his servant; the village was but half a mile from town. John now suffered much; the eating was bad, the time hung heavy on his master; then he scolded that there was no coffee-house in the village, and no reasonable man to converse with in order to render solitude tolerable."p. 70-72.

Here he finds a lily of the valley.

"He became acquainted with Bess the sexton's daughter. She was a stout, healthy girl, who liked Fermer particularly well on account of his person. He went often to see the father, spoke to the daughter, cursed men, pronounced them all to be malefactors, and made Bess his confidante.

"She soon learnt of him to curse men and to prefer solitude to company, both were of course inseparable. Fermer fell in love, he was loved again, and as Bess was not very much versed in books, this love passed soon from the sentimental into the natural. Her father perceived it and became furious; in order to content him, Fermer had his banns published and promised to celebrate the marriage in a fortnight." -p. 72.

But alas, for the one sentiment of the Roman bard"Media in fonte leporum

Surgit amari aliquid, quod ipsis in floribus angat."

"On a sudden Nanette appeared in the village, she had sought Fermer in vain in town; she had run away from her father, in order to be consoled by him.-All were in despair.

"Nanette threw herself on her knees and cried and howled.-' I am a mother!' cried she pathetically,-(and it would have been unnecessary to tell it; for every body saw it). For God's sake, Leopold, give this child a father, or I must kill it with my own hands, however sorry I should be.-Let the prayers of a mother soften thy heart.' ”—p. 72–74. And the dire catastrophe thus ensues :

"Bess was about to speak in the same tone, when Nanette was finally silenced and yielded generously; Fermer assigned to her some hundred dollars. She now discovered that she had a lover, who wished to marry her, provided she had some fortune to offer; he had been, at the university, tutor to the young son of a bailiff, and had now a place at the school in Fermer's native town.

"All were content: Fermer went to live with his wife in town, and gave her a taste for books; she became acquainted with Louise; she, and her confidante, who in the meantime had married her Marquis of Posa, with Nanette and her husband, formed a familiar circle, in which one read, talked, and yawned.

"Fermer has since turned an author and offers to the booksellers the following manuscripts :"-p. 74.

Which we presume we need not enumerate.

ART. VIII.-1. Darstellung der Aegyptischen Mythologie, verbunden mit einer kritischen Untersuchung der Ueberbleibsel der Aegyptischen Chronologie, von J. C. Prichard, M.D. Uebersetzt und mit Anmerkungen begleitet von L. Haymann. Nebst einer Vorrede von A. W. von Schlegel. (An Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology: to which is subjoined, a Critical Examination of the Remains of Egyptian Chronology, by J. C. Prichard, M.D. With a Preliminary Essay by A. W. von Schlegel. London. 1838.) Bonn. 1837.

THE name of Augustus William von Schlegel is too well and too deservedly known to our readers and the world at large to render necessary any formal comment on his merits; nor shall we enter into that more invidious portion of a reviewer's duty by pointing out the errors that here and there dim his disk. The Essay before us is also particularly free from the latter, and we hasten to lay it before our readers.

After a just praise bestowed upon Dr. Prichard's Egyptian Mythology, which has brought so general a view of antiquity in connection with its peculiar subject so interestingly before us, Professor Schlegel proceeds to explain that he has doubted, not distinctly denied, the relations of the Celtic nations to the IndoGermanized family. If this learned writer had denied it he would have been most positively wrong, but this point we will not press here, but proceed to extract on the question of identity of nations :—

"In contemplating the religions of the ancient world, so many points of resemblance press upon the observer as immediately to suggest the idea that this agreement of nations, who are in part far separated and estranged from one another, or who have been strangers time out of mind, may be best attributed to a common origin of their faith or superstition, their sacred customs and laws, in some unknown home and remote antiquity.

"The results of that study of languages, which has been so much extended and advanced in our times, give to this supposition a yet higher degree of probability. The languages of the Indo-Germanic stock bear indisputably the stamp of an original relationship, although the nations. spread over two quarters of the world had either no intercourse at all with one another, or, where they came in contact, had no conception of such an alliance.

"Our history of the world, which relatively to the antiquity of the human race, is very modern, presents many instances, which partly appear incredible, of the incursions and wanderings of more or less numerous hordes, chiefly nomadic. But the greater number of nations, especially the agricultural, we find settled, from the most distant age

which our knowledge can reach, in the same places which were afterwards the scene of their activity and peculiar development. The immigration, which took place before the period of historical tradition, has been forgotten; not a few tribes maintaining that their ancestors were originally natives of the country. But their languages are manifestly nearer or more distant ramifications of a single mother-tongue, spoken by one family of people, and prove that in a distant and indeterminate antiquity emigrations took place over wide tracts of country from some common and original abode.

"This is no hypothesis, but a fact, clearly made out, though not resting upon testimony, and which can no longer be denied in our inquiries into primeval history.

"The supposition then recurs, that the settlers brought with them from that original abode to their new home the fundamental articles of their religion, as well as the first rudiments of arts and sciences; and this conjecture receives additional force from the consideration, that several of these nations, the Indians, the Persians, the Hellenes, and the Italian tribes, by the grandeur of their plans, their high cultivation, and their enterprising activity, attest a previous education.

Of this we think there can no longer be a question, and the only point of difficulty is the means and time of the connection referred to. What has been generally considered as being derived from intercommunication will doubtless prove to have arisen from original identity ;--and if we adhere to the account in the first book of Moses, we shall find all history, that deserves the name, concurring in its testimony with little or no material variation. The previous education" will thus be found, and thus only. Of the Egyptians the Professor observes:

"

"The Egyptians indeed, judging from their language, certainly do not belong to the family above indicated. They stand quite apart between the natives of Libya and Ethiopia to the west and south, and the so-called Semitic nations to the east, who, distinguished by their own peculiarities, hold also a very important place in the history of the world. "This is not, however, an insuperable objection to the admission of an influence proceeding from countries so remote. Missions, chiefly of priests, were incontestibly undertaken in very early times for the education of the nations; in the first place by means of religion and laws, and then by instruction in arts and sciences.

"I will not here produce some entirely historical examples, as for instance, that Buddhism has extended from this side India to the distant Japan; for here we know the intermediate links, which is not the case with the assumed intercourse between India and Egypt. Besides, Buddhism, engrafted upon Brahminism, belongs from its character and the time of its propagation to modern history. But it is a fact that, before the Buddhists, a colony of Brahmins settled in the island of Java and raised the yet savage inhabitants to a high degree of civilization. It appears from the code of Menu that the ancient Indians were not so

averse to navigation as is often supposed. On the other hand, it is not to be doubted that the Phoenicians early carried on trade by sea with India, and brought Indian wares to the Egyptians. If Sesostris the Great really penetrated into India in his adventurous campaigns, as Champollion, relying upon his explanation of ancient monuments, imagines, he might have brought back from thence Brahmin prisoners. But these possibilities of a foreign influence do not reach back far enough into past ages by a great deal, if we give only half as much credence as Plato did to the declarations of the Egyptian priests respecting the original immutability of their religion."

We conceive the Buddhists to be, and their name will fully bear out the derivation, simply the (self-styled) restorers of an original system, (see our Article on Tamil MSS., in our Number for 1837.) And hence the confusion of their claims for antiquity conflicting with an appearance, or re-appearance, in history comparatively recent. Speaking of the difficulties attendant on the question of polytheistic systems, the Professor observes :

"This has in recent times justly become a favourite subject of research, especially in Germany. But far from the penetration which has been spent upon it having led to any certain and generally acknowledged results, the diversity of opinions appears rather to augment with the extension of learning."

We merely observe upon the former of these extracts, that since even German research in all its amplitude has only made "confusion worse confounded," it will be necessary to go back and commence ab ovo, if we expect to make any better progress. M. Schlegel points out the sources; but only partially, we must

observe.

"We shall, in no very distant period, be better acquainted with the religion of the Brahmins than with any other of ancient times, viz. as soon as the ancient written records have been entirely brought to light. We have long had the code of Menu: a commencement has been made with the Ramayana and Maha-Bhárata, the two most ancient heroic poems, which, besides the traditions of heroes, contain so much of cosmogony and theogony: now the principal parts of the Vedas alone are wanting, I mean the hymns, the liturgical formulas, and the ritual. The later, contemplative part belongs more to the history of philosophy. If we intend to make use of the Puranas, we must apply a suspicious criticism with relation to their genuineness and the determination of their age. The corruptions of the modern superstition need not trouble us; least of all as they are represented in the partial accounts of missionaries."

The value of the former loss may fairly be doubted, for all we know of antiquity is through the doubtful mists of their mythos; requiring the utmost care to disenvelope from the shroud of falsehood in which it has so long slept. Nor from the unquestionable

deceits of Egypt can we be prepared to rely implicitly upon the accounts of her priests, were they even forthcoming.

With respect to the Greeks we conceive M. Schlegel to be but partially correct in his reference. That vain and lying race undoubtedly deserve reprobation, but it must be borne in mind that they were the absolute heritors of those traditions, half-history, halffable, which they in pure ignorance consigned to mythology. The dogmas, too, of the later ages were assuredly only a traditionary ignorance to Egypt alone. Many bear the stamp of the East distinctly impressed; and we cannot do better than quote here, in preference to any remarks of our own, the opinions of Professor Wilson, whose opinions on this subject are deserving higher reverence than those of any living authority. The Professor, we notice, confines his remarks entirely to the Hindu system, his immediate subject in the volume from which we quote. In our opinion the Persian doctrines are to the full as germane to the question of originality and derivation :—

"That an intimate connection exists between the metaphysical systems of the Hindus and those of the Greeks is generally admitted, although its extent has not yet been fully made out. We are scarcely yet, indeed, in possession of the means of instituting an accurate comparison, as the text books of the Hindus have not been printed or translated, and general dissertations, however comprehensive or profound, are insufficient for the purpose. The present publication will go some way, perhaps, towards supplying the deficiency, and may afford, as far as it extends, authentic materials for the use of those better qualified classical scholars who may be curious to ascertain in what degree the speculations of Plato and Aristotle correspond with those of Kapila and Gautama, or how far the teachers of one school may have been indebted to those of another. That the Hindus derived any of their philosophical ideas from the Greeks seems very improbable; and if there is any borrowing in the case, the latter were most probably indebted to the former. It has been objected to this conjecture, that the total want of chronology in Hindu writings renders it impossible to pronounce upon their date, and that it is probable that many works regarded as ancient are really very modern, as they may have been composed long after the æra of Christianity; the notions which they inculcate being in fact acquired from the Greeks of Alexandria, through the intercourse between India and Egypt. That this intercourse may have exercised a mutual influence upon some parts of the philosophy of both countries in the first ages of Christianity that resemblances, respectively interchanged, may be detected in the notions of the new Platonists or Platonic Christians and of the more modern Védantis, or in eclectic pantheism of the Pauraniks -is not impossible; but the Greek philosophy of that period can scarcely have suggested the severer abstractions of the Sankhya, and we must go back to a remoter age for the origin of the dogmas of Kapila. In truth, the more remote the period, the closer the affinity that seems