GREAT BOOKS. 



plishments. The " Last Sapper " has disappeared, save in its 

 . tho model for the statue of Francisco was destroyed by 

 the French at Milan ; many other priceless works have un- 

 accountably disappeared. The Louvre at Paris, however, pos- 

 sesses his portrait of Mona Lisa ; our own National collection 

 -i his cartoon of St. Anno and tho Virgin; and his 

 .-;.! ii'h.l p..rtr.i'.i of himself still remains in the Galleria at 

 Florence. Numbers of his drawings and rough studies have 

 boon preserved in Italy ; and many of his anatomical sketches 

 are among the collections at Windsor Castle. His manuscript 

 notes on Hydraulics and other scientific subjects have also 

 been handed down, and they serve to show the marvellous 

 universality of his genius. Altogether, Lionardo may be 

 regarded as the most remarkable man of a remarkable age, and 

 as the real founder of modern, as distinguished from mediaeval, 

 painting. In his own person he sums up that wonderful 

 grasp of subjects, that power of handicraft, and that freedom 

 of thought which formed together the distinguishing character- 

 istics of the Italian Renaissance. 





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Vm.-THE AEABIAN NIGHTS. 



UNTIL the beginning of the last century, the East was almost 

 wholly unknown to Europe, except to a few recondite scholars. 

 The Bible was the only book which opened the world of Asia 

 to the Western mind, and this, of course, was consulted rather 

 for doctrine than for manners or institutions. Even men of 

 culture took their ideas of Oriental lands and people more from 

 Herodotus and other classical writers than from native sources. 

 Of the Mohammedan Empires, very little was known with 

 exactness. The Crusaders depicted everything with a false 

 colour ; the early travellers were often credulous and preju- 

 diced. The Turks made themselves a little better known than 

 the Arabians and Persians had been able to do ; but even they 

 were not familiarly and sympathetically understood. For tie 

 literary class the " Bibliotheque Orientale" of D'Herbelot, 

 first published in 1697, shortly after the author's death, did 

 much ; but it was not a book for general reading. That cele- 

 brated work, however, was issued under the editorship of 

 Antony Galland, who, a few years later, rendered an important 

 service to the popular knowledge of the East by his translation 

 of the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments." Readers may per- 

 haps have been in some degree prepared for the reception of 

 any Oriental work by the curious set of fictitious letters 

 written in Italian by the Genoese, Marana, and once familiar 

 to Englishmen as " The Turkish Spy ;" but if people really re- 

 garded that work as the genuine production of an Ottoman or 

 Arabian, the fact shows still more conclusively how little was 

 then known of the veritable East. Marana, who had lived 

 several years in Paris, wrote his book towards the latter end 

 of the seventeenth century. It is a miscellany of anecdotes, 

 pretended revelations of court secrets, essays, and reflections 

 on various subjects ; but it soon became popular all over 

 the continent of Europe, and may have created a taste for 

 Oriental matters. 



Galland, the first translator of the " Arabian Nights," was 

 born of humble parents in 1646. Having received a good 

 education, he went to Constantinople as an attacM to the 

 embassy of Charles Edonard Oilier, or Olier, Marquis de 

 Nointel, who made a fine collection of drawings from Greek anti- 

 quities. This was in 1673, and two years later Galland returned, 

 but went again to Turkey on two subsequent occasions. He 

 was appointed Royal Professor of Arabic in 1 709 ; was also a 

 member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres ; 

 and died in 1715. In his visits to the East he acquired an 

 intimate knowledge of the Oriental languages and literature, 

 and of Oriental manners ; and no one was better qualified than 

 he to superintend the publication of D'Herbelot' s great work. 

 But it is his French version of the "Arabian Nights " that has 

 rendered him famous. 



The original edition of this translation appeared at Paris in 

 twelve volumes, issued in successive years from 1704 to 1717. 

 In the dedication of his work, Galland stated that the original 

 was by " an unknown Arabian author;" and this reticence of 



information, combined with a certain Parisian flavour which 

 In- imparted to the stories, induced many person*, especially 

 among the scholarly, to suspect that the work was no transla- 

 tion at all, but a pure invention of the ingenious gentleman 

 who put it forth. This, however, was a position which could 

 not be maintained, and the " Thousand and One Nights " 

 rapidly grew in general esteem, not only as a most fascinating 

 collection of narratives, natural, supernatural, serious, and 

 humorous, but as a truthful picture of Arabian life nnder the 

 Caliphs. Several manuscripts of the original have since bean 

 discovered, and four editions of the Arabic text have appeared 

 in Europe. Still, the date and authorship of tho tales are 

 unknown. The Sultan Haroun al Raschid, who reigned in the 

 eighth and ninth centuries, is frequently mentioned in them, 

 but as a person living in former times, and serving as an 

 illustration of bygone heroism. It is held by some that the 

 stories belong to a rather late period of the Saracenic dominion ; 

 that they indicate a decline in the national character and 

 civilisation ; and that their moral tone is not such as might be 

 expected of an age nearer to that of the Prophet. Nevertheless, 

 they cannot have originated in a very modern time, for they 

 contain no allusion to tobacco, which was introduced in the 

 sixteenth century, or to coffee, which seems to have come into 

 use about the middle of the fifteenth. The Baron de Sacy, 

 writing in 1829, gave it as his opinion that the original was 

 composed in the vulgar dialect of Syria, and that it received 

 additions in later days from a succession of imitators, some of 

 them inferior to the first author. Most of the comparatively 

 modern tales he believed to have been invented in Egypt ; but, 

 even if so, it was the Egypt of Saracenic manners and traditions. 

 India is thought by Yon Hammer to have furnished the ground- 

 work of some of the fictions, and Persia of others. But all 

 have passed through an Arabian mould, and it is the Moslem 

 world of the Caliphs, even if reproduced under the Mameluke 

 dynasty of Egypt, which is presented to us. This is the opinion 

 both of Von Hammer and of Lane. 



Men of great learning seldom condescend to write works of 

 entertainment, and we ought therefore to be the more obliged 

 to Galland for having applied his scholarship to the production 

 of so delightful a collection of tales as the " Thousand and One 

 Nights." He may, however, have justly considered that the 

 work was not simply one of entertainment; for it does in truth 

 add very materially to our knowledge of tho East. Since the 

 introduction of the " Arabian Nights " to the Western world, 

 we have ceased to talk of "the false Mahonnd," and to speak oi 

 Moslems as if they were nothing but Pagans, idolaters, and 

 wretches. The ferocious spirit of the Crusades faded before 

 the gay and airy wand of Galland. He set the fashion for 

 Eastern tales, and Addison introduced some into the Spectator 

 and Guardian. The " Arabian Nights " themselves were soon 

 translated from French into English, and no more popular 

 work exists. In 1839 the late Mr. Edward William Lane 

 brought out a translation direct from the Arabic, with a large 

 body of valuable notes ; but, admirable as this work is, it has 

 not yet superseded the older version. 



Among the other valuable qualities of the " Arabian Nights " 

 is the light which these stories throw upon the supernatural 

 part of the Mohammedan faith always a very important 

 element in the mental history or constitution of any race. 

 Much might be eaid on this topic, but we can here only in- 

 dicate in the briefest manner the leading features of the 

 system. 



It is evident that the origin of these ideas is to be found 

 in the old Zoroastrian religion of Persia, which regarded 

 this world as the battle-ground of two great Deities 

 Ormnzd, the good Being, and Ahriman, the father of all 

 evil. Each of these Powers is attended by a number of 

 angels, or spiritual intelligences, who range far and wide in 

 the execution of his commands. Hence the Genii of the 

 " Arabian Nights " the Deevs, or bad spirits, and the 

 Peris, or good spirits. With these conceptions were mingled 

 some others of Jewish origin. Throughout the whole West 

 of Asia the great King Solomon ban for ages enjoyed the 

 reputation of being an enchanter ; and wo hear of him in 

 the " Arabian Nights' Entertainments " as the powerful con- 

 troller of the whole race of genii. It will thus be seen that 

 these popular tales open many tracts of interesting study to 

 those who are curious in such subjects. 



