reputation are quite gone, the slave makes his appearance once more, -not as a Janissary, but as a General Officer in the Russian service; and being now convinced that the familiarity of the Disdar-aga led to no unseemly consequence, marries his quondam mistress for good and all, and carries her to Russia, 'a country congenial by its climate to her delicate constitution and luxurious habits; and by its character, to her tender, sensitive and fanciful disposition!' iv. p. 286. Such is the story; which may be dismissed as merely foolish : but the sentiments and language must not escape quite so easily. The latter is an inflated jargon, composed of terms picked up in all countries, and wholly irreducible to any ordinary rules of grammar or sense. The former are mischievous in tendency, and profligate in principle; licentious and irreverent in the highest degree. To revelation, Miss Owenson manifests a singular antipathy. It is the subject of many profound diatribes, which want nothing but meaning to be decisive. Yet Miss Owenson is not without an object of worship. She makes no account indeed of the Creator of the universe, unless to swear by his name; but, in return, she manifests a prodigious respect for something that she dignifies with the name of Nature, which, it seems, governs the world, and, as we gather from her creed, is to be honoured by libertinism in the women, disloyalty in the men, and atheism in both. This young lady, as we conclude from her Introduction, is the enfant gate of a particular circle, who see, in her constitutional sprightliness, marks of genius, and encourage her dangerous propensity to publication. She has evidently written more than she has read, and read more than she has thought. But this is beginning at the wrong end. If we were happy enough to be in her confidence, we should advise the immediate purchase of a spelling book, of which she stands in great need; to this, in due process of time, might be added a pocket dictionary; she might then take a few easy lessons in 'joined-hand,' in order to become legible: if, after this, she could be persuaded to exchange her idle raptures for common sense, practise a little self denial, and gather a few precepts of humility, from an old-fashioned book, which, although it does not seem to have lately fallen in her way, may yet, we think, be found in some corner of her study; she might then hope to prove, not indeed a good writer of novels, but a useful friend, a faithful wife, a tender mother, and a respectable and happy mistress of a family. ART. V. A Grammar of the Sanskrita Language, by Charles Wilkins, L. L. D. F. R. S. 4to. p. 662. London, 1808. A Grammar of the Sungskrit Language, composed from the works of the most esteemed Grammarians; to which are added examples for the exercise of the Student, and a complete List of the Dhatoos or Roots, by W. Carey, Teacher of the Sungskrit, Bengalee, and Mahratta Languages, in the College of Fort William. Serampore, printed at the Mission Press, folio, pp. 906, app. 108, index 24. Mr. Colebrooke's Grammar of the Sanskrit Language. Printed in India. Folio, pp. 236. London, Blacks, Parry and Co. S so much of the reputation of every country depends upon its literary productions, we may, with reason, be proud that of a language so curious, so celebrated, and until lately so inaccessible as the Sanscrit, no fewer than three Grammars, composed by Englishmen, have issued from the English press. We owe to France the translation of a Chinese Historian, and the most important elucidations of Chinese literature. We are indebted to the same country for the Zend-avesta, and Bound-Dehesch of the disciples of Zerdusht or Zoroaster: but England may in her turn claim the honour, almost undivided, of revealing to the world the venerated and long-secluded compositions of the Sanscrit. We say, almost undivided, because the Bhagavat, one of the most important and, in some respects, the most rational of the irrational Puranas of the Bramins, having been previously translated from the Sanscrit into the Tamul and the Persian, was published in French at Paris in the year 1788. Perhaps, however, this ought not to form an exception to our exclusive honour of being the first Europeans who have attained and communicated the Sanscrit literature, because it does not appear that this book, which was published under the title of Bagavadam, was translated by any Frenchman from the Sanscrit. The Invocation declares it to have been translated into the Tamul or Malabar dialect; and from that language the French version seems to have been made, with the help of an Indian interpreter, who, unknown to his employer, clandestinely sent a copy to the French minister. The importance of the Sanscrit language has been long obvious to the students of Oriental literature. It has been described by Dr. Carey, the author of one of the Grammars, as the immediate parent of the Bengal, the Mahratta, the Orissa, the Telenga, the Carnatic, the Gujurat, and the Malabar or Tamul languages. Hence a knowledge of the Sanscrit places all these in our power, as it will generally furnish the meaning of four words out of five of them all. "The peculiar Grammar,' he says 'of any one of these may be ac'quired in a couple of months, and then the language lies open to 'the student. The knowledge of four words in five enables him to 'read with pleasure, and renders the acquisition of the few new 'words, as well as the idiomatic expressions, a matter of delight ra'ther than of labour. Thus the Orissa, though possessing a separate grammar and character, is so much like the Bengalee in the very expression, that a Bengalee Pundit is almost equal to the correction of an Orissa Proof Sheet; and the first time that I read a page of Gujuratte, the meaning appeared so obvious as to render it unne'cessary to ask the Pundit questions.' Another consideration has long attached us to the Sanscrit. In our philological prolusions we have occasionally amused ourselves with tracing the affinities of some of the languages of Europe and Asia and we have been much interested to find how many words of European languages may be paralleled with similar ones in the Sanscrit; and this not merely of the Latin and Greek, which Mr. Halhed has remarked, but also of the Saxon and Welsh. It therefore cannot fail to be as interesting to the grammatical philosopher, as it will be beneficial to those who are employed in the East India service. But although none can be more impressed than ourselves with a strong sense of the utility and importance of this language, we are by no means prepared to say with the Bramins that it is the language of the Gods; nor with Mr. Wilkins that it is a wonderful language'; nor even with Sir William Jones that it is more perfect than the Greek, and more excellently refined than either Greek or Latin. This indefatigable student, who first held the torch, and pointed out the path in the dark caverns of Sanscrit literature, and who created so much of that spirit of inquiry which is now so successfully exploring them, naturally spoke of his new and mysterious favourite, with all the warmth of a first passion. Mr. Halhed gravely states its antiquity to be unfathomable*; as if we had fathomed the antiquity of any language! and Colonel Dow most devoutly believed that the 'Hindoos carry their authentic history farther back than any other nation now existing. We should have coincided with the Colonel in his paragraph, had he left out the epithet 'authentic,' because as the Bramins very confidently affirm that Munnoo wrote his book rather better than seven thousand millions of years ago; and as Mr. Halhed who tells us this, also asserts that Shukeh Diew, a learned Bramin composed a work containing the History of India during the whole of this period, we may safely believe that no other nation now existing,' can carry back their history much farther. We are glad to learn from Mr. Halhed that this history, the Shree Bagbut, which he very sensibly calls 'a curious History,' still subsists, and that it is so consistent in length at least, with its subject, as to contain more than three thousand chapters. 'What,' says Mr. Halhed with some nai *Pref. to Code of Gentoo laws. Pref. to his Hist. veté, 'shall we say to a work composed 4000 years ago, and from "thence tracing mankind upwards through several millions of years*?' On transcribing this passage we felt disposed to answer it by adding three notes of admiration to his simple mark of interrogation; but the sentence which closes the next paragraph, induced us to think that this expression of our surprise might as suitably be placed after that. From the premises already established, this conclusion, at least, may fairly be deduced, that the world does not now contain annals 'of more indisputable antiquity than those delivered down by the 'ancient Bramins.' !!! The Sanscrit has nearly ceased to be a spoken language. Indeed it bears much the same relation to the vernacular languages now in daily use between the Indus and the Ganges that the Latin does to the Italian, the classical Greek to the modern Greek, or the Saxon to English. But we think there can be as little reasonable doubt that it was once spoken in India, more or less universally, as there is that the Greek of Plato was used at Athens, and the Latin of Cicero at Rome. It is easy to account for its disuse in the common conversation of India. As the Bramins monopolized all literature as well as all sanctity, and forbad the lower casts, under the most dreadful penalties, some from reading and some from listening to the books which they chose to consider sacred, it became inevitable that they should form in time a language for themselves gradually acquiring corruptions and variations from their ancient tongue. The Sanscrit was used only for writing, and therefore received a polish, an orthography and a grammar peculiar to itself, and no doubt purposely made unlike the ken dialects. It gratified the vanity of the Bramins to have an esoteric language as well as knowledge. But as they were obliged to mix in the transactions of life with their degraded countrymen, they could not but use the popular dialects in conversation. Hence Sanscrit was cultivated by the studious Bramins as a learned language, confined to themselves; while the vulgar dialect was promiscuously used by all from its general convenience. The popular dialects therefore were suffered to supersede the Sanscrit in common use. spo When the Sanscrit, like the hieroglyphics of Egypt, or the written characters of China, had thus become the literary language of a peculiar class, distinct from the colloquial, it is not at all surprising that it should be made to possess many features unlike the spoken language. But in considering the merit of its particular qualities, we cannot indulge in the unbounded commendations of its admirers. We must always think that the Poems of Homer and the state of language which they display, compared with the rude history and manners of the Greeks in his time, present a phenomenon, which nothing in the Sanscrit excels in language and measure, or at all approaches * Pref. Gent. Laws. in intellect and poetry. The Sanscrit compounds are sometimes happy; but this is a beauty which should be very sparingly used, or like the Asiatic metaphors, it becomes actual deformity. The Bramins employ it most licentiously. They are often so extravagant as to make the whole period of a sentence one compound, which appears to us a very barbarous practice. It reminds us of the tremendous words of the Indians of North America, (who are also fond of compounds) the enormous length of which has sometimes made us gasp for breath as we attempted to pronounce them. Nor is this habit of compounding words very favourable to perspicuity, as will appear from a verse which Mr. Wilkins has translated in his Heetopades, written in a kind of measure which the Bramins, whose diction is as gigantic as their history, call eendra-vajra; the lightning of the God of the heavens. 'Swa-karma-santâna-veechêshteetânee own-work-offspring - seekings Kâlâ-'ntarâ-'vreetta-soobhâ-'soobhânee good not good time-within-shut eehî-'va dreeshtânee mayi-va tânee "The first and second lines contain but one compound word each; for there is no sign of either case, gender or number, till you get to the end.' Mr. Wilkins tell us, that from his specimen we may judge of Sanskreet composition in general,'* and if so, we must be pardoned if we think that if it be the language of the gods, they must be such as our rude Thor and Woden, who were not very famous for either elegance or intellect. The multifarious and unnecessary permutations of the Sanscrit letters, answering none of the real purposes of language, the various declensions of nouns, and conjugations of verbs, numerous far beyond any perceptible utility; the giving every noun a masculine, feminine, and neuter gender, and a dual number, each declining into eight cases; these singularities, and the endless distinctions and refinements of their grammar, are most frequently little else than difficiles nugas, the artificial tricks and amusements of literary leisure, sometimes making an improvement, but much oftener a fantastical somerset. Peculiarity and perplexity, difficulty and refinement are not always beauties; and therefore we cannot join in an unqualified admiration of the Sanscrit. Many other circumstances concur to abate our enthusiasm for this divine language, highly as it has been extolled by the twice-born class who use it. The Bramins may have increased its euphony by some of their refinements; but the following sounds, taken from Mr. Wilkins's plates of the compound consonants, seem to give it no advantage beyond the German, in the beauties of articulation-kshn, Heetopades, p. 207. VOL. 1. NO. I. * 7 |