deficient in fancy.' Hall replied, 'Well, Sir, I don't wonder at your remark. The truth is, he has imagination, too; but with him imagination is an acquisition rather than a faculty. He has, however, plenty of embellishment at command; for his memory retains every thing. His mind is a spacious repository, hung round with beautiful images; and, when he wants one, he has nothing to do but reach up his hand to a peg and take it down. But his images are not manufactured in his mind; they are imported.' Mr. Hall believed the genius of his friend, Sir James, essentially metaphysical, and Mr. Balmer expressed admiration of some of his philosophical papers in The Edinburgh Review'; his article on Madame de Stael's Germany,'* and on Dugald Stewart's Preliminary Dissertation,' among others; yet said there seemed a heaviness about them, and that Mr. Jeffrey could expound a metaphysical theory with more vivacity and effect. With more vivacity, perhaps,' returned Hall; but not with equal judgment. He would not go so deep, Sir. I am persuaded, that if Sir James Mackintosh had enjoyed leisure, and had exerted himself, he could have completely outdone Jeffrey, Stewart, and all the metaphysical writers of our time.

Though Hall was himself fond of metaphysical studies, he felt their barrenness and inutility. A friend observed to him, that, admitting those studies did not terminate in profitable discoveries, still they were advantageous as a field for cultivating and invigorating the mental powers. Mr. Hall's ready reply was characteristic of his acuteness and brilliancy, and also of the soundness of his understanding: 'An arena,' he says, 'not a field. Metaphysics yield no fruit. They are not a field. They are only an arena, to which a man who has got nothing to do may go down sometimes, and try his skill in intellectual gladiatorship. This at present is their chief recommendation.' His favorite authors were such as discovered, on abstract subjects, 'subtilty, depth, or vigor of thought.' In this class he placed, we are told, the late Jeremy Bentham; for whom he entertained the highest estimation, as an original, profound, and accurate thinker; observing that in the particular province of his speculations, the science of legislation, he had advanced to the limits of reason; and that if he were compelled to legislate for the world upon uninspired principles, he should take Bentham, and go from state to state with as firm a step as though he walked upon a pavement of adamant."

"Hall was, indeed, a brilliant and powerful talker; combining the strength of Johnson, with a vigor of imagination peculiar to himself. The few scattered sentences we have still to give, show something both of his mind and his manner. Some one remarked, in his hearing, that compliments are pleasing truths, and flatteries pleasing untruths. Neither,' said Hall, are pleasing to a man

"Of this work, so favorably reviewed by Sir James Mackintosh, Hall entertained an almost contemptible opinion; having discovered that the authoress spoke of a well-known idealist as an opponent of the ideal theory, and, from thence, inferring her ignorance of German philosophy."

of reflection; for the falsehoods in this case so nearly assume the semblance of truth, that one is perplexed to tell which is actually given; and no man is pleased with perplexity.' Of compliments, he also often said, 'Two and two do not make four, and twenty and twenty fall far short of forty; deal not, then, in that deceitful arithmetic.'"

"Of a penurious person, a friend said, 'Poor wretch! you might put his soul into a nut-shell.' 'Yes, Sir,' replied Hall, and even "then it would creep out at a maggot-hole.'

"On being asked if Dr. Kippis was not a clever man ; Hall said, 'He might be a very clever man by nature, for aught I know; but he laid so many books upon his head that his brain could not move.' Disgusted, on one occasion, by the egotism and conceit of a preacher, who, with a mixture of self-complacency and impudence, challenged his admiration of a sermon; Mr. Hall, who possessed strong powers of satire, which he early learned to repress, was provoked to say, 'Yes, there was one very fine passage in your discourse, Sir.' I am rejoiced to hear you say so, what was it?' 'Why, Sir, it was the passage from the pulpit into the vestry.'

"In confessing that he had been led into the folly of imitating Dr. Johnson, he said, 'I aped Johnson, and I preached Johnson, and, I am afraid, with little more of evangelical sentiment than is to be found in his essays; but it was a youthful folly, and it was a very great folly. I might as well have attempted to dance a hornpipe in the cumbrous costume of Gog and Magog. My puny thoughts could not sustain the load of the words in which I tried to clothe them.' In speaking of Johnson himself, he said, 'He shone strongly on the angles of a thought.'

"But Mr. Hall had a higher style of conversation, in which fancy, playfulness, and point were laid aside, or made subservient to the inculcation of some great moral lesson. To a clergyman who, from evil habit, had become fond of brandy and water, to an extent that involved his character and his peace, Mr. Hall, by a premeditated effort, when the brandy-bibber asked for the favorite beverage, replied, Call things by their right name, and you shall have as much as you please.' Why don't I employ the right name? I ask for a glass of brandy and water.' That is the current, but not the appropriate name; ask for a glass of liquid fire and distilled damnation, and you shall have a gallon.' The poor man became pale, and seemed struggling with anger. But,' says Hall, knowing I did not mean to insult him, he stretched out his hand and said, "Brother Hall, I thank you from the bottom of my heart;" and from that time he ceased to take brandy and water." We will subjoin but one more specimen of his conversation. In 1824, Hall declared, that he never looked into the Eclectic or any Review." "We are doomed," he said, "to receive our first impression and opinions of books from some of the wickedest, and others of the stupidest of men; men, some of whom have not sense to write upon any subject, nor others honesty to read what they

pretend to criticize, yet sit in judgment upon all performances, and issue their ignorant and foolish oracles to the public."

It does not appear what Hall at this time thought of his own reviews, or in which class he ranked his friends, Sir James Mackintosh and John Foster, or such reviewers as the present Lord Chancellor, the Lord Advocate of Scotland, and the Rev. Sidney Smith, or Sir Walter Scott, Mr. Southey, Bishop Heber, or Mr. Bowring, or where he would probably have placed Mr. Macaulay. For the occasional intemperance and extravagance of his language, both in writing and conversation, his physical infirmities, affecting even his mind, afford an excuse which no one can hesitate to admit. But we must distinguish between what is to be excused and what is to be praised; and in Hall's conversation, truth seems sometimes to have been sacrificed to a passionate, perhaps brilliant, expression of temporary feelings.

[Translated from the "Journal des Savans," for December, 1832.]

ART. VI. Translation of several principal Books, Passages, and Texts of the Vedas, and of some Controversial Works of Brahminical Theology. By RAJAH RAMMOHUN ROY. Second Edition. London. 1832.

FEW works combine so many claims to the attention of those who devote themselves to the study of the religion and philosophy of the Hindoos, as this collection of translations of certain portions of the Vedas, and of controversial works by the celebrated Brahman, Rajah Rammohun Roy. That a Bramin should travel and go to England, to publish an edition of works, written by himself, and designed as an attack on the Hindoo polytheism, is a circumstance so singular, that it may well excite wonder in those, who, knowing the difficulty of inducing the Hindoos to renounce their ancient opinions and adopt those of Europe, have believed that this change could never be brought about. It must be allowed that Rammohun Roy is the most distinguished Bramin who has been led to embrace European opinions, by intercourse with the enlightened men, to whom, from the first, has been entrusted the administration of the government, established by the English in India. But he certainly is not the only one on whom our systems have exerted a salutary influence; and when Sir William Jones, in his zeal for the study of Sanscrit literature, took lessons of the Bramins Radhacantadeva and Servoroutrivedi, he took the first step towards forming a more intimate connexion between Europe and India, and taught his successors how to render it lasting and advantageous. When an Englishman became the disciple of a Bramin, the Hindoos could scarcely fail to acknowledge in those

who governed them, a sincere desire to acquaint themselves with the institutions, usages, and opinions, to which India has, for ages, faithfully adhered. And, on the other hand, the view of that complicated social organization, and that vast system, in which religion, laws, and manners, respectively derive support from their close union, enabled the English to estimate the causes of its continuance, and convinced them that time, which had hitherto maintained, alone could modify or destroy it. If this connexion has secured to India the preservation of her religion and laws, England owes to it her continued possession of India, and to the learned throughout Europe, it has afforded the means of studying this remarkable country, in the monuments of her literature; for the Bramins have not been slow to become the disciples of those, who had first consented to receive instruction from them; and the numerous works in Sanscrit and Bengalee, whose printing they have superintended at Calcutta, prove their eagerness to profit by European improvements, and to communicate their literary treasures to the West. A sentiment like that of which they had been the object, curiosity, soon led them to study our arts and sciences. A knowledge of the English language, spread among them; and a learned Bramin, Rammohun Roy, who writes it with great ease, felt a desire to become acquainted with Hebrew and Greek, in order to read our sacred books in the original.

Rajah Rammohun Roy was born about 1780, at Burdwan, in Bengal, of a noble family of Bramins. His education commenced in his father's house, where he learned Persian. After studying logic and arithmetic, at Patna, in Arabic translations of Aristotle and Euclid, he went to Calcutta, to acquaint himself with the sacred language of the Bramins, the Sanscrit. In 1804, or 1805, the death of his father and two brothers left him master of a considerable fortune. He settled at Moorshedabad, where his ancestors had resided, and began his literary career, by a work in Persian, with a preface in Arabic, "Against the Idolatry of all Religions." The boldness of his principles excited both the Hindoos and Mahometans against him, and he felt obliged to withdraw to Calcutta, where he took up his abode in 1814. After some years, he was appointed Collector of the public revenues, in the Presidency of Bengal. The duties of his office obliged him to learn English, which he was soon able to speak and write with remarkable ease and elegance. He also applied himself to Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and acquired sufficient knowledge of the two last languages, to be able to quote, in his controversial pieces, the original texts of the Old and New Testaments. From that time, he devoted himself with the greatest zeal to the accomplishment of the task which he had undertaken, a reformation in the worship of the Hindoos, and the propagation of Theism. The object of his numerous publications, was to establish the existence of one, eternal, infinite God, who requires of his worshippers no homage but the

*

practice of strict morality. He published, successively, in Bengalee and in English, extracts from the Vedas, to prove that these ancient books taught nothing but the purest Theism. Regarding the New Testament in reference to the same object, he published in Sanscrit, Bengalee, and English, "The Precepts of Jesus"; that is to say, the morality of the Gospel, detached from the historical and doctrinal parts. This work was attacked by the learned missionary, Marshman, of Serampore. † Rammohun Roy undertook the defence of his book; and, in three pamphlets, entitled, "First, Second, and Third Appeal to the Christian Public," he continued to maintain the independence of morality, and endeavoured to prove that the doctrine of the Trinity is not positively expressed, either in the Old or New Testament; and, moreover, that it cannot be admitted, since every argument insisted on against polythe

[* This account will not convey a correct impression of the opinions expressed by Rammohun Roy. He never states or implies that the worship of God consists solely in strict morality. On the contrary, he constantly distinguishes the one from the other, as different, though always to be united. The reader may judge from such passages as the following, to which every thing in his writings corresponds.

"The Vedant shows, that moral principle is a part of the adoration of God, viz. a command over passions and over the external senses of the body, and good acts are declared by the Ved to be indispensable in the mind's approximation to God; they should therefore be strictly taken care of, and attended to, both previously and subsequently to such approximation to the Supreme Being; that is to say, we should not indulge our evil propensities, but should endeavour to have entire control over them reliance on and self-resignation to the only true Being, with an aversion to worldly considerations, are included in the good acts above alluded to."- Translation of an Abridgment of the Vedant.

In the introduction to the Ishopanished, he says, "Under these impressions, therefore, I have been impelled to lay before my countrymen genuine translations of parts of their Scriptures, which inculcate not only the enlightened worship of One God, but the purest principles of morality."

In his answer to an attack upon his system by a Bramin of Calcutta, he says: "The learned Brahmun attempts to prove the impossibility of an adoration of the deity, saying, 'That which cannot be conceived, cannot be worshipped;' should the learned Brahmun consider a full conception of the nature, essence, or qualities of the Supreme Being, or a physical picture truly representing the Almighty power, with offerings of flowers, leaves, and viands, as essential to adoration, I agree with the learned Brahmun with respect to the impossibility of the worship of God. But should adoration imply only the elevation of the mind to the conviction of the existence of the omnipresent deity, as testified by his wise and wonderful works, and continual contemplation of his power as so displayed; together with a constant sense of the gratitude which we naturally owe him, for our existence, sensation, and comfort, — I never will hesitate to assert that his adoration is not only possible, and practicable, but even incumbent upon every rational creature.' Second Defence of tke Monotheistical System of the Veds. EDD.]

[ In a periodical work, edited and principally written by him, entitled, "The Friend of India." There also appeared "A Defence of some important Scripture Doctrines, being a Reply to certain Objections urged against them in two Appeals, lately made to the Christian Public. In twelve Essays; five extracted from the Works of the late Rev. T. Scott, and seven by the Baptist Missionaries of Calcutta." 8vo. Calcutta. 1822. The last seven essays, we suppose, were chiefly or wholly by Marshman. - EDD.]