folicitous about its fuccefs: as I did not choose the fubject myself, I am not answerable for the wild extravagance of the style, nor for the faults of the original; but if your Ladyship takes the trouble to read the differtation at the end, you may perhaps find some new and pleasing images. The work has one advantage, it is certainly authentic. Lady Georgiana is fo good as to enquire how Soliman goes on; pray tell her he is in great affliction, as he begins to suspect the innocence of Mustafa, who is just flain. To be ferious; my tragedy is just finished; and I hope to fhew it to your Ladyship in a short time. I am, &c. WILLIAM JONES. De La Fontaine is with us: he feems very well, but is ftill weak and complaining. I muft add a little ftroke of French courage, which I have just heard. In the midst of all the difafters of the fire-works, the Marefchal de Richlieu was in fuch a panic, that he got out of his carriage, and screamed out, Eft-ce qu'on veut laiffer perir un Mareschal de France? N'y a-t-il perfonne pour secourir un Marefchal de France?-This will be an eternal joke against him !— * Mr. JONES to C. REVICZKI. Spa, July 1770. What an idle, unfettled fellow I am! I fly over Europe, fcarcely stopping any-where. We paffed the winter at Nice, enjoyed the spring in France, and I am now spending the fummer (if this rainy feason may be fo called) on the borders of Germany. I certainly can without any rifk fend your manuscripts from this place, and I advise you by all means to publish them. They are worthy of your acknowledged talents, and will ensure you the applause of all the learned. I fay this without flattery, which is indeed foreign to my character. The criticisms which I fent to you, are full of errors, and you muft receive them with great allowance; for during my refidence at Nice, I was wholly without ancient books, or other aids, tó which I am in the habit of applying, nor do I now poffefs them. I have received your French letter, with an incomparable ode: I was particularly charmed with that happy transition in it; O'er kindred, or o'er friendship's bier Believe me, when I read thefe lines, I could fcarcely reftrain my tears; for nature has that power over me, that I am more affected by the beauties of a tender fimplicity, than by the loftieft figures of poetry; and hence I am more delighted with a paffage in the first Pythian ode of the divine Pindar concerning the Muses, than by his elaborate defcription of the Eagle and Ætna *. What shall I fend in return for your pre * But they on earth, or the devouring main, fent? Accept the accompanying ode, which is at least valuable for its antiquity. You will perhaps fmile; it is not an epithalamium on the marriage of Antoinette the Dauphiness, but contains the eulogium of a very ancient Chinese monarch, whofe name, though a monofyllable only, I have forgotten. When I read the works of Confucius, tranflated by Couplet and others, I was ftruck with admiration at the venerable dignity of the fentiments, as well as at the poetical fragments,' which adorn the discourses of that philofopher. They are selected from the most ancient records of Chinese poetry, and particularly from a work, entitled Shi-king, of which there is a fine copy in the royal library at Paris. I immediately determined to examine the original: and, referring to the volume, after a long study, I fucceeded in comparing one of the odes with the verfion of Couplet, and analysed every word, or, more properly, every figure in it. Of this ode, I now fend you a literal translation*: it is a composition *Sir William Jones's Works, vol. vi. p. 6. of a wonderful dignity and brevity; each verse contains four words only, hence the ellipfis is frequent in it, and the obscurity of the style adds to its fublimity. I have annexed a poetical verfion, making every verse correspond with the sense of Confucius; you will judge whether I have fucceeded or not, it will be fufficient for me if it please you. You know that this philofopher, whom I may venture to call the Plato of China, lived about fix hundred years before the Christian æra, and he quotes this ode, as very ancient in his time. It may therefore be confidered as a moft precious gem of antiquity, which proves, that poetry has been the admiration of all people in all ages, and that it everywhere adopts the fame images. I must say a few words upon another work, left my long letter of February, containing a particular account of it from firft to laft, fhould have mifcarried. I allude to the tranflation of the life of Nadir Shah, from Persian into French, a most disagreeable task, which I undertook at the request of my Augustus, the |