The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-16 00:00:00

TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 16, 1827.

This day was published, beautifully printed by Davison, and
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A new edition of
THE POETICAL WORKS of the Right
Hon. LORD BY RON, comprising the Tragedies.
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ALMA CK'S.—A Novel.
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LITERATURE.

NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS.—LoNnow : 1826-3 \rots

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments
the perusal of these magic words, does not recal the
sweetest and most thrilling charms of its boyhood ? What
reader, no matter how sobered and subdued by subsequent
intercourse with the world, does not go back to his school-
days, when in the intervals of study, beneath the shade
of a tree, or by stealth, in the school-room, he devoured
these splendid fancies of the East, and read how Sinbad
the sailor encountered, at every page, some monstrous ad
venture ; how Aladdin, by the aid of the Genius of the
Lamp, rivalled the proudest monarchs in their power ; how
enchanters snatched away huge palaces in their arms, and
whisked them, like so many butterflies, through the air;
how. young Princes of surpassing beauty fell in love with
Princesses of even superior charms; how they conquered
every obstacle, braved every danger, and how, finally;-they
married and lived happily afterwards : thus exemplifying
the wholesome adage, that virtue is its own reward. The
Arabian Nights, to be enjoyed in full perfection, should
be read in boyhood. At that believing age their miracles
pass for so many realities, and no harsh critic steps in to
say that all is irrational and tawdry. For ourselves we
feel bound to speak of them with the greater gratitude,
because we discern, in the common sense of the age, the
sure forerunner of their ruin. Yet a few years,• and our
present mode of education, which spurns the ornamental,
and cleaves.only to the useful, will have left little of the
Arabian Nights but the name. Their delightful local ob-
scurities will no longer avail them. In vain will the
Princess Dinarsade begin her story with the.well-known
words—" In the interior of Africa there once dwelt a po-
tent monarch, who," &c. The misbelieving reader will
instantly turn to Clapperton's late travels in Africa, and,
if he do not find there the requisite information, will ap-
ply to some friend whom (for we all travel now-a-days)
the steam-boat has no doubt, at one time or other of his
life, landed on the Slave-coast, or the Cape of Good Hope,
and who must consequently have heard of him had such a
monarch ever existed. The " March of Intellect," so
conspicuous at the present day, seems in its hurry to have
left imagination behind it. It has become the fashion to
sneer at what was the boast of our ancestors, to laugh at
the fairies, witches, and ghosts of Shakspeare, and to to-
lerate his fancy solely for his delineation of the human
mind. Did we wish to be metaphysical we might attempt
to trace the ennui, so prevalent in our modern times, to
the want of excitement occasioned by this undervaluing
of the imagination. No individual now retires to rest
with the idea that he may be roused from sleep by ghost
or fairy ; no one ever thinks with Milton, that-7
" ltlillions of spiritual creatures wing the air,
Unseen both when we wake and when we sleep."
The consequence of which is, a conviction of safety (for
even high-way robbers are put down, and Hounslow Heath
is inclosed,) that lends a necessary listlessness to the mind.
The New Arabian Nights, from which we have thus wan-
tonly digressed, profess to be a sequel to the former ones,
translated from the original MSS. into German, and from
thence into English by Mr. Lamb. They are introduced
by a light amusing preface, in which their translatorin-
forms us, that like their splendid predecessors, they were
derived originally from Persia, and circulated by the various
Arabian story-tellers throughout the caravanseras of the

East. The Mahometans, we all know, are delighted with
this species of amusement ; at dose of day, when the voice
of the Muezzin has ceased, they throng round their pro-
fessed romancers who indulge them at some public inn,
with stories of a similar nature to those here translated.
So far so good ; but the question now is, how far the
tales before us are to be considered as genuine. Judgiug
from internal evidence,.we should be inclined to pronounce
them legitimate ; for repeated allusions are made throughout
to the fatalism of the Mahometans.; the similies, too, are all
decidedly oriental, and the supernatural agency, such as none
but an eastern romancer could invent. In point of merit,
however, they are far below their predecessors. There
are no incidents so awfully sublime as the City of the
Dead—so lavishly magnificent as Aladdin—or so humorous
as the Barber and his Brothers. In acquaintance with the
familiar life and manners of the East, they are equally in-
, ferior, though enough still remains to convince us of their
oriental origin. The chief defect in the first Arabian
Nights is their want of personal interest. They have
splendid fancy, exquisite humour, boundless invention, un-
:!easing incident, but little or no sentiment. We cannot
recal one singleeharacter throughout their delightful volumes,
that extorts either our pity or regret; all is cold, splendid,
and indefinite. Hence, in the perusal of their wonders we
are too apt to become sated, we are dazzled, but not touch-
ed; our heads, not our .hearts, are affected, and we turn
for relief to our own more congenial European fictions,
where, though the fancy is less exuberant, the sensibility is
stronger. The present volumes partake largely of this charac-
teristic defect. The first, and perhaps the best tale, en-
titled " The Brazen City" is certainly imaginative, with
a solemn vein of thought (like all Eastern apologues)
pervading it, but it has no feeling. As a specimen, how-
ever, of its stately morality we quote the following des-
cription of a deserted palace found in a desert of Africa
They came at length to a boundless plain, smooth as the sea in
a calm, in the middle of which appeared a mass of smoke, and
some object of dazzling brilliancy beneath it. Hastening forward,
they found it was a magnificent palace, above the cornice of which
were tablets of ebony inlaid with gold. The gates, of Chinese
‘teel, dazzled their eyes ; the pillars were of gigantic size ; and
that which to the distant travellers had appeared like smoke, was
a dome covered with lead. But within not a living creature was
to be seen save the owls and ravens, who had there built their
nests, and filled the air with their melancholy cries.
" There is no god but God !" exclaimed the emir Mnsa, trans-
ported with astonishment. " 0 palace ! what is become of thine
inhabitants ? They sleep the sleep of death, as if they had never
lived. Where is the retinue of thy court ? Where are thy princes
and kings ? God has scattered them, like the chaff before the
wind ! But let us enter," continued lie, turning to the sheikh
Abdussamed, who was engaged in prayer, and repeating the
words of the Koran. " Perhaps ye will flee from that which
would be profitable to you! God be praised for his innumerable i
benefits and infinite grace. Rejoice, 0 prince !" said the sheikh,
"we have escaped the desert, and have no wild beasts to fear. I
have never, indeed, been in this place : but know it by the des-
cription which a traveller--who, like us, was going to the brazen
city, and like us too had lost his way, and came to this palace,
once gave me of it. We have a month's journey yet to perform
to the city of brass ; and thence four months more to that part of
the sea where the brazen vessels we seek are to be found."—" Can
you tell," said the emir Musa, " to which of the ancient kings
this splendid palace belonged ?"—" I know not exactly," replied
the sheikh, " but believe it was Alexander." Saying this, he
led the way, and approached the gate of the palace, which was
shut. They first entered a fore-court, the walls of which were
inlaid with gold and precious stones ; over the door was the fol-
lowing inscription, in Greek :

" Enter bere, and learn the history of those who were once
lords of the world.

" They have passed by, like hasty travellers; scarcely have they
had time to rest."

The emir Musa melted into tears. lie entered the inner apart-
ments, over the door leading to which was inscribed,
" What multitudes once walked these halls ! See now what
time has done with them !"

Musa wept again at reading this, and, with Abdulazlz and their
attendants, wandered through immense apartments, all solitary
and deserted, till they came to that covered by the dome. Here
stood four hundred sepulchral monuments, of marble and gra-
nite ; Musa, who understood Greek, approached one and read
as follows :

"Of how many events have I not been witness ! How many
sumptuous feasts, how rna:-..y splendid banquets, have I not enjoy-
ed ! How many cities have I not conquered ! How many laws
have I not given !
" Preserve thy soul ! Enjoy life before death overtake thee.
" To-morrow they will carry thee out, and say to those who ask
after thee—he is dead !"

The tale of " Nureddin and Maria, the girdle maker,"
though splendid, is absurdly extravagant. The plot
is simply this :—Nureddin, a young merchant, falls in love
with Maria, a .disguised Princess of course, but compelled
to make girdles for her livelihood; and after unheard-of
difficulties, and " perils both by sea and land," at last
succeeds in marrying her. There is nothing in this very
remarkable, but the oddity of the tale lies in the character
of the girdle maker. She is, it seems, daughter to the
King of the Franks, and having learned the art of war at
her father's Court, practises it on all occasions. In at-
tempting, for instance, to escape with Nureddin from
France, the master of a vessel and ten of his crew throw
certain obstacles in her way, upon which " she cuts off all
their heads." Shortly afterwards she is stopped by a
horse stealer, " whom, without a single word, she thrusts
through with her sword, while his spirit fled to hell"—
the usual place, we should observe, appointed for all de-
ceased Mussulmen. The very next day the King learning
her flight, despatches her three brothers, each with three
thousand men, in pursuit; luckily she sees them in time
to put herself action, and on the first brother approach-
ing to expostulate, she cuts his head clean off, " where-
upon his body (as a matter of necessity) tumbled from
his horse, and his soul went straightway to hell." The
next brother now arrives, but Maria, we are told, " left
him no time for speech, but cut off his head and sent
him to look after his brother." The third, who has by
this time come up, endeavours also to reason with her,
but his warlike (not to say affectionate) sister, " thrust
her sword likewise through his body and sent him after
his -brothers into everlasting fire." Not 'content with
this, our inconceivable Amazon (to whom Hercules was a
fool) attacks the whole army of three thousand men, puts
them all to flight, returns -to her lover, takes him to the
Caliph's Court, and marries him. We instance this tale
as a specimen, not of oriental imagination, but of its ex-
travagance. Similar instances, though none so glaring,
may be found scattered throughout the volumes, particu-
larly in the Tales entitled `f Hassan of Bassora" and
" Mesrour and his Mistress." But, indeed, the
chief feature of all Arabian fancy is exaggeration,
whether of incident, character, or invention... If a King
is introduced, he is superlatively rich; if a Prince or
Princess, they are superlatively beautiful ; if a Magician,
however, we judge
thesehe is vicio
talesu
by s
in proportion.
yanordea w Perhaps,hir
hthey were never meant to
Pass. Measured by the cold severity of us European cri-
tics, they are certainly absurd; but as applicable to, and
characteristic of, the wild glowing genius of the country
which gave them birth, they are Inimitable. Perhaps too,
after all, the chief fault lies with us ; the world may have
blighted our fancies, and taught us to sneer where we ought
to admire ; and if such indeed be the case, it is hard to
visit our contempt on these splendid fictions. A motive of
gratitude besides should enlist us irrevocably in their favour.
As we re-peruse their pages (long since laid aside), the past
necessarily flits before us. We think of the times when
their incidents thrilled us with fear or extacy ; the very
Play-ground with its fine old elms, and the Thames flow-

ing through it, where we used to sit for hours absorbed in
delighted wonder, again stands boldly out before our
"mind's eye ;" and thought the world has since taught us
a soberer lesson, are we therefore bound to despise our
youthful favourites—the inspirers of our earliest day-dreams.
Never : they are linked to us, first, by a sympathy which
age may loosen but cannot wholly extinguish; and, secondly,
by a tender regret arising from the consciousness, that their
spell " bath ceased its power."

(From the Liverpool Albion.)
The speeches which Mr. Canning delivered in the
House of Commons on the subject of the invasion of Por-
tugal have been printed in the form of a pamphlet. They
have, it is understood, been revised and corrected by
the Right Hon. Gentleman himself. The difference
which is apparent between the speeches as they were
delivered in the House of Commons, and the version of
them now published under Mr. Canning's own sanction,
has attracted the attention of the Metropolitan editors.
He has, it appears, softened and qualified parts of the ora-
tions, which some of his friends, but more especially foreign
powers, might deem, not merely revolutionary, but harsh
and unguarded. Whole'passages, too, are entirely omitted;
and the pruning knife has been applied most vigorously to
the speeches generally.
The alterations which Mr. Canning has made in his
orations seem to hare excited some surprise in the coffee-
houses of the Metropolis ; and various sage conjeftures
have been hazarded to account for them. The writer of
this article does not, however, share in the surprise which
he has seen expressed in the diurnal journals upon the
subject. The truth is, that Mr. Canning is very fastidious

Early yesterday morning the house of Charles. Ben-
nett, Esq., 21, Dorset-street, was broken into, and robbed of pro-
perty to the amount of one hundred pounds and upwards. Tbt
thieves broke through the area door, and stole all the plate they
could find, together with some medals, and a Knight Companion's
Badge of the Order of the Bath. They forced every lock in the
kitchens, parlours, and drawing-rooms; cut some valuable port.
folios, which had locks, to pieces; and injured the carpets b,
most filthy conduct. -