Mogul Tartars under Genghiz khan and Timour, into the Asiatic territories conquered by the disciples of Mohammed; and the several attempts of the princes of Christendom to repel them, commonly called the Crusades.

The religious tenets and literary history of the Mohamme dans are thus concisely exhibited:

In the same manner as the word "christendom" is used as a general denomination for all the countries inhabited by the nations, who profess the religon of Christ, the word Eslam is a general denomination for the countries inhabited by the nations that profess the religion of Mahomet. It signifies an absolute submission of mind and body to God, and to the revelation he has made of his divine will by Mahomet, his prophet. Thus, the fundamental creed of Mahomet is described in two articles, "there is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God." His precepts are reduced to four; prayer, preceded by purification as a necessary preparation, fasting, alms, and a pilgrimage, once at least in a life, to the temple of Mecca. His dis ciples are taught to expect a day of resurrection and general judgment: they believe the doom of infidels will be everlasting punishment, to be measured by the degree of their moral guilt and obstinacy in rejecting the evidence offered them of Eslamism; but that all believers, by their faith in God, and through the intercession of Mahomet, will be admitted to everlasting felicity; that, while the felicity of the perfect, as the saints and martyrs, will be the enjoyment of a superlative degree of intellectnal pleasure, the general body of Mussulmans will be bles sed with an abundance of sensual enjoyments. They believe in God's absolute decrees, and the predetermination both of good and evil; in the existence of angels, whom they consider to be ministers of the word of God, pure and subtile spirits, propagated of fire. They believe, that, from the beginning, there has been a series of prophets; that, all of them were free from great sins and even great errors; and that six of them, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet, rising in a gradation of merit, the letter always above the former, brought new dispensations of law from heaven; that each, successively, abrogated the preceding; that many of the prophets received, from God himself, revelations in writing, of his divine will, all of which are lost except the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel and the Koran; that the three first are miserably corrupted and falsified; that the last is divinely inspired, every word, every letter of it being uncreated and incorruptible, and subsisting, through eternity, in the essence of the deity; that, God himself, by his angel Gabriel, delivered it to Mahomet his last prophet, his high priest in spiritual concerns, his su preme prince in temporals, and who, by himself or his successors, is, by the supernatural, and consequently irresistible force of his arms, to establish in every kingdom of the world, the saving doctrine of the koran. Circumcision is not mentioned in the koran; but it is practised as a divine institution, first revealed by Abraham to Mahomet. Two places they hold in particular veneration : one of them is the temple of Mecca; it contains the Cabah or square house, which has been mentioned. To the temple of Mecca every Mahometan directs his

look

look when he prays, and this supposed aspect of it, they call the Kebla. The other object of their veneration, is the temple at Medina, where the prophet preached and was buried. Such are the principal tenets and rites of the Mahometans, but the only necessary article of faith, the only article required to be professed by a Mussulman, is the unity of God, and the divine mission of Mahomet. Having pronounced the words, "I believe in one God, and in Mahomet the apostle of God," the proselyte is considered to be a perfect Mussulman. They look on unbelievers with contempt and abhorrence; but the Magians as followers of Abraham, the Jews as followers of Moses, and the Christians as followers of Christ, are ranked by them, far above polytheists, idolaters, and atheists. In opposition to those, they call the Magians, Jews, and Christians, from the written revela tions they suppose to have been made to them, by Abraham, Moses, and Christ, the people of the written law.

The early caliphs condemned the polytheists, idolaters and atheists, to the alternative of death, or the profession of Eslamism, but the people of the written law were always allowed the alternative of professing Eslamism, or purchasing liberty of conscience by paying tribute; and insensibly the last alternative was generally proposed to

every enemy.

The followers of Mahomet have ascribed to him both miracles and prophecies. His miracles have been said to amount to 3000, but he does not appear to have himself claimed a power of working miracles. The wonderful success of his arms, he urged as a proof of his divine mission, and contended, that none but God himself could produce a work, which should equal the koran, in grandeur of conception, in beauty or sublimity of doctrine, or in richness or elegance of language.'

It is justly observed that Mahomet appears to have taken his scripture history rather from the apocryphal books and traditions of the Jews and heterodox Christians, with whom Arabia abounded in his time, than from the canonical writings which compose the bible.'

·

A view is taken of the extent of the countries in which Mohammedanism is professed; concluding with the statement of this remarkable fact, that, generally speaking, from the commencement of the Hegira (A.D. 622.) to the present time, Mohammedanism has always been on the increase.'

Mr. B. makes full acknowlegement of his obligations to those writers who have furnished him with materials for the present disquisition; among whom he enumerates the Benedictine authors of the Art de verifier les dates, which he praises as a work of the greatest learning that appeared in the last century.' It certainly possesses a high reputation.

After the Koran, Mr. Butler inquires into the history and contents of the Zend-Avesta, the supposed Bible of the antient Persians; which, it is conjectured, contains religious

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principles

principles in their first deviation from the Patriarchal faith. We cannot, at this distance of time, ascertain how far this is really the case but a single extract will shew that the doctrine of the Zend-Avesta is a composition of Asiatic Mythology, and of the Mosaical account, corrupted by tradition. The doctrine of Zoroaster, of two eternal independent principles,-one the cause of good, called Ormuzd, and the other of evil, called Abriman,-figures in this system of theology, and accounts for the happiness and misery observable in the universe. While Ormuzd creates celestial Beings, Ahriman creates evil and filthy Beings, called Dews or Dwes, Peries, &c.

With them (it is added) Ahriman attacked Ormuzd, and main tained against him, a fight of go days, at the end of which, Ormuzd pronounced the Honover, or Divine Word, and at the sound of it they fled back to their primæval darkness: then Ormuzd created. the first Ox; it was destroyed by Ahriman; from him Kaiomorts, or the first man, proceeded; the Dews slew him, a tree sprung out of his seed, froin which a man and woman arose, called Meschia and Meschiane. At first, they were pure beings, and obedient to Ornuzd: but Ahriman was envious of their happiness: to seduce them, he assumed the form of a serpent, presented them fruit, engaged them in conversation with him, and persuaded them he was the creator of the universe; they believed in him; their nature was corrupted, and their corruption infects all their posterity. Ormuzd supplies them with force sufficient to resist the attacks of Ahriman; at their decease, if the good overbalances the evil they have done, they are admitted to a paradise of spiritual and temporal delights; if their evil actions preponderate, they are condemned to unspeakable suffering: but all this is temporal; at the end of the 12,000 years from the creation of Ormuzd and Ahriman, the harmony of the universe will be reestablished, and mankind restored to virtue and happiness.'

The final triumph of virtue, and the arrangement of the universe, so as ultimately to produce perfect good, is a pleasing sen timent, which appears to have been very widely diffused.

The Vedas are not dismissed without an ardent wish, on the part of Mr. Butler, to promote the study of Asiatic literature; and he recommends it to the Merchant-Kings of the East to apply a part of their treasures to this purpose. This idea has been adopted: but, if we are to believe certain recent communications, the establishment of a college in the East is not relished by the Directors.

Little is said of the Kings, the sacred book of the Chinese, because little is known; and for an account of the Edda, the reader may be referred to Mallet's Northern Antiquities.

Instead of the abrupt conclusion of this volume, we think that some general remarks and observations might have been added; by which the utility of Mr. Butler's historical researches

searches into the several books accounted sacred might have been illustrated.

In the first page, we meet with the singular expression of ⚫ committing sheets to paper.'

ART. VII. The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse, by the Rev. William Heath Marsh, A. M. 8vo. pp. 238. 75. Boards. Westley. 1804.

ALL those who are acquainted with the Satires of Juvenal

Mo-y

must be sensible of the difficulty of transfusing their force and spirit into a modern version. Persuaded of the inutility of attacking the corrupt manners and practices of antient Rome, where omne vitium in præcipiti stetit, with mildness of remonstrance or the gaiety of ridicule, the satirist assumed an attitude of the most determined enmity; and he frequently exposes vice with a roughness and coarseness which cannot be literally translated without offence to delicacy. On men who, according to the nervous description of a sacred writer," being past feeling, had given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness," gentle applications could produce no effect: but it is unnecessary now rigidly to adopt the same course; and it proves the beneficial influence of Christ ianity on the state of public morals, that, however we may deplore the corruptions and profligacy of the age, such a sense of decorum prevails as must impose a degree of management on every one who undertakes a version of Juvenal. This is a restraint which, though it weakens the force of the satire, must not be disregarded; since it is better to be tamé, or to leave a passage altogether untranslated, than grossly to shock and offend. Mr. Marsh is entirely of this opinion; and his sentiments on this subject are so well expressed, that we shall transcribe that part of the Dedication (to his Preceptor, Mr. Carter,) which relates to this view of his undertaking:

In speaking of the present work, as giving the whole of the ori ginal, I would only be understood as not having implicitly followed the very frequent omissions of the edition which we perused together, and which is certainly the only one that can be placed with propriety in the hands of youth. But, though I have greatly ex. ceeded these bounds, from an anxious wish of retaining all that could possibly be retained of such an admirable writer, there are still some exceptionable passages, that I have entirely rejected; others that I have been obliged to soften; and a few, the sense of which I have even ventured to alter, rather than give offence to the ears of modesty. For these liberties, so rarely taken, I trust that I shall stand acquitted, even by the most enthusiastic admirers of Juvenal; since

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though

though it may be considered as the general duty of a Translator faithfully to retrace the steps of his Author, and to pursue his progress without either diminution or addition, yet is our obligation greater to regard the rules of decency and virtue. It is gratifying indeed to reflect that those delineations, which, in the time of Juvenal, we must conclude were absolutely requisite to deter from vice, are no longer necessary. The horrid enormities which now appear to disfigure the pages of the Roman Bard are, fortunately for us, almost unknown; and the public would turn with abhorrence and disgust from this picture, in a modern work, as existing only in the depraved imagination of the Poet.'

1

Mr. Marsh speaks with so much modesty on his venturing before the public as a translator of Juvenal, so soon after the appearance of Mr. Gifford's version, that we could not suspect him of meaning to exhibit himself as that gentleman's competitor: but he assures us that he had never seen Mr. Gifford's work till his own was entirely completed; and that, on examination, he found a sufficient difference in the general manner between Mr. G.'s version and his own, to form his excuse in hazarding the present publication.

On comparing the two translations, Mr. Marsh will appear less paraphrastic than Mr. Gifford: but this is no merit in the eye of the English reader, unless explanatory notes had been subjoined. In translating the first six lines of Juvenal, Mr. G. employs ten lines in English, while in Mr. M.'s version the passage occupies no more space than the original. Till we turned to the errata, we accused this translator of making the next passage unnecessarily short, by omitting the line

Expectes eadem a summo, minimoque poeta,

but we there found that it had produced a couplet:

6 The best and worst in this respect unite,
And to these subjects claim an equal right.'

Mr. Gifford has rendered it,

"While high and low as the mad fit invades

Bellow the same dull nonsense through the shades."

The picture which Juvenal has drawn of the masculine Mævia, who seems to have resembled a certain Yorkshire lady, loses its effect in the present translation, by the circumstances which mark her character being lost in a general description.

"Mavia Tuscum

Figat aprum, et nuda teneat venabula mammâ,”

is a portrait which a painter might copy; but the lines—

-Mævia