The plan of education in Persia embraces chiefly reading and writing, grammar, the Arabic and Turkish languages, rhetoric, philosophy, and poetry. Their course of philosophy consists of physics, metaphysics, and morality. Under the first are comprehended mathematics and medicine; under the second, theology and jurisprudence, or every thing relative to the laws of the Prophet and the commentaries to which they have given rise; and, under the third, the doctrines which respect manners and conduct, which are regarded as the consummation of liberal instruction. These doctrines are retailed in the form of maxims, sententious sayings, proverbs, apologues, and historical recitals; and, as these morsels of ethical admonition are usually conveyed in verse, the study of poetry is generally combined with that of morals. Among these people, astrology is regarded as the first of sciences, insomuch that all persons in the superior ranks of life retain astrologers in their families, and every individual is accustomed to consult them in cases of emergency. Like the Persian physicians, they are mere quacks; and, like them, they fatten on the ignorance and prejudices of their employers. While such deference continues to be paid to the dictates of these solemn impostors, we may fairly conclude that the beams of genuine science have diffused none of their lustre on the existing race of Persians; and that the attention of the higher orders to study is prompted rather by the desire of obtaining public preferment and external consideration, than by the more laudable ambition of enlightening the understanding, and improving the better principles and affections of human nature.

The arts in which the Persians principally excel are the construction of arches, dyeing, and the manufacture of Moroccoleather and stuffs of various descriptions, consisting either of silk, cotton, or wool, or of mixed materials: but in sculpture, painting, and in most of the mechanical employments, they are extremely deficient. The system of irrigating all the lands, which are not precluded from the benefits of this plan by their elevation, has been handed down from the more antient inhabitants.

M. OLIVIER las furnished his readers with a valuable series of data relative to the commerce, native produce, and military and naval resources of Persia: but this statistical information is already too much condensed to admit of farther abridge

ment.

On the 15th of November, 1796, the party took leave of Ispahan; and, as the precarious state of M. Bruguière's health afforded no prospect of speedy amendment, they joined a mercantile caravan, intended for Kermanchach, Amadan, and

Bagdad,

Bagdad, that they might retrace their steps to Europe. After having narrowly escaped with their lives from a band of Curdish robbers, they reached Bagdad on the 16th of December:

• We had no intention (he says) of residing in this city for any length of time; our affections attracted us to our own country; our families and our friends demanded us; our own interest required our speedy return to France; and our duty called us to Paris. How could we resist such powerful motives? We had sufficiently contemplated, for our instruction, a country which flourished only in times past; which furnishes no great hope of prosperity for the future; and which, for the present, exhibits the human species in the most unfavourable point of view. We had long enough had present before our eyes the Turks, Arabs, and Persians, and the oppressed people who disgracefully vegetate among them. We had sufficiently observed to what a degree Man, when uneducated, and unaccustomed to reflection, perverts every thing, if birth or fortune audaciously invests him with power. It now behoved us to quit a Country of storms and tempests, and to enjoy at last that repose which had become absolutely necessary for one of us.

Those evils, which a person of sensibility experiences at every step, in traversing countries in which tyranny corrupts every sur rounding object, fanaticism incessantly whets her daggers, force acts only to destroy, and fear only to hoard in secret, or to suffer loss; those evils, I say, cannot be appreciated by individuals who have seen only Europe, or who have limited their travels to those regions in which force more generally yields to reason. The body, too, participates in these sufferings of the mind; for, how is it possible to avoid hardship, if we travel in a country which offers no better lodg ing than a tent, or a chamber destitute of a chimney and furniture; no better bed than a carpet, or thin matrass, spread on the ground; and no better nourishment than fruits or ill-dressed meats ? -a country, in short, in which we often find nothing to eat, or are obliged, after a long journey, to cook our own victuals! in which no domestics can be procured but those whom we bring along with us; and in which, in case of accident or indisposition, no other as sistance can be had than our own personal resources, or that which may be expected from a friend who shares our dangers!'

In spite of these lamentations, the author and his associates, owing to circumstances, (which are duly detailed, but in which the public cannot very warmly participate,) were detained at Bagdad till the second of May, 1797, when they joined a caravan bound to Aleppo. As this caravan was composed of camels, the rate of its motion did not exceed two miles in an hour. The people were, besides, seriously incommoded by excessive heat, by the brackish water which they were occasionally compelled to drink, and by myriads of noisome insects. Among the latter, the Galeodes Aranoides is particularly

12

noticed:

noticed but the reputed poison of its bite, notwithstanding the positive assertions of the natives, and of M. Pallas, is disbelieved by M. OLIVIER; whose accuracy in entomological researches we should not readily be disposed to question. His details of a tardy progress through deserted regions are, unavoidably, dry and tedious; and even the casual occurrence of a town, or of the banks of the Euphrates, faintly enlivens this portion of his narrative. We may notice, however, as a scene of novelty, Arabian families committing themselves to the current, on inflated skins; and directing their course by their hands, or feet, extended from these buoyant vehicles. The author had also an opportunity of killing a large species of turtle, which the Arabs term Rafcht; and of which he had communicated the principal characters to M. Daudin, to be inserted, as they have since been, in that gentleman's History of Reptiles. This animal is very common, both in the Tigris and in the Euphrates: but it is caught with difficulty, since it seldom ventures to the surface of the water, protrudes only part of its head into the air, and generally keeps at a great distance from the shore. The Populus Euphratica appeared in great profusion, by the side of the river from which it has its name; and, in some of the vallies, the common garden-spinach was observed to grow spontaneously.

Instead of halting at Aleppo, the naturalists were induced to embark on board a Venetian vessel, and prosecuted their course to Latakia:

We could no longer (says M. OLIVIER) recognize this city, through which we had passed twenty-two months before: an earthquake had overturned one-third of the houses, and more or less injured all the others. Fifteen hundred of the inhabitants had perished; many had been rendered lame; all who had escaped still mourned the loss of some relative, or of some friend; and all very forcibly expressed the alarm with which they had long been affected. During the space of more than two months, which were employed, in dragging the carcases from beneath the rubbish, and in searching for those valuable effects which the survivors had not been able to carry off with them, they continued in a state of extreme trepidation; and the slightest noise, or the most insignificant cry, dispersed the workpeople, who spread terror all around them. Many of the inhabitants, more timid or endued with less sensibility than the others, did not, for three months, re-enter the town.

This earthquake took place on the 26th of April, 1796, at a few minutes past nine o'clock in the morning. The sea was then perfectly calin; not a breeze nor the slightest agitation could be perceived in the air; the sky was somewhat hazy, and the sun appeared pale. It might have been supposed that this luminary and all the elements contemplated, or were disposed to participate in the

dreadful

dreadful scene that was to be exhibited. The shock was preceded by a subterraneous noise, loud enough to drown that which was occasioned by the fall of houses; or, to speak more correctly, these two noises were almost simultaneous, and so blended that nobody had time to escape. So sudden was the overthrow of the houses, that even those persons who occupied the ground floor, and happened to be in a standing posture, could not reach the threshold of the door. The tobacco store-house, situated near the port, a large building, and constructed with great solidity, was laid prostrate in a mass, and so abruptly, that not an individual escaped; the Aga, his officers, and four hundred workmen there lost their lives.'

The oppressed and depopulated state of Cyprus, at which island the party next touched, may be conceived from the single fact that its territory, which is capable of maintaining a million of inhabitants, does not afford subsistence for more than sixty thousand. - The subterraneous excavations in the calcareous rocks to the west of Cerino, which Pococke supposed to be catacombs, appeared to the present author to have been originally places of concealment for the natives, or repositories for their effects, at a period at which they were unable to resist the incursions of pirates, or the predatory enterprizes of the mountaineers of Caramania.

Having crossed over to this latter province, and landed in the Bay of Celindro, M. OLIVIER sketches, with more prolixity than interest, his route by Caraman, Konieh, Cara-Hissar, Kutayeh, the gulf of Nicomedia, &c. to Constantinople. The culture of opium, as managed at Cara-Hissar, is well detailed : but the article itself is of a quality inferior to that which is produced in Southern Persia and Hindostan, and is, moreover, frequently debased by a mixture of honey or of flour.

The narrative next conducts us to Athens, and unfolds the modern state of that once celebrated city, with the manners, condition, and principal occupations of its present inhabitants; blending the most humiliating views of Attica with our classical associations of genius, elegance, and splendor. To such associations, the mind of M. OLIVIER is evidently not insensible but the merit of his observations on Greece consists rather in the manner in which they are stated than in their originality; at least, we are not conscious that, on this interesting topic, he has communicated any information which was not already in the possession of the public.

His remarks on Corfù, also, are too unimportant to detain us.-At Ancona, he was an eye-witness to the afflicting dissolution of his colleague, Bruguière, and the alarming indisposition of M. Comeyras, another of his fellow-travellers. In December, 1798, he reached once more the capital of his native country.

On

On former occasions, we took the liberty of expressing our unbiassed sentiments with respect to the manner in which this gentleman had acquitted himself, as a writer of travels. The present volumes partake of the excellences and the defects of those which have preceded them: but they are still more devoid of liveliness; and while their contents may sometimes gratify the accurate minuteness of the geographer and the antiquary, they will perhaps more frequently fatigue the attention and exhaust the patience of ordinary readers. The very transient mention of various natural objects, which the author appears to have collected or examined, and which he is so eminently qualified to delineate, induces us to indulge the expectation that the detailed descriptions of them are purposely reserved for a separate work.

ART. II. Dictionnaire des Ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, &c.; i. e. A Dictionary of anonymous and pseudonymous Works, composed, translated, or published in French; with the Names of the Authors, Translators, and Editors; accompanied by historical and critical Notes. By ANTONY ALEXANDER BARBIER, Librarian to the Council of State. 2 Vols. 8vo. Pp. 1276. Paris. 1806. London, Deconchy. Price il. 4s.

THIS

appear to

Is voluminous compilation, which contains the history of nine thousand one hundred and four publications, will prove to the English lovers of the spreading science of Bibliography, that our neighbours keep pace with them at least in the seductive pursuits of literary history. The French indeed have long ago adopted this taste: for in this very list we notice an anonymous dictionary formed on a plan similar to that of the present, as early as the year 1706; and various other collections of the same nature have succeeded at different times, though none have been composed under circumstances so advantageous, nor (we should imagine) with so much zeal, industry, and acuteness, as distinguish the production of M. BARIt will, however, be considered as not a little singular that the very accurate compiler has committed something like a mistake, or at least a bull, in his title-page; a dictionary of works, with the names of the authors,' is a dictionary of works which are certainly no longer anonymous nor pseudonymous; and the immense multitude, which doubtless still continue to bear this character, form no part of the contents of the book. We take it for granted, indeed, in making this observation, that great numbers of works so published must have been enveloped in darkness or disguise sufficient to elude the penetration of M. BARBIER; who nowhere claims the merit of

BIER.