though it must be very long: for I will not fee England, while the interested factions which diftract it, leave the legislature no time for the great operations which are effential for public felicity, while patriotic virtues are derided as vifionary, and while the rancour of contending parties fills with thorns thofe particular focieties, in which I hoped to gather nothing but roses. I am forry (for the metaphor brings to my mind the Boftani Kheiyal* ) that the garden of fancy fhould have as many weeds as that of politics. Surajélhak, pronounced it with emphasis, a wonderful work; and a young Muffulman affured me, that it comprised all the fineft inventions of India and Perfia. The work will probably mend as it proceeds.

We must spare ourselves the pain of taking a formal leave; fo farewell. May you live happy in a free country!

I am, &c.

* The Garden of Fancy; the title of an Eastern fo

mance in Persian, in sixteen quarto volumes.

The affectionate with which concludes thefe extracts from the correfpondence of Sir William Jones, was dictated by the circumstance of my departure from India: it has been verified; and the recollection of the place, which I held in his efteem, however accompanied with regret for his death, is an additional fource of that happiness, which he wifhed me to enjoy.

Among other literary occupations in which he employed himself during the two last

years, it is to be noticed, that he undertook the office of editor of the elegant poem of Hatefi, on the unfortunate loves of Laili and Mujnoon, an Arabian youth and princess. The benevolent object of his labours renders them interesting, as the book was published at his own expense, with a declared appropriation of the produce of the fale, to the relief of infolvent debtors in the gaol at Calcutta.

In the English preface to the Perfian work, he has given a tranflation of five diftichs in the meafure of the original, and has fhewn that a bare tranfpofition of the accents gives five English

couplets in the form which fome call heroic, and others elegiac. As a metrical curiofity, I first transcribe the lines in the measure of the original, with a tranfpofed verfion of the couplets in the English form:

With cheeks where eternal paradise bloom'd,
Sweet Laili the soul of Kais had consum'd.
Transported her heavenly graces he view'd:
Of slumber no more he thought, nor of food.
Love rais'd in their glowing bosoms his throne,
Adopting the chosen pair as his own.
Together on flowery seats they repos'd:
Their lips not one idle moment were clos'd.
To mortals they gave no hint of their smart:
Love only the secret drew from each heart.

TRANSPOSITION.

With cheeks where paradise eternal bloom'd,
Sweet Laili had the soul of Kais consum'd.
Her heav'nly graces he transported view'd:
No more he thought of slumber, nor of food.
Love in their glowing bosoms rais'd his throne,
The chosen pair adopting as his own.
On flowery seats together they repos'd:
Their lips one idle moment were not clos'd.
No hint they gave to mortals of their smart:
Love only drew the secret from each heart.

It has already been mentioned, that, in the earliest periods of his education, Sir William Jones had applied himself with uncommon

affiduity to the ftudy of profody, and, as he advanced in the acquifition of new dialects, he continued to cultivate a knowledge of the laws of metre, which he found of the greatest utility, in ascertaining the text of Oriental authors. In the collection of his works, we read a tranflation of the firft Nemean ode of Pindar, as nearly as poffible in the same meafure as the original, and amongst other compofitions of the fame kind, not intended for publication, I find a translation of an ode of Sappho, word for word from the original, and fyllable for fyllable in the same measure, by the trueft rules of English quantity.

In the beginning of 1789, the first volume of the Researches of the fociety was published. The selection of the papers was left to the judgment of Sir William Jones, and he undertook the laborious and unpleasant office of fuperintending the printing. A third part of the volume, the most interesting as well as inftructive, is occupied by the contributions of the president.

Having paffed half of my life in India, I may

be permitted to avail myfelf of the opportu nity afforded by this publication, to vindicate my fellow-labourers in the Eaft, from one amongst many reproaches undeservedly beftowed upon them. them. A difinclination to explore the literature and antiquities of Hinduftan has been urged, as the natural confequence of that immoderate pursuit of riches, which was fuppofed to be the fole object of the fervants of the Eaft-India Company, and to engrofs their whole attention. The difficulty attending the acquifition of new idioms, the obftacles oppofed by the fears, prejudices, and the referve of the natives, the conftant occupations of official duty, and the injurious effect of fedentary application in a tropical climate upon the conftitution, were unnoticed or difregarded, and no allowances made for impediments, which time and perseverance could alone furmount.

The reproach was unmerited; and long before the arrival of Sir William Jones in India, the talents of feveral perfons there had been employed with confiderable fuccefs, not