• In Malda's fhades, on Purna's palmy plain,
The hapless artifts, urg'd to toil in vain ;
• Quit their fad homes, and mourn along the land,
A penfive, pallid, felf-difabled band

*

*

The year revolves-and BISHEN'S † Faft invites
On Ganges' marge to pay the folemn rites;
All, boons of BISHEN, great Preferver, crave;
All, in the facred flood, their bodies lave:
No more, alas!—the multitude no more
• Bathe in the tide, or kneel upon the shore;
•No more from towns and villages they throng,
Wide o'er the fields, the public paths along:
Sad on our ways, by human foot unworn,
Stalks the dim form of Solitude forlorn!

• From Ava's mountains Morn's bright eyes furvey
Fair Ganges' ftreams in many a winding ftray:

ཝ

• There fleecy flocks on many an island feed;

• There herds unnumber'd pasture many a mead ;
⚫ (While noxious herbs our laft refource fupply,
And, dearth efcaping, by difeafe we die)

"Take thefe," ye cry, "nor more for food complain;
"Take these, and flay like us, and riot on the flain!"
Ah no! our Law the crime abhorr'd withstands;
• We die-but blood shall ne'er pollute our hands.
'O Guardian Genius of this facred wave!

Save, fave thy fons, if thine the power to fave!'

So SERIM fpoke-while by the moon's pale beam,

The frequent corfe came floating down the ftream .
He figh'd, and rifing turn'd his fteps to rove
Where wav'd o'er Nizim's vale the coco-grove:

"Those who now made the things the English moft wanted, were preffed on all fides-by their own neceffities, their neighbours, and the agents employed to procure the Company's investments, as the goods fent to Europe are called. Thefe importunities were united, and urged fo much, fo often, and in fuch ways, as to produce, among the people in the filk bufinefs, inftances of their cutting off their thumbs, that the want of them might excufe them from following their trade, and the inconveniences to which they were expofed beyond the common lot of their neighbours."- Hiftory of English Tranfactions in the Eaft Indies.

BISHEN, BISTNOO, or JAGGERNAUT, is one of the principal Hindoo deities. This faft, dedicated to him, is called the Sinan Jattra, or general washing in the Ganges; and it is almoft incredible to think the immenfe multitude, of every age and fex, that appears en both fides the river, throughout its whole courfe, at one and the fame time." Vide Mr. Holwell, vol. ii. p. 124. 128.

1 The Hindoos frequently caft the bodies of their deceased into the Ganges; with the idea, I fuppofe, of committing them to the difpofal of the God or Genius of the River.

There,

There, 'midft fcorch'd ruins, one lone roof remain'd,
And one forlorn inhabitant contain'd.

The found of feet he near his threshold heard;
Slow from the ground his languid limbs he rear'd:
• Come, Tyrant, come! perform a generous part,
Lift thy keen fteel, and pierce this fainting heart!
• Com'st thou for gold? my gold, alas, I gave,
My darling daughter in diftrefs to fave!

Thy faithlefs brethren took the fhining flore,
Then from my arms the trembling virgin tore!
Three days, three nights, I've languifh'd here alone-
• Three foodlefs days, three nights to fleep unknown!
Come, Tyrant, come! perform a generous part,
Lift thy keen fteel, and pierce this fainting heart!"
"No hoftile steps the haunt of Woe invade,"
SERIM replied-and, paffing where the glade
A length of profpect down the vale display'd
Another fight of mifery met his view;
Another mournful voice his notice drew!
There, near a temple's recent ruin, stood
A white-rob'd Bramin, by the facred flood:
His wives, his children, dead befide him lay-
Of Hunger thefe, and thofe of Grief the prey!
Thrice he with duft defil'd his aged head;
Thrice o'er the stream his hands uplifted spread:
Hear, all ye Powers to whom we bend in prayer!
Hear, all who rule o'er water, Earth, and air!
• 'Tis not for them, tho' lifeless there they lie;
''Tis not for me, tho' innocent I die :-

My Country's breaft the tyger, Avarice, rends,
And loud to you her parting groan afcends.
Hear, all ye Powers to whom we bend in prayer!
Hear, all who rule o'er water, earth, and air!
• Hear, and avenge!—

But hark! what voice, from yonder ftarry fphere,
Slides, like the breeze of Evening, o'er my ear?
Lo, BIRMAH'S * form! on amber clouds enthron'd;
'His azure robe with lucid emerald zon'd;

He looks celeftial dignity and grace,

'And views with pity wretched human race!'

"Forbear, rafh man! nor curfe thy country's foes;

"Frail man to man forgiveness ever owes.

"When MOISASOOR † the fell, to Earth's fair plain
"Brought his detefted offspring, Strife and Pain;

BIRMAH is a principal Deity of the Hindoos, in whose person they worship the Divine attribute of Wisdom. From the best accounts we have of India, the intelligent part of the natives do not worship "ftocks and ftones," merely as fuch; but rather the Supreme Exittence, in a variety of attributes or manifestations.

† MOISASOOR: the Hindoo Author of Evil, fimilar to our Satan.

"Revenge with them, relentlefs Fury, came,
"Her bofom burning with infernal flame!
"Her hair sheds horror, like the comet's blaze;
"Her eyes, all ghaftly, blaft where'er they gaze;
"Her lifted arm a poison'd crice fuftains;
"Her garments drop with blood of kindred veins!
"Who asks her aid, muft own her endless reign,
"Feel her keen scourge, and drag her galling chain!"
The ftrains fublime in sweetest mufic close,
And all the tumult of my foul compofe.
Yet you, ye oppreffors! uninvok'd on you †,
Your steps, the fteps of Juftice will purfue!
Go, fpread your white fails on the azure main ;
Fraught with our fpoils, your native land regain;
• Go, plant the grove, and bid the lake expand,
And on green hills the pompous palace stand:
• Let Luxury's hand adorn the gaudy room,
• Smooth the foft couch, and shed the rich perfume-
There Night's kind calm in vain fhall fleep invite,
• While fancied omens warn, and spectres fright:
• Sad founds fhall iffue from your guilty walls,
• The widow'd wife's, the fonless mother's calls;
⚫ And infant Rajahs' bleeding forms shall rise,
And lift to you their fupplicating eyes:

• Remorse intolerable your hearts will feel,

And your own hands plunge deep the avenging fteel t.
⚫ (For Europe's cowards Heaven's command difdain,
• To Death's cold arms they fly for ease in vain.)
For us, each painful tranfmigration o'er,

• Sweet fields receive us to resign no more;
• Where Safety's fence for ever round us grows,
•And Peace, fair flower, with bloom unfading blows;
Light's Sun unfetting fhines with chearing beam;
• And Pleasure's River rolls its golden ftream!'
Enrapt he fpoke-then ceas'd the lofty ftrain,
And Orel's rocks return'd the found again.'
A British ruffian, near in ambush laid,
Rush'd fudden from the cane ifle's fecret fhade;

Crice, an Indian dagger.

+ The Reader must readily perceive the propriety of this turn of thought, in a Poem defigned to have a moral tendency. There is much difference between a perfon wifhing evil to his enemy, and prefaging that evil will be the confequence of that enemy's crimes. The firft is an immoral act of the will; the fecond, a neutral act of the judgment.

The Hindoo religion strongly prohibits fuicide. Mr. Holwell gives us the following paffage from the Shaftah: "Whofoever, of the delinquent Debtah, fhall dare to free himself from the mortal form wherewith I fhall inclose him; thou, Sieb, fhalt plunge him into the Onderah for ever: he fhall not again have the benefit of the fifteen Boboons of purgation, probation, and purification."

Go

Go to thy Gods!' with rage infernal cried,

And headlong plung'd the hapless Sage into the foaming tide.' The Mexican prophecy is a fpirited production. On the approach of Cortez to the neighbourhood of Mexico, the Emperor Montezuma fent a number of magicians to attempt the deftruction of the Spanifn army. As the forcerers were practising their incantations, a dæmon appeared to them in the form of their idol Tlcatlepuca, and foretold the fall of the Mexican empire. On this legend is founded the poem, of which this is the conclufion.

'Cease the ftrife! 'tis fruitless all,
Mexico at last must fall!

Lo! the dauntless band return,
Furious for the fight they burn!
Lo! auxiliar nations round,
• Crowding o'er the darken'd ground!
Corfes fill thy trenches deep;
• Down thy temple's lofty fleep

See thy priests, thy princes thrown-
• Hark! I hear their parting groan!
'Blood thy Lake with crimson dyes,
• Flames from all thy domes arife!

What are thofe that round thy fhore
Launch thy troubled waters o'er ?
⚫ Swift canoes that from the fight
Aid their vanquish'd monarch's flight;
Ambush'd in the reedy fhade,
Them the ftranger barks invade;
• Soon thy lord a captive bends,
Soon thy far-fam'd empire ends *;
Otomèca fhares thy fpoils,

⚫ Tlafcalà in triumph fmiles +.
• Mourn, devoted city, mourn !
• Mourn, devoted city, mourn!

Ceafe your boaft, O ftranger band,
Conquerors of my fallen land!
Avarice Arides your van before,
• Phantom meagre, pale, and hoar!
• Difcord follows, breathing flame,
• Still oppofing claim to claim ‡;

When the Spaniards had forced their way to the centre of Mexico, Guatimozin, the reigning emperor, endeavoured to escape in his canoes across the Lake; but was purfued and taken prisoner by Gar cia de Holguin, captain of one of the Spanish brigantines.

The Otomies were a fierce, favage nation, never thoroughly fubdued by the Mexicans. Tlàfcalà was a powerful neighbouring republic, the rival of Mexico.

Alluding to the diffenfions which enfued among the Spaniards, after the conqueft of America.

Kindred

• Kindred Dæmons hafte along!
• Hafte, avenge my country's wrong!'
Ceas'd the voice with dreadful founds,
Loud as tides that burft their bounds;
Roll'd the form in smoke away,
Amaz'd on earth th' exorcifts lay;
Pondering on the dreadful lore,

Their course the Iberians downward bore;
Their helmets glittering o'er the vale,

And wide their enfigns fluttering in the gale.'

But there is not, perhaps, in the whole of this pleafing mifcellany any thing more expreffive of the philanthropical affections, and the comprehenfive benevolence of this amiable Writer, than the following little ode, with which we shall conclude this Article:

I hate that drum's difcordant found,
Parading round, and round, and round:
To thoughtless youth it pleafure yields,
And lures from cities and from fields,
To fell their liberty for charms

Of tawdry lace, and glittering arms:
And when Ambition's voice commands,
To march, and fight, and fall, in foreign lands.
I hate that drum's difcordant found,
Parading round, and round, and round:
To me it talks of ravag'd plains,
And burning towns, and ruin'd fwains,
And mangled limb:, and dying groans,
And widows tears, and orphans moans;
And all that Mifery's hand bestows,

To fill the catalogue of human woes.'

This work, which is very elegantly printed, is embellished by a variety of beautiful engravings, particularly a frontispiece by Bartolozzi, from a defign of Angelica Kauffman's.

We were disappointed to find that the beautiful little hymn which was printed at the end of the first edition of the Elegies defcriptive and moral, is not admitted into the prefent collection.

ART. VII. An Efay on Human Liberty. By John Rotherȧm, M. A. Rector of Houghton le Spring, Vicar of Seaham, and Chaplain to the Right Rev. John Lord Bishop of Durham. 8vo. 1 S. Robfon. 1782.

T hath been fuggested, that our Review of a former work of this Author, on the Distinction between the Soul and Body of Man, was partial and fevere. We can readily allow, that it could not meet the wishes, and perhaps it did not answer the expectations, of the Writer or his friends. We are, however, totally unfconfcious of all intention to mifreprefent his perform

ance;