the influence of frenzy or madnefs, and will fcarcely allow ourfelves to be affected by him. But when he gives way to all the strength of emotion, and at the fame time preferves the propriety of fpeech and key, then it is that his animated addrefs will appear the refult of immediate conviction, and force its way irrefiftibly into our hearts. This rule concerning the management of the voice is fo little regarded, that almost one half of our public fpeakers are either deftitute of variation of tone, or when they happen to be animated, they lofe all command of their vocal powers.

To prevent both thefe inconveniences, let the utmost care be taken of the tones of young perfons when they are learning to read. Then it is that the fimple and natural mode of converfation is generally laid afide, and one adopted in its ftead which is imitative, affected, and artificial. Amongst other improprieties in cultivating the voice in children, there is none more pernicious than the custom of teaching them to read in a much higher key than when they fpeak. I have often obferved a perfon who, when converfing on fome ferious fubject with the most agreeable propriety, chanced to take up a book where perhaps the fame fubject was treated, Mark the contraft. He begins to read. His voice is elevated two or three notes higher. It is quite unnatural and affected. Is it not strange that we should imagine reading to be an exertion of the vocal powers different from fpeaking? If we use the fame words, and are animated with the fame feelings, fhould not we exprefs them in the fame manner? Whether we receive our ideas from the ear as in converfation, or from the eye as in reading, or from the memory as in reciting, ought we not ftill to utter them in that pleasing variety and command which nature directs?

But the moft pernicious confequence of this unnatural mode of reading is, that the very fame tones are used in public speaking. Our clergy, who, from their profeffion, and the topics they speak upon, ought to wear unrivalled the palm of eloquence in this kingdom, have in general fo confounded the idea of reading and speaking, by using the one for the other, that they perform both in the very fame manner. Whether a difcourfe is read or repeated, the natural medium of the voice is in general laid afide. One thing is remarkable, that when a perfon is to addrefs a large audience, he often elevates his voice to a HIGHER pitch, inftead of fpeaking in a LOUDER or ftronger tone. We have already oblerved that the voice becomes fmaller, and confequently weaker, in proportion as the larynx afcends and the glottis contracts. What custom then can be more injurious to the purposes of fpeaking than to degenerate into a fqueaking, inarticulate tone, at the very time when the voice should be exerted with vigour and fulness? If therefore the speaker wishes to be heard at an unusual distance, let him rather pronounce in a lower key than in a higher. Let him train every finew, and put forth all his bodily ftrength, but never let him violate the firmnefs and propriety of articulation. I have often wondered that an object fo important as the key of the voice fhould be so much neg Lected. Every musician knows the exact pitch of his inftrument, and can found it from the lowest to the highest note; and fhall lefs care be taken to ascertain the compass and adjust the harmony of those wonderful

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wonderful organs which, when skilfully ufed, are a thousand times more expreffive and pleafing than the best imitations of them that ever the world faw? Shall the various powers of the body be entirely at command in the most common mechanical art, and fhall a faculty fo noble and commanding as that of fpeech be left to exert itself ungoverned and at random? The firft rule is to preferve that medium or peculiar key of voice which is fo little ftudied and ftill lefs reduced to practice."

Yet, after all the efforts of art and inftruction, Nature must be the leading agent. There are voices which no art can teach to fing; and it is the fame with regard to elocution, which Cicero not improperly calls cantus obfcurior. The command of modulation, and the variety of inflection, are never to be attained by those whofe organs are capable of emitting only uniform and unelastic sounds.

L.

ART. VII. The Hiftory of the Life of Nader Shah, King of Perfia. Extracted from an Eaftern Manufcript, which was tranflated into French by Order of his Majefty the King of Denmark. With an Introduction, containing, I. A Description of Afia, according to the Oriental Geographers. II. A fhort Hiftory of Perfia from the earliest Times to the prefent Century. And an Appendix, confifting of an Effay on Afiatic Poetry, and the Hiftory of the Perhan Language. To which are added, Pieces relative to the French Tranflation. By William Jones, Efq; Fellow of University Col lege. Oxford, and of the Royal Societies at London and Copenhagen. 8vo. 6 s. bound. Cadell. 1773

IN

N the Appendix to the 42d volume of our Review, p. 508, we gave fome account of Mr. Jones's French tranflation of the original of this Perfic Hiftory of Nader Shah, in two voJumes in quarto. Of the prefent abridgment, in English, of that curious Hiftory, the following account is given by the very learned and ingenious Author, in his excellent Prefatory Difcourfe on the Duty and Qualifications of an Hiftorian :

Speaking of Mirza Mahadi, the original Author of this hiftory of the celebrated Cromwell of the Eaft*, Mr. Jones is dif pofed to grant that his teftimony is not wholly free from fufpicion; but then he very juftly remarks, that the narrative of the Perfian hiftorian muft neceflarily be more authentic than

• We have been ftruck with this idea of comparifon; which, however, does not feem to have occurred to Mr. Jones;—or, perhaps if it did offer itfelf to his notice, he rejected it, in favour of what he deemed a nearer refemblance, He has drawn a parallel between the characters of Nader Shah and Guftavus Vafa; but we fear the pure principle of patriotifm was not equally evident in both these heroes, although there is confeffedly fomething fimilar in the general out-line of their hiftories.

that of our travellers, who could not poffibly be acquainted with the facts which they fo confidently relate.

Mirza Mahadi, we are informed, was the perfonal attendant of his hero, in many of his expeditions, and was an eyewitness of the actions which he defcribes. It is probable, indeed, as Mr. Jones confeffes, that the hiftorian's attachment to the Deliverer of his country,' might induce him to paint Nader Shah in brighter or more pleafing colours than he deserved; to caft a veil over the deformities of his character, and to prefent us only with the beauties of it; but, he adds, the work was finished after the death of the monarch, and as it paffes a very free cenfure upon the latter part of his life, we may reasonably conclude that the Author delivers his real fentiments; though his veneration for the memory of fo extraordinary a man, often betrays him into expreffions which border upon the meanest flattery.'

as

With refpect to the ftyle of the original, our ingenious Orientalift obferves, that the Perfian language has declined fo much from its original purity, that no great elegance could be expected from Mirza Mahadi.

The work, nevertheless, he adds, is genuine, and may be recommended as a curiofity;' yet he freely confefles, that had he been left to his own choice t, it would have been the laft manuscript in the world which he should have thought of tranflating out of fo many Perfian books of poetry, ethics, criticifm, fcience, hiftory, it would have been eafy to have selected one more worthy of the public attention; and the works of Hafez or Sadi might have been printed for half the expence, and in half the time.'

Our Author hath fince, however, been inclined to try whether this Afiatic hiftory might not appear to better advantage without the stiffness of a verbal tranflation; with which intent, fays he, I drew up a fhort abftract of it in my native language: I ftripped the original of its affected flowers and ornaments, and here prefent the English reader with all the interesting facts in a plain and natural dress; but, in compliance with Tully's rules, I have in fome places ventured to interpofe my own judgement upon counfels, acts, and events; have preferved the

+ Mr. Jones appears, indeed, to have undertaken the work with fincere reluctance; but there was no refifting the repeated applications of a crowned head. The King of Denmark, too, at that time, ftood very well in the esteem of the English nation.

Alluding to the fet of primary laws for the conduct of an hiftorian, which Cicero laid down at the time when he was meditating an History of Rome; and to which he himself proposed to conform. These rules he puts into the mouth of Antonius: fee De Orat. lib. ii. 15.

order

order of time without anticipation or confufion; and have oc cafionally interwoven the defcription of remarkable places; taking care to affert nothing of any moment without the authority of the Perfian to fupport it, and not to run after the falfe gleam of conjectures and reports, by which most of the writers on the fame fubject have been led. After all, I am far from expecting, that this little work will give me any claim to the title of an Hiftorian: when I compare my piece, not only with the idea of Cicero, but even with the productions of others, I am like the drop of water, in the fable of Sadi, which fell from a cloud into the fea, and was loft in the consciousness of its own infignificance. The chief merit of the book, if it has any, confifts in exhibiting in one view the tranfactions of fixty years in the fineft parts of Afia, and in comprifing in a few fhort fections the fubftance of a large volume. Life is fo fhort, and time fo valuable, that it were happy for us, if all great works were reduced to their quinteffence: a famous fcholar at Leipfic proposed to reprint the vaft compilation of M. d'Herbelot enlarged to the double of its prefent fize; but he would deserve better of the learned world, if he would diminish it to a fourth part of its bulk, by rejecting all its repetitions and fuperfluities.'

To this abridgement of the life of Nader, Mr. Jones has prefixed a fuccinct but very ufeful defcription of Afia, and particu Jarly of the Perfian Empire, that the Reader, upon opening the Hiftory, might not find himself in a country wholly un known to him; and that he might be prepared for the Orien tal names, which in fuch a work could not poffibly be avoided, and are not easily accommodated to an European ear.'

In this introductory difcourfe on the Afiatic Geography, and in the Short Hiftory of Perfia, fo neceffary, by way of prelude, to the ftory of Nader Shah, our Author confeffes his obligations to the celebrated work of M. de Herbelot; from whom, however, nothing, he declares, has been copied, which has not, alfo, been found in feveral manufcripts. Our materials, fays Mr. Jones, were taken from the fame originals; and it is natural for two perfons, who fearch the fame mine, to meet with the fame kind of ore. The principal geographers, whom I confulted, were Abulfeda, and Ulugbeg; the firit, a King of Hama in Syria, and the second, a grandfon of Tamerlane, who was also an excellent aftronomer, and built a fine obfervatory in his imperial city of Samarcand.'

In the abftract of the Perfian Hiftory, introductory to that of Nader, Mr. Jones profeffes to have followed the plan of a book compiled by Atticus, which was greatly admired by the Romans, but is now unfortunately loft: it contained an abftrat of General History, and exhibited, at one view, a relation of the

most interesting events that happened in a period of 700 years*. Thus our Author's compendium, of about 34 pages, mentions all the great and memorable occurrences in the Persian empire, from the doubtful and fabulous ages, to the decline of the Sefi family, in the prefent century. It is extracted from feveral Afiatic writers: Mirkhond, Khandemir, Ferdafi, &c.

By way of Appendix to the Life of Nader Shah, the Author has here reprinted his ingenious and entertaining Essay on the Poetry of the Eaftern Nations, which was prefixed to his Collection of Eaftern Poems †, by way of commentary. As this Effay contains many remarks on the manners of the Afiatics, it is with propriety inferted in this volume. It will be found, Mr. Jones obferves, very different, both in form and style, from the treatife which he wrote in French, on the fame fubject, and published in 1770, with his tranflation of the King of Denmark's Perfian Manufcript. Both thefe differtations, our Author here informs his Readers, were intended only as introductory to a much larger work, on the Afiatic Poetry, written in Latin for the convenience of learned foreigners, and entitled, Poefeos Afiatica Commentarii, which will be offered to the public in the middle of next March.'

The difcourfe on Eaftern Poetry is followed by a piece entitled, An Hiftory of the Perfian Language; the greatest part of which, we are here told, was defigned to be added to the Author's Perfic Grammar, published in 1771. As it was, at that time, prevented from feing the light, it is here inferted, to complete this miscellany of Perfian literature. It contains a proper variety of chofen fpecimens from the best authors; chiefly from the poets, who, as Mr. Jones remarks, have, in all ages, taken the greatest pains to harmonize and improve their language. This tract contains many curious and entertaining particulars among others, we have the following account of the great Perfian poet FERDUSI:

At the clofe of the tenth, and beginning of the eleventh çenturies, Mahmud reigned in the city of Gazna: he was fupreme ruler of Zablestan, and part of Khorasan, and had penetrated very far into India, where by this time the religion and language of the Arabs and Perfians had begun to prevail. Several poets were entertained in the palace of this monarch, among whom was FERDUSI, a native of Tus or Mefhed. This most learned man, happening to find a copy of the old Perfian

• Cic. Orat.

+ See Rev. for May, 1772, p. 508-517.

See a full and critical account of this learned work in our Re

views for January and February, 1772.

History