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origin. During the violence and diforder occafioned by the political revolutions, the frequent migrations, and the almoft uninterrupted hoftilities, which fucceeded and increased the calamities of the Trojan war, it was natural for thofe, who reafoned concerning the affairs of men, to form, according to the original bent of their minds, two oppofite theories for the beft improvement of human life. Men of a firm texture of foul would prepare for the mifery which awaited them, by ftrengthening their natural hardiness, and fortifying their natural intrepidity. The contempt of pain, and danger, and death, would be the great principle of their lives, and the perpetual fubject of their fongs and while they defcribed the inevitable difgrace of weakness and cowardice, they would extol, with the most lively fenfibility, the glory of valour, the triumphs of fuccefs, and the joys of victory. Such themes might delight the martial mufe of Tyrtæus and Callinus, but could offer no charms to the effeminate foftnefs of Mimnermus, or the licentious debauchery of Archilochus. To perfons of their character, the calamities of the times, inftead of appearing an argument for virtue, would prove an incitement to pleafure. The precarious condition of their lives and fortunes, while it depreciated all other objects, would increafe the value of prefent enjoyment. In the agreeable amusements of the fleeting hour, they would feek refuge against the melancholy profpect of futurity. The pleasures of the table, the delights of love, the charm of the elegant arts, and of converfation, would be perpetually ftudied in their lives, and perpetually recommended in their poetry.'

Many of the observations in this extract are just and happily expreffed. But the "fearlessness of affertion" (to use an expreffion of Dr Johnfon), for which this author is fo eminent, often betrays him into errors. Whenever he deviates into general hiftory, he is like a bewildered and benighted traveller. "Neither the Rünners of the north" fays he," nor the Druids of Gaul and Britain, poffeffed more diftinguished authority than the Rhupfadifts of Greece." That the Bards and Rhap fodifts of Greece were held in honour, and entertained at the tables of kings and heroes, we have the undoubted evidence of Homer. But an expreffion of Hefiod's, "that Bards in his time were as common as potters or joiners," and the fupplication of Phemius to Ulyffes in the eighth book of the Odyffey, fhew they poffeffed no "very diftinguished authority." Our author feems to have forgot, or never to have known, that the Druids in Gaul not only prefided over all religious inftitutions, but were alfo the interpreters of the laws, which received execution from the efficacy of their authority. They judged in all caufes, whether civil or criminal; and their fentence was efteemed fo facred, that whoever refused to give it complete bedience was excluded from affifting at their religious rites; was held in execration and abhorrence, and denied the privi

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leges of fociety.* We are affured by Dion. Chryfoftom that the Druids exercised fupreme authority over the kings themfelves—Κελλοὶ δὲ οὓς ὀνομαζετι Δρυίδας, καὶ τὸτος περὶ Μαλικὴν όλας, καὶ τὴν ἄλλην σοφίαν, ὧν ἂνευ, τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν ἐδὲν ἐξῆν πράττειν ἐδὲ Εε λεύεσθαι, ὡσε τὸ μὲν ἀληθὲς ἐκείνας ἄρχειν, τοὺς δὲ βασιλέας, αὐτῶν ὑπη ρέτας καὶ διακόνους γίγνεσθαι τῆς γνώμης, ἐν πρώτοις χρυσοῖς καθημένες, καὶ οἰκίας μεγάλας ὀκέντας, καὶ πολυτίμως εὐωχημένες. Helmodus aifo affirms, concerning the Slavis. "Rex apud eos modice eft aftimationis incomparatione flaminis." Did the Bards of Greece pretend to fuch power or authority? When our author tells us," that, amidst the moft dreadful calamities which afflict mankind, the bards alone were exempted from the common danger," it is difficult to find out what he means. What he afterwards adds, "they could behold in fafety the tumult of a battle; they could witnefs undisturbed the horror of a city taken by ftorm," &c. &c. is without any authority from Homer, or any other ancient writer. Mr. M'Pherson attributes fuch a privilege to the Celtic bards, but it was a very bold excurfion to leap from Mount Parnaffus to the hill of Morven.

[ To be continued. ]

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

-ART. XII. Lettre de M. de Peyfonnel, ancien Conful General à Smyrna, ci-devant Conful de fa Majefté auprès du Khan des Tartares, à M. le Marquis de N- : Contenant quelques Obfervations relatives aux Memoires, qui ont paru fous le Nom de M. le Baron de Tott. Amfter, dam, & fe trouve à Paris. 8vo. 1785.

ART, XII. Animadverfions upon the Memoirs that have appeared under
the Name of the Baron de Tott, in a Letter from M. de Peyfonnel, for-
merly Conful from the French King to the Khan of Tartary, and after-
wards Conful General at Smyrna, to the Marquis of N.

M.
DE PEYSONNEL is equally well known in the
world of politics, and the republic of letters. In the
firft, by the important tranfactions in which he has been con-
cerned, and the ability and skill with which he conducted him-
felf, as Conful and Conful General from the court of France;
and in the other, by his celebrated work, entitled Les Numeros.I
It would have been difficult to find a perfon better qualified for
the task he has undertaken, than M. de Peyfonnel. Equal to
the Baron de Tott in his perfonal knowledge of the Turks,

Cafar de Bell, Gall. lib. vi. cap. 13. ↑ Lib 2d. cap. 12.

See English Review, Vol. III. page 458.

their

their government, laws, cuftoms, manners and character; and his rival, at least, as a writer, he has one advantage over him,, that, in our opinion, is by no means a trivial one. It has ever been popular to speak degradingly of the Turks, and to confider them as a nation perfectly devoid of learning, tafte, and character. The Baron de Tott falls in with the current,' and appears to have been influenced by this prejudice in every page of his Memoirs, and during the three-and-twenty years that he spent in the ftudy of this nation. M. de Peyfonnel, too proud to confult popular prejudice, and too honeft and faithful, as an hiftorian, to facrifice truth to its fhrine, has combated this prevailing opinion with no fmall degree of fuccess, and presented the Turks in a light, novel indeed to our eyes, but with a degree of respect to which they seem to be justly entitled. In the mean time, he is deftitute of the and exacerbation of a rival adverfary; and while he animadverts, with freedom, upon the defects and errors of the Baron, it is in the true fpirit of modefty and moderation, and not without afcribing to him his due fhare of merit.

envy

I began," fays he, to read, or rather to devour the memoirs the inftant they came to my hands. In my firft perufal, eager and rapid, I discovered little but the genius, the fprightlinefs, the graces, the thousand various talents of the Baron de Tott. Conducted, by him, over a bed of flowers, I trod with a light and nimble foot. My fecond perufal, flow and cautious, in which I followed the author step by step, difcovered to me his errors and defects. Pulchro in opere nærvos. They are fuch, however, as I know not how to afcribe to the Baron de Tott. It should feem impoffible, that errors fo glaring and obvious could come from the pen of a man fo informed and enlightened upon the subject, who has lived fo long with, and seen so much of the Turks, and who is as familiar with their language as with his own. He muft furely have experienced the misfortune, too common among us, of a furreptitious and corrupt edition.'

To fupply these defects, and to rescue the Turks in general, and a few of their emperors in particular, from the odium thrown on them by the Baron, is the profeffed defign of our author in the little volume before us. He wishes, however, to be confidered not as a critic; he disclaims the appellation; but as an humble commentator, writing his notes in the margin of a book that pleases him, that he loves to read over and over again, and wishes to find ftill more perfect. How far M. de Peyfonnel has fucceeded in his defign, the reader will be the better able to judge, when we have presented him with a few extracts.

Speaking of the facrifice which the Sultan Mahmoud was neceffitated to make of the lives of his three favourites, the Kiflar Aga, and Soliman Aga, an Arminian banker, the Baron de Tott has the following paffage.

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It had been the bufinefs of these men to give variety to the gratifi-* cations of the prince. He profited by their inftructions, and quitted for a moment the voluptuous pleafures of the harem, in order to pre-. fide at the execution of two of them.

How unjust and injurious a reflection,' exclaims M de Peyfonnel, upon the memory of the best and wifeft emperor that had governed Turkey fince the days of Soliman the magnificent!' Sultan Mahmoud afcended the throne in, 1730, and died, regretted by his people, in 1754. He had doubtless fhed much blood; but it was the blood of rebels, whofe death was indifpenfable to his own fecurity, and his people's happiness. It is equally true, that he was the fpectator of the atonement made by his favourites to the e violated laws. But he did it from the motive of rendering their example the more ftriking, and of giving the more complete fatisfaction to his subjects, over whom these monsters had exercised the most cruel tyranny. Mahmoud was mild, affable, hospitable to foreigners, and more exempt from the prejudices of his religion, than any prince that had ever fat upon the throne of Turkey. Full of information and of talents, he loved, and he had cultivated, with confiderable fuccefs, the liberal and the mechanical arts. I beg leave, in contradiction to this act of inhumanity, which the Baron de Tett has produced against him, to relate a fact truly fub. lime, and which may ferve to characterife him as a man and a fovereign. He was croffing the canal, incognito, attended only by Boftangi Bachi. Zonana, the jew, Bazirghian Bachi de Todjak, contractor for horfe furniture to the corps of Janiffaries, was failing in a contrary direction. The Ifraelite was voluptuously reclined upon a fopha of white fatin, at the ftern of a magnificent pleasure boat, and repofing upon two cushions, formed of the fame fatin, and embroidered with gold. He was smoking a pipe, and had two flaves kneeling before him, whofe fole occupation it was continually to fupply the vehicle with aloes, as faft as they were exhaufted by their indolent and imperious mafter. Boftangi, the implacable enemy of Zonana, did not fail to point him out to the fultan, and to endeavour to awaken his indignation at fo pompous and luxurious a fpectacle. Thou fool,' replied Mahmoud to his officer, does not the fplendid state of that jew redound to my glory? What higher encomium could an hiftorian beftow upon me, than to fay, that, under my reign, even the Jews, the fcorn and abhorrence of every other nation, were enabled to poffefs, in perfect fecurity, both extreme opulence, and the liberty of displaying it? The answer would have done honour to an Alexander, a Cæfar, or a Louis XIV.'

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The Baron de Tott attributes the grofs ignorance with which he ftigmatizes the Turks to the extreme difficulty with which they read their own language, "made up," as he fays, "wholly of confonants, the figns which are fubftituted in the place of vowels being almost certainly omitted." He adds,

That, by the adoption of the Arabic and Perfian language to fupply the poverty of their's, and by compofing five alphabets, the different characters of which are left to the arbitrary difpofal of the writer, the Turks have thrown fresh obftacles in the way of inftruction." M. de Peyfonnel refutes thefe

groundless

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groundless affertions, and endeavours to rescue the Turks from the ftigma fo unjustly thrown upon them.

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If the Indignes, who understand the language, have fo much dif ficulty to read it, on account of the mnltiplicity of figns, and the fup preffion of the vowels, how muft this difficulty be enhanced to a foreigner, who is deftitute of every primitive idiom of the language? And what infinite labour muft it not coft him to read and write it with fluency, and to understand those books which treat in it of the moft abftrufe fubjects? But here the Baron contradicts himself in the fame page, where he tells us, that, with the affistance of a Perfian Maître des Langues, who was for ever drunk with opium or brandy, he was foon able to explain himself tolerably, and to difpenfe with his interpreter.' Does it not follow, from this rapid progrefs of the Baron, that the language, ftript of the original obftacles that befet the ftudy of a foreigner, muft be, to the native inhabitants, an acquifition easily obtained, and that books of the deepeft fcience can prefent to them few difficulties on that score?

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The original of the Turkish language is the Tartar, the language of Zagathai, in which he wrote a variety of books, and many of whofe manulcripts are ftill to be met with in the king's library, and perhaps elsewhere. The defect afcribed by the Baron to the Turkish language, is the very circumftance that conftitutes its greatest perfection. By the adoption of the Arabic and Perfian, it is become one of the most expreffive and beautiful languages in the world. Nor is this a fingular improvement. Every copious language has been formed after a fimilar manner. The Arabic, which is boundless in its extent, is derived from the Hebrew, which, of all languages, is the most barren and confined. The English have availed themselves of all other languages, with the utmoft freedom, and by means of it have brought theirs to an high degree of perfection. Nor have the Turks, by this adoption, given to their language an exclufive degree of perplexity and confufion. It may be learned with as much felicity as the German, the English, or any other language equally copious and extenfive.

Nor is it true that the different characters are left to the arbitrary difpofal of the writer. Each character is appropriated to a distinct fpecies of compofition. The Nefkhi, which is the only one that has appeared from the prefs, to books of fcience; the Taelic to those of poetry; the Divani to firmauns or government proclamations, and the epiftolary lile; the Sulus to devices, infcriptions and legends."

We will prefent our readers with another extract relating to this fubject. In the opinion of the Baron de Tott, a double meaning, the tranfpofitions of letters, form the whole extent of the ftudies, and the literature of the Turks, and every thing, that a corrupt tafte can invent to fatigue the mind, contributes to their delight, and excites their admiration. M. de Peyfonnel takes fire at the charge.

Is it poffible the Baron de Tott can be ferious? It is a caracature the most prepofterous and ludicrous! The Turks in general are ingenious and polished, and diftinguished for their l'esprit. And fhall we

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