oppressed with sickness, and torn with pain, would start from my couch, and exclaim with Trebonius, "if you mean to act worthily, "O Romans! I am well." The speech, you find, was composed and delivered without my news about Maryland, it is óyos μάλα μοναρχικός και σρατιωτικός, and breathes a deliberate frmness. Lord Chatham spoke with a noble vigour for a veteran orator, and your bishop pronounced an elegant harangue: I wish Lord Granby had more courage as a public speaker; all men speak highly of him, but he will never be eloquent, till he is less modest. Charles Fox poured forth with amazing rapidity a continued invective against Lord G. Germaine, and Burke was so pathetic, that many declare they saw him shed tears. The ministers in both houses were sullen and reserved, but Lord Sandwich boldly contradicted the Duke of Richmond on the state of the navy. I grieve that our senate is dwindled into a school of rhetoric, where men rise to display their abilities rather than to deliberate, and wish to be admired without hoping to convince. Adieu, my dear Lord; I steal these few moments from a dry legal investigation; but I could not defer the pleasure of answering a letter, which gave me inexpressible delight.

† H. A. SCHULTENS to Mr. JONES.

May 1777.

I know not how to express my delight at the receipt of your short, but very friendly and obliging letter. I take shame to myself at having so long delayed the acknowledgment of it, and you might indeed justly censure me, for an apparent forgetfulness of your kindness towards me. This would indeed be a most serious accusation, which I cannot in any degree admit; I wish I could as fairly exculpate myself from the charge of negligence. You have now, my friend, my confession, but you will pardon me in con*Too despotic and military. Appendix, No. 33.

sideration

sideration of my promise to be more attentive in future. I may indeed plead occupations so incessant, that they scarcely allow me time to breathe, and have often compelled me to defer writing to you, when I most seriously intended it; you will the more readily admit this apology, when I tell you, that for five months I have never once thought of Meidani.

I have now a little respite, and mean soon to resume my work, which has been so long interrupted; the singular kindness of the superintendants of the library at Leyden, by permitting me to take home for my use, and retain as long as I please, not only the manuscript of Meidani, but any others which I may want, will much diminish the weight of my labour. With this assistance, I shall proceed as fast as my other employments allow to copy the manuscript, finish the indexes (which are absolutely necessary to such a work), and add whatever is wanted to render it as elegant and complete as possible;-it gradually advances. I most heartily wish it were in my power to bestow upon this favourite occupation, those hours which I am obliged most reluctantly to give to my various public and private lectures; but I foresee that it will still require three or four years of hard labour to collect such an ample stock of materials, as will enable me to deliver my lectures fluently without much previous study, or "to shake them out of a bag," as the phrase is. In the mean time, Hariri lies untouched, the Arabic poets are neglected, and the soft and elegant literature of Persia, which above all I sincerely regret, remains unexplored; such however is the ardour with which you have inspired me, that I am determined, if I enjoy life and health, at all hazards, and at the risk of singularity, to devote myself to the acquisition of it. I almost however despair of publishing Hariri. I had determined to give the text only from the best procurable manuscripts, annexing to it the translation of my grandfather, which is complete. This I should

U

should be able to accomplish with little sacrifice of time; and without neglecting other business, I could give the public an useful work. But there are some, to whose judgement as well as inclination I owe much deference, who disapprove of this plan, and advise me not to publish the work, without extracts from Tebrizi and other grammarians, nor even without my own annotations. Though I do not agree with them, I must submit to their authority, at the necessity of protracting the publication, till I can give it as they wish.

Scheidius has lately published the first part of Jaohari's Lexicon, consisting of about two hundred pages. He calculates that the whole work will not be comprised in less than ten volumes, of a thousand pages each. Opinions about it are various. He himself foresees so little impediment in completing this immense undertaking, that he even talks of publishing Phiruzbadi, &c.; but others consider the obstacles so insuperable, that they think it never will be finished, unless it should rain gold upon him. This is all relating to the Arabic that is now going on amongst us, excepting a glossary to Hariri, Arab Shah, and the Coran, which Mr. Wilmot, a young, but learned theologian has undertaken. It will be very useful to beginners, who from the difficulty and expense of procuring Golius, are deterred from the study of the language. Latin and Greek literature receive more encouragement here. This neither excites my envy nor surprise; but I should be still more reconciled to it, if some small part of this patronage were to overflow upon the Orientalists. Ruhnkenius is at work upon Velleius Paterculus, Burman on Propertius, Wyttenbach on Plutarch, Tollius upon the Homeric Lexicon of Apollonius, an edition of which has been published by Villoison in France. The epistles of Phalaris, respecting the author of which your countrymen, Boyle and Bentley, had such a controversy, will soon be published. Have you seen the very elegant

Essay

Essay of Ruhnkenius on the Life and Writings of Longinus? Many copies have been sent to England ;—if you wish to have one, I will take an opportunity of procuring it for you. In the course of a few weeks, a critical miscellany will appear, and it is intended to publish two or three numbers of it annually. This publication has a double view; to notice the best new books on every subject which relate to learned antiquity, and to introduce occasionally new and unpublished compositions. The authors are unknown, or, rather, wish to be so; for some of them will certainly be discovered by their superior erudition, and uncommon elegance of style. I am sufficiently acquainted with them, to affirm confidently that the work will please you, With some of the persons concerned in it, I am intimately connected, and they have requested me to recommend to them some London bookseller, to whom a few copies may be sent for sale. For this purpose I have thought of Elmsley, who will probably have no objection to try the success of the work in England, by taking twenty or even fewer copies. I wish however in the first place to mention the business to you, that Elmsley, or some other by your interest, may be the more readily induced to undertake it. There is also another favour of more importance, which my friends, through my agency, anxiously hope to obtain from you; the circumstance is this: upon their expressing a wish that their miscellany should contain extracts from Oriental authors, particularly Persic and Arabic, I recommended to them, as there are but few works of this nature, and still fewer worthy of notice, that they should leave a space for short dissertations, under the heads of tracts, or essays, or any other title, by which they may be communicated, as a means of promoting these studies. I promised, for my own part, to contribute some biographical memoirs from Eben Cháli Khán, if they should have nothing better to insert. They approved my advice, and earnestly entreated me to prevail upon you to furnish them with some essays of this kind; adding,

that

that they would prove the greatest ornament and recommendation of this part of the work, and that if I really enjoyed your friendship, which I was perpetually asserting, I could not fail of obtaining this favour from you. You see, my friend, to what I have been led, by boasting of your regard for me. I have yielded the more readily to their solicitations, in the hopes of retrieving by it, in some degree, the heavy loss which we sustained in you. I therefore most earnestly entreat and beseech you, by your ancient love of the Oriental muses, who so feelingly and fondly regret you, not to omit any convenient opportunity of gratifying our wishes. Examine your shelves;—you will find many things ready, and sufficiently perfect for publication. Whatever you send, will be most acceptable, and it shall appear in our miscellany with or without your name, as you may think proper. If you have any thing in English, and want time to turn it into Latin, I will readily undertake the translation of it, and submit it to the examination of others who are better scholars than myself, that your reputation may suffer no impeachment from it. Nothing shall be added, omitted, or changed; but it shall appear exactly as you send it; to this if you think it necessary, I will pledge my word. I hope it will not be inconvenient to you to favour me with an early reply to this letter, and I rely upon your obliging acquiescence in our request.

I congratulate you upon your new office, as an introduction to something more honourable and lucrative; and as to the loss of your liberty, I regret it rather on my account, than on yours. No one, not even an Englishman, can object to service for the public good, which is the just recompence of virtue and merit. To me, however, your confinement is grievous; for, if I was disappointed in the expectation of seeing you, when you were your own master, I can scarcely now indulge a distant hope of that pleasure. Do not however leave me in despair: you have fifty-nine associates; some interval

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