moment, who has not been in Eastern countries to hear it; and then all who have, must bear me witness that the noise is tremendous. They seize, and bite, and kick each other with the most determined fury; and frequently cannot be separated before their heads and haunches stream with blood. Even in skirmishes between the natives, their horses take part in the fray; tearing each other with their teeth, while their masters are at similar close quarters on their backs.' *

The main object of this journey was to visit the internal labyrinths of the rocky mountain of Kerefto. The height exceeds 400 feet, and on one of its points was the entrance into the caves, about 30 feet from the base of the rock. Two doorways conduct into the two caverns, whose roofs are arched to the height of 15 feet, and about six wide. No inscription appeared in these rooms. The chief entrance into the larger cavern is the commencement of a steep ascending passage.We must again refer our readers, who are desirous of a minute account of these subterraneous halls, to the work itself: but those who have an appetite for mystery and horror will be delighted with the following passage, which reminds us of Mrs. Radcliffe, whose death we were sorry to see recently announced :

From one of these sort of corridors, we entered a door-way to the right, and proceeded thence along a passage for more than three hundred yards, in pursuit of a considerable apartment with a large quadrangular stone in the midst of it; which our conductor had told us was somewhere in that direction, but our search proved unsuccessful; and he did not seem inclined to comply with our wishes, to renew the attempt down any other of the very dis. tant leading paths. Indeed, at every step of our advance, after quitting the great cavern, he seemed to increase in wariness; being apprehensive, he said, that we should either lose our way, or come suddenly on some den of the wild animals of the mountain, with which these recesses were amply peopled. The sort of smells which assailed us in passing some of the avenues bore sufficient evidence to the truth of the latter statement; but the other cause of alarm not appearing quite so evident, I could not be persuaded to turn back. We then pressed on, and after some little time, reached a large cave of nature's own work entirely; the only addition from man being a flight of steps cut up to its entrance. When within, we perceived light through a small crack in the rock; and on looking at my compass, I found it lay south-east; hence, we were then near that face of the mountain. In this remote cavern I observed the singularity of several distinct heaps of stones, with a large one stuck up in the centre of each heap, in the manner of a memorial over graves; and, indeed, I should think

This again is new information, viz. that the hostile riders of these horses tear each other with their teeth. Rev.

them to be such. In the natural recess of the same chamber, we discovered a wooden coffin of rude workmanship, containing a body wrapped in linen, and from the freshness of the windingsheet, it must have been of recent interment. Hence I doubt not that both it and the heaps of stones near cover the remains of some of the bold followers of Mustapha Beg, a mountain-chief, who, with sixty desperate men and their families, about four years ago took possession of the Kerefto caves, and holding them as an impregnable fortress, subsisted by the most daring robberies. Some met the freebooter's fate in various ways; but the leader himself afterwards received pardon, and is now at the court of the present Wally of Senna. Havine left this den, of probably more direful scenes than any which the four-footed prowlers of the same midnight regions might have exhibited, we retraced our steps back to the great centre cavern: whence we diverged again, down the northern avenue, seeing in our way other ramifications branching to the right and left, but we kept on in that which seemed the principal, till, having got deep in water, we were obliged to stop, and return. Our venerable guide remarked, that had it been shallower now, and we could therefore have gone forward to the end, we should have arrived at a large cave, containing a pond in the middle of fathomless depth, while the banks around were covered with a rich verdure, comprising every species of grass possible to be met with. This was very like a tale of the genii, and told well in the spot where we heard it.'

These encaverned labyrinths have perhaps occasionally been the refuge of banditti: but their style, their size, their masterly finishing, and their regularly disposed niches for lamps, all shew their purpose to have been more worthy and solemn; and the author rationally conjectures that they were appropriated to some religious mystery, probably that of Zoroaster.

Sir Robert now projected a return to Tabreez, round the lake of Ouroomia, or Shahy lake, a tract hitherto unvisited by European travellers, owing to the wild tribes who frequent it: but we lament that we cannot even present an epitome of this interesting expedition. After a residence of another month in the capital of Abba Mirza, the time of departure by the way of Constantinople arrived; and Sir R. accordingly left Tabreez for the shores of the Bosphorus, 19th October, 1819. We are sorry that we must here close this article, which has already reached an unusual length; without even an allusion to the multifarious objects of curiosity and research, that are illustrated by this indefatigable traveller in the course of his journey to Constantinople, and thence to Russia. Our regret is indeed diminished, by recollecting that this route has been accurately described by several enlightened and well-informed persons who have traversed the same regions.

From

From the preceding report, our general opinion of the merits and faults of this narrative may be easily collected. It is too long and diffuse; inflicting on those who read for instruction, or for amusement, too heavy a task; as if the author intended to impose the perusal of it by way of retaliation for the rugged ascents and toilsome marches of his own expedition. It also betrays too much of plain downright bookmaking; as if the whole was designed to reimburse him, at the cost of the literary part of the community, for the expences of his journey. This is an evil with which we are in the daily habits of conflicting; and a growing evil, which tends to bring literature itself into contempt, and to lower the character and dignity of its professors.

On the language of this narrative, we have already made some incidental remarks; and it really is to be lamented that it should so frequently offend by incorrectness, when a little care would free an important work from such a remediable objection. What are we to say of such phraseology as the ⚫ waveless sea of shadeless heat,' (p. 69.) or of persons taking their leaves?' (p. 274.) Or who that has ever learnt a grammar can tolerate such expressions as the following? It could not fail re-assuring,' p. 473., instead of, to re-assure: prevented myself exploring,' p. 490., for, prevented me from exploring:- had likely proved,' p. 555., for, was likely to have proved;-and multitudes of similar faults.

The plates are numerous and acceptable illustrations of this costly and bulky publication.

ART. III. Essays on Subjects of important Enquiry, in Metaphysics, Morals, and Religion; accompanied by References to Passages in numerous Authors, illustrative of the same. By the late Isaac Hawkins Browne, Esq. 8vo. pp. 615. Boards. Cadell. 1822.

MANY of our readers are well acquainted with the name of

the late Mr. Hawkins Browne, and will be glad to receive this posthumous volume of the productions of his pen. It consists of Essays on Reason, on the Passions, on Free Agency, on Society, on Moral Obligation, on Virtue and Vice, on the Being and Attributes of God, on Infidelity, Religion, Enthusiasm, and Superstition, on Prayer, on a State of Trial, on the Reward of Virtue and Punishment of Vice, on the Soul's Immateriality and Immortality, and on the Evidences of the Christian Religion. We shall furnish a sufficient recommendation of the work to the particular attention of all those who had the pleasure of knowing Mr.

Hawkins

Hawkins Browne, when we assure them that it is not unworthy of its author; for it exhibits throughout marks of a sound and solid judgment, great seriousness of reflection, considerable research, and much compactness of reasoning. The best essays, in our opinion, are those which treat on Infidelity, and on Enthusiasm and Superstition; and from the last of these we quote the ensuing passages, illustrative of the author's mode of composition:

The human mind cannot divest itself of all belief in some sort of invisible power, by whatever name it may be called; and some degree of superstition must arise whenever that invisible power is conceived irresistible, and thought defective in wisdom or goodness. It will increase in proportion to the idea conceived of that deficiency; and will shew itself in its blackest colours when the invisible power is entirely divested of all traces of wisdom and goodness, and becomes a most deformed monster of folly or of wickedness. This is not an exaggerated description of heathen gods, nor of the universal objects of pagan idolatry.

Reason, in its sublimest energies, and illuminated by Revelation, leads us to true religion. When more imperfectly exercised, or when involved in gentile darkness, it affords a light more or less steady, in proportion to the progress it has made, and leads us by degrees to a knowledge of sacred truth. Every passion, on the other hand, especially that of fear, leads us to superstition. Virtue and religion reciprocate as cause and effect: vice and superstition.

so do

If we are ourselves devoid of virtue, we can never bring our minds to a conception of the Divine purity; we can have no admiration of holiness, no love for goodness, no desire of imitating the true God, by transcribing in our own hearts a faint image of his moral perfection, or of pleasing him by obeying his laws.

On the contrary, our own habitual corruption having perverted every kind affection, every good principle of our nature, every sound dictate of our understanding, the worst things will appear the best; we shall imagine wickedness of every kind the most pleasing to the invisible power we adore; we shall suppose that power to be in itself wicked, and the patron of all iniquity. The love of evil leads us to the love and admiration of an evil being. This superstition, therefore, originates from vice, and is the most powerful promoter of it. A pagan, sincere in the worship of an amorous or cruel god, must himself be amorous or cruel, and the more devoutly or the more frequently he worships his idol, the more will he increase his lascivious or ferocious disposition.

If a worshipper of such deities could be supposed a good man, the object of his worship must be the object of his indignation and abhorrence; his obedience to his god must be accompanied with hatred to him. Religion is not a more powerful promoter of virtue than superstition is of vice.

The greatest violations of purity, modesty, decency, civilization, and nature herself, have been incorporated into pagan wor

ship; were practised by the most enlightened nations before the blessed advent of Christ, or their conversion to his religion; and are at this hour esteemed sacred by the Gentoos. The cruelty of pagan worship is more conspicuous and more universal than its las

civiousness.

Superstition, nursed in ignorance, and arising from the barbarous manners, as well as depraved passions, of those nations, which in the earliest times migrated from their original country and patriarchal stock, has been always savage and cruel, inflicting the severest torments upon its miserable devotees, and exciting them to every ebullition of hatred and extragance of revenge, to sanguinary desolation and exterminating wars. The superstitious paint their gods as delighting in cruelty, consequently they must conceive no worship so acceptable to them, as that which gratifies their ferocious temper in the excruciating tortures of their own votaries, and in all the sufferings which these votaries can force other men to endure.

They eagerly inflict severe evils upon themselves and others, in order to avoid more horrid and more universal calamities, which their affrighted imagination conceives the gods ready to pour upon them. The heathens despaired of obtaining good from gods, whom they painted as the authors of evil alone; which was particularly the description of the infernal deities, and therefore the earnest pursuit of the most ardent devotee was the averting evil. From hence arose human sacrifices, not only the sacrifices of prisoners taken in war, or of the aged or deformed, but of tender inno. cent children, and those the most healthy and beautiful, and most beloved by their infatuated parents. Such a sacrifice was esteemed greater, and more acceptable to the gods.

The abominable wickedness of mankind, whether displayed in sensual passions, in diabolical fury, or in obduracy of heart, has never been carried to so great excess, as when originating from superstition, or when inflamed by it.

Although from the imperfection of our present state, and the innumerable circumstances which lend a baneful aid to superstition, it is a darkness which could only be dispelled by evangelical light; yet the horrors I have described could never have disgraced Greece and Rome in the most splendid periods of paganism, nor Indostan at the present day, if a maxim had not become very unhappily prevalent, that the most enlightened ought to worship the gods according to the laws of their country, while the vulgar were kept in servile awe.

This doctrine is to be found in the writings of very ancient Indian sages, as well as in the philosophy of the peripatetics and stoics. It is a doctrine cruelly uncharitable to our fellow-men, as it deprives them of all the advantages which the superior genius or knowledge of the more enlightened can afford. While philosophers made considerable advances in the discovery of Divine truth, they left their countrymen, and those whom the feelings of humanity ought most to have endeared to them, in a state of dreadful depravity. The laws of the country, derived from dark traditions

and