of mere mechanical arrangement. Those who are accustomed to research of any kind will be sufficiently sensible of the extreme importance of diminishing trouble and inconvenience, of sparing the arm and the eye. How often is the best authority left unconsulted by the author, because it happens to stand on a high shelf, or in the next room; because a key must be found, or a door opened; or because the size of the volume is too large, or the type too small! It is seldom difficult to muster up strength for one great exertion; but the best of us may be jaded and wearied out by petty sources of trouble-always recurring and never subdued.

ART. III.-The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan in England. 2 vols. London. 1828.

2. The Kuzzilbash: a Tale of Khorasan. 3 vols. Lond. 1828. AN old acquaintance of ours, as remarkable for the grotesque

queerness of his physiognomy, as for the kindness and gentleness of his disposition, was asked by a friend, where he had been? He replied, he had been seeing the lion, which was at that time an object of curiosity-(we are not sure whether it was Nero or Cato): And what,' rejoined the querist, did the lion think of you ?' The jest passed as a good one; and yet under it lies something that is serious and true.

6

When a civilized people have gazed, at their leisure, upon one of those uninstructed productions of rude nature whom they term barbarians, the next object of natural curiosity is, to learn what opinion the barbarian has formed of the new state of society into which he is introduced-what the lion thinks of his visiters. Will the simple, unsophisticated being, we ask ourselves, be more inclined to reverence us, who direct the thunder and lightning by our command of electricity-controul the course of the winds by our steam-engines-turn night into day by our gas-erect the most stupendous edifices by our machinery-soar into mid-air like eagles

-at pleasure dive into the earth like moles?—or, to take us as individuals, and despise the effeminate child of social policy, whom the community have deprived of half his rights—who dares not avenge a blow without having recourse to a constable-who, like a pampered jade, cannot go but thirty miles a day without a halt-or endure hunger, were it only for twenty-four hours, without suffering and complaint-whose life is undignified by trophies acquired in the chase or the battle-and whose death is not graced by a few preliminary tortures, applied to the most sensitive parts, in order to ascertain his decided superiority to ordinary mortals? We are

equally

equally desirous to know what the swarthy stranger may think of our social institutions, of our complicated system of justice in comparison with the dictum of the chief, sitting in the gate of the village, or the award of the elders of the tribe, assembled around the council fire; and even, in a lower and lighter point of view, what he thinks of our habits and forms of ordinary life, that artificial and conventional ceremonial, which so broadly distinguishes different ranks from each other, and binds together so closely those who belong to the same grade.

In general, when we have an opportunity of enquiring, we find the rude stranger has arrived at some conclusion totally unexpected by his European host. For instance, when Lee Boo, that most interesting and amiable specimen of the child of nature, was carried to see a man rise in a balloon, his only remark was, he wondered any one should take so much trouble in a country where it was so easy to call a hackney-coach. Lee Boo had supped full with wonders; a coach was to him as great a marvel as a balloon; he had lost all usual marks for comparing difficult and easy, and if Prince Hussein's flying tapestry, or Astolpho's hippogryph, had been shewn, he would have judged of them by the ordinary rules of convenience, and preferred a snug corner in a well-hung chariot.

From the amusing results arising out of such contrasts it has occurred to many authors, at different periods, that an agreeable and striking mode of inquiry into the intrinsic value and rationality of social institutions might be conducted, by writing critical remarks upon them, in the assumed character of the native of a primitive country. Lucian has placed some such observations in the mouth of his Scythian philosopher, Toxaris. In modern times, the Turkish Spy, though the subject of his letters did not embrace manners or morals, had considerable celebrity. The interest of the famous political romance of Gulliver turns on the same sort of contrivance. But, perhaps, the earliest example of the precise species of composition which we mean, exists in the Memoranda imputed to the Indian Kings, and published in the Spectator. At a later period, Montesquieu's Persian Letters, with Lord Littleton's imitation of that remarkable work, and Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, were designed to represent the view which might be taken of Parisian or London manners and policy, by a Persian sage in the one case, and a Chinese philosopher in the other. Still, however, the notable imperfection occurred in these representations, that neither Montesquieu, nor Littleton, nor Goldsmith was at all qualified to sustain the character he assumed. Usbeck and Lien Chi Altangi are scarcely different, after all, from Europeans in their language, views, and ideas. The Persian caftan and Chinese gown are indeed put on, but the Persian and Chinese

habitual

habitual modes of thinking are not exhibited, any more than the language of either of these countries: the Frenchman's Persian might be a Chinese, or the Englishman's Chinese a Persian, without the reader being able to appeal to any satisfactory test for readjusting the machinery.

It is in this most essential particular that the Travels of Hajji Baba may claim a complete superiority over the works of those distinguished authors. The author of Hajji Baba's Travels writes, thinks, and speaks much more like an oriental than an Englishman; and makes good what he himself affirms, that the single 'idea of illustrating Eastern manners by contrast with those of England, has been his Kebleh, the direction of his Mecca.' Hajji Baba, moreover, is not an orientalist merely, but one of a peculiar class and character-a Persian, and differing as much from a Turk as a Frenchman from a German.

The English reader, however, as he is politely called, who is ignorant of all save what his own language can convey to him, might have been at some loss to trace the merits of such a work, without some previous acquaintance with the Persian manners, particularly as differing from those of other oriental nations; since, however well acquainted he might be with the habits and manners of his own country, it is necessary, for the enjoyment of this work, that he should know something of the peculiar scale on which they are to be measured. This necessary information has been amply supplied by the Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan'-in which we have a lively and entertaining history of the hero of the present work, his early adventures, mishaps, rogueries, with their consequences; all tending to prepare us for his experiences in England. There are few of our readers, probably, who have not perused this lively novel, which may be termed the Oriental Gil Blas, and enjoyed the easy and humorous introduction which it affords to the oriental manners and customs, but especially to those which are peculiar to the Persians.

By what peculiar circumstances, in climate, constitution, edueation, or government, the national character is chiefly formed, has been long disputed; its existence we are all aware of; and proposing to travel, consider it as certain, nearly, that we have peculiar advantages to hope, and dangers to guard against, from the manners of a particular region, as that we shall enjoy peculiar pleasures, or have to face peculiar inconveniences in its climate. The genius of the Persians is lively and volatile, to a degree much exceeding other nations of the east. They are powerfully affected by that which is presented before them at the moment-forgetful of the past, careless of the future-quick in observation, and correct as well as quick, when they give themselves leisure to examine

the

the principles of their decision-but often contented to draw their conclusions too rashly and hastily. It is evident that the acuteness of a spectator of foreign manners is of the first consequence in rendering his lucubrations spirited and interesting; and that the erroneous results at which his precipitate ingenuity may often arrive, cannot fail to afford a proportional share of amusement. The errors of the dull are seldom productive of mirth; and the information which he may sometimes convey is so much alloyed by the natural stupidity with which it is amalgamated, that, to say truth, few persons care to be at the trouble of separating it, just as (since the Dutchmen gave up that task) it has not been thought worth while to extract the small quantity of silver which is contained in every ton of lead. It is he that is witty himself, says Falstaff, who is the cause of wit in others; and the mercurial Persian may be equally expected to afford entertainment in both capacities. But we may safely say that, not amusement only, but instruction of a very serious kind is to be derived from considering the nature of some of the materials which are here under the management of a master.

Hajji Baba, as the reader probably well knows, is a roguish boy, the son of a barber of Ispahan, who becomes the attendant upon a merchant, is made prisoner by a band of Turcomans, with whom he is forced to become an associate, although, as in the case of Gil Blas, a private feeling of cowardice greatly aids the moral sense in rendering the profession disgusting to him. After having the signal glory of conducting the tribe to a successful enterprise on his native city, he escapes from the Turcomans to be plundered by his own countrymen-is reduced to be a watercarrier-a seller of tobacco, and at length a swindler. He emerges from this condition to become the pupil of the Persian physicianroyal. From this situation he rises to the kindred dignity of an immediate attendant on the chief executioner, and, of course, a man of great consequence in a state where various gradations of violence, from a simple drubbing to the exercise of the sabre or bowstring, form the pervading principle of motion. In this last character a scene is introduced, (the death of the unhappy Zeenab,) tending to show that, though the author has chiefly used the lighter tints of human life, its darker shadows are also at his command. The consequences of this tragedy deprive Hajji of his post, and he is reduced to take sanctuary. He changes his manners, lays aside the military profession, and assumes airs of devotion becomes a respectable character, somewhat allied to Sir Pandarus of Troy-but is once more involved in ruin by the superstitious and intolerant zeal of a Mollah to whom he had attached himself. After such a series of adventures, he escapes to

Con

Constantinople, where he sets up as a seller of tubes for tobaccopipes. Here, in the assumed character of a wealthy merchant of high Arabian extraction, he marries a wealthy Turkish widow; but, being detected as an impostor, is obliged to resign his prize. Finally, Hajji Baba obtains the protection of the grand vizier, and of the Shah himself in particular, by the great assiduity he displays in acquiring some knowledge of the European character, which the contest between the French and English, for obtaining superior influence at the court of Ispahan, had rendered an interesting subject of consideration in the councils of Persia. At length the celebrated mission of Mirzah Firouz,—the same, we presume, with the well-known Abou Taleb, Persian envoy at the court of the late king in the years 1809 and 1810,-determines the fate of Hajji Baba, who receives directions to attend it in the character of secretary. Here the original account of his adventures, published in 1824, closed, with a promise that, if they appeared to wish it, the public should be informed, in due season, of Hajji's adventures while in the train of the Persian ambassador to Saint James's.

The author has no reason to complain of that want of attention, which will sometimes silence the most pertinacious of story-tellers,-yea, even the regular bore of the club-house whose numbers he has thinned. Hajji Baba met with an universal good reception. The novelty of the style, which was at once perceived to be genuine Oriental by such internal evidence as establishes the value of real old China-the gay and glowing descriptions of eastern state and pageantry, the character of the poetry occasionally introduced secured a merited welcome for the Persian picaroon. As a picture of oriental manners, the work had, indeed, a severe trial to sustain by a comparison with the then recent romance of Anastasius. But the public found appetite for both; and indeed they differ as comedy and tragedy, the deep passion and gloomy interest of Mr. Hope's work being of a kind entirely different from the light and lively turn of our friend Hajji's adventures. The latter, with his morals sitting easy about him, a rogue indeed, but not a malicious one, with as much wit and cunning as enable him to dupe others, and as much vanity as to afford them perpetual means of retaliation; a sparrow-hawk, who, while he floats through the air in quest of the smaller game, is himself perpetually exposed to be pounced on by some stronger bird of prey, interests and amuses us, while neither deserving nor expecting serious regard or esteem;-and like Will Vizard of the hill, the knave is our very good friend.'

The rapid and various changes of individual fortune, which, in any other scene and country, might be thought improbable, are

proper