1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



349 



is made as literal as possible ; they serve, 

 however, equally well to shew us how 

 the Arabs judge of men and things, and 

 are often the dictates of wisdom, the re- 

 sults of a close observance of nature. Se- 

 veral precepts of scripture, and maxims 

 of ancient sages, are naturalized among 

 the Arabs; and others appear, which 

 have been generally supposed exclusive- 

 ly of European origin. The whole set 

 shews plainly enough that the principles 

 of virtue and honour, of friendship and 

 even charity, of independence and gene- 

 rosity, are perfectly well known to the 

 modern inhabitants of Egypt, although 

 few among them, says Burckhardt and 

 he was a man of some penetration and 

 considerable experience take the trou- 

 ble to regulate their conduct accord- 

 ingly. 



Cunning, and selfishness, and grasp- 

 ing, pervade too many of these maxims. 

 If the water come like a deluge, place thy 

 son under thy feet Save thyself, that is, 

 as Burckhardt's commentary runs, even 

 at the expense of thy nearest kindred or 

 friends - a principle, he adds, very gene- 

 ral in the Levant. Money is sweet balm 

 it heals all wounds such is the general 

 opinion in the East, remarks the com- 

 mentator. If a serpent love thee, wear 

 him as a necklace that is, if dangerous 

 people show affection towards thee, court 

 their friendship by the most polite atten- 

 tion. This has very much or the Roche- 

 foucault tone. // they call thee reaper, 

 whet thy scythe endeavour by mere ap- 

 pearances to convince people that thou 

 deservest the reputation thou enjoyest. 

 Do no good, and thou shall find no evil a 

 preservative against ingratitude, it must 

 be supposed not against malice there, 

 there can be no security. 



Some are of a very different cast, for 

 instance The best generosity is the 

 quickest. 



They came to shoe the horse of the 

 Pasha, and the beetle stretched out his leg 

 (to be shod) this is indicative of ridicu- 

 lous pretensions. The beetle is an em- 

 blem of ugliness, as well as of worthless- 

 ness ; for, in another place, we find, The 

 beetle is a beauty in the eyes of its mother 

 which of course expresses a parent's in. 

 fatuation. Is thy mother-in-law quarrel- 

 some ? Divorce her daughter- cut up an 

 evil by the root. The mother and daugh- 

 ter will leave thy house together. The 

 wise (are taught) with a wink, a fool with 

 a kick. Walls have ears. The dreams of 

 cats are all about mice. A thousand cranes 

 in the air are not worth one sparrow in the 

 fist ; and scores of others, we find, either 

 the very same, or bearing a close analogy 

 to English sayings. 



Burckhardt's annotations upon them 

 are full of information relative to Eastern 

 manners, and the whole collection well 

 deserved publication. 



Irish Cottagers, by Mr. Martin Doyle, 



Author of " Hints to Small Farmers." 



This may class with Miss Hamilton's 

 Scotch Cottagers of Glenbervie as to 

 intention, but it falls immeasurably bel- 

 low in point of execution. The pur- 

 pose of the well-meaning writer is to 

 contrast the career of an active and in- 

 dustrious labourer with a careless and 

 slovenly one both living under an ex- 

 cellent landlord, who resides on his 

 estates, superintends his own affairs, 

 instructs his tenantry, encourages them 

 by instituting prizes for good manage- 

 ment, &c. &c. His object, in short, in 

 his own words, is to convey sound prac- 

 tical advice to the rural population of 

 his country, through a familiar and in- 

 teresting medium, free from the vulgar 

 caricature, as well as the coarseness and 

 blasphemies with which too many Irish 

 tales of the present day so copiously 

 and offensively abound. We must take 

 the will for the deed for certainly the 

 latter might have been better. The 

 book is instructive enough, but not par- 

 ticularly interesting; nor does it keep 

 to its object ; the whole body -snatching 

 business must have belonged to some 

 other subject ; it wears the appearance 

 of being torn violently from something 

 else, and certainly sits very awkwardly 

 in its present position. 



Album Verses, with a few others, by 

 Charles Lamb. This cbllection of scraps 

 is dedicated to the new publisher, 

 Moxon, of Bond-street, and forms the 

 first specimen of the manner in which 

 publications ' entrusted to his future 

 care are to appear. According to the 

 same dedication, Mr. Moxon himself 

 a scribbler, on Mr. Lamb's own testi- 

 mony of simple and unpretending com- 

 positions starts under the auspices of 

 that " fine-minded veteran of verse," 

 Rogers ; and " Italy" is already an- 

 nounced, illustrated with fifty-six splen- 

 did engravings. Charles Lamb never 

 had any feeling of the melody of verse ; 

 but he is as youthful in imagination 

 and as executive in fact, to the full, as 

 he was twenty or thirty years ago. 



SHE IS GOING. 



For their elder sister's hair 

 Martha does a wreath prepare 

 Of bridal rose, ornate and gay : 

 To-morrow is the wedding day 

 She is going. 



Mary, youngest of the three t 

 Laughing idler, full of glee, 

 Arm in arm does fondly chain her, 

 Thinking, poor trifler, to detain her 

 But she's going. 



Vex not, maidens, nor regret, 

 Thus to part with Margaret, 



