dant of my fecrets. Do not however fuppofe, that I have altogether renounced polite literature. I intend fhortly to publish my English poems, and I mean to bring my tragedy of Soliman on the stage, when I can find proper actors for the performance of it. I intend alfo compofing an epic poem, on a noble subject, under the title of Britanneis : but this I muft defer until I have more leifure, with fome degree of independence. In the mean time, I amufe myfelf with the choiceft of the Perfian poets; and I have the good fortune to poffefs many manufcripts, which I have either purchased or borrowed from my friends, on various fubjects, including history, philofophy, and fome of the most celebrated poetry of Perfia.

I am highly delighted with Jami's poem of Yufef and Zuleika; it contains fomewhat more than four thoufand couplets, each of which is a ftar of the firft brilliance. We have fix copies of this work at Oxford, one of which is correct; it has the vowel points, and is illuftrated with the notes of Golius.

I alfo poffefs a copy, which, as foon as I have leifure, I will print. Let me afk in the mean time how you are employed? Do you continue your occupation of elucidating your favourite Hafez? I will moft willingly give all the affiftance in my power to the publication of your work, if you will have it printed in London; but I fcarcely think that any printer will undertake it at his own expense, unless the poems are accompanied with an English or French tranflation, for you cannot conceive how few English gentlemen underftand Latin. Let me recommend to you therefore to give a literal verfion of Hafez in French, with annotations in the fame language; and this I think will be more acceptable even to your own countrymen, than a Latin tranflation; though indeed you may annex to your work fuch odes as you have translated into that language. The new edition of Meninski goes on tolerably well. I inclose a specimen of the new Arabic types, and earnestly beg your opinion upon them, that any defects may be corrected as foon as

poffible. I have had a copper-plate engraving made of one of the odes of Hafez, and may perhaps, when my circumftances afford it, print an edition of Jami's whole poem in the fame manner. A work of this kind on filken paper, would I doubt not be very acceptable to the Governor of Bengal, and the other principal perfons in India. I cannot conceive what is become of the book which I fent to you, but I will take the first opportunity of tranfmitting a fairer and more correct copy, together with my little Treatise on the Literature of Afia, and my Grammar of the Perfian Language, which is printed with fome degree of elegance; and I earnestly intreat to tell me, you if any thing is wrong in it, or any thing omitted, that the next edition may be more perfect. I only wait for leifure to publish my Commentaries on Afiatic Poetry.

Do not however imagine that I defpife the ufual enjoyments of youth; no one can take more delight in finging and dancing than I do, nor in the moderate ufe of wine,

nor in the exquifite beauty of the ladies, of whom London affords an enchanting variety; but I prefer glory, my supreme delight, to all other gratifications, and I will pursue it through fire and water, by day and by night. Oh! my Charles, (for I renounce all ceremony, and addrefs you with ancient fimplicity) what a boundless scene opens to my view! if I had two lives, I should scarcely find time for the due execution of all the public and private projects which I have in mind!

Mr. BATES to W. JONES, Efq.

SIR;

March 27th, 1771.

Last night, I received from

Mr. Williams your most ingenious and fatisfactory letter, for which my heartieft thanks are due. If you have no objection to it, as I think you cannot, I propofe to embellish my MS. with it, by fticking it into the book, in like manner as I have done my own account of it. It will be no fmall addition to the curiofity of the book; for I can easily forefee,

that in times to come, a piece of your handwriting will be looked upon as a curiosity by virtuofi yet unborn.

In the mean time, I hope this letter does not preclude your fulfilling your promise of obliging me with another visit (and I hope still more) after your return from Oxford, at the end of the holidays. I affure you, I wait for the end of those holidays, as impatiently as most schoolboys dread and abhor it. Therefore I beg you would favour me with a line to apprife me of your return back to town, that in cafe I fhould, in the dialect of Deptford, be moored head and stern by the gout, I may let you know as much, to save you the trouble of a vifit, that will answer no end; but if I keep clear from that malady, as I am at prefent, I fhall beg you to take at nightcap here, that we may spend one entire morning in Oriental speculation, without the interruption of other company. For I have ftill many queries which you must resolve. I heartily wish you a pleasant journey; and hope that, for the good of the Literati, you'll