and heroic deeds. The size of it, as it was at first described to Mr Hammer, appeared as romantic as its contents. It was said to consist of thirty or forty, and even eighty volumes; and the latter number may even be correct, when it is written in the form of an octavo volume. Mr Hammer made his discovery of this romance known to the learned of Europe, and to the travellers who visited Asia. Mr Hamilton, the brother of the gentleman who has translated a portion of it, afterwards found another copy. Mr Hammer has made a complete abridgment of the whole work, omitting no essential beauty. He has kept it by him nine years, and he thinks the translation by Mr Hamilton will not be of any prejudice to his labours. Because, there is more probability that the whole romance, compressed into half-a-dozen duodecimo volumes, will find readers, than a translation like that of Mr Hamilton, which, if completed according to the manner in which the first volume is published, is likely to extend to twelve quarto or six folio volumes. The English translator and editor of Antar have not told us this, nor have they told us many little things it seems desirable to know. They seem to have published one volume without apprising us of the extent of the whole, in order to feel the taste of the public. The criticism of Mr Hammer is principally intended to supply the omission, and we shall follow him in stating some of these particulars. According to him there is no doubt that the principal author of this romance was Assmai, (or Osmai,) one of the most celebrated poets of Arabia. He flourished in the reigns of the Caliphs Haroun, Emir, and Mamun, and lived at their courts. It is, however, more difficult to decide at what precise period of these three Perhaps the learned author claims too much when he calls himself the finder of Antar. It was known in part to Sir William Jones, who had read and describes a volume of it, as Mr Hammer himself acknowledges. He may, however, we think, justly claim the merit of being the first European to collect a perfect copy, and to make it extensively known among the ori ental scholars of Europe. Mr Hamilton, however, deserves, by his translation, the praise of having first made it known to the general reader. reigns it was written; Mr Hammer thinks it was in the reign of Mamun, and though his reasons do not appear perfectly satisfactory, they are worth stating for the sake of the anecdote they contain. Under the first of these reigns the author must have been a young man, and a work of such extent is rather to be ascribed to a well ripened genius, than to one which is just beginning to blossom. The reign of Mamun also, was, especially, the reign of poetry, of elegance, and of fancy. Poets remained outside of the door of his chamber, ready, at his signal, to drive away his ennui with their tales. Antar was a real historical personage,"the father of Arabian poets and knights," and, therefore, the proper subject of their romances. We do not think the similarity between his birth and that of Mamun's is so decisive a test as Mr Hammer would make it of the question of the date of the poem. Antar was the son of a female negro slave, and so was Mamun. In Arabia, prior to Mahomet, marriage was of three kinds. 1st, The present legal marriage of the Moslems, which lasts for life, with a power of divorce; 2d, A man lived with one or more female slaves; and, 3d, One female slave served one or several men. In this latter case, when a child was born, learned physiognomists decided, on inspecting it, who of the several men was its father. Antar was the son of a negress who had many lovers, and on his birth he was adjudged by these skilful persons to belong to the valiant knight Schedad. Mamun was the son of the renowned Caliph Haroun, by a negress, with whom he was unwillingly compelled to pass the night. Arabian historians have related this anecdote very circumstantially. Haroun and his beloved wife Sobeide were in the habit of playing chess together, and they agreed one day, in one of those playful moods, which seem to have been more common in monarchs formerly than at present, that the person who lost the game should perform any task the other imposed. Sobeide lost the first game, and the Caliph, who knew her modesty, commanded her to appear before him naked in the middle of the day, and so to make the round of the whole court. Her prayers and entreaties were vain; the voluptuous Caliph compelled her to obey. He afterwards lost, and Sobeide took a strange revenge for a female: she compelled him to pass the night with the most hateful slave that could be found. Haroun, who had seven hundred beauties of all countries waiting his commands, thought the penance of sleeping with a woodcarrying negress so severe, that he offered Sobeide the half of his treasures to let him escape. She was obstinate, and Mamun, who was afterwards Caliph, was the fruit of the adventure. The only resemblance between Mamun and Antar, therefore, is, that both were the children of negro slaves. And we think the circumstance of selecting him for the hero of a romance, who was, at the time of Mahomet, the hero of Arabia, is by no means a proof that it was written in compliment to Mamun. We thank Mr Hammer much for the anecdote, but doubt if it proves the precise time at which the romance of Antar was written. But we will leave this knotty question to the decision of our orientalists, and pass to the age in which Antar lived. considerable eminence, and the au--thor of one of those seven poems which are written in parchment with golden ink, and suspended in the Kaaba, in honour of the divinity. Every author who laid claim to this distinction was obliged to submit his work to the judgment of the whole people, and he who received it, may surely be classed as one of the first poets of his country. Antar was born in the reign of the great Persian monarch, Nushirvan the Just, and died after Mahomet was born, but before he published his heavenly mission to the world. He lived for more than a century, which would probably have borne his name, had not Mahomet appeared. It comprises some of the most remarkable events of the history of the period prior to Mahomet, such as the wars of the Arabians with the Emperors of Persia and Constantinople,-the battles of the inhabitants of Stony with those of Happy Arabia, The two most glorious epochs of the Arabian history are the century immediately prior to the appearance of Mahomet, and the reigns of the first seven caliphs of the family of Abbas. The former comprises the best days of Arabian freedom and independence. In the latter, the empire of the Arabs had reached the highest point of power and greatness. In both periods, the genius of mental cultivation had taken an eminent flight, and has left behind it memorials of an eternal fame. The first was the age of eloquence and of poetry; and it was closed by Mahomet, who was the greatest of Arabian poets, and was at once the legislator and the prophet of his countrymen. "After me," said he, "there will come no prophet," and this is true, if, by prophet, poet was meant. For after him, no Arabian, in his writings, ever reached the sublimity of the Koran. Motenebbi, whose name signifies he would be a prophet, failed in his attempt, and only served to convince the Arabs more firmly of the divinity both of Mahomet and his writings. Antar lived in the golden age of Arabian poetry, and immediately prior to Mahomet. He was himself a poet of the famous race of the two horses, Dahes and Gabra, which occasioned long wars, and the struggle of the poets in presence of the whole Arabian people at Mecca, to obtain the honours of eloquence and poetry. A history of Antar must also describe the manners of the period immediately prior to the prophet, and ought to be an important historical document. Supposing Assmai to be the author, he lived about two centuries later than Antar, and might therefore be capable of describing the manners and customs of the age in which the hero lived. In general, however, the writings of any author, though bearing the title of descriptions of a previous period, will rather take the stamp of his own age, than of that which he describes. Assmai lived at the magnificent and voluptuous court of Mamun, and he describes a state of society different from what he himself saw. Admitting that the Arabs were more polished in his days than in those in which Antar lived, they seem even then to have been sufficiently rude and primitive. This circumstance must be remembered in reading his work. Antar, also, at the time the work was written, was become a complete historical person, giving his name to cities, hills, and other places. And we are told that Mr Hamilton's translation does not possess all the value it ought, in an historical point of view, by not noticing these circumstances, and by not attending to all the geographical information the original work conveys. One of the most important merits of the work is, that it contains a picture of manners which were imported from the East into Europe, and foria ed, for some centuries, a distinguishing feature in its history. This feature was indeed so strongly marked, that it gave its name to the age. Chivalry seems to have been introduced by the Arabs into Spain, and from thence into the rest of Europe; at least traces of the influence of a warm climate may be found in the practices of chivalry, and though modified by the Christian religion, and by the progress of civilization, it probably originated in Arabia, and was in its full bloom at that period when Antar lived. He was the father of the chivalry of Arabia; and the romance which purports to be his history, is probably a correct picture of that country in the middle ages. Assmai, the choicest spirit of the court of Mamun, does not indiscriminately praise the raw virtues of the Arabian knights. He is more just than modern writers, who exalt European chivalry above our refined manners, to which, in every useful virtue, it is far beneath. We should, however, do European chivalry injustice, if we were not to place it much above the chivalry of Arabia. The most important duties of knights in both countries had several things in common. They were to help the oppressed,―to protect the weak, to honour women,-to practise hospitality, and to be true to their word. But the idea of honour was different in the Eastern desarts, and in the civilized countries of the west. Mr Hammer has traced, more minutely than we can do, the resemblance between the chivalry of Europe and of Arabia. We can only take a few of his illustrations. Re Mr Hammer gives an instance, in a note, of the geographical value of the work, which deserves to be noticed. The Vul kan Dschebeled-Duchan, or mountain of smoke, and its breaking out, are circumstantially described in Antar, while no traveller or geographer has mentioned it since Pliny. Mons. Adusto Similis, VI. 1. venge, bloody revenge, is the first law of every individual Bedouin, and of the united tribe. He never rests till the slightest insult is washed out with the blood of the insulter. The war cry of Antar and his associates was "Revenge, and not shame." This principle was the source of perpetual wars till the time of Mahomet, who launched the thunders of heaven against it, fixed a price on blood, united the Arabs in a national pursuit, and substituted public justice for private revenge. This principle of revenge, though not carried to such excess, entered also into the laws of European chivalry. The Bedouins were impatient, violent, commanding, and, above all, proud. They suffered neither opposition nor dispute, and opposed with violence every humiliation, and every restriction of their natural freedom, which were imposed by strangers claiming a greater power, a more noble birth, a purer honour or brighter talents than they possessed. They praised themselves aloud, and were ready to compel with the sword others to acknowledge the courage and merit which they had assumed. This sort of conduct was common also to European knights. When the Bedouin was not engaged in war, he resigned himself to the boundless enjoyments of peace. He passed his youth among battles or feasts, turned from the sword to the bottle, and was always fighting and quarrelling, or drinking and singing. His love was not less rude than his sense of honour. It was not so tender as that of the age of chivalry, but it had no relation to that false sentimentality which, at a later period, has usurped the name of love. He proclaimed his passion to the world, and what it wanted in constancy, he supplied with violence. Constancy was known to him but while he acknowledged the superior charms of her to whom he had first given his heart; she was obliged to share it with temporary rivals. It was the practice of the Arabians to take several wives before the time of Mahomet. He fixed the number, which a man could legally take, at four. Instead of being the founder of this practice, as is generally believed, he was the first legislator who limited it. He seems to have endeavoured to weaken the temptations to licentiousness, by confining the women to the Haram. Before his time, the Arabians of both sexes were at liberty to appear, and to acknowledge in public the influence of the tender passion. If the European knights surpassed those of Arabia by their polished manners and their sense of love, they were behind them in hospitality. An Arabian knight gave his last shirt and his last camel to the poor, to the stranger, and to the orphan. Whoever came was welcome to share his tent and his bed with him. Whoever had drank milk with him, or touched the border of his tent, was under his protection. And we admire a sentiment which provided a place of security against revenge, even in the very tent of an enemy. The Arabian knight is further distinguished from the knight of the middle ages by his having been an inhabitant of tents and of desarts, while the latter was an inmate of society, and lived among castles, cities, and an improving civilization. Such are some of the features of that age of which Antar, the father of knights, was the ornament and the hero; and his history, however romantic in point of military achieve ments, is a picture of the manners of those times. It is in this point perfectly different from the Thousand and One Nights, inasmuch as these are originally Persian or Indian fables, and Antar is an historical romance, written in the country where the events it describes took place. Mahomet repeatedly forbid the Arabians to read the Thousand and One Nights, but he ordered them to tell the deeds of Antar to their children;" and he regretted that his own lot had not fallen in the days of that hero. Though the work is called a romance, it is, in truth, the history of a celebrated individual, whose military exploits and personal strength are somewhat more exaggerated than the histories of such individuals are at present. Although this work ought to be valuable to those who make the history or geography of Arabia their study, or who delight in knightly adventures, it is likely to be still more interesting to those who love to trace the customs and character of the Arabians. They seem to have remained for centuries in their present state. In Antar, manners are described more accurately than in any travels. We see in the hero nothing but a son of Nature. We live with him in the desart and in the tent, and never accompany him but once to the court of the Viceroy of Nushirvan, and to that of the great Nushirvan himself. We learn from it the state of Arabia prior to Mahomet, and acquire materials for judging the character and deeds of that poet, prophet, and reformer. It is likely to have a further interest for the European reader, by explaining the source of some of our most popular fables. In Antar, more than one feature is to be found of Ariosto's romances, and of the Round Table, and many of the incidents of other celebrated tales; but, being destitute of fairies, enchanters, and speaking horses, it is much more probable than many of our fables. Much as the interest of this tale must be augmented to those people of whose history it forms a part, we are still at a loss to account for the effects it and similar histories are said to have on the Bedouins. To judge of this, says Mr Hammer, one must see a circle of active and quick Bedouins listening to a well-told narrative, and observe the orators of the wilderness surrounded by their closely-pressed ranks of scholars. When the burning sun has sunk behind the sand hills, they listen with ears as greedy of wonder as the parched earth is of dew, to the tales which they have heard a hundred times, and which, thanks to the mobility of their imagi nation, and to the talents of the ora tor, have as powerful an effect on them the last time as the first. They break out into anger, and melt into tenderness; they laugh, and they cry, and they share with the orator and his hero all the tempest of their passions. If the hero is in danger, they start and shudder, and cry aloud, "La, la, la, Istaghferallah,”— "No, no; God forbid; that cannot be." If he is described surrounded by enemies, hewing his way through them, they lay their hands on their swords, and raise themselves up, as if they would run to his help. Should he fall into the hands of traitors, their foreheads are drawn into deep wrinkles, and they cry, "The curse of God on traitors!" Does he at length fall beneath the swords of enemies superior in nunber, their bosoms heave with a long sigh, and they say, "May God pity him! May he rest in peace!" But when he is victorious, and returns from the field, then the air resounds with their cries of "Praise God, the Lord of battles!" Descriptions of beautiful scenery, and particularly of spring, are often received with a soft pleasure, which expresses itself by repeating" Taib, taib,"-"Good, good." When the orator sketches at large and with spirit a picture of female beauty, all their eyes sparkle with joy, and nothing can equal the delight which is expressed in their countenances. The tales are often concluded by the orator saying, "Praised be God, who has created beautiful women;" and immediately the whole circle cry out in chorus, with admiration and enthusiasm," Praised be God, who has created beautiful women!" When we read the tales which excite such enthusiasm, we cannot find in them an adequate cause for such effects. Eloquence, therefore, depends on the situation of the hearer; and it is the children of wild freedom, whose minds have never been subjected to the trammels of city policy, who are most affected by it, and who glow with all the ardour of which men are susceptible. The inhabitants of the desart seem sometimes to feel the fulness of joy, while we have only comforts. They riot occasionally in bliss, while we seldom soar beyond an alleviation of misery. Our methodical manner of living excludes adventures and unforeseen incidents, and renders our bosoms cold, and our hearts incapable of feeling those vivid emotions of sympathy which shake the bosom of the savage on the desarts of Arabia. If we could persuade ourselves that our cold clammy bosoms were the necessary consequences of what we call civilization, we should be disposed to flee to the desarts. We have won something like a love to their rude inhabitants; and we feel grateful to Mr Hamilton for his having made a part of a work known to us, which promises to be so replete with information concerning their manners. Though the English translation of Antar is probably more graphic than any abridgment can be, yet we cannot say that we wish to toil through half-adozen folios, and we shall, therefore, be much indebted to the learned and eloqueat German, from whose write ings we have extracted this information, for his abridgment of the whole. REMARKS ON DAUBUISSON ON BASALT. "A MARKED diversity of opinions on any subject connected with physical science cannot long continue: the very existence of different sentiments tends to lead to a knowledge of the truth,"-are the observations with which this work is introduced. With the last we cordially agree; but, on a subject like geological theory, we fear that coincidence of opinion is yet far distant. A degree of asperity, seldom equalled in polemical discussions, has for a long time subsisted between the supporters of the igneous and aqueous theories; not, however, so much in regard to the arrangement and classification of rocks, as to the mode in which the crust of the earth has been made to undergo those various revolutions, the effects of which it everywhere exhibits. The result of this asperity (which now, by the way, appears happily to be on the decline, if not to have ceased) has been, that, on the one hand, more anxiety has been shown to propagate, than to explain and defend the doctrines of Werner, while, on the other, many of his opponents have been more eager to apply the theory of Hutton to isolated facts, than to develope the relative positions and ages of mineral masses, in which a basis is to be sought sufficiently stable to admit of the superstructure of theory. The phenomena presented by that class of rocks now generally known by the name Trap, were among the first that suggested to Hutton the origin to which he has ascribed their production. The work before us is the result of an investigation of a district in which a species of trap, basalt, has been found in a situation considered by the author to be demonstrative of its aqueous formation; and the object is to disprove a theory widely different from that of Hutton. The appearance of a translation in this country, where there is not, we believe, a single supporter of the volcanic the Translated by P. Neill. Constable and Co. |