Hebrew, as these people are fuppofed to be of the miffing tribes; but I am affured, the country powers never admitted their public deeds to be drawn in the language of foreigners.

That thefe caves were formed for religious purposes cannot even be doubted, as well from their conftruction, as the fculptured reprefentations of Gentoo mythology which all of them contain. Perhaps a defcription of one might be introduced, with good effect, as an epifode to fome eaftern heroic poem.

It is not unpleasant to trace, as men grow refined, the temples of their worfhip, from the darknefs of caves and forefts, thro' the gloom of Gothic ftructures to the airy elegance of Grecian architecture.

As I vifited the Elephanta, the principal, I would call it, cathedral of thefe caves, I fhall attempt fome account of it.

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This extraordinary offspring of human industry is on Elephantalfland, fo called from the ftatue of an elephant, of natural fize, tolerably cut out of a folid rock, on its weft coaft, which is nearly fix miles from the caftle of Bombay the caves are about the middle of this iflet; the approach to them being through a deep ravine, fo that one is ftruck with furprize at coming fuddenly on their openings, and feeing an abrupt precipice, of more than 60 feet perpendicular, rifing from the roofs of thefe excavations, and covered at the fummit with fhrubs and trees, that hang over the rock, which is of hard ftone, more fo than that usually employed in our home edifices: but as many quarries are known to indurate when expofed to the air, it may not be unreafonable to infer, that its prefent denfity is partly original and partly acquired; but of this, however, I neither made experiment, nor fought information.

Of thefe caves there are three; the principal being in the centre, and the

leffer ones on either hand, tho' not placed in fimilar directions; one having a common front, the other being at right angles with it: in each of the inferior ones is a small chapel with baths at the end.

To the grand cave, or temple, there are three entrances by porticoes of four pillars each, of the fame order with those within. Its elevation is very difproportionate to its area, which laft is nearly a square of 40 yards, whilft its height is not more than half as many feet: but the eye is not only offended at firft by the lownefs, but also by the flatnefs of the roof; which certainly would have acquired more of grandeur by being arched, the effect of which we obferve in our own churches. This

roof is fupported by 36 columns, placed at equal diftances, tho' fome of them have been broken down by the intemperate zeal of the Portuguefe to exterminate idolatry; which, as well as the taftelefs curiofity of later vifitants, has likewife impaired many of the figures.

Each column is divided into three equal parts; the pedeftal being one, the fhaft another, and the capital, including the entablature, the third: the pedestals are fquare; the shafts rudely grooved, and not, as usual, cylindrical, but gradually bulbing outwards to the centre, their greatest diameter being more than half their height. The capitals are, as their fhafts, grooved, and appear, to use the miner's phrafe, like globes flattened by the preffure of country on them. The entablatures are fimple, and without distinct divifions of members. These proportions and forms, fo different from Grecian rules, are not pleafing to a corrected tafte; but as having in themselves the ftricteft uniformity of common principle, they undoubtedly prove the arts to have been far advanced at the early period of their conftruction.

To the right, and within the large

when Burke gets up-we ballotted among ourselves for a fleeping Com mittee in the Gallery-Steele al ways to call us when Pitt speaks Lord Delaval our dear friend!Private message from St James's to Pitt-He at laft agreed to fupport Sir Cecil.

25. Bankes won't vote with us against Grenville's bill-English obstinacy -the Duke of Richmond teazes us -nonfenfe about confiftency what right has he to talk of it? but must not say so. Dundas thinks worfe of the Westminster business than-but too hearty to indulge abfurd fcruples.

27. Court-King in high spirits, and attentive rather to the Duke of Grafton-Queen more fo to Lord Camden puzzles us all-So it is poffible the Duke of Richmond will confent to leave the Cabinet?→→ Dinner at Dundas's too many things, aukwardly ferved-Joke about Rofe's thick legs, like Robinfon's in flannel.

The account that follows, however romantic it may appear, is a positive fact. There are now living, as boarders in the abbatial nunnery of Parthemont, three young ladies, the eldest of whom is not above fourteen years old. Having lived for fome years in the ftricteft intimacy, and the end of all womankind, matrimony, running strongly in their heads, they mutually deplored a time which daily approached, of their being feparated, efpecially as their parents lived in various and diftant provinces. How to avoid fo dire a fate in a country where a man is doomed to have but one wife, did not readily occur to them. After many confulta tions on the fubject, the best-read of the three, remembered what books had taught her of the Turkish polygamy. She communicated her thoughts to her two friends; and the three came to a refolution of applying by letters to the grand Turk. Therein they expofed the reafon of fuch an application, gave an account of their refpective high birth and fortune, humbly requesting his fublime highnefs would take them to wives, and ask the confent of their parents. This letter, ad

dreffed fimply " To the grand Signor, Con ftantinople," was put into the post-office. So fingular a direction attracted the notice of the principal clerk, who laid it as a curi ofity before the poft-mafter.

The latter having broke the seal, and ha ving perused the strange petition it contained, fent it to the minifter. His majesty, who faw it, could not refrain from breaking into his accustomed roar of laughing; for, by-theby, he is the loudest laugher in all his dominions, He not only gave particular orders to the abbefs not to notice fo unaccountable a ftep, which after all was the confequence of folid tho' not altogether enlightened friendfhip, but even condefcend to fignify to the parents of the three little fairies, his with that family-affairs might be fo adjusted, that the three daughters fhould he difpofed of in mar riage as near the fame fpot as conveniency could make it poffible, in order to try whether fuch refined and uncommon fentiments of the fair fex, fhall be able to withstand the intrigues and viciffitudes of this bustling world.

Com

TH

HE venerable old bard, who is the fubject of the prefent inquiry, has been long neglected, perhaps because the merit of his poem could not be tried by the reigning laws of criticifm, of which the author was ignorant, or which he did not choose to obferve: He always indeed was a favourite with fuch as were poffeffed of true taste, and dared to think for themselves; but fince the French, the restorers of the art of criticism, caft a damp upon original invention, the character of Dante has been thrown under a deeper fhade. That agreeable and volatile nation found in themselves an infuperable averfion to the gloomy and romantic bard, whose genius, ardent, melancholy, and fublime, was fo different from their own, and it is well known how foon they became the fovereign arbiters of tafte, and how univerfally the French school of compofition fucceeded to the Italian. Like Shakespeare, the poetry of Dante, unfettered by rules, is diftinguished by bold original ftrokes of fublimity and pathos, and often by juft and ftriking delineations of character; but the nature of epic poetry (if his will be allowed that name) and the obfcurity of his language, deprived him of fame advantages poffeffed by the British bard. An epic poet cannot immediately appeal to the feelings of the crowd as the writer of the drama can. He must be content with the approbation of the ftudious, or at leaft of fuch as have leifure to read; but the dramatist, even if his genius be not of the foremost kind, has the affiftance of the actor to envigorate his fentiments. His heroes appear to the naked eye-the heroes of epic poetry only are feen through the telefcope of fancy, by the eye of the VOL. II. N° 7.

reclufe contemplatift:-the former are favourites of the multitude, and the multitude gives immediate fame. The laurels of the heroic bard are of more tardy growth, and are more at the mercy of chance. To be convinced that this diverfity proceeds from the operation of caufes that act uniformly, we need only reflect on the different fortunes of Homer, and his three pupils, Efchylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, during their lives, not to mention our own Milton and Shakefpeare.

Dante and Homer are fo far fimilar in their fortunes and genius, that they were both the earliest poetical writers known in their respective languages, and both were remarkable for a fimplicity of ftyle and a greatnefs of thought: Both were wanderers; and, at leaft for part of their lives, dependant upon precarious bounty. But the parallel proceeds no further: Homer had the advantage of choofing for his fubject, an event, one of the moft illuftrious and interefting in the annals of the world; an event which gave occafion to the difplay of a variety of characters, and the agency of every paffion. This noble scene he has unfolded with fuch

peculiar art; he has fhown fuch a knowledge of the fprings of human action, and described a series of incidents depending upon each other, in a manner fo probable, and yet fo interefting, that the rules of writing an epic poem, drawn from his Iliad and Odyffey, have been long reduced into a fyftem. Thefe rules Dante could not obferve, as it is probable he did not know them; however, he does not write without a plan, ftill more fimple and lefs complicated than Homer's, The converhon of a finner by a fpiritual guide, difplaying in a feries of terrible vifions the fecrets of Divine

B

Ju

Jufiice, and whofe interpofition had been procured by the fupplication of a faint in paradife, deeply interested in his eternal welfare. Here is a cause, an effect, and the probable means by which this effect is produced: the means are of a nature that rouse the strongest paffions, terror and pity; and the effect is deeply and univerfally interefting. It is true, this plan does not admit of a train of connected incidents, nor a variety of action, arifing from that oppofition of interefts and play of the paffions, which muft naturally arife in defcribing the confequence of the wrath of Achilles; but ån uniform fcene of flaughter must tire, though diverfified with all the various fortunes of the day, and all the jarring paffions of gods and men. The wrath of Achilles gives rife to a fcene of bloodfhed, and his reconciliation only gives occafion to accumulated ruin.- Here then, in the province of de fcription, the Florentine (I think) has the advantage. The different allotments of his criminals afford room for a wonderful variety of fublime imagery; and the adaptation of their punishments to their crimes, gives a noble opportunity for the exertions of fancy. The machinery, or the part that spiritual agents are employed in, is to us the leaft interefting part in both Homer's poems; but the machinery of Dante, though lefs diverfified, is much more folemn and affecting: It coincides with the rational belief of the enlightened mind, and no lefs with the fuperftition of the vulgar; and we may justly obferve, in the words of the first critic of his age, that with refpect to him, as well as Milton*, the probable is marvellous, and the marvellous is probable."

By the complication and oppofition of interefts which muft arife in an action fit for the subject of epic poetry, the human character muft appear in the ftrongest and most affec

ting points of view, as well as in the greatest variety of fituations; yet in the courfe of a martial enterprise, among a people uncivilized and rude, thofe profpects must be rather fimilar, and this variety very much confined. It must indeed be confeffed, that the modern poet, from the nature of his plan, was obliged to fhow all his characters either in the circumftance of actual fuffering, or in dread of fuffering :-Yet, it must be obferved, that in the Iliad we only fee the heroes of ancient times, as they appear to each other in public, in the bustle of a camp, or the heat of a difpute.

It is not fo in the Inferno. By Dante, we are indulged with a nearer and more inward view of the man, as he really is; or, in other words, as his character appears in the eye of offended and omnifcient juftice. In Homer, our profpect is confined to one walk of life, one fpecies of action, one heroic age, in many circumftances very remote from our prefent modes of acting and thinking. We are entirely (I fpeak of the Iliad) confined to the camp, the counfel, and the field of battle. This unity of time and place, it is true, gives an opportunity to the bard of ennobling a very fhort period, or a very limited fcene, with a great variety of incidents, all connected together; and the more probable fuch incidents are, the greater tribute we pay his genius. But this is rather inventing incidents than delineating characters; for in fuch an action as the Iliad, the characters must be pretty much the fame, or they will at least be diftinguished by traits of a very minute kind. But the greater the variety of characters delineated in any poem, the genius of the author, tho' perhaps lefs cultivated, must be allowed to be more exuberant.. Dante's plan, like Shakespeare's, allowed him the liberty of expatiating in the walks of public and private