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SEPTEMBER, 1880.)
BOOK NOTICES.
235
a more faithful picture than that of Bishop Bigandet.
To the ordinary reader unacquainted with the Burmese representations of Indian names they will at first be somewhat confusing: Thoodan. dana' for Suddhodana, Pounds for Brabman, Radzagio' for Råjagriha, 'Kathaba' for Kaśyapa, Dzewaka' for Jivaka, 'Wethalie' for Vaisali, * Dzetawon' for Jetavana, Adzatatha' for Ajátasatru, Manh' for Måra, "Manta' for Munda,
Nagata-saka' for Någadásaka, Tsandagutta' for Chandragupta, &c. are examples of these Burmese forms. Might it not have been worth while either noting the Sanskrit equivalents in footnotes, or giving a table of them P The want of an Index is a great defect of these otherwise valuable volumes.
1. SELECTIONS FROM THE KUR-AN. By Edward William Lane, Hon. Dr. Lit. Leyden., Cor. Inst. Fr., &c. A new edition, revised and enlarged with an Introduction. By Stanley Lane Poole. (London: Trübner & Co.
1879.) 2. EXTRACTS FROM THE COBAN in the original, with Eng
lish rendering. Compiled by Sir William Muir, K.C.S.1., LL.D. (London: Trübner & Co. 1880.)
These two works are similar, though of very different pretensions. Sir W. Muir's very modest little volume of 64 pages contains thirty-five short extracts in Arabic with English versions. They are arranged according to the existing order of the Koran, and are of that class which exhibit "arguments drawn from Nature and Providence, with a view to prove the existence of God as the Supreme Raler, and enforce His sovereign claim on the obedience and gratitude of mankind. The retribution of good and evil in the world to come, the obligation to follow virtue and eschew vice, the duty and happiness of the creature in wor. shipping and serving the Creator, and such like topics, are set forth in language of beauty and vigour, abounding often with real poetry." "Passages like these," the author considers,"can hardly be obnoxious to the professors of any faith; and there is much in them that should be welcome to all." The collection intentionally avoids the special tehets of Islam, and may thus be useful "as affording a certain basis of agreement and common thought, for those who come into contact with the Muslim world." They might be useful in schools in India, and for the student of Arabic the selection may be found very serviceable. The Arabic type is that of Stephen Austin of Hertford, and is very clear and legible..
Mr. Lane's volume is of a very different character: partly a reprint of his Selections published in 1843, the book has almost been recast by his nephew. The extracts, which occupy the second half of the volume, are given only in English, and are arranged under distinctive heads,--the first part (consisting of about a fourth of the whole) sets forth the doctrines of Islam: the second presents Muhammad's versions of the history of the patriarchs and other personages of the Jewish and Christian writings. To the first Mr. Poole has added considerably, while he has also largely freed it from the commentary with which, in the first edition, it was interwoven.
The original introduction, however, which had been abridged from Sale's Preliminary Discourse, has been discarded, and for it Mr. Poole has substituted an essay of 100 pages giving a sketch of the beginnings of Islam in four chapters-(1) The Arabs before Muhammad, (2) Muhammad, (3) Islâm, and (4) The Kur-en-well written and instructive. The volume is completed by two excellent Indexes. METRICAL TRANSLATIONS FROM SANSKRIT WRITERS, with
an introduction, prose versions and parallel passages from classical authors. By J. Muir, O.I.E., D.C.L. LL.D., Ph.D. (London: Trübner & Co. 1879.)
This volume of Trübner's Oriental Series' is the work of a well-known and conscientious scholar whose services to the cause of Oriental learning will not soon be forgotten. These 248 Metrical Translations, which fill the first 196 pages of this volume, have partly appeared in the pages of the Indian Antiquary, partly also in Religious and Moral Sentiments from Sanskrit Writers' and in three collections of versified translations printed for private circulation. They include also a reprint of the metrical pieces from the author's Original Sanskrit Texts, vols. II. and V.
Besides occasional footnotes the author adds to his metrical renderings an Appendix of 142 pages, containing faithful prose translations of all the passages versified, so that the freedom of the metrical version can be at once judged of; and these latter are interspersed with references to interesting parallel passages in the Greek and Roman Classics, especially the Greek Dramatists. In addition to this, & further supplement of 30 pages more of further references is added, including a new version of the splendid hymn of Kleanthes, of which Cudworth remarks that "it breathes throughout a spirit of true piety and just knowledge of divine things." Though not
II. A. vol. III., pp. 170, 241, 885ff. ; vol. IV., pp. 199ff. 2008. ; vol. V., pp. 152ff. 311ff. 840ff. ; vol. VII., pp. 1874. 2088f. 292, 292, 308 ; vol. VIII., pp. 86ff. 152, 204.821, 388ff.; vol. IX., pp. 29, 52, 87, 141. A notice of the first small collection of these versions was given in vol. IV., pp. 1184f.
Published by Messrs. Williams and Norgate, 1878, and noticed Ind. Ant. vol. IV. p. 118.
Cudworth, Intellectual System, p. 482; conf. Sir A. Grant's Aristotle, Brd ed. vol. I. p. 8274.
