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Defence against the Reviews on the Empire of the Nairs. *261

Commons after the union with Ireland. But it has been allowed that this subject in "All Religions" has been developed in such a manner as can never fail as to its certain and obvious application, and that it carries that conviction with it, which has induced one of the first literary characters of the age to say, "I am in possession of every treatise on this subject, which has appeared for 1600 years, and though it might be understood by Christians in the days of the apostle, no one, in my opinion, has hit on so happy an interpretation!" I think on reading this part of the book again, the Critical Reviewers will have sufficient reason for making a very considerable discount from their remarks on these particulars, for to a certainty they are not justified in saying, "perhaps some of Mr. Bellamy's readers may judge that information to be new, which we consider to be old." Though this is not positively asserting that the information is not new, it is conveying an idea of that kind. I will not charge the Critical Reviewers with a want of liberal encouragement, but it must be allowed that they have been too hasty in their conclusions, for surely not any of the subjects introduced as new, have been known to the world since the dispersion of the Jews. Neither have I laid claim to any thing new among the multitude of religious sects among us, for I have said in the preface, "I must not omit to say, that, for the sake of accuracy and precision, I have submitted the various articles to the inspection and approval of the leading person of each sect; the statements, therefore, of their doctrine, as well as the order of their communion, have been sanctioned and confirmed."

Neither have I presumed to lay any claim to the variety of information, which is brought forward in the History of all Religious, "relative to that multitude of religious sects, or fraternities, whose systems of faith, and modes of worship and discipline were established long before I was born." For if the Critical Reviewers had attentively read the History of all Religions, they would have found in the epitome of that work, (the preface) which they ought to have read, that I say, "We must, however, acknowledge our gratitude to those writers, who have labored to give information respecting the idolatrous worship of the inhabitants of Canaan and the surrounding nations, before the Hebrews came out of Egypt." And I believe it will be granted that the remaining part of the paragraph points to information which has never, since the dispersion of the Jews, been laid before the public, viz. "But had they attended to the meaning of those words, which so frequently occur, the Hebrew pronunciation of which is constantly retained in the English, and also in all the European Bibles, much information would at this day have been before the world."

Observations on the Criticisms in the British Critic and Monthly Review, on the "Empire of the Nairs, or Rights of Women," a Utopian Romance.

WHAT dependance can be placed on these Reviewers, who merit of their arts of deception? These worthies conceive that th

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262* Defence against the Reviews on the Empire of the Nairs.

is only fit for leading strings, that the present age has not attained its majority, and that a thinking nation would be in danger of being misled by specious sophisms and ingenious paradox. When therefore any work is published, the tenets of which may appear to them dangerous, the good souls never explain its principles, and then counteract their tendency by force of argument; they never say what the work really is, for that might excite the public curiosity; no-they have recourse to a pia fraus; they say that the work is a tissue of absurdities, or sometimes confine their sentence to a single word, which, though a monosyllable, does its business. They declare it dull-De tous les genres le pire est l'ennuyeux. Should a Voltaire publish a Candide, a Rousseau publish a Heloise, or a Göthe produce his Werther in this country, and at this period, the reviewers, by a like manœuvre, would stifle them at their birth.'

"The Empire of the Nairs" is the book that has induced me to make these remarks. The Reviews of this country would not recommend it to any reader: but, as the author first published it in German, under the auspices of Wieland and Schiller, and as the foreign Reviews have spoken of it in terms of praise, it may not be uninteresting to the cause of literature and of truth, to examine whether the author has been fairly treated at home.

The British Critic for Sept. 1811, says:

However scanty and insignificant the author's talents may be, and we can undertake to assure the reader that they are neither important, nor extensive, he surely might have taken some pains, and bestowed some portion of his time in learning the manners and customs, which he attempts to delineate. He seems perfectly ignorant of Oriental manners, though it is among these that the foundation of his extravagant tale is placed.

On the above sentence passed on the author's talents I shall only remark that doctors differ; and leave the British Critic, and the Monthly Reviewer who seems to be of a contrary opinion, to clear up this point between them; but if the British Critic had understood his business, he would have read the preface, which, after a short account of the Nairs, runs, as follows:

The mighty empire, which has been ceded to the Nairs in this volume, like Brobdignag and Lilliput, will be found in no book of geography. Indostan is, in fact, governed by Sultans, Subahs, Rajahs, and Nabobs; and not divided into principalities and baronies. The paradise of the Mother's sons is merely ideal; but, for the customs and opinions of Persia and other Eastern nations, the most creditable authors have been consulted, and many of the European anecdotes are founded on facts.-Introd. p. ii.

Thus the author in his Utopia proposes to delineate an ideal nation; but in treating of the countries, beyond the limits of his imaginary empire, the following authors have been constantly quoted at the bottom of the by tipage: Bruce, Chardin, Campbell, de Tott, Buchanan, Lady M. W. Mongue, Griffith, &c.

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number The Monthly Reviewer (Oct. 1812) could not without inconsistency k the abilities of the author, as he had in reviewing one of his former the public tions "the Bosom Friend" spoken in the most favorable manner of s, his learning, and his taste; he therefore has been content to at the principles of his work.

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It would be improper here to discuss the merits or demerits of the work, and of the system of the author. It may be replete with errors, which the reviewers have not noticed; but many quotations might be adduced, which would exculpate him from the accusations that are laid to his charge. A long residence on the continent may probably have enabled him to describe the manners of Germany, France, and Italy, better than the generality of novel writers, who never quitted their fire-side; yet on these points the candid Reviewers are silent: nor have they noticed the style, language, or plan of the novel itself. From such reviews could any reader form a judgment of the work under examination? Liberal criticism should report the truth, the entire truth, and nothing but the truth; but as to such reviews, the lover of truth might as well read a French Bulletin.

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LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

The Reverend Mr. FABER is preparing for the press a work intitled, Origines Mythologica. The object of it is to show the fundamental identity and common origin of the various mythological systems of Paganism; whether Greek, Etruscan, Egyptian, Persian, Iliensian, Phoenician, Chinese, Indian, Scythian, (that is, Gothic,) Celtic, or American, &c. The coincidences between them are such as to prove that they must have been originally one system, though consisting of two grand kindred branches, sometimes distinct, and sometimes blending themselves together. Hence it will follow, that there must have been some center, whence the various allied systems were carried to every part of the globe.

1. The first book of the work is devoted to the mixed antediluvian and diluvian origin of Mythology; mixed, because the pagan accounts of the creation and the deluge are almost always blended together, and because many other matters are similarly united. In this book, as well as in the succeeding ones, it is the plan of the work to view the different systems comparatively; which will be found effectually to explode the common idea, that the classical writers were wont to give the names of classical gods to the deities of other nations, not on account of any real and proper identity of character, but purely from some accidental and partial resemblance. Thus he contends, that the Theutates of the Celts, and the Tuisto or Woden of the Goths, were each really the Mercury or Hermes of the classics, being the very same personage, both in name and character, as the Phoenician Taut, the Egyptian Thoth, and the Hindoo Tat or Datta, who is said to have established himself in Egypt.

2. The second Book treats of the astronomical, material, and diluvian, origin of Mythology. In this, among other matters, the characters of the gods and goddesses of the different pagan nations are examined; the descent of what may be called romance, whether ancient, modern, or ecclesiastical, is traced; the peculiar religious, sentiments and notions, with which the heathen places of worship were constructed, are inquired into; and the poetical astronomy of the ancients is scussed.

3. The third Book is employed on the postdiluvian origin of Mythology. In this the triads of deity, venerated in every part of the Gentile world, are examined; and * is shown, from their obvious general bearings, connexion, and history, that they c not, as some learned men have most unfortunately conjectured, have the least rela to the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Trinity, but that they have originated fro successive primeval triads of an altogether different description. In this br wise the inquiry is carried up to that common center, whence the allied su must have sprung: and it is attempted to be shown, that neither Script

bability, (not to say, possibility) will warrant the opinion of a most able mythologi cal inquirer, that the evident identity of pagan mythology was altogether the result of the conquests of a single warlike family. Here, the mode of the primitive dispersion and the character of the leaders of the dispersed, both sacerdotal and military, will be investigated: and certain subsequent migrations and conquests of a remarkable people, whose chief settlements have been from the earliest ages in Cashgar, Boutan, Thibet and Bokhara, will be traced. These have been known, in various countries and different ages, under the names of Scuths, or Scytha, Chasas, Cushas, Ethiopians, Asiatic and African, Palli, or Bhils, or Philistim, Getes, Goths, Germans, and Saxous. Their influence has been great and widely extended; and their grand religious peculiarity, as an unmixed race, has been a vehement devotion to the Budahic or Taautic theology, as contradistinguished from, though nearly allied to, the Bacchic, or (for want of a more appropriate name) the Brahmenical system. Both these systems are discussed at large in the course of the second Book.

4. The fourth Book traces the origin of that singular resemblance both in matter of form and of sentiment, which may be observed between the Pagan systems and the Levitical economy, and in some respects even Christianity itself. The opposite schemes of Maimonides, Spencer, and Warburton, on the one hand, and of Gale, Dickenson, and Huet, on the other, are examined, and rejected as untenable; and, what at least appears to the author, the true origin of that resemblance is traced and established.

It is trusted, that in the present day of infidelity, the preceding inquiries will not be wholly devoid of utility; because, by the bringing together of much curious, but scattered, matter, they decidedly prove the truth and authenticity of the first eleven chapters of Genesis; below which, that is to say, posterior to the dispersion from Babel, we have very few satisfactory vestiges of the origin of Pagan Mythology.

As a strong prejudice prevails against etymology, it is abandoned as a foundation. The present system rests upon circumstantial evidence, not upon words; and, wherever the author indulges in an etymological conjecture, it may be admitted or rejected at pleasure, without at all affecting the ground-work. Yet there are instances, in whịch it would be no better than a childish acquiescence in prejudice, to doubt the proper identity of names, when the ground of that identity may be satisfactorily traced. Thus Goth, Scuth, and Chesa, are undoubtedly variations of but one Gentile title; and thus Taut, Thoth, Theutates, Tuisto, Tat, Tatta, and Datta, are certainly one name of one primeval character.

Professor Monk will soon publish a second edition of his Hippolytus.

A new Translation (in rhyme) of Ovid's Metamorphoses, with the Latin Text, by Thomas Orger, is now publishing in parts, price 18. 6d. each.

Nearly ready for press, and to be printed, as soon as a competent Number of Subscribers can be received, in two volumes, octavo, Price 16s. in boards, Meditations for every Day in the Year, adapted to the Closet, and the Family, of Christians of all Denominations. By the Rev. John Stephens. Subscribers' Names are received by the Editor, 5, New Road, St. George's in the East: T. Blanshard, 14, City Road: Baynes; Gale, Curtis, and Fenner, Paternoster Row; and Goakman, Church Street, Spitalfields.

In the press, and speedily will be published, in &vo, dedicated by permission to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, a Practical Treatise on Cataract; containing the History and Symptoms of the Complaint, with an account of a more safe and expeditious method of Cure, adapted to the different Species of Cataract, and the various ages at which they occur; and also extracts from two manuscript Letters from the late Mr. Saunders to the Author, concerning some improvements in the operations, not mentioned in the printed edition of that gentleman's works. The whole illustrated by Cases; together with Engravings of two new, Instruments invented by the Author. By John Stevenson, Oculist and Aurist to Her Royal Highmess the Princess of Wales, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, &c. Lecturer by tress the Anatomy and Diseases of the Eye and Ear, and Author of " a Practical Treapopes on the Morbid Sensibility of the Eye, commonly called Weakness of Sight." number ** For a copious List of Works preparing for publication see No. I. the public day: a mot

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END OF NO. II.

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