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held in the highest estimation with us; and, as Homer says,

A wise physician high distinction claims,

your reception of them both will, I hope, do credit to my recommendation.

I beg your acceptance also of a little Philippic, which I wrote against an obscure coxcomb, who had the audacity to abuse our university, not with impunity, I trust, if the edge of my discourse have any effect upon the senseless knave. "I have dis quieted" (as Cicero says of his Commentaries); "the French nation."* How goes on Hafez, our mutual delight? Shall we never see your translation of his charming odes? Tell me, if you like my English version of the second ode?+ it has been favourably received by my own countrymen. I should like to translate several more of his odes, but I want leisure.

I have not yet found any translator capable of doing justice to your Treatise on the Military Art of the Turks. All agree that your preface is both learned and elegant; but they urge, as you yourself remark in the introduction, that the book does not correspond with its title-The Principles of the Science of Government.

The original of this work in the Turkish language, with many others printed at Constantinople, including a most beautiful copy of the Odes of

This was a letter in French addressed to M. Anquetil du Perron, and printed in 177 l.

† See Sir W. Jones's Works, vol. ii. p. 244.

Mesihi, are deposited in the library of our Royal Society. I beg to be informed, if all the works published by Ibrahim, which you so much commend, are to be purchased in Germany, Hungary, or the eastern parts of Turkey; as, in that case, I should wish to procure them.

What news from Turkey? no mention of peace? Whenever the war with Russia is at an end, I propose making an open and direct application for the office of minister at Constantinople; at present, I can only privately whisper my wishes. The king is very well disposed towards me; so perhaps are the men in power; and the Turkish Company wish much to oblige me: all that I have to apprehend, is the appearance of some powerful competitor, who may drive me off the stage. If I should succeed in my wishes, how shall I bound for joy! First, I shall enjoy your company at Vienna, then I shall drink deep of Asiatic literature, and I shall explore the Turkish manners in their most hidden sources. If I am disappointed, philosophy remains; the bar is open; and I shall not, I trust, want employment; for the harvest of litigation is always abundant. I shall apply to the study of eloquence, to poetry, history, and philosophy, each of which, if properly cultivated, would occupy a com. plete life of

Such men as live in these degenerate days.

I could say much more, but I yield to the imperious summons (not of Proserpine, I hope, but) of the goddess, if there be one, who presides over our tri

bunals. You may expect longer letters in future from me and, in the mean time, I hope to hear very fully from you.

Farewell, my dear friend.

XXVI.

To Mr. Hawkins.

Westminster, Jan. 16, 1770.

As I have a frank directed to you, I take the liberty to enclose a letter for my mother, which I beg you will be so kind as to send to her. I have nothing at present to say on the subject of my publication, except that you will be so good as to send me the sheets of the Essays, under cover, to Mr. Brudenell, lest there should be any thing that may be altered. I entreat you also to criticise my prose, as you have done my verse, and to reprimand me severely, where you find it stiff, forced, or obscure. I forgot to mention another respectable scholar, who saw and approved my poems; I mean the present bishop of St. Asaph, whose learning, to say a great deal, is as extensive as his virtues are ami

The Rev. Dr. Shipley, whose daughter Mr. Jones afterwards married.

able, Dr. Warton, of Winchester, is another excellent critic, through whose hands my trifles shall pass before they see the light: I have dined with him at sir Joshua Reynolds's, where he paid me a compliment before the whole company, which I cannot write without blushing: he said, my Greek poems, which he had seen in manuscript, were worthy of ancient Greece. I dare say this learned and ingenious man will suffer me to send him a copy of the poems at Winchester, and that he will make his remarks very sincerely. When I have

collected the criticisms of these gentlemen, I will compare them, and add my corrections at the end, under the title of emendations, as Pope has inserted his alterations in the text of his poems, and set down the variations, or first readings, in the margin. I think it will be better (as we must not lose the season for publication) to send the copies to my friends, as soon as the trifle on Chess is printed, and to show them the prose afterwards.

My Turkish History will go to the press on Monday. Lord Radnor has given me leave, in the most flattering terms, to inscribe it to him.

I have a notion I shall be a great talker when I am at the bar; for I cannot take up my pen without filling three sides of paper, though I have nothing to say when I sit down.

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• Whether the Turkish History here mentioned was ever finished, we are not informed: part of the original manu script still remains.

XXVII.

To Robert Orme, Esq.*

April, 1772. It is impossible for me to describe the delight and admiration I have felt, from the perusal of your History of the War in India. The plans, circumstances, and events of it, are so clearly described by you, that I felt an interest in them rather as an actor than a reader. I was particularly pleased with your delineation of the lives and characters of those who had distinguished themselves by their actions or wisdom; nor was I less delighted with the elegance of your topographical descriptions: that of the Ganges particularly pleased me; it is absolutely a picture. I have remarked, that the more polished historians of all ages, as well as the poets, have been fond of displaying their talents in describing rivers. Thus Thucydides describes the Achelöus, and Xenophon the Teleboas, and both admirably, though in a different manner—the latter, with his usual brevity and elegance; the former with a degree of roughness and magnificence not uncommon to him. With respect to your style,

*Written in Latin.

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