cannot be well conveyed by any circumlocution.

You ask my opinion of the affinity between the Hebrew and Arabic, and of an idiom common to both, of ufing the future for the past. Though I feldom read Hebrew, or, to fay the truth, though I confider this facred language rather as an object of veneration than of delight, (for, excepting the Old Testament itself, and fome rabbinical dreams about it, there is nothing in it worth perufal,) I well remember, from the little of it which I have read, having remarked a close connection between the grammar of the Hebrew and Arabic, the moods and tenfes in both are fo few, as to require the frequent fubftitution of one for another; the Greek, however, which is fo redundant in moods and tenfes, fometimes does the fame; for inftance, when it uses the infinitive for the imperative. With refpect to the measures used in the two languages, I am of a different opinion, for I confider the metrical art of the Arabs of much later invention, and to have

affumed its present form only a short time before Mohammed, there being no trace whatever among them of a more ancient poetry. If the Hebrew poetry had a similar conftruction, which may indeed be suspected from a fimilar use of the vowels, we might by this time have traced, without difficulty, the laws of Hebrew metre by the rules of analogy *.

If the text of the ode, which you mention to have read in the mifcellaneous works of fome anonymous author, had been correct, you would not have wanted my humble affiftance: but it is fo full of errors, that I must be an Edipus to interpret it. Every one knows, that the mere irregularity of the diacritical points occasions infinite difficulty

*The probability that the metrical compositions of the Hebrews and Arabs were founded on the same rules of prosody, is intimated by Sir W. Jones, in his Commentaries on Asiatic poetry, and proposed to the investigation of the learned. This opinion is suggested, by the close affinity of the languages of those ancient people, whence he argues to a presumption that their poets used the same numbers, feet, and measures, in their compositions.

in the Oriental languages; but this is doubly increased by the casual omiffion or alteration of the letters themfelves. It is therefore abfolutely neceffary in my opinion, as it is impoffible to find manuscripts without errors, to poffefs two copies of every one which you read, that the faults of the one may be corrected by the other; and this is my method.

I have only to conclude by thanking you for your Italian fonnet, and expreffing the commendation to which it is entitled.Farewel.

of

* Mr. JONES to C. REVICZKI.

April 1768.

Nothing can afford a ftronger proof

your polite attention to me, than your laft very friendly letter, which you contrived to write in the midft of city bustle, during the noife of riotous mobs, and the tumult of a parliamentary election, and to accompany

* Appendix, No. 7.

it with a moft beautiful Perfian Ode, and a Latin tranflation. Our favourite Hafez deferves indeed to be fed with ambrofia, and I daily discover, with increafing delight, new beauties and elegances in him. The principal difficulty attending the tranflation and publication of his poems as you have begun, confifts in giving them a poetical dress; but this will prove easier than you imagine; for there are many of his odes, which I conclude you will not attempt to tranflate, as containing expreffions wholly foreign to our manners, lofty and daring figures, or abrupt unconnected lines; and this will in some meafure alleviate the Herculean labour of the task.

* * *

If I were not a fincere lover of truth, and averfe from all diffimulation, I fhould lament that our capital has fallen under your infpection in these times of turbulence and distraction, when the liberty of my country, fo univerfally celebrated, has degenerated into unbridled licentioufnefs, not to

fay outrage. The original form of our constitution is almost divine;-to such a degree,

that no ftate of Rome or Greece could ever boaft one fuperior to it; nor could Plato, Aristotle, nor any legiflator, even conceive a more perfect model of a ftate. The three | parts which compofe it are fo harmoniously blended and incorporated, that neither the flute of Ariftoxenus, nor the lyre of Timotheus, ever produced more perfect concord. What can be more difficult than to devise a conftitution, which, while it guards the dignity of the fovereign, and liberty of the people, from any encroachment by the influence and power of the nobility, preferves the force and majesty of the laws from violation, by the popular liberty? This was the case formerly in our island, and would be fo ftill, if the folly of fome had not prompted them to spur on the populace, inftead of holding them in. I cannot therefore reftrain my indignation againft Wilkes, a bold and able, but turbulent man, the very torch and firebrand of fedition: but what can be faid in defence of the