The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-08 00:00:00

'RE.

DINNER TO MR. PEEL.

LITERATURE.

FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW,
LONDON, 1828.

This is a very intellige►►t number, replete with
ail attractive variety of subjects. The first ar•
title, on " Arabian Literature," evidently the
production of a practised pen, enters into an
elaborate analysis of the rise, progress, and cha-
racter of Arabian Literature. Gibbon, if we
remember rightly, has one or two chapters on
this extremely interesting subject ; and Mr.
Mills, in his History of Mal►ometanism, has
canvassed the same subject with surprising spirit.
The present writer, however, goes further, and
even deeper, than either of these two historians,
and puts forth two or three metaphysical specu-
lations, ingenious and novel, in which he essays
to prove.the close nature of the connection that
exists between the Arab and his literature ; as
also how it has been entirely framed and mo-
delled on his physical peculiarities. The fol-
kwing extract is slight and sketchy, but confirms
the opinions of Gibbon on the same point :
The first extraneous stimulus which the Arabs felt
towards the cultivation a letters was from the Greeks.
As soon as the triumph of Islamism was complete, and the
Caliphs began to rest from their career of conquest, the
taste for luxury and refinement, the inevitable result of
leisure and unbounded wealth, became manifest in their
courts. The great superiority of their conquered subjects
over their own rude followers, in every thing that adorns
or enlivens social life, could not fail to strike them, and
their palaces were soon filled with Greeks, Jews, and Syrians,
who recommended themselves to notice by their superior
learning and intelligence. The era of Arabian cultivation
dates from the dynasty of the Abassides, or the middle of
the eighth century. Three Princes in succession, Alman-
sor, Alraschid, and Almamon, but particularly the last, who
is the Augustus of the Arabians, used every means in their
power to promote the growth of learning among their
people. We will say nothing of the treaty made by Alma-
mon with the Emperor Michael 111. in which, among
other conditions imposed by him as conqueror, he demanded
copies of all the Greek authors; nor of the hundreds of
camels seen to enter the gates of Bagdad laden with pre-
cious volumes of imported learning. Suffice it to say, that
already, at the commencement of the ninth century, the
Arabians were acquainted with the medicine, ehilosophy,
mathematics, and natural history of the Greeks ; they pos-
sessed translations of Hippocrates, Galen, Theophrastus,
Ptolemy, Euclid, and Aristotle.
Language and Literature of the Magyars,"
which, from the great knowledge of the SclavoL
nic dialects displayed in it, we should suppose
to be the production of Mr. Bowring, gives a
rapid and animated account of this Hungarian
colony, with whose literary productions, though
far from being either valueless or scanty, Europe
seems at present to be little, if at all, acquainted.
The translations of the different specimens an-
nexed are replete with fancy, and if faithful,
which we cannot of ourselves either assert or
deny, prove that the Magyars have made no con-
temptible proficiency in poetry. Indeed, there is
not merely invention, but even sweetness and de-
licacy in their thoughts and subjects of verse.
We give the following as a favourable sample
" THE FALSE MAID.
" She is bore of noble stein,
Fairer than the fairest gem
Which upon her robe (loth shine,
Graceful, beautiful, divine.
What avails it all to me ?
S;he is false as false can be !
She has eyes like damsons black,
Shining like the comet's track ;
Mouth of witchery—lightning- glance—
Heaven is in her countenance.
What avails it all to me?
She is false as false can be

Neck of alabaster, lips
Crimson roses to eclipse,
Chin of marble's smoothest glow,
Shoulders piled of purest snow.
What avails it all to me ?
She is false as false can be!
Fair when distant, fair when near,
Fair her smile, and fair her tear;
Fair when bending, fair erect—
Unadorn'd, or gem-bedeck'd.
What avails it all to me ?
She is false as false can be!