volumes 8vo. was announced in 1822. Of this edition ten volumes
only, as I am informed, have appeared. To these fifteen volumes must
be added the four which were published in the last years of the
author's life, making in all nineteen volumes.
[31] This translation I have not read, nor would I be at all
competent to pronounce any opinion on its merits; but a very able
judge, the Baron d'Eckstein, has declared that in point of grace,
energy, and dignity, it surpasses, as far as it goes, the famous
translation by Schleiermacher.
[32] The Abbe Gerbet.
[33] N. B. The authorities on which the several facts relative to
Schlegel's personal history have been advanced are the following:
1. The Biographic des Vivans. Paris. 2ndly. An article for July, 1829,
in the French Globe (apparently an abridgment of the account of
Schlegel in the German work, Conversations Lexicon). 3. A fuller and
better account of the author in a French work published several
years ago at Paris, entitled, "Memoirs of distinguished Converts."
For the knowledge of some facts, the writer is also indebted to the
interesting journal "Le Catholique," which Schlegel's able friend
and disciple, the Baron d'Eckstein, edited at Paris, from 1826 to
1829.
[34] The author is now known to be Professor MOLITOR. The second
part of this work has just appeared in Germany. TRANS.
[35] Schlegel's first great work was entitled "the Greeks and the
Romans," published in the year 1797.
[36] The result of our author's researches on Hindoo literature and
philosophy was evidenced in his work entitled "The Language and
Wisdom of the Indians," published in 1808.
[37] Schlegel alludes to "The Lectures on Modern History," which he
delivered at Vienna in the year 1810.
[38] The History of Religion by Count Frederick Stolberg;--a noble
monument raised by genius and learning to the honour of
Religion.--_Trans._
[39] Schlegel alludes to Alexander Von Humboldt.--_Trans._
[40] See Ritter's Geography, 1st part, page 548,--1st Edition in
German.
[41] We must not suppose that the impiety of the Cainites was of a
dogmatic kind. How could those primitive men, living so near the
Fountain-head of revelation, conversing with those who had witnessed
the rise and first development of man's marvellous history, endowed
with that quick, intuitive science which, in the operations of
external nature, revealed to them the agency of invisible spirits,
witnessing the wondrous manifestations of God's love and power, the
active ministry of his messengers of light; and, lastly, engaged
themselves in a close communication with the infernal powers; how
could they, I say, fall into atheism or any other species of
speculative unbelief? Their impiety was of a more practical nature,
displaying itself in a daring violation of the precepts of Heaven,
and in the practice of a dark, mysterious magic. By the allurements
of sense, and the fascination of their false science, they by
degrees inveigled the great mass of mankind into their errors. Their
vast powers, supported and strengthened by infernal agency, were
calculated to introduce disorder and confusion in the economy of the
moral and physical universe, and to let loose on this probationary
world the science of the abyss. What do I say? The barrier between
the visible and invisible world would have been broken down--Hell
would have ruled the earth, had not the Almighty by an awful
judgment buried the guilty race of men and their infernal knowledge
in the waters of the Deluge. In the race of Cham, however, which
perpetuated so many traditions of the early Cainites, some fragments
of this ante-diluvian science of evil were preserved; and traces of
it may still be discerned among the worshippers of Siva in
India.--_Trans._
[42] Noah affords another striking example of a wonderful
prolongation or delay of time. The first nine Patriarchs of the
primitive world propagated their race at the mean or average term of
the hundredth year of their lives:--some near that period--others
considerably earlier--and others again much later. But in the case
of Noah we find that, to the mean term of a hundred years, four
hundred were yet added; and that the Patriarch was five hundred
years of age when he propagated his race. The high motive of this
evidently supernatural delay may be traced to the fact that,
although during this long prophetic period of preparation, the holy
Seer well foresaw and felt firmly assured of the judgments impending
over a degenerate and corrupt world, it was not equally clear to him
that he was destined by God to be the second progenitor of mankind,
and the renovator of the human race. But that great doom of the
world, already foretold by Enoch, Noah probably expected to be its
last end; and hence perhaps might consider the propagation of his
race as not altogether conformable to the divine will, till the
hidden decrees of the Eternal were more fully and more clearly
revealed to him.
[43] Entitled Ju-Kiao-li, or the Cousins.
[44] There are some exceptions to the truth of these remarks
respecting Chinese symbols. For instance, the idea of "dispersion"
is expressed in the Chinese writing by the sign of _a tower_. What a
beautiful and profound allusion to the great events of primitive
history!--_Trans._
[45] The author alludes to Schelling's philosophy, which is called
sometimes the "Philosophy of Nature," and sometimes the "Philosophy
of Identity." M. Cuvier in his masterly introduction to his great
work on Fossile Remains, mentions some of the extravagant theories
broached in the department of geology alone by those German
naturalists, who some years ago attempted to apply to natural
philosophy, the metaphysical system of Schelling.--_Trans._
[46] M. Abel Remusat.
[47] No Gentile people preserved so long and in such purity the
worship of the true God as the Chinese. This no doubt must be
ascribed to the secluded situation of the country--to the great
reverence of the Chinese for their ancestors, as well as to the
patriarchal mildness of their early governments; and, we must add,
to the unpoetical character of the nation itself, which was a
safeguard against Idolatry. There is historical evidence that, up to
two centuries before the Christian era, idolatry had made little
progress among this people. So vivid was their expectation of the
Messiah--"the Great Saint who, as Confucius says, was to appear in
the West"--so fully sensible were they not only of the place of his
birth, but of the time of his coming, that, about 60 years after the
birth of our Saviour, they sent their envoys to hail the expected
Redeemer. These envoys encountered on their way the Missionaries of
Buddhism coming from India--the latter, announcing an incarnate God,
were taken to be the disciples of the true Christ, and were
presented as such to their countrymen by the deluded ambassadors.
Thus was this religion introduced into China, and thus did this
phantasmagoria of Hell intercept the light of the gospel. So, not in
the internal spirit only, but in the outward history of Buddhism, a
demoniacal intent is very visible.--_Trans._
[48] Schlegel here alludes to the celebrated Lessing, who in his
work entitled "The Education of the Human Race," had maintained the
doctrine of the Metempsychosis, a doctrine doubly absurd in a Deist,
like Lessing, for the metempsychosis was a philosophical, though
false, explanation of the primitive and universal dogma of an
intermediate or probationary state of souls.--_Trans._
[49] The four secondary faculties of human consciousness are,
according to our author, the memory, the conscience, the impulses or
passions, and the outward senses.--_Trans._
[50] {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}ue{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}.
[51] Schlegel here alludes to that sort of intuitive mysticism in
matters of religion, which was the boast of the adherents of
Schelling's philosophy.--_Trans._
[52] The valuable articles by this great Sanscrit scholar on Hindoo
philosophy, have excited a greater sensation in France and Germany,
than in his own country. It would be well if the Asiatic Society
were to publish those articles in a separate form.--_Trans._
[53] We have transcribed Sir William Jones's own words, as given in
his Translation of Sacontala.--_Trans._
[54] See Colebrooke's article on the Vedas, in the 8th volume of
Asiatic Researches.
[55] These are usually termed the Indo-Germanic race of
languages--_Trans._
[56] Schlegel here supposes that the triplicity of roots in the
Semitic languages contains a mystic allusion to the Tri-une
God-head, the root and principle of all existence.
[57] The Aswameda.
[58] The reader may derive both pleasure and instruction from the
perusal of a most masterly Treatise on Sacrifices, by the late Count
Maistre, inserted at the end of the 2nd volume of his _Soirees de
St. Petersbourg_. No where have the learning, the eloquence, the
bold and profound philosophy of the noble author been more
strikingly displayed, than in that short but admirable
tract.--_Trans._
[59] "And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice,
ye wives of Lamech, hearken to my speech; for I have slain a
man to the wounding of myself, and a stripling to my own
bruising."--GEN. iv 23.
This obscure text has long perplexed the
Commentators:--Schlegel, I think has furnished an explanation as
solid as it is ingenious. Thus Lamech to whom the introduction of
polygamy is generally ascribed, was probably, also, the founder of
human sacrifices. According to our great poet, lust sits enthroned
hard by hate.--_Trans._
[60] The author alludes to Condorcet.
[61] This is an allusion to the Pantheistic Naturalism of
Schelling.--_Trans._
[62] In the German "_Lichtsage_," or Tradition of light.--_Trans._
[63] In the German _Vernunft-staat_, the government of reason.
[64] Perseus.
------
Transcriber's note:
Hyphenation has been standardised.