Alt/ Laila. 



the analogy of the precipitation of mists and dews from a state 

 of transparent vapour on the abstraction of heat. It appears to me that 

 the nucleus and grosser parts of the comet must have been entirely eva- 

 porated during its perihelion, and repreeipitated during its recess from 

 the sun, os it came into a colder region j and that the first moment of 

 this precipitation was precisely that which I have pointed out as the 

 limit of the existence of the disc, viz. on the 21st of January, at 2h..P. m., 

 or perhaps an hour or two later."— Ibid. 



The second volume of the Mncan and Macnaghten edition of the 

 original Arabic of the Arabian Nights has just been published. Asia 

 occupies the attention of Europe in our day nearly quite as much as it 

 did ?t the time of the Crusades— all eyes are turned eastward. The 

 politician looks to Asia for the solution of some of the most intricate 

 and important questions in European diplomacy. Asia, the cradle of 

 civilization, is now beginning to receive back the arts, commerce and 

 literature which she gave. Even the British public, which used to 

 think about India (five times in a century) as a place of transportation 

 for younger sons and dowerlcss damsels, has begun to cast its self-wor- 

 shipping eyes towards Asia : and as a sign of the times there are at 

 this moment three translations of the Arabian Nights in progress. The 

 first by Mr. Lane, in London, the second by Mr. Torrens, in Bengal, 

 and the third by a German scholar at Stutdgart, whose name the writer 

 of this notice cannot recollect. Manners, minor morals and the other 

 conventionalities of Europe and Asia,. were, and are, so different, that 

 a verbatim trai.sWion of those celebrated tales never can be made into 

 any of the vulgar languages of Europe — for instance, the beautiful 

 story of Zobeida and her sisters in Galland's translation, is in the 

 original so disfigured by highly erotic passages, as to be wholly unfit 

 for translation into English — these passages are often in verse, pos- 

 sessing all the poetic grace and elegance, and more than the prurience of 

 La Fontaine, or Beraitger, or Lord Byron. A fe«r of the new tales 

 (in the Macan edition) are the very best, but to enjoy them it is neces- 

 sary to be an Arabic scholar. Let no one despair : De Sacy's grammar 

 and the (Calcutta) Kamoor* Dictionary, with two hours a day hard 

 study, for nine months, will make a well educated man of average intel- 

 lect perfectly competent to enjoy the Alif Laila. J. M» 



» fovsnle at the College at a fifth of the original grice. 



