formed the Brahmans, or Priests; from his arms, the Khetries, or warriors; from his thighs, the Vaisyas, or merchants; and from his feet, the Sudras, or husbandmen." Of the members of the Hindu Triad, Brahma is not now much regarded. His temples have been overturned, and the worship of him suppressed by the followers of Vishna and Siva. The great Hindu sects, therefore, now consist of five; the Vishnaivas, or the worshippers of Vishnu; Saivas, those of Siva; the Saurias and Ganapatyas, the worshippers of Surya, (the Sun,) and Ganesha; and the Sactis, who worship Bhavani or Parvati, the Sacti, or wife of Siva. From these have sprung the hosts of deities with which the fruitful imaginations of the Hindus have so amply loaded their Pantheon. The ten Avatars of Vishnu, the preserving power, comprise a large portion of the Hindu mythology. The first, second, and third clearly have reference to the Deluge; the fourth and fifth describe the punishment of two tyrannical and irreligious kings, (supposed by some to be identified with Nimrod and Bel,) who oppressed mankind; the sixth, seventh, and eighth would appear to represent deified heroes, in whom Vishnu is supposed to have become incarnate to overturn a race of giants, who opposed (in many instances successfully,) the Gods, and became the scourges of the human race. The ninth Avatar is that of Buddha, assumed to reclaim the Hindus from numerous abominations into which they had fallen, and to teach them more benevolent forms of worship than those which, through the means of animal sacrifices, they then practised, The tenth, or Kalki Avatar is yet to come. It is fabled that it will take place at the end of the Kali Yug, rather more, according to Hindu Chronology, than 2,000,000,000 years hence, (a period which must be considered astronomical) when Vishnu will appear on a white horse, furnished with wings, and splendidly adorned with jewels, waving over his head the sword of destruction, which is to annihilate the world. The deities have been described in the order of their several families-Brahma, Daksha, Viswakarma, Nareda, Brigu, Suraswati, (the goddess of Learning, and the wife of Brahma,) &c. &c. Vishnu and his Avatars, Kama Deva, (the Hindu Cupid,) Juggarnath; the Monkey Deity, Hanuman; and the goddess Lakshmi, the sea-born Venus of the Hindus. Then follow Siva and Parvati, or Durga, in their various incarnations; their sons Kartikeya and Ganesha, (the leader of the celestial armies and the god of Wisdom); the sanguinary Goddess Kali; Indra, the King of the Heavens; Surya, the Sun; Yama, the Indian Pluto, and others of the minor deities. To these succeed descriptions of the mystic syllable O'm; the Vedas; some interesting ones of the Brahmans; the Poita, or sacred thread; Sectarial marks; Suttees; Infanticide; and the mystical objects of worship of Siva and his goddess Parvati; the much disputed sects of the Buddhas and Jainas follow, with accounts of the Shikhs, the Sands, (the Quakers of Hindustan,) and other sects very little known. much interest. The Third Part contains farther descriptions of the minor deities, and of the utensils, forms, and terms used by the Hindus in worship and sacrifice, the festivals, &c, &c. It is impossible within the space to which we are necessarily limited, to render justice to the extraordinary industry, skill, and talent displayed by Mr. Coleman. The brief outline we have given of his explanations of the more prominent features of the Hindu mythology may, perhaps, induce our readers to consult the work. They will scarcely find a page of the whole four hundred that does not contain some attraction. A number of well-executed lithographic prints, illustrative of the text, are given with the volume. Some of them exhibit fine specimens of skill in art; and all are highly interesting taken in connexion with the passages to which they refer. Church History, through all Ages. By Thomas Timpson, This work is intended as a book of the Church for Dissenters. The design of it professes to be through all ages, from the first promise of the to give a faithful account of the Church of God Saviour down to the present year of grace. It is compiled in a spirit of undisguised hostility to the established Church of England. In our view of the case, this is a mistaken spirit; and thus much is certain, that in describing the existing state of religion throughout the world, it has led the author to depart wholly from the proper business of history of any kind, and for calm and accurate representation of facts, to substitute the violent declamation of angry pamphleteers and speechmakers at public meetings. This is, to say the least of it, injudicious. The state of religion in the United States of America is that of which the Author is most enamoured. He looks upon the "excitements" and "revivals" as the very quintessence of spiritual Christianity. Mr. Jefferson, clared his conviction, that before another genera. the philosophic statesman of that Republic, detion had passed away, every man in America who professed any belief in Revelation at all, would be an Unitarian. Sincerely do we pray that this may not be so; and so, we doubt not, does Mr. Timpson; for there is no appearance of the withering influence of that fatal blight in his book. But we confess we think that those unhappy alternations of apathy and enthusiasm to which he points so triumphantly, are much more likely to lead to the extinction than the spread of that calm devotion which peculiarly characterises the life and doctrines of Christ, and of those true be lievers who continue to constitute his Catholic Church on earth. We are friends to Dissenters→→ all of liberal minds are so-but their better objects are Thomas Simpson. not likely to be forwarded by Mr. Biographical Sketches in Cornwall. By the Rev. R. Polwhele of Polwhele, Vicar of Newlyn, and an Honorary Associate of the Royal Society of Literature. The Rural Rector; or a Sketch of Manners, Learning, and Religion in a Country Parish, tracing the March of Intellect from The Second Part of the work comprises notices the Sunday to the Infant School. of the various mountain and island tribes, inhabiting the two Peninsulas of India and the neighbouring Islands, some of which possess Worn ont types and execrable ink disfigure very decent paper, and form the materiel of the six volumes which their Author has thus ventured to offer to the British public in the nineteenth century. Their appearance is repulsive in the extreme; few will read, and we are persuaded fewer still will purchase them. They are equally a scandal to the mechanical arts and literature of the country. Evans, in Long-lane, of ballad celebrity, is not inferior to them. The commonest modern tracts leave them far behind. We defy any but Reviewers and Ultra Tories to get through them. The Author was born too late for the age, which be labours to throw back at least a century. He is a kind of mummy, possessing the human form, but nothing of its expression and vitality. Age renders him garrulous; vanity makes him an egotist; and the prejudices of early life have converted him into a confirmed High Church bigot. He is indeed a literary curiosity, and if admitted a place into our libraries, ought to be embalmed as a dead thing of other times. His eloquent twaddle is very amusing; but his learning is useless, and his knowledge of men and things, the dreaming absurdities of the cloister. He is a Protestant monk, and the violent and somewhat antique defender of all the corruptions of a worn-out hierarchy. That he vituperates Methodism is less the ground of our objection to him, than his gratuitous attacks upon the progress of general education. His Prefaces are fair specimens of his opinions, and these introductions of himself supersede the performance of that duty on the part of his Reviewers; and if the Reader is desirous of any farther acquaintance with him as an Author, why, his works can be easily procured at the moderate price of 11. 16s. Rumours,' at the foot of a haughty confessor. too, of a dark and ominous tendency, arising no one knew whence, nor by whom encouraged, pointed injuriously to the past history of the Landgrave, and to some dreadful exposure which was affirmed to be banging over his head. His predecessor, the late Landgrave, had been assas sinated in a very mysterious manner upon a hunting party. The Landgraviate was pronounced by some of the most distinguished jurisprudents, a female, appanage; and a lady, then in obscurity, was alluded to as the agent of redress to others through that of her own heavy wrongs. These rumours were not the less acceptable to the people of Klosterheim, because they connected the impending punishment of the hated Landgrave with the restoration of the Imperial connexion. Conspiracies were moving in darkness both in the Council of the Burghers and of the University. The city, the University, and the numerous convents, were crowded to excess with refugees, who sought shelter in this sequestered nook from the storm of war and desolation that raved and whistled on every side around. Malcontents also, of every denomination, emissaries of all the numberless factions which then agitated Germany, great persons with special reasons for courting temporary seclusion, and preserving strict incognito; misers who fled with their hoards of gold and jewels to this city of refuge; desolate ladies from the surrounding provinces, in search of protection for themselves, or for the honour of their daughters; and prophets and enthusiasts of every description, whom the magnitude of the political events and their religious origin, so natu Klosterheim; or the Masque. By the rally called forth in swarms; these, and many English Opium-Eater. A historical novel, for so, though compressed into a single duodecimo, we should incline to class "Klosterheim," from the pen of the English Opium-Eater, could scarcely fail of presenting powerful claims to the attention of all lovers of romantic fiction, and no one, we think, who engages in the perusal of this volume, will willingly lay it aside until be has fairly devoured the book. Not that there is any false or unnatural excitement, as might, perhaps, be suspected by those who know the Author only in his opium-haunted visons. Far from it; the story is an episode in the famous Thirty Years War, and Klosterheim is taken as the representative, in the main features of its political distractions, of a multitude of German cities. It was not on the roll of the free cities of the Empire, but in the nature of an appanage in the family of a certain Landgrave of X At the period of the story, the Landgraviate was in the occupancy of a Prince every. where odious for the harshness of his government and the gloomy austerity of his character, with a somewhat suspicious title, and a strong bias to the Swedish interest. At a time when the religions and political attachments of Europe were brought into collisions so strange, that the foremost auxiliary of the Protestant interest in Germany was also the most distinguished Cardinal in the Church of Rome, it did not appear inconsistent with this strong leaning to the King of Sweden, that the Landgrave was privately known to be a bigoted Catholic, who practised the severest penances, and tyrant as he showed himself to others, grovelled himself, an abject devotee, more, with their attendants, troops, students, and the terrified peasantry from the country round. about, had swelled the city of Klosterheim, from a total of about 17,000 to 36,000 or 37,000. All these circumstances, combined with the hope of some dim religious judgment, like that which, ruined Edipus, brooding over the Landgrave, and the slight tenure upon which all men held their lives in those wild tumultuous times, natarally threw the thoughts of the Klosterheimers much upon the other world; and communication with it and its burthen of secrets, was eagerly sought by every variety of agencies, ghosts, divination, magic, and all other sorts of superstition. Just at this critical juncture, a mysterious masque made its appearance to many persons by night; and on the walls, in the most public places, was found a notice posted : Henceforth not you, "Landgrave, beware! but I, govern in Klosterheim." (Signed) THE MASQUE." The strict fulfilment of this threat forms the sequel of the story. There is a love-plot running through the whole, of course; for so much fight. ing and scuffling without any love, would be dry work indeed. But we mean not to disclose a syllable of the denouement, for fear of dulling the edge of the appetite of one of our fair readers. The fault of the book is its being too short. There is not sufficient room for a full and satisfactory developement of the characters. There is a certain Colonel Von Aremberg, of whom we feel quite certain the Author intended to have made a great deal more when he set out. "Klosterheim" abould have been in three volumes instead of one. The Fair of May Fair. 3 vols. These volumes consist of a number of Tales illustrative of the situations, follies, and vices of high life. The author has attained much popularity as a fashionable novelist, yet we are tempted to regret that she persists in still wearing what has now become almost a thread-bare garment. Until some miraculous revolution produces a total change in the beau monde, there can be nothing new to say about it. And, indeed, as it is at present constituted, the less that is said of it the better. While, however, we thus slight the class of works to which they belong, we are willing to render due homage not only to the industry and the talent displayed in these volumes, but also to the object by which they are principally rendered attractive, and which gives to them a character of far higher value than that of mere fashionable historiettes. "The Separate Maintenance" is a useful story, and would, if published in a small cheap form, be an invaluable gift to any young or newly married woman. The gradual coolness, the misunderstandings, and the double termination, (if we may so name it) are well brought out, and there is an excellent moral feeling throughout the whole, which gives seriousness and repose to the story. "The Devorcée" is also a tale of deep interest ⚫ and pathos, well supported from beginning to end. Some few years ago it might have had novelty to recommend it; but unfortunately there have been too many divorces of late, and its fatal troth is its chief merit. The grace, ease, and pleasantness of the author's style are sufficiently known and appreciated. We desire again to peruse an historic novel from ber pen. The Thuilleries, although it had some glaring faults, afforded ample proof of what she is capable in another and a higher literary walk. A Queer Book. By the Ettrick Shepherd. This "Queer Book" is by no means a queer book. It is simply a collection of poems which the worthy Shepherd of Ettrick has gathered from the north and from the south, from the east and from the west, or in other words, from a variety of periodical works in which they have been printed, and has here published them in a collected form, and in one of the most elegantly printed volumes we have ever seen. The "getting up" is highly creditable to the press of Scotland. With the greater number of them we are already well acquainted; but they will bear, and have borne, a second reading. The eleventh, twelfth, sixteenth, array'd Yet the volume that contains these lines, and some hundreds of the kind, is printed in a very clear and beautiful type, and upon thick wove paper. Verily, we hope that Thomas Jackson, Esq. has more money than wit. Calabria, during a Military Residence of Three Years. By a General Officer of the French Army. The translator has performed his task in a very creditable manner. His talents might, however, have been better employed; for in truth, the General Officer of the French Army has had very little to communicate that we at all care to know. He has given us no information of value, and the only amusement he affords us is by a few meagre sketches of the bandits of Calabria-the chief adversaries whom it was the lot of the gallant soldier to encounter, and whom be shot or hung in dozens, according to his own details. The frontispiece, in lithography-an attack of brigands in the Gorge of Orsomago-by Andrew Picken, jun. is worth all the written pictures put together. But this is evidently less the merit of the Author than of the Artist; the account of the one being as poor and insignificant as that of the other is vivid and picturesque. It is doubtless the work of a young man, with whose name in art we are unacquainted, although it has long been an ornament to literature. A word of encouragement can do him no harm. If this be its commencement, we prophesy for him a very successful career. Cabinet Cyclopædia.-Spain and Portu gal. Vol. II. The most favourable anticipations which the public may have entertained of the merit of this valuable history from the perusal of the first volume, will be fully justified by the contents of the second, in which, though passing through a labyrinth of difficulties, arising from obscure or contending authorities, the Author has both made his own way successfully, and struck out a path which will obviate every inconvenience and perplexity to those who may be inclined to follow him. The period embraced in the volume just published, extends from the establishment of the independent kingdoms of Cordova, in 1031, to the death of Ferdinand of Arragon, in 1516. The Waterloo. A Poem. By Thomas Jack- chivalrous wars waged by the monarchs of Castille, son, Esq. But that the printed proof is actually before us, we could scarcely have believed it possible that any scribbler could have been tempted by a longing after fame, to publish such extraordinary nonsense as this collection of rhymes about Water Leon, and Navarre against their Moorish op. ponents, up to the famous battle of Navas de Tolosa, with the foundation, history, and subversion of the Mohammedan kingdom of Granada, are first separately treated. The Author, then leaving the arabesque portraiture of the loo. So severe a sentence must not be pronounced imposing and valorous Saracenic dynasties, re unaccompanied by the evidence that has led to it. A small portion, however, must suffice:"The well-known thirtieth now appear; The thirty-third, too, void of fear; The sixty-ninth move onwards, stern; The seventy-third with ardour burn. traces his steps to the days of Pelago, and passes through the eventful times of Alphonso the Emperor, the Sage King of Castille and Leon, and Pedro the Cruel, the source, to so great an extent, of our own glory as well as disgrace, and a tyrant, it may be observed en passant, whose counterpart it would be no very difficult matter to find at the present moment. The events subsequent to the union of the crowns of Castille and Arragon in the persons of Ferdinand and Isabella, conclude the volume. The separate histories of the Asturias, Leon, and Castille, are, therefore, complete: that of Arragon will appear at an early opportunity. It will at once be obvious to all, that, from the very nature of the subject, a very uncommon share of assiduity and talent was required for the production of a history which should give a clear and just view of the state of Spain from the eleventh to the sixteenth century: but those only who are acquainted with the peculiar nature of the impediments so repeatedly occurring, will be able properly to appreciate the industry and judgment that must have been exercised by a writer, who has succeeded in eliciting from the chaotic records of so many independent and contending states, as impartial and rational an account of designs and circumstances as is consistent with the quality of existing materials. The numerous references will give some faint idea of the labour that such an undertaking must have called into exercise. The field, however, is now comparatively open to the historian; and after having reached the dawning of the age of Charles the Fifth with so much credit to himself, and advantage to his readers; since the same good taste and extensive information are now to be employed on subjects of increasing dignity, we are justified in expecting that the remaining volumes of Spanish annals, in interest, though probably not in execution, will even surpass their predecessors. We ought not to omit mentioning in terms of high praise, a table for the conversion of Mohammedan into Christian time, which is prefixed to the first section, as well as some observations explanatory of the method of finding for any year in our era, the corresponding period in time, reckoned from the Hejira. The utility of such an aid in understanding the Arabian chronology is too evident to need enlarged exposition. Edinburgh_Cabinet Library. — British India. Part I. The principle that partial success should constitute a stimulus to more active exertion, seems to have influenced the proprietors of "The Edinburgh Cabinet Library" throughout the publica tion of that series of works which has hitherto met with such extensive, and, we may add, welldeserved popularity. After the Polar Seas, Egypt, Africa, and Palestine, we have the promise, and the appearance in part, of British India, a subject inferior in interest to none of the preceding, and which will exercise the talents of an array of literary characters still more numerous than has been enlisted on former occasions. The perusal of the preface to the first volume gives reason to hope that the most important of our foreign territories will receive that justice, in a descriptive point of view, which it demands. The whole account will be comprised in three volumes, and will embrace every point deserving notice in the history, zoology, botany, geology, and climate of that vast peninsula, where Great Britain has acquired a fame, which, if her political greatness should ever be subject to the mutation whose power has successively influenced her several predecessors in dominion and glory, (and may that day be long absent !) will remain imperishable while enterprise, fortitude, and unexampled prudence have yet a name and a meaning. In furtherance of this highly laudable design, Mr. Hugh Murray is engaged to furnish the historical details. The zoological and botanical department will be conducted by Mr. Wilson and Dr. Greville; and the chapters upon climate, geology, and mineralogy, supplied by Dr. Jameson; while the medical papers, neither few nor unimportant, and containing, among other subjects, a Dissertation upon the Indian Cholera, are entrusted to the pens of Dr. Ainslie and Mr. Rhind. As the mathematical and astronomical attainments of the Hindoos have long been the objects of attention to the learned, this particular has not been overlooked; and Professor Wallace, in addition to an investigation of the question, will furnish the trigonometrical surveys first made under the direction of Colonel Lambton. Nor is this all. That the work may be acceptable to readers of every description, Captain Clarence Dalrymple will contribute an account of the navigation of the Indian Seas, directions for the usual outfits, and an examination of the long discussed question of a steam-boat communication with Hindostan by means of the Red Sea. Such is the promise which the Introduction before us holds out; and from this very bigh expectations of the merits of the sections yet unpublished will certainly be formed. Whether these prove commensurate with the well-known abilities of the writers employed, we may be called upon to judge upon a future occasion. At present, we have only to consider the contents of the first volume, which, compiled by the diligence and care of Mr. Hugh Murray, contains a general view of the natural features of Hindostan, and its history from the most ancient periods to the fall of Pondicherry before the British arms in 1761, exhibiting, of course, the Raid of Alexander, the Portuguese conquests and settlements, the several Mohammedan dynasties, and the evanescent establishments of the French East India Company. Of this part of the work we can speak in terms of high commendation. A very happy medium has been preserved between prolixity and a too great conciseness; and the style, preserving that equable harmony and correctness which ought always to characterise historic narrative, is well suited, by its perspicuity, to the popular nature of the design. If the following parts of British India are equally meri. torious, the publishers, we may predict, will have no reason to fear the event of their increased exertions; nor will the public be insensible to that triple claim to their attention, which the results of their efforts will present in the shape of elegance of typography, cheapness of price, and the successful combination of some of the most eminent talents of which the age can boast. Gordon on Locomotion. Wonderful as have already been the effects of that great mechanical agent, which, no less powerful in its consequences than the inventions of gunpowder and printing, has produced a total alteration in the aspect of operative society, its greatest triumph is probably yet to come; and this, it is reasonable to believe, will consist in the application of steam as a locomotive principle for the purpose of inland communication. The diffi culties in the way of such a project, which at first appeared numerous enough to daunt the courage of the most enterprising adventurer, have successively been overcome. Public prejudice, the old and unchanging antagonist of every improvement, has in vain had recourse to its usual weapons of sarcastic detraction and anticipation of evil; and men are at length convinced of the practicability of what they at first boldly pronounced beyond the reach of human art and human industry, by the incontrovertible evidence of their own senses. Under such circumstances, therefore, the appearance of the above work is exceedingly well timed, and furnishes an interesting record of the successful results of patient industry and unyielding thought under the greatest disadvantages. There is a great deal of sound sense and manly argument in the chapter upon elemental locomotion, which opens the work; and its introduction is well adapted to remove any unfavourable impressions upon the subject which the great majority of its readers may probably entertain. The benefits the Author anticipates from the substitution of elemental for animal power in locomotive machines are too numerous to enable us to specify them individually. We shall merely observe, that he satisfactorily proves that the new system will be productive of a saving in grain sufficient for the supply of at least eight millions of persons, a circumstance sufficient in itself to claim at once a preference to the method now in use, even were every other advantage absent. A concise history of the steps by which the steam-carriage has arrived at its present finished state, and a summary of the evidence adduced before the Committee of the House of Commons appointed to investigate the subject, do credit both to Mr. Gordon's judgment and industry. There are, besides, plates of almost every machine worked by steam, and employed for the transport of commodities or travellers; and these, together with the explanations which accompany them, form, perhaps, the best comment yet extant upon the interesting topic they elucidate. We earnestly hope Mr. Gordon's labours will have the effect of attracting public attention still more forcibly to an invention which, if once properly known, cannot but be immediately adopted, and if adopted, will, in all probability, be attended with results far beyond what its most zealous admirers at present hope or anticipate. Anglo-Saxon Grammar. By William Hunter. It will afford every lover of pure English composition great pleasure to hear that the old Anglo Saxon fountains of our rich and varied tongue, so long unregarded, are cleared from the moss and weeds which the neglect of ages had accumulated round them, and rendered easily accessible to the philological student. Those parts of our language to which the Greek and Latin dialects have contributed, have long been made the subjects of an extensive, and perhaps too minute analysis, while the original Saxon, from which it derives the greater part of its characteristic beauty, has been unaccountably abandoned as unworthy of notice. Yet, in proportion as this standard has been deviated from, will be found the weakness and want of energy which have at several periods been conspicuous in the writings of even the June.-VOL. XXXVI. NO. CXXXVIII. most popular authors. There is, indeed, a certain freedom, a manly, vigorous, and independent spirit about the primitive diction and phraseology, which we look for in vain among the extraneous additions to our stock of terms which have been derived from the more showy, but certainly less efficacious classical inflexions. The translation of the Scriptures, and the writings of Lord Bacon are two of the best illustrations of this truth. These are decidedly Saxon in character and expression, yet in these nothing is inflated or affected: a chaste propriety, in perfect keeping with the excellence of the thought exhibited, like the tasteful setting of a precious stone, adds to the effect of what it accompanies, without drawing too much attention to the extrinsic accident of a mere arrangement of sounds. It is this peculiarity, too, which has given so great an additional interest to the poetry of Shakspeare. Claiming, as he does, the merit of copying nature with a hand incom. parably more correct than the stately masters of the Grecian drama, the peculiar charm by which he instantly rivets the attention and secures the sympathies of his readers is, probably, that he is pre-eminently an English author; English in his feelings, English in his faults, and English in the whole style and structure of his composition. But keep us from a British Ciceronianism, and that grammatical bed of Procrustes, to which, framed upon a foreign model, in the first instance, so many modern philologists obstinately persist in bringing every word and sentence which falls in their way. Undoubtedly all who are desirous of speaking English with correctness, and of being acquainted with its true powers and capabilities, should examine it as near to its root as possible, and long before proceeding to the investigation of the structure of those writings produced in what has been unjustly called the Augustan Age of our literature. We are not acquainted with a better work than that of Mr. Hunter to assist in the prosecution of such a course of study. It contains a comprehensive Anglo-Saxon accidence, a very clever attempt to trace the Sanscrit, Celtic, and olic dialects to the same primary source, and an analysis of the style of Gawain Douglas, Chancer, and Spenser, in which the reader will find much to amuse as well as to instruct. The whole work is distinguished by discriminating scholarship, and from its object as well as its execution, deserves a general and favourable reception, if not to the exclusion, at least to the qualification of many less accurate treatises upon the elementary principles of our language. Lives. Vol. VII. The lives of Mark Antony, Dion, Marcus Brutus, Artaxerxes, Aratus, Galba, and Otho form the seventh and last volame of the Plutarch of "The Family Classical Library." We have, upon more than one occasion, praised the cheapness and typographical excellence which distinguish this edition of Langhorne's translation; and if every one does not now possess a copy of the Choronean biographer, it will be his own fault, and it may be added, his misfortune, as Mr. Valpy has done all in his power to obviate the privation. The efforts of this spirited publisher in the cause of ancient literature are, we believe, meeting with extensive encouragement; yet cer 2 K |