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ART. III. The modern History of Hindostan, comprehending that of the Greek Empire of Bac tria, and other great Asiatic Kingdoms, bordering on its western Frontiers; commencing at the Period of the Death of Alexander, and intended to be brought down to the Close of the eigh teenth Century. Vol. II. Part I. 4to. pp. 256.

OF the preceding two parts of this history we long since (vol. 1. p. 322)

gave an account.

This new portion of the work commences with the incursion of Timur into Hindostan in the year 1398, and traces the succession of that prince's descendants on the thrones of Tartary and India, to the death of Jehanguire in 1627: a period including the opening of a passage by Gama to India, round the Cape of Good Hope, and the consequent overthrow of the oriental systems of policy by the successive intrusions of European colonists.

The irruption of Timur Bec, and the history of his immediate descendants down to sultan Baber, is here lazily reprinted from a manuscript of the author, composed before he had read Ferishta. This manuscript occupies about fifty pages; the account of Ferishta is then inserted, instead of being used progressively, and critically corrected; and thus a tautologous statement occurs, not freed from the inconsistencies which are apt to float about in distinct sources of intelligence. For the historian of a learned age thus to borrow his method of composition from the compiler of the Pentateuch is extraordinary.

In the first chapter Timur crosses the Indus, assists in the reduction of Multan, destroys Batnir, and marches to Delhi. The decisive battle, the flight of Mahmud, the massacre of the captives, and the plunder of this city of riches, are related with the emotion they excite. Timur next razes Merat, and pursues the Hindoos to the streights of Kupele, where nature and superstition invited to igorous resistance; he is said to defeat them, but recrosses the Ganges, and returas through Kashmere to Samarcand, where he nominates Pir Mohammed and Chizer Khan to the vice-royalty of his zew dominions; this last, on the death of Mahmud, is suffered to assume the diadem. The second chapter comprehends the history of the dynasty of the Scyds, funded by Chizer. Under his succes scr Mubarik II. two rival kingdoms are formed on the eastern and western sides of the Ganges. Mohammed, the grandkn, and Alla II. the great grandson of

Chizer, attain the throne; but a feudal anarchy, in which the rajahs of every province assume the title of king, is per petually progressive. Beloli, an afghan of the tribe of Lodi, is called in to restore cohesion. This is a regular process in human society: to anarchy suc ceeds every where the military despotism of the best general. Beloli takes posses. sion of Delhi, re-establishes the empire with a splendour which the new spectators think equal to the antient, is overpraised by his adherents, in order to keep under a latent opposition, and dies with a great name; having founded the dynasty of Lodi. His son, Secunder 1. removes the court to Agra; but his grandson Ibrahim disgusts the great omrahs, who invite sultan Baber, the mogul, from Cabul. Ibrahim is deprived both of life and kingdom in the decisive battle of Panniput.

The third chapter treats of the mogul dynasty founded by Baber. This conqueror, like Cæsar, composed commentaries on his own campaigns, the Vakeat, so frequently appealed to by Ferishta. He waged long wars with the Patan omrahs, but his courage, generosity, and magnanimity, operated in turn to weaken their confederacy. His son Humaioon succeeded, but was opposed by Shere Khan, an afghan, who drove Humaioon into Persia for refuge. This rebel was killed at Chitore by the bursting of a bomb-shell, and succeeded by his younger son Selim, who died of disease, or poison, at war with his elder brother, and who made room for the transient usurpations of Mohammed. Ibrahim III. and Secunder. These violent competitions prepared the triumphal return of Humaioon to the throne of his illustrious progenitor; he too cultivated letters, and left historical memoirs: his death was occasioned by a fall from the terrace of the palace of Delhi.

The fourth chapter begins with the accession of Akber, the son of Humaicon. To him is due much of the magnificence of Agra. He waged successful war against many rebellious om. rahs, and killed Himer, the Patan general, with his own hand: toward the close of his life his eldest son Selina re

belled against him. Akber died of poison on his march against his son: he is said, however, to have swallowed this poison by mistake, and to have sent for Selim, and presented to him the diadem: probably he was removed by some creature of Selim's, and stories were told to facilitate a smooth succession. The character of Akber is thus delineated;

"Akber may be justly ranked in fame with the greatest legislators and heroes of antiquity. His personal valour and presence of mind upon all occasions, were astonishing. With one vigorous arm he repelled the barbarians of the north, and with the other conquered the war-trained mountaineers of the south. The khan of Uzbek Tartary trembled on his throne at the name of Akber; the determined race of Rajapouts bowed before him; and the sovereigns of Visiapore and Golconda exhausted their treasures to appease his resentment. His generosity and elemency were alike unbounded. To him may be attributed the glory of establishing on the firm basis of united wisdom and equity, that mighty empire, of which Baber lard the foundation in Hindostan; which Hamaioon extended, but which it was left to himself to perfect. In civil and domestic concerns he was a bright exemplar to all the potentates of the earth. The Aveen Akhery contains the noblest institutes ever promulged for the government of an Asiatic enpire, and at the same time abounds with the most enlarged and liberal sentiments in religion and morals, at a period, and in a country, in which the former was polluted by the basest superstition, and the latter had become almost an empty name. The professor of Mohammedism, while he shuddered at the consequence of an omitted ablution, scrupled not to commit acts of the most sanguinary atrocity; and wallowed in all the turpitude of incestuous and unnatural lust. Instead of exterminating, with the remorseless fury of his

bigotted predecessors, the race of patient and inid Hindoos, trampling to the earth their beloved idols, the symbols of the attributes of God, and plundering and burning their august and venerable shrines, Akber nobly and wisely extended to them the tolerating system of their own benevolent creed; gave inviolable security to their persons, and unshaken stability to their property. He was also, in a high degree, the friend and patron of letters and genius, of which Abul Fazil,

and many other learned men, caressed and pensioned at his court, are illustrious proofs. He ardently encouraged commerce, both do

mestic and foreign; and if we may bele the Portuguese historians, he not only a lowed, the merchants of their nation sett at Agra, most extensive immunities, built them a church in that city. In Fraser more authentic publication may be see t translation of a very curious letter from t monarch to the king of Portugal, date A. H. 990, or A.D. 1582, in which he re quests of him to send an Arabic or Persia translation of the scriptures, and with proper persons, to explain its genuine p ciples. That this letter, as Frazer Lis never went farther than Goa, is a cirer stance, on many accounts, greatly to be mented. In short, the history of A scarcely exhibits a parallel to Akber, either the extent and grandeur of his designs, t vigour and wisdom of his counsels, his r deration in peace, or his success and glory war. The verdure of the double laurel, wi he obtained in the field of science and arm still blooms with unfading lustre; a li that illugines, though it can no longer mate, the fallen descendants of the Timur.”

Selim assumed the name of Jela guire, or conqueror of the world. H sway is said to have included fifteen Lar provinces, once so many independ kingdoms; to have collected a rever: of fifty millions sterling; and to b been propped by an army of three L dred thousand foot, and a proportion cavalry. Within six months of his cession, his eldest son Khosro, un pretence of visiting the tomb of h grandfather, (that is, of avenging a s picious death,) had withdrawn, and v in open rebellion. He was defeate seized, and blinded. To the mother Khosro succeeded a new and favor sultaness, Nourmahal, transferred, 1 the wife of Uriah, by the murder of husband, and beloved with a persever and doating fondness, of which the are few examples. Her relations mea polised the first places of the empire, will was in every thing the law. "Durin her ascendancy the English emb headed by Sir Thomas Roe, arrives Jehanguire died in October, 1627, in to sixtieth year of his age; he left an ant biography, in which he thus contes

one of his foibles:

He says, that at the age of fifteen went along with his father to Attock, agan,

As Akber was hunting once near Narvar, a great royal tigress, with five young one took the road before him. Akber advanced to the animal, while his retinue stood trembl with fear and astonishment to behold the event. The king having meditated his blow, spa his horse towards the fierce tigress, whose eyes flamed with rage, and with one stroke of sabre cut her across the loins, and stretched her dead at his feet-Ferishta, Vol. 1. p. † See Fraser's Mogul Emperors, p. 14.

the tribe of Yousef Zai; when, one day,
hating separated from him, on a hunting
and being exceedingly thirsty and fa-
igred, Shah Kuly, the commandant of the
andlery, told him, that if he would drink a
cup of wine, it would completely refresh
him. He followed this man's advice, and
dank a cup of sweet white whine, which
he fourd so delicious, that from that time
he breame fond of liquor, and duly in
creased his dose, till at length the expressed
juice of the grape had no effect upon him.
Constandy, for nine years, he drink of
double-drilled spirits, fourteen cups in the
day, and six cups at night, which, be says,
were altogether equal to six Hindostan seers,
or English quarts.
At this time he had
hardly any appetite, his daily food being a
chicken, with a little bread and some ra-
dishes. By a continuance of this course,
his nerves became so affected, that he was

obliged to get somebody to lift the cup to his

mouth. He then difcovered his case to Ha

keem Hemam, one of his father's physicians and intimate companions, who freely told him, that if he persisted in this way six months longer, his disorder would be absolutely incurable. Having a great affection

for this friend, and confiding in his medical skill, he gradually lessened the daily quantity, and reduced the strength of the liquor, by diluting it with two parts of water; and, with the help of a small dose of philonium, at the end of seven years, brought ham dit to be satished with six cups daily. For fiftcen years he drank at this rate, taking the whole at night, excepting on Thursday, the day of his accession: and Friday, the most holy night in the week with the Mohamm dans, when he totally abstained from strong drink."

The fifth book is consecrated to a lis tory of the European establishments in India: those of the Portugeese occupy the first chapter, with which the volume terminates. As this portion of the narrative has little novelty, any specific analysis would be superfluous.

There are many repetitions and di gressions in this history, and many long quotations from the author's former works, to which a reference would have sufficed; but, on the whole, it ranks high for latitude of research, majesty of composition, and rationality of interest.

ART. IV. The History of Free-Masoniy, drawn from authentic Sources of Information; with an Account of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, from its Institution in 1736 to the present Time, compiled from the Records; and an Appendix of Original Papers. 8vo.

Pp. 310.

THE origin of free-masonry is a curious, and yet undecided, literary question. The actual condition of the society is that of a purse-club, or benevolent association, where much of the collection is spent in jollity, some in mummery, and some in beneficence. It would appear to us very impertinent in the state, to be interfering with the meetings of these friendly societies; even if the ritual had a tendency to make deists of the initiated, by insisting exclusively on those tenets common to the different sects which it incorporates. Freemasons, like freemen of the grocers or fishmongers company, will always be acted upon by surrounding opinion and literature. If a majority of them, as was once the case in England, incline to the restoration of a deposed dynasty, they will naturally lead their places of meeting and their corporate influence to the cause they esponse; the friends of that cause will a: naturally press into the society, for the accommodation of an established pretext and place of meeting, and for the facilitation of unnoticed intercourse. Thus the freemasons might, and did, become a powerful combination of friends

of the pretender; and, while they continued such, would be reviled by their adversaries as tools of the jesuits, and friends of unlimited ecclesiastical and civil monarchy. On the other hand, if a majority of freemasons, as was once the case in France, incline to the foundation of representative institutions, and to the political equality of religious sects, they will as naturally lend their places of meeting and their corporate influence to the cause of liberty and tolerance: the zealots of eleutherism will then press into the society, and avail themselves of its prescriptive security. to disseminate their principles and prolong their cohesion." Thus the freemasons might, and did become a powerful combination of friends of democracy; and, while they continued such, would be reviled by their adversaries as apostles of anarchy and atheism. In both cases, the state of the order would be a symptom, not a cause, of public opinion: freemasonry ought not to be blamed for its antijacobinism in 1745, or its jacobinism in 1790. All associations, secret or public, strengthen the subject; all associations, sectet or public, weaken

the government: toryism ought on principle to be solitary, whiggism to be gregarious.

The guilds, or purse clubs, of the different companies of tradesmen, were already gaining a footing in the north of Europe, in the eighth and ninth centuries; they are mentioned in the capitularies of Charlemagne, that is in 882, and in some earlier synodical acts. The company of masons, like the company of chandlers, had no doubt its guild, or fraternity of contributors; but as the masons of that æra were chiefly employed in the structure of churches, and other public edifices, the private accommodation of the people being on a hum. ble scale, they were a very migratory body, especially all the higher orders of the craft. They staid long enough in one place to add a chapel to a cathedral, and were then invited to another. It became necessary therefore for the masons, in contradistinction to other similar associations, to facilitate the admission of non-residents, of temporary guests, of foreigners even, into their combinations; and perhaps to agree on private signs of recognition, as a preservative against imposture. In the third year of our Harry the Sixth, a law was passed concerning the congregations and chapters of the masons; so that the builders were already embodied, and affected an ecclesiastical nomenclature of their classes.

The first decisive trace of mysterious combination, of the use of secret symbols protected by oaths from the knowledge and abuse of the profane, occurs in the works of Henry Cornelius Agrippa (Opuscula II. 1073), who, in the year 1510, came to London, and founded a secret society for alchemical purposes, similar to one which he had previously instituted at Paris, in concert with Landolfo, Brixianus, Xanthus, and other students at that university. The members of these societies agreed on private signs of recognition; and they founded in various parts of Europe corresponding associations for the prosecution of the occult sciences. But how this practice of initiation, or secret incorporation, became common to the rosicrucian and to the masonic confederacies, is still enig matical; yet the platonic tenets, the chemical emblems, the rabbinical antiquarianism, and the womanish mummery, can hardly have penetrated into

lodges of architects, without some sud coalition. There are carious observ tions on this subject in the Monthly R view (XXV. 501) by the critic of Da ruel.

Our author is not for beginning m sonry with the guilds of the mason but for deducing its pedigree from th Dionysian mysteries of the antients.

"About a thousand years before Chri the inhabitants of Attica, complaining the narrowness of their territory, and t unfruitfulness of its soil, went in quest more extensive and fertile settlements. B

ing joined by a number of the inhabitant surrounding provinces, they sailed to As Minor, drove out the inhabitants, seized up the most eligible situations, and united the under the name of lonia, because the greate number of the refugees were natives of the Grecian province. As the Greeks, prior the lonic migration, had made considerab ried these along with them into their ne progress in the arts and sciences, they ca territories; and introduced into Ionia t mysteries of Minerva and Dionysius, be they were corrupted by the licentiousnes the Athenians. In a short time the Asian colonies surpassed the mother country prosperity and science. Sculpture in marb and the Doric and Ionian orders were t result of their ingenuity. They retur their ancestors the inventions of their ow even into Greece; they communicated country; and instructed them in that style architecture, which has been the admiratio of succeeding ages. For these improvemen the world is indebted to the Dionysian an ficers, an association of scientific men, wh possessed the exclusive privilege of crectin in Asia Minor. They supplied Ionia, an temples, theatres, and other public buildin the surrounding countries, as far as the He lespont, with theatrical apparatus by co tract; and erected the magnificent temple Teos, to Bacchus, the founder of their or These artists were very numerous in As and existed under the same appellation Syria, Persia, and India. About three hu dred years before the birth of Christ, a conderable number of them were incorporate

by command of the kings of Pergamus, w assigned to them Teos as a settlement, bein the city of their tutelary god. The memb of the association, which was intimate connected with the Dionysian mysteries, w distinguished from the uninitiated inhab tants of Teos, by the science which the possessed, and by appropriate words and si of the order. Like freemasons they wer by which they could recognize their brethres divided into lodges, which were distinguishes by different appellations. They occasionally held convivial meetings in houses erected and consecrated for this purpose; and cach sepe

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tute association was under the direction of a master, and presidents, or wardens. They held a general meeting once a year, which was solemnized with great pomp and fesLvity; and at which the brethren partook of a splendid entertainment, provided by the anster, after they had finished the sacrifices in their gods, and especially to their patron Bacchus. They used particular utensils in their ceremonial observances; some of which were exactly similar to those that are employ el by the fraternity of freemasons. And the more opulent artists were bound to provide far the exigencies of their poorer brethren. The very monuments which were reared by these masons, to the memory of their masand wardens, remain to the present day, is the Turkish burying grounds, at Siverhis rand Eraki. The inscriptions upon thein press in strong terms the gratitude of the feminy, for their disinterested exertions in alf of the order; for their generosity and volence to its individual members; for and private virtues, as well as for their public dact. From some circumstances, which restated in these inscriptions, but particute from the name of one of the lodges; it highly probable, that Attalus, king of zamus, was a member of the Dionysian maternity.

"Such is the nature of that association of leets, who erected those splendid ediin Ionia, whose ruins even afford us tion, while they excite our surprise. Fit be possible to prove the identity of any To societies, from the coincidence of their mal forms, we are authorised to conade, that the fraternity of the Ionian archits, and the fraternity of freemasons, are y the same; and as the former practised benisteries of Bacchus and Ceres, several which we have shewn to be similar to the eries of masonry; we may safely affirm, hat, in their internal, as well as external procedure, the society of freemasons resemAs the Dionysiacs of Asia Minor.

The opinion, therefore, of freemasons, that their order existed, and flourished at the building of Solomon's temple, is by no means pregnant with absurdity, as some men would wish us to believe. We have already twn, from authentic sources of informa, that the mysteries of Ceres and BacLes, were instituted about four hundred wars before the reign of Solomon; and there strong reasons for believing, that even the ociation of the Dionysia. architects existat before the building of the temple. It was t, indeer, till about three hundred years lefare the birth of Christ, that they were inrporated at Teos, under the kings of Perpas; but it is universally allowed, that they arose long before their settlement in Ja, and, what is more to our present pur, that they existed in the very land of Judea. It is observed by Dr. Robison, that this association came from Persia into Syria, alung with that style of architecture, which

is called Grecian and since we are informed by Josephus, that that species of architecture was used at the erection of the temple, we are authorised to infer, not only that the Dionysiacs existed before the reign of Solomon, but that they assisted this monarch in building that magnificent fabric, which he reared to the God of Israel. Nothing, indeed, can be more simple and consistent than the creed of the fraternity, concerning the state of their order at this period. The vicinity of Jerusalem to Egypt, the connection of Solomon with the royal family of that kingdom, the progress of the Egyptians in architectural science, their attachment to mysteries and hieroglyphic symbols, and the probability of their being employed by the king of Israel, are additional considerations, which corroborate the sentiments of freemasons, and absolve them from those charges of credulity and pride, with which they have been loaded.

To these opinions it may be objected, that if the fraternity of freemasons flourished during the reign of Solomon, it would have existed in Judea in after ages, and attracted the notice of sacred or profane historians. Whether or not this objection is well founded, we shall not pretend to determine, but if it can be shown, that there did exist, after the building of the temple, an association of men, resembling freemasons, in the nature, ceremonies, and object of their institution; the force of the objection will not only be taken away, but additional strength will be communicated to the opinion which we have been supporting. The association here alluded to, is that of the Essenes, whose origin and sentiments have occasioned muchdiscussion among ecclesiastical historians: They are all of one mind, however, respecting the constitution and observances of this religious order.

When a candidate was proposed for admission, the strictest scrutiny was made into his character. If his life had hitherto been exemplary, and if he appeared capable of curbing his passions, and regulating his conduct, according to the virtuous, though austere, maxims of their order, he was pre sented, at the expiration of his noviciate, with a white garment, as an emblem of the regularity of his conduct, and the purity of his heart. A solemn oath was then administered to him, that he would never divulge the mysteries of the order; that he would make no innovations on the doctrines of the society, and that he would continue in that honourable course of piety and virtue, which he had begun to pursue. Like freemasons, they instructed the young member in the knowledge which they derived from theis ancestors: they admitted no women into their order. They had particular signs for recognising each other, which have a strong resemblance to those of freemasons. They had colleges or places of retirement, where they resorted to practise their rites, and settle

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