vourable influence of the fun; it is enclosed on one fide by vaft rocks and deferts, and defended on the other by a tempestuous sea, so that it seems to have been designed by providence for the most secure, as well as the most beautiful, region of the East. I am at a lofs to conceive, what induced the illuftrious Prince Cantemir to contend that Yemen is properly a part of India; for, not to mention Ptolemy, and the other ancients, who confidered it as a province of Arabia, nor to insist on the language of the country, which is pure Arabick, it is described by the Afiaticks themselves as a large divifion of that peninfula, which they call Fezeiratul Arab; and there is no more colour for annexing it to India, because the fea, which washes one fide of it, is looked upon by fome writers as belonging to the great Indian ocean, than there would be for annexing it to Perfia, because it is bounded on another fide by the Perfian gulf; Its principal cities are Sanaa, usually confidered as its metropolis; Zebid, a commercial town, that lies in a large plain near the fea of Omman ; and Aden, furrounded with pleasant gardens and woods, which is fituated eleven degrees from the Equator, and feventy-fix from the Fortunate Islands, or Canaries, where the geographers of Afia fix their first meridian. It is obfervable that Aden, in the Eastern dialects, is precifely the fame word with Eden, which we apply to the garden of paradise it has two fenfes, according to a flight difference in its pronunciation; its first meaning is a fettled abodes its fecond, delight, softness, or tranquillity: the word Eden had, probably, one of these fenfes in the facred text, though we use it as a proper name. We may also observe in this place that Yemen itfelf takes its name from a word, which which fignifies verdure, and felicity; for in thofe fultry climates, the freshness of the fhade, and the coolness of water, are ideas almost inseparable from that of happiness ; and this may be a reason why most of the Oriental nations agree in a tradition concerning a delightful spot, where the first inhabitants of the earth were placed before their fall. The ancients, who gave the name of Eudaimon, or Happy, to this country, either meaned to translate the word Yemen, or, more probably, only alluded to the valuable fpice-trecs, and balfamick plants, that grow in it, and without speaking poetically, give a real perfume to the air: the writer of an old history of the Turkish empire fays, "The air of Egypt fometimes in fummer is like any fweet perfume, and almoft fuffocates the fpirits, caufed by the "wind that brings the odours of the Arabian fpices:" now it is certain that all poetry receives a very confiderable ornament from the beauty of natural images; as the roses of Sharon, the verdure of Carmel, the vines of Engaddi, and the dew of Hermon, are the fources of many pleafing metaphors and comparifons in the facred poetry: thus the odours of Yemen, the mufk of Hadramut, and the pearls of Omman, fupply the Arabian poets with a great variety of allufions; and, if the remark of Hermogenes be just, that whatever is delightful to the fenfes produces the Beautiful when it is defcribed, where can we find fo much beauty as in the Eaftern poems, which turn chiefly upon the lovelieft objects in nature? To purfue this topick yet farther: it is an obfervation of Demetrius of Phalera, in his elegant treatise upon ftyle, that it is not easy to write on agreeable subjects in a disagreeable manner,and that beautiful expreffions naturally rife with beau tiful images; for which reafon, says he, nothing can be more pleafing than Sappho's poetry, which contains the description of gardens, and banquets, flowers and fruits, fountains and meadows, nightingales and turtle-doves,loves and graces: thus, when she speaks of a stream softly murmuring among the branches, and the Zephyrs playing through the leaves, with a found, that brings on a quiet flumber, her lines flow without labour as smoothly as the rivulet she describes. I may have altered the words of Demetrius, as I quote them by memory, but this is the general sense of his remark, which, if it be not rather fpecious than just, must induce us to think, that the poets of the East may vie with those of Europe in the graces of their diction, as well as in the lovelinefs of their images but we must not believe that the Arabian poetry can please only by its defcriptions of beauty; fince the gloomy and terrible objects, which produce the fublime, when they are aptly described, are no where more common than in the Defert and Stony Arabia's; and, indeed, we fee nothing fo frequently painted by the poets of those countries, as wolves and lions, precipices and forests, rocks and wilderneffes. : If we allow the natural objects, with which the Arabs are perpetually converfant, to be fublime, and beautiful, our next step must be, to confefs that their comparisons, metaphors, and allegories are fo likewise; for an allegory is only a string of metaphors, a metaphor is a fhort fimile, and the finest fimiles are drawn from natural objects. It is true that many of the Eastern figures are common to other nations, but fome of them receive a propriety from the manners of the Arabians, who dwell in the plains and woods, which would be loft, if they came from the inhabitants of cities: thus the dew of liberality, and the odour of reputation, are metaphors used by moft people; but they are wonderfully proper in the mouths of those, who have so much need of being refreshed by the dews, and who gratify their sense of smelling with the fweetest odours in the world: Again; it is very ufual in all countries to make frequent allufions to the brightnefs of the celestial luminaries, which give their light to all s but the metaphors taken from them have an additional beauty, if we confider them as made by a nation, who pafs most of their nights in the open air, or in tents, and confequently fee the moon and ftars in their greatest splendour. This way of confidering their poetical figures will give many of them a grace, which they would not have in our languages; fo, when they compare the foreheads of their mistresses to the morning, their locks to the night, their faces to the fun, to the moon, or the bloffoms of jafmine, their cheeks to rofes or ripe fruit, their teeth to pearls, hail-stones, and fnow-drops, their eyes to the flowers of the narcissus, their curled hair to black scorpions, and to hyacinths, their lips to rubies or wine, the form of their breafts to pomegranates, and the colour of them to fnow, their shape to that of a pine-tree, and their stature to that of a cypress, a palm-tree, or a javelin, &c. these comparisons, many of which would feem forced in our idioms, have undoubtedly a great delicacy in theirs, and affect their minds in a peculiar manner; yet upon the whole their fimiles are very just and ftriking, as that of the blue eyes of a fine woman, bathed in tears, to violets dropping with dew, and that of a warriour, advancing at the head of his army, to an eagle failing through the air, and piercing the clouds with his wings. Thefe Thefe are not the only advantages, which the natives of Arabia enjoy above the inhabitants of moft other countries they preferve to this day the manners and customs of their ancestors, who, by their own account, were fettled in the province of Yemen above three thousand years ago; they have never been wholly fubdued by any nation; and though the admiral of Selim the First made a defcent on their coaft, and exacted a tribute from the people of Aden, yet the Arabians only keep up a show of allegiance to the fultan, and act, on every important occafion, in open defiance of his power, relying on the fwiftnefs of their horses, and the vast extent of their forefts, in which an invading enemy muft foon perifh: but here I must be understood to speak of those Arabians, who, like the old Nomades, dwell constantly in their tents, and remove from place to place according to the seasons; for the inhabitants of the cities, who traffick with the merchants of Europe in fpices, perfumes, and coffee, must have loft a great deal of their ancient fimplicity: the others have, certainly, retained it; and, except when their tribes are engaged in war, spend their days in watching their flocks and camels, or in repeating their native fongs, which they pour out almost extempore, profeffing a contempt for the ftately pillars, and folemn buildings of the cities, compared with the natural charms of the country, and the coolness of their tents: thus they pafs their lives in the highest pleasure, of which they have any conception, in the contemplation of the most delightful objects, and in the enjoyment of perpetual spring; for we may apply to |