self to be a dramatist. Hence vernacular literature, though in its infancy, is already over-stocked with the wretched performances dignified with the appellation of dramas. With the present generation of Bengali dramatists, a drama is nothing more than a plain story told by several people in the course of smart dialogues. To inculcate the lessons of " moral prudence in brief sententious precepts"-to "treat of fate, and chance, and change in human life"-to "describe high actions and high passions"-all this is not their trade. Our native dramatists tell a dull story in dull prose and duller verse, and call the thing a drama. Of this nature is the performance before us. It would be an insult to the understandings of our readers were we to recite the very absurd story which our author professes to dramatize. Suffice it to say in a single sentence that a prince hears of the beauty of a certain princess, falls in love with her, sends her a garland of pearls through a parrot, contrives to get into her apartment through the agency of a demon (gandharva), is discovered by the father of the princess and imprisoned, breaks his fetters and frightens the father, and at last gets married. The worst of these so-called dramas is that they are not simply useless--they taint the heart and corrupt the morals of youth.

Bastur Bichár (Lessons on Objects); by Ramgati Nyáratna. Calcutta. Sambat 1915.

THIS is a very useful compilation. In a popular and flowing style the writer gives a good deal of valuable information on the objects with which we have to do in every-day life. The objects handled are, glass, camphor sago, sugar, India rubber, opium, tea, assafoetida, coffee, sandal-wood, turpentine, paper, musk, silk, shell-lac, serpent's poison, pearls, glue, horn, wool, sulphur, silver, coal, mercury, mica, lead, salt, copper, saltpetre, iron, lime, tin, cochineal, zinc, snow, soap, quinine, oil, gunpowder, coral, spunge, uttar and rose-water, and diamond. The book may be advantageously introduced into vernacular schools.

Turkiya Itihas (Turkish Tales); translated into Bengali Verse, by Dwárká Nath Kundu. Calcutta. 1859.

THIS is a Bengali poetical translation of a well-known English book entitled “Turkish Tales." We regret we cannot congratulate the translator on either the faithfulness or the elegance of his version. In the course of a cursory perusal we noticed several passages devoid of either rhyme or reason. Indeed the versification is at fault throughout. A prose translation would have been more acceptable. As it is, the translator deserves praise for his industry.

Inyan Briksha (The Tree of Knowledge); for the use of schools. By Bipra
Charan Chakrabartti, of the Church of Scotland Mission. Part IV.
Calcutta. 1859.

THIS is the fourth volume of a series of Christian vernacular school
books, the first three volumes of which we noticed in the last number of
this Review. It treats of the following subjects :-A brief account of Ben-
gal, the printing-press, prophecies concerning the incarnation of Christ,
eclipses, grammatical rules, account of Great Britain, the origin of idolatry,
the fate of Sodom and Gomorrha, miracles of Christ, the magnet, rain-
bow, comets, prophecies regarding the Messiah, an anecdote, and the his-
tory of Caleb. The book has somewhat disappointed us.
In the prepara-
tion of a series of school-books the compiler should sedulously aim at a re-
gular gradation in his style of composition; the earlier parts ought to be
written in a simple and easy, the more advanced parts in a higher and more
elevated style. The compiler of the series before us has failed to do this.
The style of the fourth part is in no way higher and more difficult than that
of the third; while there are passages in it, to say the least, very careless-
ly written. Had we space, we might have pointed out dozens of sentences
constructed in violation of the rules of grammar and idiom. But there are
graver defects. The Baboo tells us in page 8 that, "on account of the
moon being many millions of times smaller than the sun, a total eclipse of
the latter body is impossible."

This statement is repeated in the same page in a variety of ways. Such an error contained in an educational primer, intended for the schools of Bengal, is simply disgraceful, and sufficient to bring the entire series into discredit. The author, we hope, will not misunderstand us. As a laborious teacher and catechist in connection with the Church of Scotland's Mission in Calcutta, he has won respect and esteem. But when he publishes to the world a series of books intended to be used in schools, the interests of education as well as of literature demand that those books should be carefully scrutinized. We trust that Baboo Bipra Charan Chakrabartti will, in a second edition of the book under notice, expunge the errors it contains, and that in the compilation of the fifth part he will bear in mind the useful advice." Be careful what you print."

Parnell's Hermit—a Bengali Translation. By Hari Mohan Gupta, Serampore.

1859.

BABOO Hari Mohan Gupta alias Sen gave to the world some years since, a volume of Bengali poems entitled “ Adbhuta Rámáyan." The book did.

not receive the circulation it deserved, though it was well spoken of by the newspaper critics of the day. He then contributed largely to the vernacular periodical Press. And now he appears again as a poet, or rather as the Bengali translator of a British poet. The translation first appeared in the columns of the Arunodaya-a Bengali periodical published under the auspices of the Calcutta Christian Tract Society. The translation is admirable. Himself a poet, the translator has infused into his version not a little of the poetical spirit of Dr. Parnell. The versification is faultless, chaste, and rythmical. The author has a purity of style and severity of taste unusual with his countrymen. We should like to meet him again.

Muhammader Jiban Charitra, Muhammadiya Rajyer Purabritta. (Life of Muhammad, founded on Arabic Authorities, to which is added a History of Muhammedanism). Calcutta. Printed for the Calcutta Christian Tract and Book Society.

THE last report of the Calcutta Christian Tract and Book Society ascribes the authorship of this work to the Rev. J. Long of the Church Mission Society. Mr. Long, we believe, is no Arabic scholar, but his work is founded on the researches of Sprenger, Caussin de Perceval, Weil, and Muir. The first part of the work containing the Life of Muhammad was published some years since. It now appears in an enlarged form with a history of Muhammedanism appended to it. The religious revolution inaugurated by Muhammad is one of the most important events in the history of the world, and Mr. Long has done real service to vernacular literature by writing so clear and life-like a narrative of that revolution. The Life of Muhammad with its leading events is despatched in six chapters; the second part commences with the Life of Abubeker and traces the fortunes of Islamism through the Middle Ages down to the present day; while the concluding chapters contain dissertations, on Muhammadan sects, on the Wahabis, on Muhammadan literature, on the tenets of the Koran, on Muhammadan pilgrimages, and the present condition of the Muhammadans. Mr. Long deserves the best thanks of the native community for the very useful work which he has produced.

Purábritta Sar, (Manual of History.) Part I. By Bhoodeb Mookerjea. Cal

cutta.

BABOO Bhoodeb Mookerjea is one of the very few educated natives who are contributing towards the formation of a healthy vernacular literature. His "Elements of Natural Philosophy," his "Historical Tales," and his

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translation of a part of Euclid, are very important and useful works; while the treatise before us is one of the best books ever written in the Bengali language. The book contains six chapters, the first of which is devoted to what little is known of the early history of the world; the second to the history of the Egyptians; the third to the history of the Jews; the fourth to the history of the Phoenicians; the fifth to the history of the Assyrians and Babylonians; and the sixth to that of the Persians. History in the hands of the intelligent Baboo is not a mere dry chronicle of events. Narratives of battles and sieges are agreeably relieved by dissertations on literature, politics, religion and manners. The style in which the book is written is admirable. It is at once simple, chaste and dignified. We trust the Baboo will give us in the second part a complete History of Greece, and when he does so, he will, we hope, give us in Bengali the original Greek names, and not as they are transmogrified through the medium of the English. We make this remark because we find our author writing in Bengali Phænicia instead of Phænikia.

Kalikontuk Nátak, (The Munners of the Kali Yuga); a Drama. By Shri Nárayan Chattaraj Gunanidhi. Serampore.

THE remarks we made when noticing the "Garland of Pearls" are fully applicable to the dramatic performance before us. It is not so much a drama, as a series of dialogues in which the manners of the present age are described. The author has evidently considerable powers of writing, but nothing can compensate for the coarseness and indelicacy which disfigure several parts of the book.

Mad khayoa barra daya, ját thákar ki upaya (Drinking is a necessary evil, the question is-how to keep Caste.) By Tek Chand Thakur, Author of "Allaler Gharer Dulál.” Calcutta. 1266.

Tek Chand

WE are right glad to meet Tek Chand Thákur again so soon. He made his first appearance before the public as a novelist ; and he comes now to us as a satirist, or what Thackeray would call a 'humourist.' Thakur's satirical powers are of no mean order. What the Chesterfield is true of our Thákur ;

poet says of

His well-tempered satire, smoothly keen,
Steals through the soul, and without pain corrects."

Unlike Dutch painters, he does not indulge in minute delineations, but finishes off his business by a few master-strokes. The chief subject of the

JUNE, 1859

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Picnic sketches before us, is drunkenness, of which several species are racily described; while spicy anecdotes of first-class Bengali drunkards are told with infinite drollery. Nor does the author display less skill in depicting the detestable hypocrisy of those Brahmans and heads of dals who, themselves devoted followers of Bacchus, sit in judgment over, and fulminate threats of excommunication against, the bold innovator in his country's customs.

We retain the opinion which we expressed some time since, when noticing his other work, of our author's style of composition. A purer and a chaster style would detract nothing from the liveliness of his wit or the pungency of his satire, while it would unquestionably find a larger circle of readers, and perhaps increase the chance of its surviving the ephemeral publications of the day. The work before us has discovered another defect in the writer's style-a defect which, for want of an appropriate term, we may characterize as Bengali Cockneyism. Tek Chand Thakur is a Ditcher of the first water. All his scenes are laid within the confines of the Ditch; all his characters arè Ditchers; the satirical whip, with which he so mercilessly lashes the vices of the day, is evidently of ditch manufacture; and the very words he uses swell strongly of the Ditch. In the course of a very attentive perusal of the book before us we discovered scores of words which, in their peculiar inflection, are regarded by every Bengali scholar as extremely vulgar, and which are never used in any part of the country except by a limited class of people in the city of Calcutta. We can understand the use of such provincialisms, or rather cockneyisms, or better still Ditchisms, for the sake of dramatic propriety; but where no such purpose is to be served, we fail to perceive its utility. We do not wish to be understood as depreciating the book. It is an admirable performance, and will, we hope, do much good to the class for which it is intended.