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a greater distance, they will firft diverge, and then converge in or der to enter it. May not this account for fome of the varieties of figure feen at times in the motions of the luminous matter of the auroras: fince it is poffible, that in paffing over the atmosphere, from the north in all directions or meridians, towards the equator, the rays of that matter may find in many places, portions of cloudy region, or moist atmosphere under them, which (being in the natural or negative ftate) may be fit to receive them, and towards which they may therefore converge; and when one of thofe receiving bodies is more than faturated, they may again diverge from it, towards other furrounding maffes of fuch humid atmo fphere, and thus form the crowns, as they are called, and other figures mentioned in the hiftories of this meteor?

A Specimen of the Civil and Military Inftitutes of Timour or Tamerlane: a Work written originally by that celebrated Conqueror in the Mogul Language, and fince tranflated into Perfian, Now firft rendered from the Perfian into English, from a MS. in the Poffeffion of William Hunter, M. D. E. R. S. Phyfician Extraordinary to the Queen. With other Pieces. By for feph White, B. D. Fellow of Wadham College, Laudian ProJeffer of Arabic, One of His Majefty's Preachers at Whitehall, and Editor and Tranflator of the Syriac Philoxenian Verfion of the Gospels. 4to. No Price. P. Elmfly.

This fpecimen, which we are told in the Preface, begins with the first page of the work, and ends at the feventh, without omiffion, addition, or alteration, is tranflated from a manufcript in the poffeffion of Dr. Hunter. Our tranflator further adds, that nothing is wanting to render it the object of admiration to the curious and the learned, but the pofitive conviction of its authenticity; for the defence of which he fubjoins the following letter in fupport of the authenticity of the Inftitutes of Timour.

"My good friend, Gloucester, Oct. 24, 1779.. "I have received your favour of the 20th inftant, and wish moft heartily that my ability to comply with your request was equal to my inclination.

"You apply to me for external evidence to establish the authenticity of Timour's Institutes; it is by no means an easy task to per form; fuch reafons, however, as have led me to believe them genuine, I fhall freely communicate. How far they may tend to re. move the doubts of unbelieving Critics, I cannot pretend to fay; poffibly, in the opinions of fuch gentlemen, they may only ferve to eftablish my own credulity: be that as it may, I shall fet out

with declaring to you, that I cannot produce any hiftorical proofs of the authenticity of thefe Inflitutes.

"The only hiftories of Timour, which I have read (that written by himself excepted,) are thofe of Shurruf a'deen Alli Yezzudi and Mirkhond: the latter is in the Rouzut ul Suffau. True it is that neither of these authors, to the best of my remembrance, take any notice of the Inftitutes, or of the History (or Commentaries) of Timour, faid to be written by himself. Alli Yezzudi fays, that Timour was always attended by feveral learned and able men, whofe fole employment was to keep a fort of histori cal journals of all tranfactions as they occurred, both military and civil; that they were directed to adhere minutely to the truth in their relations of the moft trifling facts, and that they were still more particularly enjoined to obferve the ftrictest impartiality in their narratives of the conduct and actions of the Emperor himfelf. Thefe Hiftorical Journals, if they may be fo called, were, from time to time, read in his prefence, in the prefence of his minifters and officers, and of the learned; they were compared with and corrected by each other, by the Emperor himself, and by fuch of his people as had a perfonal knowledge of the tranfactions therein related. It must be allowed, that this was no bad way of collecting authentic materials for the hiftory of a mighty Emperor, governing a mighty empire; if he took care to enforce his com mands by proving himfelf fuperior to flattery, and by an encouragement of that truth and impartiality, which he fo ftrictly enjoined. From thefe materials, fome of which were in profe, fome in verfe, fome in the Turki (or Mogul) language, fome in the Perfian, Alli Yezzudi afterwards compiled the Hiftory of the Reign and Conquefts of Timour, as he himself declares: and with the affiftance of these very materials, it is concluded that Timour wrote that voluminous and valuable History of his own Life, to which he added his Institutes. How it came to pass that that History and those Institutes were not taken notice of either by Alli Yezzudi, or Mirkhond, it is impoffible, at this distance of time to tell; but though the caufe cannot with certainty be pointout, there is room for many plaufible conjectures, The Hiftorical Journals before mentioned were numerous, and they were public alfo; the great and the learned had free access to them; many copies of them were taken, and, with the originals, handed down to pofterity; the life of Timour, and his Inftitutes, on the contrary, was a private work, compofed by himfelf, with the atfistance which thofe materials afforded him. This work the Conqueror was led to engage in from motives to us unknown: amusement or ambition, or both, might urge him to the arduous undertaking. Whether it was written with his own hand, or by a favourite and trufty amanuenfis, is uncertain; but which ever was the cafe, it is moft probable, that one copy only exifted during his life-time, and poffibly for many years afterwards: what became of that copy, during the confufions that followed his death, is equally uncertain and open to conjecture. But after all, it is no unreasonable fuppo

fition,

fition, that fuch a work in manufcript might have exifted, though Alli Yezzudi and Mirkhond knew nothing of the matter. That they were not acquainted with it, is evident: for if they had, and thought it authentic, they would have beftowed upon it all the applaufe which is due to the intrinfic merit of the work; if they had known and thought it fpurious, they would have refuted its authen. ticity. But they have done neither; they are totally filent on the fubject: from whence we may conclude, that they were ftrangers to the work. But it by no means follows, that such a work could not exist, because they, or even cotemporary authors, knew nothing about it.

"The Hiftory of Timour, written by himself, carries with it the frongest proofs that he wrote for pofterity only; and that he could not, in prudence, or in policy, make his work public during his life: for it contains not only the fame accurate detail of the Facts and Occurrences of his reign, as are found in other authors, but it goes much farther. He gives you that which he only had the power to give, the fecret fprings and motives which influenced his conduct in the various political and military transactions of his life, the arts by which he governed, as well as the power by which he conquered. He acknowledges his weakneffes, honeftly owns his errors, defcribes the difficulties in which he was occafiomally involved by thofe errors, and the policy by which he furmounted and overcame thofe difficulties. In a word, it is a com. plete Index to his head and his heart; and though, take it all in all, it redounds to the honour of both the one and the other, yet it was a work by no means calculated for the perufal of his ene. mies, or even his fubjects during his life; fince it would have enabled those who chofe it, to combat him with his own weapons, or, in other words, to have turned his arts and his policy against himfelf. Hence it is reafonable to fuppofe, that the work in queftion was entirely unknown during his life; and its fubfequent temporary obfcurity may, I think, be plaufibly accounted for, by the probability of one copy only exifting at the time of his death, by the uncertainty into whofe hands that copy fell, and by the divifions which followed in his family after the death of Shaahroch.

"Abu Taulib ul Huffeini, in the Dedication of his Tranfla tion to Sultan ul Audil, fays, that in the Library of Jafir, Haukim of Yemmun, he met with a manufcript in the Turki or Mogul language, which, on infpection, proved to be the Hiftory of Timour, written by himself; containing an account of his Life and Actions from the feventh to the feventy-fourth year of his age, &c. c. He then proceeds to give the Translation of the faid History, in which are included the Institutes.

"It may appear remarkable that the Tranflator should say fo little, or in fact nothing, to prove the authenticity of the valuable work, which he was about to tranflate. It has an extraordinary ap pearance, I allow; but, I think, the following inferences only can. be drawn from it either that he thought the work itself contained fufficient proofs of its own authenticity, or that at the period when

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when he tranflated it, it was fo well known, as not to admit of doubt, or difpute. For my part, I think his inattention to this point is a very strong, if not the strongeft poffible proof, that the Hiftory and Inftitutes of Timour are genuine.

"An European Critic may fay, that this fame Abu Taulib might have wrote the work himself in the Perfian language, and have impofed it upon the world as a Tranflation from the Royal Mogul author. This I take to be impoffible. Authors in the Eaft neither fold their works to book fellers, nor publifhed by fubfcription, nor depended for fupport on the applaufe, the generosity, or the credulity of the public, they were patronized by Princes, who rewarded their labours in proportion to the value of their works. And therefore, if Abu Taulib had been capable of writing fuch a work, he never would have been guilty of so dangerous and foofish an artifice, which could tend only to diminfh both his fame and his profit. The applaufe and the reward due to the Tranflator of an excellent work, muft, whatever his merit, be inferior to thofe which are due to the author of fuch a work; if therefore he had been master of abilities to write the Life and Inftitutes of Timour, as there written, he would have spoke in the third perfon inftead of the firit (no other alteration being neceffary,) and have food forth as the author of the first and best History of the Life of Timour, that ever was wrote; for which he must have obtained both applause and profit tenfold. The fame mode of reafoning will hold good to prove that the Turki copy could not be wrote by any Mogul author, but him to whom it is ascribed, Timour himself.

"The noble fimplicity of diction, the plain and unadorned egotifm that runs through the whole of the Inftitutes and Hiftory of Timour, are peculiarities which mark their originality and their antiquity alfo. The Orientals, for fome centuries paft, have adopted a very different mode of writing; the beft of their hiftorical works are filled with poetical and hyperbolical flowers and flourishes, which are fo numerous, and occur fo frequently, that many a folio volume, weeded and pruned of these fuperfluities, would be reduced to a very moderate octavo.

"The only work bearing the leaft resemblance to the Life and Inftitutes of Timour, which has fallen under my obfervation, is the History (or Commentaries) of Sultaun Babour, written by himself. Babour was defcended from Timour in the fifth degree; he was the fon of Omer, the son of Abu Saeed, the son of Mahummed, the fon of Meraun Shaah, the fon of Timour. About eighty years elapfed between the death of Timour and the birth of Babour.. Babour in the twelfth year of his age, and the 899th year of the Hejra, fat upon the throne of his father, in the kingdom of Furgaunch. The earlier part of his life very much resembled that of his great predeceffor, Timour: and his abili. ties in the field and in the cabinet, his fortitude in diftrefs, his activity and courage when furrounded with difficulties and danger, and the glory and fuccefs with which his enterprizes were finally,

crowned,

Crowned, make the refemblance between these two Princes fill more ftriking. Like Timour, Babour wrote an accurate History of his own Life and Actions in the Turki language; which , though by no means equal to the admirable compofition of his renowned ancestor, is a work of infinite merit. Yet this hiftoy, great as the Royal author was, remained in obfcurity till the middle of the reign of his grandfon Acbar, when it was tranflated into the Perfian language by one of his Omrahs, Khaun a Khaunaun. It is more difficult to account for the temporary obfcurity of this valuable work, than for that of Timour: for at the death of Babour it must have fallen into the hands of his fon Humaioon, and on his death, into those of Acbur. Yet till the middle of his reign it remained unknown and untranflated: and if Acbur had, in the early part of his life, been driven from his throne, if di vifions had taken place in his family, and his pofterity had been fcattered abroad, this valuable manufcript might have fallen into private hands, and have remained unknown for a century longer; poffibly, have been totally loft. No critic, either Oriental or European, pretends to difpute the authenticity of Babour's Hiftory; and, as far as I have been able to discover, the learned of the Eaft confider the Inftitutes and History of Timour as equally ge

nuine.

"I was acquainted with feveral great and learned men in India,' both natives and Perfians; on perufing the works of Timour, I was led to make the fame enquiry which you have made, Whether they were, or were not authentic? The anfwers I received were always in the affirmative, and attended with fome tokens and expreffions of furprite that I fhould, or could, doubt their being ge nuine. Shaah Aulum, the prefent Mogul has a beautiful copy of the Hiftory and Inftitutes of Timour; which he holds in fuch efteem, and of which he is fo exceedingly careful, that though he granted me the use of any other book in his poffeffion, this he po fitively excepted by name, as a work fo rare and valuable, that he could not trust it to the care of any perfon whatever.

6.6

Upon the whole, if the learned of the East, for feveral ge nerations, have been induced to give implicit credit to the Inftitutes and History of Timour, which is certainly the cafe, I do not fee how Europeans can, with any degree of propriety, doubt their authenticity. The Oriental Critics have the very best materials on which to form their opinions; our small stock of knowledge in the language, and ftill fmaller flock of Afiatic Hiftorians, render us very incompetent judges of the point in queftion. There are a great number of Oriental Manufcrips in the libraries of the learned; but I am convinced, that there are ftill many, very many, which never have found, and poffibly never will find their way into Europe; and therefore, though no hiftorical evidence can be produced to prove the authenticity of the Works of Timour, yet no one can pretend to fay, that fuch hiftorical Proofs do not exift. The learned of the Eaft must be the best judges whether they do, or do not merit their belief and veneration; and they

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