it to be our duty to make one strong effort to bring back the great apostle of the heresy to the wholesome creed of his instructors, and to stop the insurrection before it becomes desperate and senseless, by persuading the leader to return to his duty and allegiance. We admire Mr Scott's genius as much as any of those who may be misled by its perversion; and, like the curate and the barber in Don Quixote, lament the day when a gentleman of such endowments was corrupted by the wicked tales of knight-errantry and enchantment. We have left ourselves no room to say any thing of the epistolary effusions which are prefixed to each of the cantos. They certainly are not among the happiest productions of Mr Scott's muse. They want interest in the subjects, and finish in the execution. There is too much of them about the personal and private feelings and affairs of the author; and too much of the remainder about the most trite common places of politics and poetry. There is a good deal of spirit, however, and a good deal of nature intermingled. There is a fine description of St Mary's loch, in that prefixed to the second canto; and a very pleasing representation of the author's early tastes and prejudices, in that prefixed to the third. The last, which is about Christmas, is the worst; though the first, containing a threñody on Nelson, Pitt and Fox, exhibits a more remarkable failure. We are unwilling to quarrel with a poet on the score of politics; but the manner in which he has chosen to praise the last of these great men, is more likely, we conceive, to give offence to his admirers, than the most direct censure. The only deed for which he is praised, is for having broken off the negotiation for peace; and for this act of firmness, it is added, Heaven rewarded him with a share in the honoured grave of Pitt! It is then said, that his errors should be forgotten, and that he died a Briton-a pretty plain insinuation, that, in the author's opinion, he did not live one; and just such an encomium as he himself pronounces over the grave of his villain hero Marmion. There was no need, surely, to pay compliments to ministers or princesses, either in the introduction or in the body of a romance of the 16th century. Yet we have à laboured lamentation over the Duke of Brunswick, in one of the epistles; and, in the heart of the poem, a triumphant allusion to the siege of Copenhagen-the last exploit, certainly, of British valour, on which we should have expected a chivalrous poet to found his patriotic gratulations. We have no business, however, on this occasion, with the political creed of the author; and we notice these allusions to objects of temporary interest, chiefly as instances of bad taste, and additional proofs that the author does not always recollect, that a poet should address himself to more than one generation. C 2 ART. ART. II. Asiatic Researches; or Transactions of the Society instituted in Bengal for inquiring into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences and Literature of Asia. Vol. VIII. Calcutta. AMONGST the contributors to this volume, the public will see with pleasure the names of Mr Colebrooke and of Captain Wilford. The former has now supplied the most important desideratum in Indian literature, by inviting us to form a correct idea of the nature and contents of the Vedas, the subject of so much speculation, and the object of so much curiosity. The design of Captain Wilford is to prove, that Great Britain and Ireland are the sacred isles of the Hindus, of which Sweta dwipa, or the white island, is the principal, and the most famous; in fact the holy land of the Hindus.' There,' says he, the fundamental and mysterious transactions of the history of their religion, in its rise and progress took place. The treatise which is to contain the proofs of so remarkable a fact, is postponed to another volume. We by no means wish to prejudge it: like all this gentleman's productions, it will certainly prove learned and ingenious; and however much it may fail in establishing so wonderful a proposition, we are convinced it will abound in collateral information, in classical allusions, and in verbal analogies. We have only to hope, that the latter do not enter for a considerable share in the proofs, that Albion is the white island of the Pauranica geographers. In our observations on the last volume of these Transactions, we ventured to animadvert on the apparent want of selection, and the too indiscriminate admission of papers which appeared noways calculated to add to the reputation deservedly enjoyed by the Oriental Society. We remark with pleasure, that in this volume there is no room for such objection. Observations respecting the Remarkable Effects of Sol-Lunar influence, in the Fevers of India: with the Scheme of an Astronomical Ephemeris, for the purposes of Medicine and Meteorology. By Francis Balfour, Esq. M. D. In the course of a long and extensive practice in Bengal, Dr Balfour was struck with the remarkable coincidence between the paroxysms and remissions of the fever endemic in that country, and certain positions of the heavenly bodies. His observations, confirmed by testimonies from all parts of India, were published under the somewhat affected title of a treatise on sol-lunar inAuence.' The theory of this respectable physician, founded on the the observations alluded to, is comprised in the following propositions. 1. That the paroxysms of fevers discover a tendency to appear and disappear in coincidence with those positions of the sun and moon that regulate the rising and falling of the tides; showing themselves more frequently during the spring tides, becoming more violent as these advance, and subsiding during the neaps. 2. That there is, however, a certain state of the human constitution, denominated the paroxysmal disposition, required to concur with the exacerbation of sol-lunar power in exciting and reiterating paroxysms, in such a manner as to form fevers. 3. That in the course of the disease, there takes place in the constitution a certain state, denominated the critical disposition, which, tending gradually to maturity, at length concurs with certain remissions of sol-lunar power to produce a crisis; by which salutary change, the tendency to paroxysm is diminished or removed, so as to bring fever to an end after certain intervals of time.' The periodical increase of this influence, which swells the equinoctial tides, produces, according to Dr Balfour, a proportionate exacerbation of febrile paroxysms. Of this fact, he sees a confirmation in a table published in Dr Currie's Medical Reports, wherein the number of patients labouring under typhus fevers, admitted into the Liverpool Dispensary in spring and autumn, invariably exceeds the number of those patients admitted during the solstitial months. On the Origin of the Hindu Religion. By J. D. Patterson, Esq. THE mythology of antient nations comprises the scanty, but solitary monuments of the opinions of primeval ages. In subsequent times, though still antient with respect to us, it had been already attempted to combine them into a philosophic system, and to trace the wild and pleasing fictions sung by poets, or celebrated by priests, to profound views of the operations of nature and the mechanism of the universe. Similar attempts have been renewed to the present day, and their frequent recurrence is a proof that no solution completely satisfactory has hitherto appeared. The first question that naturally presents itself is, to what source are we to refer the legendary tales of antiquity? Are the inhabitants of Olympus to be traced to personifications of all the parts of nature? Must we consider them as deriving their existence from the phenomena observed in the heavenly bodies, and their loves, their wars, and their offspring, as simply the poetical enunciation of astronomical facts? Should we combine the operations of man with the revolution of seasons, and consi der mythology, in its origin, as a poetical calendar, in which the initiated husbandman beheld the mystic delineation of his agricul tural labours? Or, on the other hand, must we have recourse to history to solve the problem, and view, in the fables of the poet, the indistinct and disfigured traces of long forgotten events; when the father of gods and men must be content to wield the sceptre of Crete, and to have his omnipotence circumscribed by the shores of that island? Or shall we suppose that mutilated fragments of the holy sanctuary furnished the substratum of the heathen temple, and, in the deeds ascribed to pagan divinities, search for obscure vestiges of the lives of the patriarchs? When it is considered that each of these hypotheses is countenanced, by the apparently happy explications it has enabled its supporters to furnish of particular facts, whilst all have failed in extending them further, it may be allowed to doubt whether the whole of what we term antient mythology be referable to any one source. It may perhaps be suspected, that much of what was antient was lost, and much, comparatively modern, was added; in short, that the original unity of the system was destroyed before the age of those writers from whom alone we can derive our ideas concerning it. The theogony of Hesiod, the most antient, seems also the most complete epitome of the religious opinions of the Greeks. But unless we reject the testimony of Herodotus, we must suppose that the gods of Egypt and Libya figure in it along with the divinities of the first inhabitants; an union which could not fail to disfigure the original plan, if it ever possessed the symmetry of a philosophical system. A more interesting method of contemplating mythology is, by rendering it subservient to the views of the historian, and restoring, by its means, a few of the time-worn links in the concatenation of human events. In applying it to this purpose, we emerge from the obscurity and doubt which enveloped the first discussion. Iswara and Baghesa are two names for an Indian divinity, whose emblem is the phallus, whose rites consist in its worship: wrapped in a tiger's skin, and mounted on a sacred bull, the personification of Justice, he is followed by a mixed crowd of male and female votaries, whose wild dances and frantic revels accompany his steps, or announce his presence. The meaning of this symbol may be uncertain, and furnish abundant room for ingenious discussion; but no candid inquirer can doubt, that the Egyptians and Greeks worshipped the same divinity under the appellations of Osiris and of Bacchus. The complete identity of emblems and rites excludes all scepticism on this point. Now, it will not be contended, that the facts or allegories celebrated by those apparently arbitrary attributes, rites and emblems, have a natural natural application so manifest, that distant nations might each have invented the same ritual. It follows, that they have been borrowed; and the fact of an antient connexion between India and Egypt results as an incontestable deduction from the investigation. We will content ourselves with one more example of the historical data derived from antient mythology. We have already alluded to the worship of Bacchus, introduced into Greece by Cadmus, as one instance of an Indian or Egyptian fiction transplanted into Europe. But it is indisputable, that the principal features of the Grecian mythology were not imported from Egypt, and that there are no traces of their ever having prevailed in that country. Osiris was the chief deity in Egypt; but Bacchus plays a very subordinate part in the Grecian mythology; yet the Greek writers are unanimous in regarding them as the same divinity. The great analogy between the antient languages of India and of Greece has been often and justly remarked; the scanty remains of the antient Egyptian indicate no such affinity, and seem, indeed, more referable to the Hebraic or Arabian source. It may reasonably be inferred, then, that another, and possibly a more antient communication subsisted between the eastern and western world, than that which was carried on through Egypt; and this deduction derives considerable probability from the following fact. Two great sects include almost the whole of the inhabitants of India. The first, and probably the most antient, are votaries of Iswara or Osiris; and their system appears conformable to that which prevailed in antient Egypt. The second sect, which we regard as the most modern, comprises the votaries of Visnu or Jupiter. We are aware that some writers of the highest authority do not ascribe a remote antiquity to either of these sects. Their opinions are certainly entitled to much weight; but we think there are strong reasons to believe, that both were considered as antient in the age of Alexander of Macedon, although the arguments cannot with propriety be introduced here. Now, the Puránas are written by sectaries of different persuasions; but it is in those composed by Vaisnavas, or votaries of Visnu, that we may trace an affinity with the mythology of the Greeks. It were superfluous to suggest the light which this observation reflects on the original seats of the Pelasgi, to whom Greece probably owed all the inventions, for which she is not indebted to Egyptian or Phoenician colonies. The investigations we have here recommended seem, therefore, capable of affording important elucidations of remote antiquity. But great caution is requisite in conducting the research. The eighteen Puránas are voluminous compositions, probably com C4 posed |