita et Latine versa ab EDVARDIO POCOCKIO. Oxon. 1663. 4to. [HOLLIS.] This work contains a history of the world from the beginning till the time of the author, who flourished in 1280. To this a supplement is added, which brings the history down to the time of the translator. It contains a great variety of curious and interesting particulars. The Arabick text is without the vowel points. The work has become scarce, and is highly prized.* VII. ABU'L FEDA. De vita et rebus gestis Mohammedis. Arab. et Lat. à GAGNIER. fol. Ox[HOLLIS.] on. 1723. styles the author the learned. and sensible Abu'l Feda.' Besides an interesting biography of Mahomet and his family, the volume contains a view of the Geography of Arabia, and is adorned with a delineation of the Temple of Mecca, and at Medina, of the sepulchre of the prophet, and a great variety of illustrative engravings. VIII. CAAB BEN ZOHIER, Carmen panegyricum in laudem Mohammedis. Item AMRALKEISI Moallakhât cum scholiis et versione LEVINI WARNERI. Accedunt sententiæ Arabica Imperatoris ALI; et nonnulla ex HAMASA et DEWAN HUDEILITARUM. Omnia vertit notisque illustravit GERARDUS I. LETTE. 4to. Lug. Bat. 1748. [HOLLIS.] This is an interesting collection. The Moallakát, or seven of the most excellent of the Arabick poems, which were suspended in the temple of Mecca, are greatly celebrated. They are chiefly written on the same general plan, being a species of dramatick pastoral; yet we find in various parts of them not only the plaintive tenderness of elegy, with the luxuriance of description so conspicuous in oriental compositions, but the sententious brevity of moral precept, and the fire and dignity of the true sublime. For an elegant prose translation in English, we refer to the fourth volume of the works of Sir William Jones. IX. HERBELOT. Bibliotheque Orientale. fol. Paris 1697. [HOLLIS.] This work is a treasure of useful and ornamental knowledge; and has done more to draw the attention of Europeans to the writings of the Asiaticks, than all the other works yet published on the formation on a great variety subject. For solid literature, extensive and profound oriental learning, no man has yet surpassed M. D'Herbelot: he that came nearest to him was the late Sir W. Jones.* There is also in the college library an edition of Herbelot, in 4 vols. 4to. printed at the Hague in 1777; presented by the Hon. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Boylston professor of Rhetorick, which contains a supplement to the original work by Visdelou and Galand; and many important additions, particularly in reference to the history and antiquities of China and Tartary, remarkable sayings and maxims of the Orientals, &c.&c. Х. Рососк. Specimen Historiæ Arabum. 4to. Oxon. 1650. This work contains an account of the customs of the Arabs, extracted from the History of the Dynasties by ABUL PHARAJIUS. The Arabick text, which is without the vowel points, is contained in fifteen pages, and is followed by nearly 360 pages of the most learned notes ever appended to any author.t Dr. EDWARD POCOCK was an eminently learned orientalist. All his works are valuable. The opinion of RELAND of the Specimen Hist. Arabum is,quo nemo carere potest, cui literæ Arabica in deliciis sunt.' XI. HYDE. De ludis orientalibus, cum fig. aneis. 2 vols.4to.Oxon. 1767. De religione veterarum Persarum, &c. 4to. Oxon. 1700. of matters in Persick, Arabick, Chinese, and Hebrew. Their author was professor of Arabick at Oxford. He was one of Doctor Walton's assistants in editing the London Polyglott. He transcribed the Persian translation of the Pentateuch out of Hebrew into Persian characters ; a work which only a scholar of the first abilities could perform. His Hist, Relig. Vet. Persarum is a work of profound and various erudition, abounding with new light on the most curious and interesting subjects; filled with authentick testimonies, which none but himself could bring to publick view; and enriched with many ingenious conjectures concerning the theology, history, and learning of the eastern nations. Foreign writers, as well as those of his own country, have spoken of it with high admiration and applause; and, if he had left us no other monument of his studies, this alone had been sufficient to establish his reputation, as long as any taste for oriental learning shall remain. AM XII. PALLADIUS. De gentibus Indiæ et Bragmanibus. BROSIUS, de moribus Bragmanorum ; et Anonymus de Bragmanibus. Ab. Ed. Byssæo. Lond. 1665. fol. [HOLLIS.] Tulit alter honores !' These tracts were translated by Mr. J. GREGORY from Greek into Latin; which translation, after his death, came into the hands of EDM. CHILMEAD, and after his death into the hands of Mr. BYSHE, who published them in his own name. [HOLLIS.] See WooD's Athen. Syntagma Dissertationum, &c. edit. GREG. SHARPE. 4to. Oxon. 1767. 2 vols. These volumes contain much important historical and critical in Oxon. vol. 2. col. 101. XIII. AUDEDINI ALNASAPHI, carmen Arabicum de Religionis Sonnitica principiis ; necnon Persicum SAADI SHIRAZIT Of these elegant Arabick and Persick poems, from the Clarendon press, the literal version of Uri in Latin will enable the reader to judge. The morality of Saadi is pure, and the sentiments in which it is expressed sublime and beautiful. The XIV. KALEAT SAADI. works of SHEIK SAADI Moslehi eddeen al Spirazee. A Persick manuscript in small folio. [Presented by capt. JOHN PATTERSON, Aug. 1790.] The works of this much admired moral writer are in prose and verse; they consist of the GULISTAN, or bed of roses; the BOSTAN, or garden; and the MOLAMAAT, or rays of light! and are composed in the highest elegance and purity of the Persian language.* This elegant volume is written in the finest form of the Taaleek, in three columns on a page; two of which are on parallel strait lines, and the other sloping towards the margin; surrounded with a gold The title and coloured border. pages to the distinct treatises are elegantly embellished and gilt: and the neatness and correctness of the whole exhibit a specimen of exquisitely beautiful chirography. The GULISTAN has been translated into Latin by GENTIUS, and was published at Amsterdam 1651, in folio, with notes. The beautiful chapter on Toleration, so generally ascribed to Dr. FRANKLIN, was written by SAADI. A Latin version of it may be found in the dedication, to the Consuls and Senate of Hamburg, of a book, whose title שבח הורה is * Sir Wm. JONES's Persick Grammar, p. 138. De Tribus Judæ Shebeth Jehudah. Salomonis fil. Virga, complectens varias calamitates, martyria, dispersiones, &c. Judæorum. Hebræo in Latinum versa a GEORThe pasGEO GENTIO. 1680. sage is also to be found in TAYLOR's liberty of prophecying. Polem. Disc. fol. pag. 1078.* SAADI was born at Shiraz, the capital of Persia proper, A. D. 1175. He published his first work in 1257, and died 1291, aged 116. XV. BORHANEDDINI ABZERNOUCHI. Enchiridion Studiosi, cum duplici latina versione ADRI. ANO RELANDO. Traj. ad Rhen. 1709. 8vo. This truly valuable little book was written in the year of the Hegira 952, in the reign of AmuRATH III. An original copy was in the late king of France's library No. 906; and a Persick version No. 905. It was translated into the Turkish by ABDALMAGId ben NASSOUн. It was also translated into Latin at Rome by FRID. ROSTGAARD, sub auspiciis JoSEPHI BANESE, Maronita Syri :' but this version did not convey the spirit of the original: it was, therefore, translated again by ABR. ECCHELLENSIS, Professor of Syriack and Arabick in the Academy at A commentaParis, with notes. ry upon it was written in the year of the Hegira 996 by EBN. IsMAEL, for the use of one of the principal officers of the Seraglio. This manuscript commentary coming into the possession of RELAND, he published the two Latin translations with the Arabick from the Museum of ROSTGAARD, and enriched the whole with ingenious and learned notes. * See Cooper's memoirs of Dr.Priestley. vol. 1. p. 376. † See HERBELOT Biblioth. Orientale, 'Talim Almotallam' a translation of the excellent directions to students contained in this manual, omitting what is merely local in the original and adapted to the religion of the Alcoran, he would furnish us with a very useful work. We close this essay, with recommending to the youth,who are fond of oriental literature, the Asiatick Miscellany, the AYEEN AKBERY translated by GLADWIN, the forms of HERKERN by BALFOUR, the Poems of FERDOSI by CHAMPION, the Institutes of MENU, and, above all, the Works of Sir WILLIAM JONES, VIR OMNI INGENIO PREDITUS, ET OMNI LAUDE DIG NUS. For the Anthology. REMARKER, No. 30. And if a sigh would sometimes intervene, A sigh, a tear, so sweet, he wished not to control.' SYMPATHY is emotion communicated from the bosom of another. We take an interest in his fortunes and sensations, and are affected, though not in the same degree, as he is affected. Sympathy, in its peculiar sense, is used to signify our fellow-feeling with distress. The propensity to adopt the sufferings of the unhappy is not confined to any class of mankind, whilst it acts with more force and rectitude in some than in others. The philosopher, fortified by stoical principles, and disengaged from external impressions; the sentimentalist, alive to every expression of feeling; the gay and the serious, the refined part of society and the rude vulgar, the child and the man, the creature of civiliza tion and the untutored savage, the man of virtue and morals, and the highwayman and ruffian, are susceptible, in different measures, of the influence of compassion. They are capable of being moved by the sight, the description, the representation of a fellow being, struggling with adversity, oppressed by sorrow, agitated with painful passion. In his last number, the Remarker adverted to the natural history of these sympathetick emotions. He mentioned the circumstances, which excite, counteract, or modify their exercise. He alluded to the manner, in which they operate and appear in different persons in different situations. It was proposed in the next place to inquire, whether these emotions are ever productive of pleasure; and to account for this pleasure, apparently derived from pain. If uneasiness always predominates in our fellow feeling with the sufferings of others; if every spectacle of a human being in adversity or under the operation of grief, fear, shame, anger, or other disagreeable passion, is on the whole painful, certain facts in the history of human conduct must be admitted inexplicable. Were the distressful passions never courted; did it appear that the occasions of them were always avoided, where it was practicable; and that they were only submitted to as involuntary and irresistible; that they were always the effect of a mechanism of mind, not within the control of will, the subject would furnish no problem of difficult solution. But when we observe in men the exercise of a deliberate choice in favour of pity; when we find that they often solicit objects and representations with a view to be moved, and demand that their hearts shall be filled with palpitations, and their eyes with tears; when they eagerly seek situations to behold sorrows, which they expect to adopt, and witness expressions of painful passion, to which they wish their own feelings may vibrate; we must suppose there is a real attractiveness in sympathetick grief, or that mankind are engaged in a conspiracy against their own enjoyment. If they exposed themselves to be tenderly affected in no instances, but those, in which their approach to objects or images of suffering was required by some higher principle, from which conscience forbad them to hide their eyes, their participation with the unhappy would be always a homage to duty. Our propensity to Vol. V. No. 2. M weep with those who weep would, in such a case, constitute one of the severities of our condition, and furnish an additional example of the imperfection and misery of our state. We should have another proof, that religion and virtue subject us to many affections and actions,which have no present value ; and should have a new reason for admitting the frequent distinction between our duties and our plea sures. We Numerous facts and considerations evince, that a prevailing enjoyment is sometimes derived from those emotions, which carry the semblance of affliction. Many indeed are the kinds and degrees of disquietude and suffering in others, which we shrink from beholding; of which we wish not to hear. Exhibited in reality, they would fill us with horrour; and in fiction or representation, with disgust. The effect of actual or imitated misery upon our sensations, as we have before observed, is diversified by temperament, by custom, by cultivation, and by other causes. are no more than agreeably moved with scenes in painting, poetry, or dramatick representation, which in real life would rend the heart. In a qualified sense it must be considered as true, that we are able to extract pleasure from objects, that excite pity and other painful passions. Compelled by no necessity, required by no duty, persons often yield to an impulse to converse with distress; and discover a forwardness to contract friendship with misfortune. Had the benevolent Howard found no charm in his pensive labours, the mere stimulus of principle would not have sent him over the world to take the 'guage and dimensions of human misery. The friend wishes to be touched with the sorrows |