Retrospect of French Laterature—Miscellanies. 
Asia, includes the books of Bedda, whose 
sacred impostures may be regarded as the 
origin of all those which at-present exer- 
cise the credulity of mankind. Father 
Georgi published in 1772, a work entitled, 
Alphabetum Thibetanum, replete with 
erudition, but insufficient in ‘respect to 
the attainment of this language, which, 
besides, cannot be of any utility in regard 
to our political relations. 
“The Malay, a language originally from 
the peninsula of Malacca, is ade use of 
in all the islands of the Indian ocean. 
Every traveler agrees as to the utility of 
this language in respect to commerce. 
The Portuguese, English, and Dutch, 
have published elementary books of 
it; it 1s written in Arabic characters, to 
which are added certain diucriiical 
points, in order to give them a new va- 
lue. 
‘«¢ The vulgar idioms of India, are the 
Lamoull, which is spoken from the coast 
of Orixa to cape Comorin, and at Cochin ; 
the Taulingao, the Moorish, the Hindoo- 
stanee; which are far sooner learned by 
use, then by means of masters. 
‘*The Persian is necessary in our future 
transactions with the nabobs; but it dif- 
fers from what is spoken in Persia, both 
in regard to the pronunciation, and the 
characters, 
“ The English East India Company, 
encourages the study of it, by means of 
large sums which it expends yearly for 
that purpose. This language abounds 
with admirable poetry; Saadi, Hhafiz, 
Djamy, and a multitude of other writers, 
have demonstrated that their nation does 
nat yield to the Arabians, either in ima- 
gination, or fecundity: it even possesses 
more taste, and grace in point of style, 
and it is with great propriety that the 
Persians are termed the French of Asia. 
“ The Arabic is spread throughout all 
the Mussulman. states, nearly the whole 
south of Asia, in agreat part of Atrica, 
more especially Barbary. The Arbabian 
literature is very rich, and among other 
precious works, it possesses translations 
from Greek originals, which have never 
been handed down to us. There is no 
elementary book, either of the Arabian 
or Persian, in French, and yet such pro- 
ductions are numerous. 
* The Turkish language presents but 
few resources for literature, but our con- 
nections with the Ottoman Porte do not 
permit us to neglect the study of it.” 
“ Le cj-devant Paris:” or, “ Paris as 
it was a few Months before the Revolu- 
tion.” As this is a curious article, we 
Monruny Maa., No, 166. 
655. 
shall present the whole of it to our read- 
ers. 
The following is a Letter from a Prus- 
sian nobleman at Paris to his triend at 
Berlin, written in the beginning of 1789, 
&c. containing an account of the men of 
letters residing in the former capital, the 
academies, the spectacles, &c. &c. 
“Tam at Paris—-the very name is so 
connected with great objects, and such 
delightful recollections, that my ideas are 
confounded, and § am scarcely able to 
contemplate the dazzling spectacle which 
this superb city presents to my imagina- 
tion.. Since the distant period, when 
*‘ four oxen paraded the indolent mo- 
narch through the streets of Paris,” until 
the splendid age of Louis XTV. when Per- 
rault decorated «the front of the Louvre ; 
Le Brun and Le Sueur animated the can- 
vas; Moliere made hoth court and city 
laugh at their own expence; Boileau tash- 
ed with his satirical scourge all the bad 
authors of his time; La Fontaine aspired 
to, and obtained immortality; Racine sur- 
prised in the inmost folds of the heart 
the true language of the passions; Bos- 
suet, after having dragged man along the 
tombs, elevated him ta heaven in a car 
of fire; Fenelon, nourished with the milk 
of the ancients, squandered useful lessons 
on kings; or the melancholy, but pro- 
found Pascal sounded the* depth of our 
ignorance:—from the Gothic magnifi- 
cence of Dagobert, until the time when 
the great Condé wept at the versés of the 
ereat Corneille, and when Nature exhaust- 
ed herself, as it were, in assembling men 
of genius around the throne of Louis, 
what a series of interesting personages, — 
and memorable events, of which Paris 
has been at once the cradle and the the- 
atre, the very remembrance of which ani- 
mates all the street, edifices, and even the 
foot-paths. 
« What friend of humanity can sur- 
vey the statue of Henry IV. without sa- 
luting. it with a tender Veneration! what 
secret horror must not one experience 
while passing through the rue de la Fé- 
ronneérie, where this good king was assas- 
sinated. he Louvre, the Hotel de Bour- 
bon, Je Caveau*,and je Caffé Procope*, 
the spots on which great events have 
been acted, and where they have been 
celehrated, excite oxr sensibility, and 
combine the association of moral and los» 
cal ideas. 
* Where the men of letters and men of wit 
were accustomed to assemble, 
aR ““ Pardon 
