14 Life and Writings 
oriental prejudices. (8) The assertion in- 
deed that all the literary productions of the 
Kast are a tissue of absurd fables, written in 
a barbarous and bombastic style, without 
any marks of adherence to truth and nature, 
is much too loose and general, and proceeds 
oftentimes from ignorance, or from false 
principles of judgment. ‘This is not the pro- 
per place to institute an enquiry into the 
existence of a fixed standard of taste, which 
the varying conclusions of different writers 
on the subject might almost lead us to sus- 
pect; it may not however be improper to 
observe, that the manners, customs, and 
opinions of every nation, necessarily impart a 
peculiar character to its literary productions, 
and that they ought not to be tried without 
a reference to those customs and opinions. 
We read the ancient poets, and enter with en- 
thusiasm into their mythology,—a mythology 
which was the belief of the people, and iden- 
tified itself with all their ideas: we are dis- 
gusted with the modern poet, who, on the 
sanction of classical usage, presents to us the 
same assembly of the Gods, still controlling 
(8) Vide Sir William Jones’s History of the Persian language. 
History of the poetry of the Eastern Nations, and Traité sur la Poésie 
Orientale, Sec. 11,.—D’Herbelot, a V art—Richardsonen the Literature 
and Manners of the Eastern Nations, p. 28,---Malcolm’s History of 
Persia, Vol. II. p.539. 
