the whole of the Moohurrum. At the Durbar the other day, he was dressed entirely in green, the mourning of the Moosulmans, with no other ornament, than eight or nine strings of beautiful emeralds round his neck. In this garb, accompanied by a few of his confidential servants, he roams about at night, and visits the different Taziyus throughout the camp. These are light frames of split bamboo, made in the form of Mausoleums; covered with gilt and coloured paper, foil, talk, &c., and sometimes ornamented with vaJuable jewels. They are supposed to represent the tomb of Hoosen; in the inside is laid a clean white cloth for the shroud, with a few flowers; and sometimes a turban is added.-In front of the Taziyu a large white cloth is spread; around which the Moosulmans assemble in the evening, and seat themselves. A Moolla, or one learned in the laws of Islam, takes his place in the centre, and reads a passage from the Qoran: he and his assistant then alternately repeat elegiac stanzas, called Mursiyus, descriptive of or alluding to the events which attended the death of Hoosen. Some of these verses are simple and affecting; but the effect they produce upon the audience is wonderful. The stoutest and most rude of the party are often melted into tears; and deep sobs and groans are heard from all around. At the conclusion of this part of the ceremony, they all rise; and, gathering round the Moolla, uncover their breasts, which they smite with the right hand, and call upon Hoosen at every blow. At first, the strokes are repeated gently; and the invocations made in an under voice: but by degrees they increase the force of both; till at length they work themselves up to a state of enthusiasm, in which they inflict their blows and raise their exclamations with such violence, that they appear quite frantic.'

We submit the following passage to those gentlemen who believe, with some French philosophers, that the Hindoos are deeply read in the astronomical sciences:

Early on the morning of the 30th ult. there was an eclipse of the moon; when the whole camp resounded with shouts, and the sound of drums and trumpets. The vulgar opinion of the Hindoos is, that a monster, called Rahoo, is attacking the planet; and they make these noises to drive him away. The Hindoos are enjoined to distribute charity during the eclipse; and one rupee, bestowed at that time, is deemed of more effect than a hundred given at any other. Long before three o'clock our camp was filled with beggars of all descriptions. Devotees keep a strict fast; which they do not break, till they see the moon quite cleared of the shadow: unfortunately she now set eclipsed; so that these good people could eat nothing, till they beheld her rise again in full splendour on the following evening."

In the above extracts, we have endeavoured to lay before our readers several of the most instructive passages in the work; and these and a few others are all that possess a title to attention on the score of general information, the bulk of the volume consisting of a mass of local and particular details. In the course REV. AUG. 1814.

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of our perusal, we confess, it occurred to us that Mr. Broughton would have acted more prudently in adhering to his first intention of declining to write at such length on a dull and uninteresting subject, than in complying with the urgency of those friends who prompted him to a contrary course. These objections, however, are not meant to apply to the composition of the book, which is intitled to praise, and sometimes excites regret that it should have been wasted on materials so little entertaining. The reader who travels through a strange work, and has to render himself acquainted with a number of unknown names, submits to a penance which can be repaid only by details of greater interest than Mahratta politics are likely to afford.

The dress and appearance of the Mahrattas are very aptly exhibited by the coloured-etchings which are interspersed throughout this volume.

ART. IX. A Series of Popular Essays, illustrative of Principles essentially connected with the Improvement of the Understanding, the Imagination, and the Heart. By Elizabeth Hamilton, Author of Letters on the Elementary Principles of Education, Cottagers of Glenburnie, &c. 2 Vols. 11. 4s. Boards. Longman

and Co.

THE

1813.

HE fair author of these volumes is deservedly admired for the moral, liberal, and religious turn of her several productions; which in general aim at the cultivation of the juvenile mind, and at the useful direction of early education. Not unknown as a novelist, but still more distinguished as a preceptress, she induces the young to approach her volumes with the hope of amusement, and even the old with the hope of instruction. - Her present work consists of five essays, or rather dis sertations, subdivided into many chapters, and preceded by a general introduction, which details the plan of the undertaking.

Essay I. contains observations on the utility of the study of the mind, and on its connection with the improvement of education. An abhorrence of mental labour is here given as the prevailing character of our times: but we are not aware of this idle and inattentive propensity. Young persons do not willingly attend to jargon, nor profess to understand those unmeaning phrases about abstract ideas, which some moralists of the pulpit and of the boarding-school frequently pour forth, with the emphasis of affected admiration: but to real instruction concisely given in plain words, respecting questions of science, or civil history, or geography, or natural philosophy, young persons are rarely averse. Nearly all complaints of

dullness and inattention, that we have had the opportunity of investigating, had originated in the attempt of the teacher to make a parrot of the pupil, and to compel the repetition of words not understood, as if they were understood. Some metaphysicians have corrupted what may be called our moral literature, by introducing many terms which, having no prototype in the exterior world, can have no fixed, certain, and immutable signification. Writings, which abound with abstract terms, ought for the most part to be shunned by young persons; lest they should acquire a habit of using and of reasoning with words which they do not comprehend. Miss Hamilton is herself prone to listen too much to the metaphysicians, and seems to consider the mind as a something which is altogether the result of philosophical discipline; whereas the fact is that our souls are born with us, and that one man is from his cradle strong in mind, and another weak; that the arts of education cannot bestow intellect, though they may stock the memory, and may exercise the faculties on objects likely to engage a vital attention. Temper is still more obviously the result of physical causes than intellect; and it frequently obeys, especially in critical cases, its natural direction, in spite of all the hypocrisy which is concealed under the garb of politeness. If extravagances of disposition are to be corrected by discipline, this plan must require the incessant attention of a skilful superintendant; and whether it be ever worth while, or morally excuseable, to sacrifice the entire time of a mature person, whose education has succeeded, in order to prevent inconvenience to another person, whose education is not likely to succeed, may be questioned.

The second essay inquires into the agency of attention in the developement and cultivation of the intellectual powers; and this chapter contains juster and more valuable observations than the preceding. No doubt, attention is in a great degree voluntary; which degree may be increased by discipline; and it is evident that the information given by any one of our senses is obtained with much greater correctness, when it is received with exact attention, than when with a heedless or with a distracted perception. Were we to trust in personal consciousness for the theory of mind, we might suppose the soul to be co-extensive with the body, mobile within it, elastic, and condensable by the will at any part of the organs of sensation to which the mind. wishes to remove the seat of attention. In short, the soul would be considered as of a spiritual or gaseous form, held together by a powerful attraction of cohesion between the parts, but always ready to shift its center of gravity, or focus of perception, into any place of its own substance. Wherever this convergence,

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or acumination, or accumulation, of soul takes place, an increased warmth is felt, and an increased power of detecting the contiguous sensible phænomena. If the soul, bent on seeing a beautiful object, chooses to rush into the eye, the eye-ball becomes in consequence somewhat more distended and more polished, and views with more complete distinctness the picture or the prospect under contemplation. If the soul, bent on

hearing a fine melody, chooses to rush into the ear, the organ becomes more elastic, and, after gratification, clammy. During anger, we may feel the soul rush into the fist, try every sinew there which may be wanted to wield a weapon, or to deal a blow, and prompt a chafing of the finger-ends. The phænomena of touch escape in a great degree the avowed notice of the clothed nations: but they strongly corroborate the doctrine of the soul's loco-motive power, and of the increased sensibility of the part in which its head-quarters are assembled. Now it is very questionable whether attention consists in a rapid appli cation of the soul, or in an exclusive application of it to the sensible phænomena under contemplation. Is it accomplished by accustoming the soul to spring like lightening from eye to ear, to see with a glance and hear with a hint; or is it by accustoming the soul to a still and patient and gradual observation of one thing only, leaving it absent or asleep with respect to contending objects? Probably, exercise facilitates both the quickness and the selection of our notice. But these are transcendental speculations.

A good illustration afforded by Miss H. is the use of cleanliness in evolving intellect:

If we invariably find, that where habits of cleanliness and order have been established among the poor, the male and female children are, in the early period of life, equal to each other in point of intelligence; and that where contrary habits prevail, the girls evince a manifest inferiority, it must be to the difference, in respect to the habits of cleanliness and order, that we must look for an explanation of the circumstance. In the former case the attention requisite for preserving cleanliness, and neatness, and order, awakens the percep tions, and gives them perpetual exercise. It is on the female part of the family that these demands upon attention are particularly made. The consequence is, that the daughter of the cleanly peasant, having been taught from infancy to observe every slight alteration produced in the appearance of the objects around her, by any casual spot or stain, and having been compelled to attend to the proper place and situation of every article that pertains to the homely dwelling, acquires habits of observation and activity, which remain with her through every period of life. Destined as she is to labour for a subsistence, those habits are to her of obvious advantage. By the culti vated state of her perceptions she is enabled quickly to learn, and accurately to perform, every species of domestic work, as far as the performance

performance of it requires only the use of her hands and eyes; and though, in many branches of household economy, there is s much minute detail, and the objects of attention are so numerous, as to seem, at first view, extremely intricate, we find from experience, that where the perceptions are quick and accurate, none of those various branches escape attention. And as whatever has been an object of attention makes an impression on the memory, even when the parts of the business are multiplied and intricate, we shall find, that where the perceptions have been cultivated, as above described, it seldom happens that any are neglected or forgotten.'

Essay III. examines the effects, resulting from a peculiar direction of attention, on the power of imagination, and in producing the emotions of taste. This dissertation still continues to apply in detail, and to exemplify with considerable felicity, the use of attention; especially in forming the taste and empowering the fancy. To the works of Alison and of Dugald Stewart, many obligations are displayed and acknowleged. A certain tautology of sentiment, a disposition to repeat and re-echo the same fundamental propositions, accompanied indeed with new illustrations, and applied successively to other though parallel cases, but varied rather to the ear than to the intellect, forms the characteristic of Miss Hamilton's manner. She makes sentences as it were with a multiplying glass; every new facet shifts the position, or alters the dimension, or exhibits a reverse of the thing seen: yet the crowd of objects is merely ideal, and consists but in a polygraphic delineation of the one something to which its focus was first directed.

In the fourth Essay, Miss H. designs to combat the propensity to magnify the idea of self. The dialect of English metaphysics has not a convenient substitute for the French manner of using the word egotism. In its primary or proper signification, it implies an excessive use of the pronoun I, (in Latin, ego,) which, both in conversation and in letterwriting, is a natural but an unpolite practice. In its secondary or metaphoric sense, it designates an excessive regard for self, an arrogance of claim on a person's own behalf, which oversteps the limits of equity. If a man be too much occupied, and loudly occupied, about himself and his own concerns, he is guilty of egotism. It is against this fault that the present writer anxiously inveighs: she justly observes that the propensity to magnify the idea of self is distinct from selfishness and self-love; and that more of vanity than of interestedness is often mixed up with the failing. Like all the inherent tendencies of human nature, egotism has often a beneficial as well as an injurious operation; and the object of the present in

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