which the Calmuck Tartars dress theirs. "In the history of the kingdom of Benin in Guinea, the chiefs are called Aree Roee, or street kings. Among the islands in the South Sea, Otaheite, &c. they call the chiefs Arees, and the great chiefs Aree le hoi. I think this curious; and fo I do, that it is a custom of the Arabs to fpread a blanket when they would invite any one to eat or reft with them. American Indians fpread the beaver fkins on fuch occafions. "It is fingular that the Arab language has no word for liberty, although it has for flaves. WHE "The Arabs, like the new Zea landers, engage with a long ftrong fpear. "The Mahometans are in Africa what the Ruffians are in Siberia, a trading, enterprifing, fuperftitious, warlike fet of vagabonds; and whereever they are fet upon going, they will, and do go; but they neither can nor do make voyages merely commercial, or merely religious, acrofs Africa; and where we do not find them in commerce, we find them not at all. They cannot (however vebemently pushed on by religion) afford to cross the continent without trading by the way. [The Bee. were both turned away: the man had no other refource but to enlift: he became a foldier-was fent abroad: fhe had never heard from him fince-had been delivered of the child now at her breast, for whose support and her own the fhould beg till her infant was a few months older, when she should try to get fome more reputable employment. Her frankness (faid Zink) pleafed me-her face pleased me—her complexion pleased me: I gave her my direction; fhe came to me; I took her infant into my houfe; I did bring myfelf to take her milk; it recovered me: I made enquiry after her husband,and found he was killed in the firft engagement he was in, at the pillaging a village in Germany. I married her, and better wife no man ever had.' ANECDOTE of ZINK. HEN Zink was in the greatest practice, he was in a very bad ftate of health; and being well refpected by a number of the most celebrated phyficians, had their affiftance and advice. All of them pronounced that he was in a decline; but about the method of cure they were not unanimous. Some prefcribed one drug, and fome another, and one of them recommended breaft-milk. The drugs he fallowed, but the breast-milk he did not much relifh the thought of. Finding himself grow rather worfe than better, and being told that air and exercife was the beft remedy for his complaint, he tafked himself to walk through the Park, and up Conftitution Hill, every morning before breakfast. This did not relieve him; but from habit rather than hope, he still continued his perambulations. One fummer morning a handfome young woman, very meanly clad, with a child about fix weeks old in her arms, asked his charity. He gave her fome pence, and afked her how she came into her prefent diftreffed fituation. Her history was fhort: She had been a fervant; she became partial to a footman in the fame house, and married him; they a With this woman he lived near 20 years. The foldier's child he educated for the army, and promised to get him a commiffion when he was 21; but the boy died at fourteen. By Monfieur Zink he had two children, each of them were well provided for; and one of them was a very few years fince alive, and well fituated in a northern province. LUDOVICO DOLCE. CRITICISM TH CRITICISM on OSSIAN'S POEMS. HE antiquity of the poems afcribed to Offian, the fon of Fingal, has been the fubject of much dispute. The refined magnanimity and generofity of the heroes, and the tenderness and delicacy of fentiment, with regard to women, fo confpicuous in thofe poems, are circumflances very difficult to reconcile with the rude and uncultivated age in which the poet is fuppofed to have lived. On the other hand, the intrinsic characters of antiquity which the poems bear; the fimple state of fociety the poet paints; the narrow circle of objects and tranfactions he defcribes; his concife, abrupt, and figurative ftyle; the abfence of all abstract ideas, and of all modern allufions, render it difficult to affign any other æra for their production than the age of Fingal. In fhort, there are difficulties on both fides; and, if that remarkable refinement of manners feem inconfiftent with our notions of an unimproved age, the marks of antiquity with which the poems are ftamped, make it very hard to fuppofe them a modern compofition. It is not, however, my intention to examine the merits of this controverfy, much less to hazard any judgment of my own. All I propofe is, to fuggeft one confideration on the fubject, which, as far as I can recollect, has hitherto efcaped the partizans of either fide. The elegant author of the Critical Differtation on the Poems of Offian, has very properly obviated the objections made to the uniformity of Offian's imagery, and the too frequent repetition of the fame comparisons. He has fhewn, that this objection proceeds from a careless and inattentive perufal of the poems; for, although the range of the poet's objects was not wide, and confequently the fame object does often return, yet its New-York Mag. Vol. II. No. 9 appearance is changed; the image is new; it is prefented to the fancy in another attitude, and cloathed with different circumftances, to make it fuit the illustration for which it is employed, In this," continues he, lies Offian's great art ;" and he illuftrates his remark by taking the inftances of the moon and of mift, two of the principal subjects of the bard's images and allufions. agree with this critic in his obfervations, though I think he has rather erred in afcribing to art in Offian, that wonderful diverfification of the narrow circle of objects with which he was acquainted. It was not by any efforts of art or contrivance that Offian prefented the rude objects of nature under fo many different afpects. He wrote from a full heart, from a rich and glowing imagination. He did not feek for, and invent images; he copied nature, and painted objects as they ftruck and kindled his fancy. He had nothing within the range of his view, but the great features of fimple nature. The fun, the moon, the ftars, the defert heath, the winding ftream, the green hill with all its roes, and the rock with its robe of mift, were the objects amidst which Offian lived. Contemplating these, under every variety of appearance they could affume, no wonder that his warm and empaffioned genius found in them a field fruitful of the most lofty and fublime imagery. Thus the very circumstances of his having fuch a circumfcribed range of inanimate objects to attract his attention and exercife his imagination, was the natural and neceflary cause of Offian's being able to view and to defcribe them, under fuch a variety of great and beautiful appearances. And may we not proceed farther, and affirm, that fo rich a diverfification of the few appearances of fimple Uuu nature, nature, could hardly have occurred to the imagination of a poet living in any other than the rude and early age in which the fon of Fingal appeared? In refined and polifhed fociety, where the works of art abound, the endless variety of objects that present themselves, distract and diffipate the attention. The mind is perpetually hurried from one object to another; and no time is left to dwell upon the fublime and fimple appearances of nature. A poet, in fuch an age, has a wide and diverfified circle of objects on which to exercise his imagination. He has a large and diffufed stock of materials from which to draw images to embellish his work; and he does not always refort for his imagery to the diverfified appearance of the objects of rude nature; he does not avoid those because his tafte rejects them; but he uses them seldom, because they feldom recur to his imagination. To feize thefe images, belongs only to the poet of an early and fimple age, where the undivided attention has leifure to brood over the few, but fublime objects which furround him. The fea and the heath, the rock and the torrent, the clouds and meteors, the thunder and lightning, the fun and moon, and flars, are, as it were, the companions with which his imagination holds converfe. He perfonifies and addreffes them: every afpect they can aflume is impreffed upon his mind: he contemplates and traces them through all the endless varieties of feafons; and they are the perpetual fubjects of his images and allufions. He has, indeed, only a few objects around him: but, for that very reason, he forms a more intimate acquaintance with their every feature, and fhade, and attitude. From this circumftance, it would feem, that the poetical productions of widely-diftant periods of fociety muft ever bear strong marks of the age which gave them birth; and that it is not poffible for a poetical genius of the one age, to counterfeit and imitate the productions of the other. To the poet of a fimple age, the varied objects which present themselves in cultivated fociety are unknown. To the poet of a refined age, the idea of imitating the productions of rude times might, perhaps, occur; but the execution would certainly be difficult, perhaps impracticable. catch fome few tranfient aspects of any of the great appearances of nature, may be within the reach of the genius of any age; but to perceive, and feel, and paint, all the fhades of a few fimple objects, and to make them correfpond with a great diverfity of fubjects, the poet muft dwell amidst them, and have them ever prefent to his mind. Το The excellent critic, whom I have already mentioned, has selected the inftances of the moon and of mifi, to fhew how much Offian has diverfified the appearance of the few objects with which he was encircled. I shall now conclude this paper with felecting a third, that of the Sun, which, I think, the bard has prefented in fuch a variety of aspects, as could have occurred to the imagination in no other than the early and unimproved age in which Offian is fuppofed to have lived. The vanquished Frothal, ftruck with the generous magnanimity of Fingal, addreffes him: Terrible art thou, O king of Morven, in battles of the fpears; but, in peace, 'thou art like the fun, when he looks ' through a filent fhower; the flowers lift their fair heads before him, and the gales fhake their ruftling ' wings.' Of the generous open Cathmor, expofed to the dark and gloomy Cairbar, it is faid: His face was like the plain of the fun, when it is bright: no darkness tra⚫ velled <velled over his brow.' Of Nathos: The foul of Nathos was generous and mild, like the hour of the fetting fun.' Of young Connal, coming to feek the honour of the fpear: The youth was lovely, as the first beam of the fun.'-O! Fithil's fon,' fays Cuchullin, with feet of wind, fly over the heath of Lena. Tell to Fingal, that Erin is enthrall'd, and bid the king of Morven haften. O! let him come like the fun in a ftorm, when he fhines on the hills of grass.' Nathos, anxious for the fate of Darthula: The foul of Nathos ' was fad, like the fun in the day of mift, when his face is watry and dim.'Ofcar, furrounded with foes, foreseeing the fall of his race, and yet at times gathering hope: At times, he was thoughtful and dark, like the fun when he carries • a cloud on his face; but he looks ⚫ afterward on the hills of Cona.' -Before Bofmima fent to offer them the peace of heroes: The hoft of Erragon brightened in her 'prefence, as a rock before the fud<den beams of the fun, when they ⚫iffue from a broken cloud, divided by the roaring wind.' The remembrance of battles past, and the return of peace, is compared to the fun returning after a ftorm: Hear the battle of Lora! the found of ་ high! My fame is bright before me, like the ftreak of light on a cloud when the broad fun comes forth, red traveller of the fky! On another occafion, fays a hero, I have met the battle in my youth. My arm could not lift the fpear when firft the danger rofe; but my foul brightened before the war as the green narrow vale, when the fun pours his ftreamy beams, before he hides his head in a storm!' But it would exceed the proper bounds of this paper, were I to bring together all the paffages which might illuftrate my remarks. Without, therefore, quoting the beautiful addrefs to the Sun, which finishes the fecond book of Temora, or that at the beginning of Carricthura, I shall conclude with laying before my readers that fublime paflage at the end of Carthon, where the aged bard, thrown into melancholy by the remembrance of that hero, thus pours himself forth: I feel the fun, O Malvina ! leave me to my reft. The beam of Heaven delights to fhine on the grave of Carthon; I feel it warm around. O thou that rolleft above, round as the shield of my fathers! whence are thy beams, O Sun? thy everlasting light! Thou comeft forth in thy awful beauty, and the stars its steel is long fince paft; fo thun-hide themselves in the fky: The der on the darkened hill roars, and 'moon, cold and pale, finks in the is no more; the fun returns with western wave, but thou thy felf his filent beams; the glittering moveft alone who can be a comrocks, and green heads of the moun-panion of thy courfe? The oaks 'tains, fmile.' of the mountain fall; the mounFingal in his ftrength darkening intains themselves decay with years; the prefence of war: His arm the ocean fhrinks, and grows aftretches to the foe like the beam of the fickly fun, when his fide is crufted with darkness, and he rolls his dismal courfe throughout the fky.' A young hero exulting in his ftrength, and rufhing towards his foes, exclaims, My beating foul is gain; the moon herfelf is loft in Heaven; but thou art for ever the fame, rejoicing in the brightnefs of thy courfe. When the world is dark with tempefts; when thunder rolls, and lightning flies, thou lookeft in thy beauty from the clouds, ⚫ and and laughest at the ftorm. But to ⚫ careless of the voice of the mornOffian thou lookeft in vain ; for he ing. Exult then, O Sun, in the • beholds thy beams no more; whe-ftrength of thy youth! Age is dark ther thy yellow hair flows on the eaflern clouds, or thou trembleft at the gates of the weft. But thou art, perhaps, like me, for a feafon, and thy years will have an end. Thou shalt fleep in thy clouds, CURSORY and unlovely; it is like the glimmering light of the moon when it fhines through broken clouds; the blast of the north is on the plain, ⚫ and the traveller fhrinks in the midst of his journey.' REMARKS On the late Pamphlets of the Right Hon. Mr. BURKE, and of Mr. PAINE; with Reflections on the Revolution in France, and alfo on the prefent State of Government in England. [Continued from page 438.] O proceed to the difcuffion of the third general enquiry. The immenfe wealth poffeffed by thefe ecclefiaftical corporations was entirely dead and stagnant, and of no benefit to the community. The hands of thefe miferly priests would have been the general refervoir of the riches of the nation; there it would imperceptibly have glided, had not the demon of fuperftition been vanquished and destroyed. In France, as in most other countries of Europe, much of the fubfiftence of its inhabitants depends entire ly upon commerce. It is the capital of the merchant that finds bread for the labourer, the manufacturer, the feaman,and the induftrious mechanic. It is navigation and commerce that give birth to many of the occupations of life; and it is by thefe different occupations that individuals derive their fupport, and are enabled to become ufeful to fociety. Commerce and navigation are mutually dependent upon each other, and both upon the capital of the merchant; but neither can flourish, or even be maintained, when that capital is engroffed by idle priests and by lazy and indolent ecclefiaftics. The literati of France had long been confcious and fenfible of thefe facts; they have long wifhed for an opportunity to relieve their countrymen from the tyranny which had fo long been exercised over their minds by their priests. This opportunity has at length arrived, and it has been ufed with the wifhed-for fuccefs. What would be the tranfports of Voltaire and of Rouffeau, could they but for a moment perceive the effect of their writings, and of their labours, upon the minds of the citizens of France-could they but for one minute behold the representatives of the people forming a grand and a patriotic national affembly, pursuing as their only object the general good and profperity of the whole community? The moft animated, the moft fanguine and glowing imagination could never do juftice to the scene: it could never fufficiently express the feeling delight, the gratifying and pleafing fenfations that these great men would enjoy. The refumption then of this property into the hands of the nation, from whom we may confider it in a great measure to have been exacted and extorted, was by no means unjuft: it was wife, it was politic, it was equitable and proper: it was a reftoration of it to its owners; and it has been applied to the moft pa triotic |