conquefts the rivalship of beauty, the garniture of drefs, and the arts of feduction; and, in fine, to practice all the allurements that work upon the fenfes. It must be allowed, however, that the writer has related an affecting ftory, the moral of which is comprized in the following cautions to readers of both fexes:-'The woman who thinks herself the most virtuous of her fex, and who prefumes upon her own ftrength, may, by granting the man, whom the fondly loves, improper (though feemingly trifling) liberties, be led into a fituation which the can never remember but with horror and fhame:-Never put yourself into any man's power; nor let any man wish to try the woman whom he intends to marry.'-The virtuous FAIR, we apprehend, will not think the writer meant any compliment to the fex by the latter part of this advice; or, indeed, by the general plan of his work; which affords a melancholy exhibition of Female Frailty. st. Art. 37. The Advantages of Deliberation; or, the Folly of Indifcretion. 12mo. 2 Vols. 5 s. fewed. Robinson and Ro berts. 1772. To render his performance interefting, our Author has ventured "beyond the bounds of probability and nature: But though, by this means, he may create the furprize, and roufe the curiofity, of volgar readers, the extravagance of the events he has produced will neceffarily difguft thofe who can judge of what may happen in real life, and who know the principles and motives of human conduct. Art. 38. The Perplexities of Riches. 12mo. 5s. fewed. Robinfon and Roberts. 1771. st. In this publication, there is nothing that bears the most diftant allution to its title. The perplexities which its hero is reprefented to have undergone, were evidently the confequences of vicious and unhappy paffions, and did not flow from the poffeffion of wealth. For riches and moral turpitude are not neceffarily connected. The style in which it is written is feeble and languid; it difplays no knowledge of fashionable life, and, after the moft diligent perufal, we can find in it no circumstances that render it in the smallest degree interefting or valuable. St. Art. 39. The married Victim; or, the Hiftory of Lady VilA Narrative founded on Facts. 1.mo. 2 vols. fewed. Hookham. 1772. lars. 5 s. In thefe volumes, the reader is prefented with fcenes of diftrefs; but, as they are pourtrayed without paflion, they make no impreffion on his heart, The Author, without fenfibility or genius, fhould not have entered on the talk of defcribing the human mind under the agitation of anxieties and emotions which he could not feel. Sentiments deftitute of delicacy, adventures difrefsful, but unnatural, and without propriety, and expreffions coarfe and inelegant, can never awaken the affections, and excite a tender fympathy. Art. 40. St. The Trial, or the Hiftory-of Charles Horton, Efq. By a Gentleman. 12m0. 3 Vels. 9s. Vernor. 1772. This performance recommends itself by the chastity of its fentiments, the variety of its characters, and the propriety of its expreffion. It is, indeed, a beautiful difplay of the judgment and fenfibility of its Author. St. Art. . POETICAL. Art. 41. En Epiftle from Mrs. B****y to his R***1 H*****ss the D*** of C********d: or Beauty scourging Rank. 4to. I S. Battefon. 1772. Some catch-penny Rhimer has made the poor abandoned Mrs. Baily fcold and abuse her royal deferter most outragiously: the virulence of Billingfgate in the numbers of Grabftreet. SERMON S. I. Repentance the only Condition of final Acceptance,-before the dif fenting Clergy, at Mill-hill Chapel, in Leeds, Sept. 18, 1771. By W. Graham, M. A. IS. Johnson. II. The Neceffity of Charity,-at St. Bartholomew's Chapel, for the Benefit of the Children of the Charity School in Birmingham, May 12, 1771. By John Adamthwaite, A. M. of Queen's College, Oxford. Birmingham printed, and fold by Aris, fold alfo by Becket, &c. in London. III. At the new Meeting-houfe near Chelwood in Somersetshire, IV. At Williamsburg, May 5, 1771, for the Benefit of a Fund to Art. 42. An Attempt to reflore the true reading and rendering The words which the Author has endeavoured to illuftrate stand thus in our prefent tranflation: So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my fervants, nor the men of the guard which followed me; none of us put off our clothes, faving, that every one put them off for washing. As the laft claufe of this verfe conveys a fenfe which appears very trifling, and even abfurd, Mr. Hopkins feeks for a more commodious fignification, and fuppofes that it ought to be rendered, every man with his word in the right hand, or (more grammatically) of the right hand. This conftruction he hath fo well fupported by a different tranflation of one word, a conjectural emendation of another, and feveral collateral obfervations, that there can be little doubt of the juftness and truth of his criticifm. He has added some judicious remarks concerning the text of the Old Teftament, the importance of fludying the Hebrew language, and the manner in which the K. knowledge of it ought to be applied. Errata in this Month's Review, viz. In the account of Mr. Jones's Perfian Grammar, p. 39, par. 3, 1. 21, dele their. P. 41, 1. 3d, from the bottom, for del, r. dil; and for delirib, r. dilfirib. P. par. 3. r. and it would undoubtedly have been for the interest of the learner, if he had added, &c. 42, There is an ambiguity in this word, on which the reader is left to put his own construction. THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For FEBRUARY, 1772. ART. I. Conclufion of the Account of Mr. Jones's Perfian Grammar. H1 AVING, in our last month's Review, given a general idea of the defign of this Oriental Grammar, and Jone that juftice to the learned and very ingenious Author, to which he is amply entitled, we think ourfelves obliged alfo, in juftice to the public, to obferve that his work feems more deficient, with refpect to proper and adequate inftructions, as to the fyllabication and reading of the Perfian language, than in any other circumftance. We apprehend that, on the principles of common fenfe, there is no language but muft have fome rules to direct the learner in this refpect; and we have been furprised to hear gentlemen, who have vifited Hindoftan, alledge, that no one can read the Perfian language until he is thoroughly master of it. We imagine that these wrong conceptions must have proceeded from their having begun to learn the Perfian without being initiated in the principles of the Arabic grammar. We have already feen that the Perfians, on the introduction of Mahomedifm into their country, relinquished their ancient alphabet, and adopted that of the Arabians; and hence we conceive that a man who can read Arabic, has made confiderable advances towards reading the Perfian. All the letters in the Arabic alphabet are confonants: the Arabians have, from the original of their language, had certain dots, or vowel points, to mark the founds a, e, i, o, u, as hath every other nation, as far as we know. The Perfians, on adopting the Arabic alphabet, must naturally have used thefe very marks, or dots, to pint out their vowels. The Arabians call the mark of the fhort a and e phata; the Perfians use the fame dot, and call it named from its fituation, because it is placed VOL. XLVI. G zeber, above, so above the letter to to which it is fubjoined. The Arabians call the fhort i, kefra; the Perfians ufe the fame dot to mark their fhort i, but call it by the name of zir, because it is placed below the confonant to which it is annexed. The Arabians call the dot which marks the fhort u and o, zamma, or damma as some pronounce it: the Perfians call the very fame dot by the name of ww peish, which fignifies before. The Arabians mark the long a by their phata, with a quicfcent alif following; their long i with a filent je following; and their long and u with a quicfcent waw following and we imagine that this is the fame method practifed by the Perfians; for it is certain that the Arabians and Perfians caufe their children to write out all the letters of the alphabet with thefe dots placed properly under and above the letters, in order to teach them the nature of pure or fimple fyllables, as their Grammarians call them. And in like manner they proceed to teach them to read the alphabet where two confonants concur in a fyllable with only one vowel annexed ; there being, properly, no diphthong in the Eastern languages; for wherever two confonants meet together in the fame fyllable, there is a gezm or gezma put over the letter, to fhew that it makes a mixed fyllable. The reader may fee this fully illuftrated in Meninfki's Perfian Grammar, published in quarto, at Vienna, in 1756. Now as all the letters in the Arabic language, as well as the Perfic, are confonants, every one may see what a difficult and laborious task it must be for a learner to read Arabic or Perfic, unless the vowel points are annexed to the letters. True it is, indeed, that the children in Arabia and Perfia, after having learned the nature of fyllabication with the vowel points. annexed, and after having thus made fome progrefs in reading a language which is their mother tongue, learn to read words which occur in common life with greater facility than we Europeans can eafily comprehend; but every one may fee that this must be the effect of great labour and practice: for, as far as we can learn, the Arabians, from a fenfe of the danger of miftaking the meaning of the words, by affixing different dots, have their Koran always written with the vowel points fubjoined, left the reader fhould mistake the fenfe of their prophet. That all the letters in the Perfian as well as Arabic alphabets are confonants, is attefted by the celebrated Chardin, who fpeaks with the greateft confidence on this fubject. "Les vingt-huit lettres font toutes confoncs, n'y ayant point de voyelles dans l'alphabet Ferfan, non plus que dans l'Arabe, quoique l'alif, qui eft premiere lettre, & qui à la force de notre a avec un accent remblant à nos accens graves ou ai gus, foit eftimé de plufieurs grammariens être une lettre voyelle. Leur alif eft l'aleph Hebreu, & il repond à cet accent dont les Grecs fe fervent, & qu'ils appellent fprit doux. J'ai dit que tout leur alphabet eft de confones: il y a pourtant trois lettres, alef, vau, yé, qui ont fouvent la force de voyelles, a caufe de quoi ils les appellent lettres de repos. Leur voyelles font proprement des accens. Les Perfans nomment en general les accons, herket, c'eft-à-dire, mouvement, parce que les accens donnent le branle aux autres lettres. Ils en ont de trois fortes; les plus communs font ceux qu'ils appellent zeber, zer, pich, c'eft-à-dire, deffus, deffous, devant le pich eft un accent fait comme une virgule, les deux autres font de accens aigus. Ils apprennent ainsi à les lire: B avec zeber, Ba; avec zer, Bi; avec pich, Bou; & ainfi des autres lettres. Ces accens font les mêmes que les Arabes ont deux accens plus que les Perfans n'en employent dans leur écriture." The ingenious Author of the Grammar fays, that the ain in Perfian is a fort of vowel, and anfwers generally to our broad a, Arab, the Arabians; fometimes (fays he) it has a found like our o, as in the words otr, fence. Here we cannot but differ from this learned Gentleman; for the letter ain is really a confonant as much as any letter in the Arabic or Perfic alphabets and for proof of this, we would obferve, that this letter ain has in the Koran,the different points, phate, kifra, and damma, marking the different vowels a, e, o, which could never be the cafe, were it a real vowel. The above-mentioned word points in Arabic is marked with the vowel and written by Meninski in Roman characters are, with an ain put above e, and the other word is pointed by Golius thus fe, and written by Meniņski ytr, with an ain put over the y. To fhew that the letter aim has the various vowel points denoting a, e, i, o, u, fubjoined to it, we refer the Reader to Golius's Arabic, and Meninfki's Perlian Dictionary, where he may find various inftances to prove what we have said. Mr. Jones acknowledges that the letters waw and S je are often used as confonants, like cur and y: we apprehend that they are always confonants. Mr. Jon's fays the leng vowels are I alif, ↑ waw, S ji, and may be pronounced 1 |