اي حنا كمسكي تجي خواهش يا بوسي ي جس لب زخم نی شمشير تيزي جوسي ي بان به مسیج ملني كي خوان سي توتک خوسي ي Muddaîì hemsè fokban fáz bi fálúsì haì ab tamemà cò yebàn muzbedeï máyusi bài áb ab cafrati dághi ghemi khúbán sè temàm s'afb'aï sinab mérà jilwaï t'áúsì hai haì mérì t'arab' jigar knúni térà muddatsè a Binnà cife tujbè khábibi pibus, bài áwazi derd mezè sè wah bherè hain súrè jis lebi zakham nè shemfhiri térì chúsì haì tohmati íshk ábas carte hain mujhper Minnat bản yeb fech milnè cì khübàn sè tủ tục kbus bat. The Tranflation. 1. My beloved foe fpeaks of me with diffimulation; and now the tidings of defpair are brought hither to the defire of my foul. 2. Alas, that the fimooth furface of my bofom, through the marks of burning in the fad abfence of lovely youths, is become like the plumage of a peacock. 3. Like me, O Hinnà (the fragrant and elegant fhrub, with the leaves of which the nails of Arabian women are dyed crimson), thy heart has long been full of blood: whofe foot art thou defirous of kissing? 4. Instead of pain, my beloved, every wound from thy cimeter fucks with its lips the fweetnefs, with which it is filled. 5. The fufpicion of love is vainly cast on MINNAT-Yes; true it is, that my nature rather leads me to the company of beautiful youths. Thus have I explained, by obfervations and examples, my method of noting in Roman letters the principal languages of Afia; nor can I doubt, that Armenian, Turkish, and the various dialects of Tartary, may be expreffed in the fame manner with equal advantage; but, as Chinese words are not written in alphabetical characters, it is obvious, that they must be noted according to the best pronunciation used in China; which has, I imagine, few founds incapable of being rendered by the symbols used in this effay. ON THE GODS OF GREECE, ITALY, AND INDIA, WRITTEN IN 1784, AND SINCE REVISED, BY THE PRESIDENT. WE cannot justly conclude, by arguments preceding the proof of facts, that one idolatrous people must have borrowed their deities, rites, and tenets from another; fince Gods of all fhapes and dimenfions may be framed by the boundless powers of imagination, or by the frauds and follies of men, in countries never connected; but, when features of refemblance, too ftrong to have been accidental, are obfervable in different systems of polytheism, without fancy or prejudice to colour them and improve the likeness, we can scarce help believing, that some connection has immemorially fubfifted between the several nations, who have adopted them : 'it is my defign in this effay, to point out fuch a refemblance between the popular worship of the old Greeks and Italians and that of the Hindus nor can there be room to doubt of a great fimi ; larity between their strange religions and that of Egypt, China, Perfia, Phrygia, Phænice, Syria; to which, perhaps, we may fafely add fome of the fouthern kingdoms and even islands of America; while the Gothick fyftem, which prevailed in the northern regions of Europe, was not merely fimilar to thofe of Greece and Italy, but almost the fame in another drefs with an embroidery of images apparently Afiatick. From all this, if it be fatisfactorily proved, we may infer a general union or affinity between the most distinguished inhabitants of the primitive world, at the time when they deviated, as they did too early deviate, from the rational adoration of the only true GOD. There seem to have been four principal fources of all mythology. I. Hiftorical, or natural, truth has been perverted into fable by ignorance, imagination, flattery, or stupidity; as a king of Crete, whofe tomb had been discovered in that ifland, was conceived to have been the God of Olympus, and MINOS, a legiflator of that country, to have been his fon, and to hold a fupreme appellate jurifdiction over departed fouls; hence too probably flowed the tale of CADMUS, as BOCHART learnedly traces it; hence beacons or volcanos became one-eyed giants and monsters vomiting flames; and two rocks, from their appearance to mariners in certain pofitions, were fuppofed to crush all veffels attempting to pafs between them; of which idle fictions many other instances might be collected from the Odyffey and the various Argonautick poems. The lefs we fay of Julian ftars, deifications of princes or warriours, altars raifed, with thofe of APOLLO, to the bafeft of men, and divine titles beftowed on fuch wretches as CAJUS OCTAVIANUS, the lefs we fhall expofe the infamy of grave senators and fine poets, or the brutal folly of the low multitude: but we may be affured, that the mad apotheofis of truly great men, or of little men falfely called great, has been the origin of grofs idolatrous errors in every, part of the pagan world. II. The next fource of them appears to have been a wild admiration of the heavenly bodies, and, after a time, the systems and calculations of Aftronomers: hence came a confiderable portion of Egyptian and Grecian fable; the Sabian worship in Arabia ; the Perfian types and emblems of Mihr or the fun, and the far extended adoration of the elements and the powers of nature; and hence perhaps, all the artificial Chronology of the Chinefe and Indians, with the invention of demigods and heroes to fill the vacant niches in their extravagant and imaginary periods. III. Numberless divinities have been created folely by the magick of poetry; whose essential business it is, to personify |