not found upon a girl at her marriage, fhe fhould be ftoned:-A hard fate furely, if we reflect to how many accidents fo frail an article is liable, without any intention or fault of its poffeffor! And if a Hindoo's confcience is equally nice with a Jew's, upon this point it cannot be judged extraordinary, that a particular fection of this Code fhould be appropriated to the condemnation of fuch practices as may violate vir ginity, and destroy its tokens, even without actual copulation, fince the difgrace and other unhappy confequences to the woman are equally inevitable, to what caufe foever it be owing that the proofs of her chaf tity are deficient. The beft fecurity for female virtue is the total abfence of tempta tion, and confequently, to endeavour to remove the one is a prudent caution for the prefervation of the other. We find therefore the feve ral modes and gradations of Afiatic gallantry feparately forbidden at the beginning of this chapter, which, by flightly punishing the firft preparatives and leading fteps to an offence, fhews a tender concern for the offender's welfare, to whom it thus gives a monitory check at the very commencement of his defign, and before the execution of it has fubjected him to the extreme rigour of the law. CHAP. XX. It may not be improper to mention upon this chap ter, that the Bramins who compiled the Code were men far advanced in years, as one of them above eighty, and only one under thirty-five, by way of apology for the obfervations they have felected, and the cenfures they have paffed upon the conduct and merits of the fair fex. Solomon however, who probably had as much experience in women as any Pundit in any of the four Jogues, was nearly of the fame fentiments, as we may collect from numerous paffages in his Proverbs, one of which, in the thirtieth chapter, fo exactly correfponds with a fentence in this part of the Code, that the one almoft feems a literal tranfcript from the other. "There are," fays Solomon, "Three Things "that are never fatisfied; yea, four Things fay not, it is enough: "The Grave and the Barren Womb; the Earth that is filled not with "Water, and the Fire that faith not, it is enough." "The paffage in the Code will fpeak for itself;-fo ftriking a re femblance needs neither quotation nor comment:-Yet neither the Royal Author of the Proverbs, nor the compofers of the Shafters, are by any means fo cenforious or fo unjust as to deny the poffibility of excellence in the female fex, though they allow the inftances to be fomewhat fcarce, and that wives of this quality are only to be obtained by many and great acts of piety, or, as Solomon exprefles it, “A "Prudent Wite is from the Lord.” "The many rules laid down in this chapter, for the prefervation of domeftic authority to the hufband, are relicks of that characteristic dif cipline of Afia, which facred and profane writers teftify to have exifted from all antiquity; where women have ever been the fubjects, not the partners of their lords, confined within the walls of a haram, or bufied without doors in drudgeries little becoming their delicacy. The Trojan princeffes were employed in washing linen; and Rebecca was firft difCovered by Abraham's fervant with a pitcher upon her fhoulder to water camels. "Two Women fhall be grinding at the Mill," fays the Prophet; but the notoriety of this last obviates the neceffity of quotations; it may just be observed, that Solomon in praifing a good wife mentions, that She rifes while it is yet Night," which we must fuppofe to be before her husband; and we find this to be one of the qualifications for a good Gentoo wife alfo.. "The latter part of this chapter relates to the extraordinary circumftance of womens burning themfelves with their deceased husbands:The terms of the injunction as there fet forth are plain, moderate, and conditional: "It is proper for a Woman to burn with her Hufband's "Corps;" and a proportionate reward is offered in compenfation for her fufferings.-Notwithstanding the ordinance is not in the abfolute ftyle of a command, it is furely fufficiently direct to ftand for a religi ous duty; the only proof that it is not pofitive is the propofal of invio lable chastity as an alternative, though it is not to be taken for an equivalent. The Bramins feem to look upon this facrifice as one of the first principles of their religion, the cause of which it would hardly be orthodox to investigate. There are however feveral restrictions with respect to it, as that a woman must not burn herself if she is with child, por if her husband died at a diftance from her, unless the can procure his turban and girdle to put on at the pile, with other exceptions of the fame nature, which they clofely conceal from the eyes of the world, among the other mysteries of their faith: but we are convinced equally by information and experience, that the custom has not for the most part fallen into defuetude in India, as a celebrated writer has supposed. "CHAP. XXI. The twenty-first chapter comprehends a number of unconnected articles, of which the laft fection is a kind of peroration to the whole work. But of fuch parts of these ordinances as relate merely to the religious opinions of the Hindoos we certainly are norauthorized to judge; they were inftituted in conformity to their preju dices; and the confciences of the people, as well as the penalties of the law, enforce their obedience. Hence little obfervation need be made upon the unaccountable prohibitions of the second section, but that the commiffion of fuch ridiculous crimes, for which no poffible temptation an be pleaded, may be feverely punished, without much danger to the generality of mankind. The article of the third fection is of a more ferious nature, and contains an injunction not unneceffary for the general peace and good order of every community. The vulgar in all nations are tied down to the continual exercife of bodily labour for their own immediate fubfiftence; and their employments are as incompatible with the leifure requifite for religious fpeculations, as their ideas are too grofs for the comprehenfion of their fubtilty; add to this, that illiterate minds are ufually fo apt to kindle at the least touch of enthufiaftic zeal, as to make their headstrong fuperftition the most dangerous of all weapons in the hands of a defigning partizan; like the Agnee-after, it rages with unquenchable violence, and feparating into a thousand flames, all equally deftructive, fubfides not but with the exaltation of a Cromwell, or a maffacre of Saint Bartholomew. Mofes obferved a like feverity with this Code, in prohibiting the reft of the people from any interference with the profeffion of the priesthood; the ordinance is iffued from the mouth of God himself: "Thou shalt appoint Aaron and his Sons, and VOL. VI. they "they fhall wait on their Priest's Office, and the Stranger that cometh' high fhall be put to Death." "Indeed the whole office, as well as the facred pre-eminence of the Braminical tribe, is almost an exact counterpart of that of the Leviti cal: the Levites were particularly forbidden wine; so are the Bramins: the Levites were more than others enjoined to avoid the contact of all uncleanness; so are the Bramins: the Levites were to affift the magiftrate's judgement in difficult cafes; fo are the Bramins and, in every other respect, the resemblance might well authorize a fufpicion, that they had originally fome remote aflinity to each other, though conjec ture cannot poffibly trace the fource of the connexion." : But we must here clofe this long quotation, taking our prefent leave of this curious and entertaining article, with the conclufion of the tranflator's preface. "It is not only to the laws of Moses that this Code bears a striking likeness; many other parts of the Holy Scriptures may from hence be elucidated or confirmed: thus in the Book of Genefis we find Laban excufing himself for having fubftituted Leah in the place of Rachel to Jacob, in these words: "It must not be fo done in our Country, to give the Youngest (Daughter) before the Firft-born:" This was long before Moles was born.So in this compilation it is made crimi nal for a man to give his younger daughter in marriage before the elder, or for a younger fon to marry while his elder brother remains unmarried. "Comparifons of this nature will illuftrate many doubtful paffages, and explain many obfolete customs and ufages alluded to throughout the Bible; fo that fhould no part of thefe laws be thought worthy of adoption into the fyftem of a British government in Afia, they will yet well deserve the confideration of the politician, the judge, the divine, and the philofopher, as they contain the genuine fentiments of a great and flourishing people, at a time when it was impoffible for them to have any connexion or communication with the European world, upon fubjects in which all mankind have a common intereft; as they abound with maxims of general policy and justice, which no particularity of manners, or diverfity of religious opinions can alter; as they may become uteful references for a number of national and local diftinctions in our own Sacred Writings, and as the feveral powers of the mind, in the gradual progrefs of civilization, may by judicious comparisons from hence be inveftigated almost to their first principles." W. Choix des Mémoires de l'Academie Royale des Infcriptions and Belles-Lettresor, A Collection of the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Infcriptions and Belles-Lettres. 3 vols. 4to. 31. 3s. Becket and Elmfly. The defign of the Editor *, in forming this Collection, feems to have been to furnish fuch gentlemen, as want either * Mr. Rofe of Chiswick. ability ability to purchase, or time or inclination to perufe, the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres at large, with fuch felect pieces of that voluminous work t as are of moft general ufe, and moft likely to gratify the tafte of the Claffical reader. With this view, he has avoided the in fertion of fuch papers as relate to dry and abftrufe fubjects, and has confined himself to fuch pieces, as have either an immediate or a remote tendency to throw fome light upon the Greek and Roman writers. And, in order to leave room for greater variety, he has paffed over fuch differtations, as are of too great a length to be eafily admitted into a Collection of this kind. The effays on the Roman Legion alone, all of them infeparably connected, and forming an entire whole, would, if printed together, inake a large Quarto volume. The collection, agreeable to the plan of the original work, is divided into two parts; the firft containing what is called The Hiftory of the Works of the Royal Academy of Inferiptions and Belles Lettres. This confifts of fuch pieces as were not deemed worthy of being inferted at length, but the fubftance of which is here digefted into an hiftorical form by the fecretary to the Academy or fome of its members. The fecond part contains the Memoirs of the Academy, properly fo called; that is such essays, as were judged by the Academy to be fo highly finifhed, as to be thought worthy of being printed without any alteration. To give the bare titles of all the effays that compofe this collection, would exceed the ufual limits of an article in our Review. We fhall content ourselves at prefent with mentioning thofe of the principal pieces, which occur in the first volume, from which the reader will be enabled to determine. what degree of judgment the Editor has difcovered in his felection. The titles of thefe pieces are-A Difcourfe on the Gymnaftic art of the Ancients-Of the expiations of the ancient Greeks and Romans-Of Human Sacrifics-Of Prefages -Of the riches of the temple of Delphos, and how often it was pillaged-Whether the Table afcribed to Cebes, be really the production of that author-A Parallel between Homer and Plato A Differtation on the ufe which Plato has made of the Poets- A Difcourfe on the manner in which Virgil has imitated Homer-A Diflertation on the Hefperides-A Differtation on the Gorgons-A Difcourfe on the fable of Epic Poems.-An Effay on the origin and nature of the Epithalamium-An ex * Amounting to 36 vols. 4to. 7 amination 292 Memoirs of the Academy of Inferiptions and Belles Lettres, amination of the Queftion, whether it be neceffary that a Tragedy fhould confift of five acts-An Effay on Satire; fhewing its rife, progrefs, and different Revolutions. As a fpecimen of the entertainment, which the reader is to expe&t from the perufal of these effays, we fhall present him with the fubftance of what is faid on the fubject of Cebes's Table. The writer of this article, the Abbé Sevin, contends, that this table, though ufually afcribed to Cebes, cannot be the work of that author; and he endeavours to fupport his affertion by the following arguments: 1. Things are mentioned in the Table that did not exift in the time of Cebes. 2. Sects of Philofophers are condemned in it that were not known in his time. 3. The author does not adopt the fentiments of the Sect, to which Cebes belonged. 4. He does not write in the dialect, which was conftantly used by philofophers of that fect. 5. It is not credible that fuch a work fhould have been buried in oblivion for upwards of five centuries. On the first head he obferves, that the word Xáp, as fignifying a written paper, is ufed in the Fable; though that word was not known in Greece till long after the time of Cebes, and the art of writing on paper was not introduced into Greece till after the Conqueft of Egypt by Alexander, Theophraftus too, in his hiftory of plants mentions a great many purpofes to which paper was applied; but he fays not a word of writing as one of them. And yet Theophraftus wrote his hiftory in the 116th Olympiad, whereas Cebes, who was a difciple of Socrates, muft have lived before the hundredth Olympiad. On the fecond head he remarks, that the author of the Table condemns particular fects of Philofophers, that did not exift in the time of Cebes. In talking of thofe, who pur fue vain and unprofitable ftudies, he claffes them thus-Poets, Orators, Logicians, Muficians, Arithmeticians, Geometricians, Aftrologers, Epicureans (d, as they are called in the original) Peripaticians, and Criticks. But it is univerfally agreed, that the three laft Sects were not known in the time of Cebes. In handling the fourth argument, M. Sevin fays, that the author of the Fable has been at no pains to make Cebes talk confiftently with the character of his fect. Cebes was, as appears from the Phacon of Plato, a difciple of the fchool of Pythagoras; and, in that very dialogue, he ftrenuously defends the doctrine of his mafter. But it is well known, that Mufic and Arithmetic were two fciences, which the Pythago ricians held in the highest eftimation. Jamblichus informs us, that |