He who the path of honour ever trod, True to his king, his country, and his God, On his bleft head my hands shall fix the crown Homer and Virgil. The feventh Lufiad throughout bears a striking resemblance to the seventh and eighth Æneid. Much of the action is naturally the fame; Æneas lands in Italy, and Gama in India; but the conduct of Camoëns, in his masterly imitation of his great model, particularly demands obfervation. Had Statius or Ovid defcribed the landing or reception of Æneas, we should undoubtedly have been prefented with pictures different from thofe of the pencil of Virgil. We fhould have seen much bustle and fire, and perhaps much smoke and falfe dignity. Yet if we may judge from the Odyffey, Homer, had he written the Æneid, would have written as the Roman poet wrote, would have prefented us with a calm majestic narrative, till every circumstance was explained, and then would have given the concluding books of hurry and fire. In this manner has Virgil written, and in this manner has Camoëns followed him, as far as the different nature of his fubject would allow. In Virgil, king Latinus is informed by prodigies and prophecy of the fate of his kingdom, and of the new-landed ftrangers. Æneas enters Latium. The dinner on the grafs, and the prophecy of famine turned into a jeft. He fends ambaffadors to Latinus, whofe palace is defcribed. The embaffy is received in a friendly manner. Juno, enraged, calls the affiftance of the fiends, and the truce is broken. Æneas, admonished in a dream, feeks the aid of Evander. The voyage up the Tyber, the court of Evander, and the facrifices in which he was employed, are particularly defcribed. In all this there is no blaze of fire, no earnest hurry. Thefe are judiciously reserved for their after and proper place. In the fame manner Camoëns lands his hero in India; and though in fome circumftances the refemblance to Virgil is evident, yet he has followed him as a free imitator, who was confcious of his own strength, and not as a copyift. He has not deserved that fhrewd fatire which Mr. Pope, not unjustly, throws on Virgil himself. "Had the galley "of Sergeftus been broken," fays he, "if the chariot of Eumelus had not "been demolished? Or Mneftheus been caft from the helm, had not the other "been thrown from his feat?" In a word, that calm dignity of poetical narrative which breathes through the feventh and eighth Æneid, is judiciously copied, as most proper for the fubject; and with the hand of a master characteristically suftained throughout the feventh book of the poem which celebrates the discovery of the eastern world. VOL. II. END OF THE SEVENTH BOOK, N ENQUIRY INTO THE RELIGIOUS TENETS AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE BRAH MIN S. AN account of the celebrated fect of the Brahmins, and an enquiry into their theology and philofophy, are undoubtedly requifite in the notes of a poem which celebrates the discovery of the eastern world; of a poem where their rites and opinions are neceffarily mentioned. To place the fubject in the clearest and moft just view, as far as his abilities will ferve him, is the inten tion of the tranflator. If he cannot be so warm in his admiration of the religious philosophy of the Hindoos, as fome late writers have been, fome circumftances of that philofophy, as delivered by themselves, it is hoped, will very fully exculpate his coolness. But But before we endeavour to trace the religion and philofophy of the Brahmins by the lights of antiquity, and the concurrent teftimony of the most learned travellers who have vifited India fince the discovery of that country by the hero of the Lufiad, it will not be improper to pay particular attention to the systematical accounts of the doctrines of the Gentoos, which have lately been given to the public by Mr. Holwell and Mr. Dow. A particular attention is due to these gentlemen: each of them brands all the received accounts of the Gentoos as moft ignorantly fallacious, and each of them claims an opportunity of knowledge enjoyed by no traveller before himself. Each of them has been in Afia, in the East India Company's fervice, and each of them affures us that he has converfed with the most learned of the Brahmins. Mr. Holwell's fystem we have endeavoured with the utmost exactness thus to abridge. "It is an allowed truth, (fays he, ch. viii. p. 3.)" that there never was yet any fyftem of theology "broached to mankind, whose first profeffors and propagators "did not announce its defcent from GOD; and God forbid we "fhould doubt of, or impeach the divine origin of any of them; "for fuch eulogium they poffibly all merited in their primitive 66 purity, could they be traced up to that state." Again in p. 50. "The religions which manifeftly carry the "divine ftamp of God, are, firft, that which Bramah was ap"pointed to declare to the ancient Hindoos; fecondly, that law "which Mofes was deftined to deliver to the ancient Hebrews; " and thirdly, that which Chrift was delegated to preach to the "latter Jews and Gentiles, or the Pagan world." The divine œconomy of thefe different revelations is thus accounted for by our author. "Let us fee how far the fimilitude "of doctrines, (p. 72.) preached first by Bramah, and after"wards Chrift, at the diftinct period of above 3000 years, cor"roborate our conclufions; if they mutually fupport each other, "it amounts to proof of the authenticity of both. Bramah "preached the existence of ONE ONLY, ETERNAL Gon, his "first created angelic being, BIRMAH, Biftnoo, Sieb, and "Moifafoor; the pure Gospel difpenfation teaches ONE ONLY "ETERNAL GOD, his first begotten of the father CHRIST; the "angelic beings Gabriel, Michael, and Satan, all these correfponding under different names minutely with each other, in "their respective dignities, functions, and characters. Birmah "is made prince and governor of all the angelic bands, and the "occafional vicegerent of the eternal One; Chrift is invested with "all power by the Father; Birmals is deftined to works of 66 power and glory, fo is Chrift; Biftnoo to acts of benevolence, "fo is Gabriel; Sieb to acts of terror and deftruction, fo is "Michael-Moifafoor is reprefented as a prime angel, and the "inftigator and leader of the revolt in heaven, fo is the Satan "of the gospel."-After much more in this strain our author adds, "It is no violence to faith (p. 80.) if we believe that "Birmah and Christ are one and the fame individual cœleftial "being, the first begotten of the Father, who had moft pro"bably appeared at different periods of time, in diftant parts of "the earth, under various mortal forms of humanity and deno"minations."-Having thus feen who Birmah is, we now proceed to our author's account of the Scriptures which he delivered to mankind. Chrift, he tells us, (p. 80.) ftyled Birmah by by the easterns, delivered the great primitive truths to man at his creation: but these truths being effaced by time and the induftrious influence of Satan, a written record became necessary, and Bramah accordingly gave the Shaftah. This we are told, (ch. iv. p. 12.) was at the beginning of the prefent age (or world) when Bramah having affumed the human form, and the government of Indostan, translated the Chatah Bhade Shaftah from the language of angels, into the Sanferit, a tongue at that time universally known in India. "Thefe Scriptures, fays our author, (ch. viii. p. 71.) contain, to a moral certainty, the original doctrines and terms of restoration, delivered from God himself by the mouth of his first created Birmah to mankind at his first creation in the form of man. And in p. 74. tells us that, "the miffion of Chrift is the ftrongest confirmation of the authenticity and divine origin of the Chatah Bhade Shaftah of Bramah; the doctrines of both, according to our author, being originally the fame." We now proceed to give an account of the fyftem which Mr. H. has laid before the public as the pure and fublime doctrine of the Brahmins. God is one; the creator of all that is; he governs by a general providence, the refult of fixed principles: it is vain and criminal to enquire into the nature of his existence, or by what laws he governs. In the fulness of time he refolved to participate his glory and effence with beings capable of feeling and sharing his beatitude, and of administering to his glory. He willed, and they were-he formed them in part of his own effence; capable of perfection, but with the powers (as Mr. Holwell N 3 |