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606. "Ah! then, my princely lord, whom I have found
Bleeding and mangled on this cursed ground!
Why are thy lips in sullen silence seal'd

To her who sought thee on this battle field?
Wilt thou not speak-my love, my lord, my all,
Or still in vain must Sátia Wati call!

Say, shall my copious tears in torrents flow
And thus express my agony and woe?

How shall I move thee, by what art beguile,
The ghastly air of that unmeaning smile?"

607. Thus soft and tender were the words she pour'd,
To move the pity of her murder'd lord;

But ah! no sound the unconscious dead return'd,
No fire of love within his bosom burn'd;
While at each pause a death-like stillness stole
O'er the deep anguish of the mourner's soul.
"And was it thus to bow thy honour'd head
Amid the thousands of the mingled dead,
That on that fatal morning thou didst glide
With gentle footsteps from thy consort's side?
And thus to reach the glorious realms above
Without the faithful partner of thy love?
But earth has lost its fleeting charms for me,
And, happy spirit, I will follow thee!

608. "Oh! meet and bear me o'er that fatal stone,
Nor let me pass it, trembling and alone.
Though Widadáris shall obey thy call,
Yet keep for me a place above them all.
To whom but me does that first place belong,
Who sought and found thee mid this ghastly throng;
And who, unable to survive thy doom,

Thus shed my blood and share thy honour'd tomb ?"

610. Then with a steady hand the noble maid

Drew from its peaceful sheath the gleaming blade;
From her fair bosom tore th' embroidered vest,
And plunged it deep within her heaving breast.
Rich was the blood that issued from the wound
And stream'd like liquid gold upon the ground.
611. And while the ebbing tide of life remain'd,
And thought and reason were a while sustain'd,
She call'd her maiden with her feeble breath,
And thus address'd her from the arms of death.
612. "Oh! when my spirit soars to realms above,
Take this my last request to those I love:
Tell them to think of Sútia Wati's fate,
And oft the story of her love relate;
Then o'er her woes the tender heart shall sigh,
And the big tear-drop roll from pity's eye."

614. "Ah

614. "Ah my lov'd mistress," cried the faithful maid,
"In every scene by thee I gladly staid.

Whate'er the state of being thou must know,
Thy faithful maiden will partake it too.

What hand but mine the cooling stream shall pour,
Or bathe the feet of her whom I adore?"

617. Strong in despair, and starting from the ground,
She drew the dagger from her mistress' wound,
With deadly aim she plunged it in her breast,

And with her mistress sunk to endless rest.'-vol. i. pp. 463

-466.

The arts cannot be expected to flourish in such a state of society and under such a government as that of Java: neither are we to look for system or science in oriental music: that of Java may be original; but from the specimens given by Mr. Raffles we should say that the first air is Chinese, the others Indian: the gong, cymbals, and stringed instruments figured by him (p. 470) are Chinese ; some of the staccado kind appear to be their own; one of these, composed of mixed metal bars laid across the mouths of deep hollow tubes, emits a very powerful and by no means an unpleasing sound.

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If any doubt remained of the general prevalence of Hindooism on this island, previous to the establishment of the Mahomedan religion about the year 1475, when the Hindoo empire of Majapahit is supposed to have been overthrown, Mr. Raffles has completely removed it by the discovery and the description of the ruins of edifices, and in particular of temples sacred to the former worship; images of deities found within them and scattered throughout the country, either sculptured in stone or cast in metal; inscriptions on stone and copper, in ancient characters, and ancient coins, which are illustrated by a great number of well executed plates in the second volume of the work. These less perishable memorials of the ancient faith of the Javans, till of late, excited but little notice; nor are they yet sufficiently explored.' The narrow policy of the Dutch denied to the inquisitive traveller all facilities of research; and the generality of that nation were too much occupied in the pursuit of gain, or too much absorbed in habits of indolence, to be interested in matters of this kind. It is true there have been some exceptions, as the volumes of the Batavian Transactions testify; but the numerous and interesting remains of former art and grandeur, which exist in the ruins of temples and other edifices; the abundant treasures of sculpture and statuary with which some parts of the island are covered; and the evidences of a former state of religious belief and national improvement, which are presented in images, devices, and inscriptions, either lay entirely

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entirely buried under rubbish, or were but partially_examined.' The most striking of these temples are those found at Brambanan, in the district of Maturem, near the middle of the island; at Bóro Búdo, in Kedú; on Gúning Prádu and its vicinity; in Kediri; and at Sing'a Sári, in the district of Malang, in the eastern part of the island. Those of Brambánan and Bóro Bódo are, as Mr. Raffles justly observes, admirable as majestic works of art.' They are composed of plain hewn stones, without the least mixture of brick, mortar, or rubbish of any kind, even in filling up the floors and basements of the largest structures. The rank vegetation of an equinoctial climate has not only given solemnity to the antiquity of these venerable edifices, but, by insinuating into the joints, has actually dislocated and almost overturned the heaviest masses. In the shape and ornaments many of them resemble the Boudh temples of Ava and Siam, though among the statues the Hindoo deities of Bhavani, Siva, and Ganesa, are easily recognized. The large temple at Brambánan is a magnificent object, and the two plates, shewing its present state, and what it has been, convey a better idea than the most lengthened description. It is surrounded by two hundred and ninety-six smaller temples, most of which are buried beneath a luxuriant vegetation, and display little more than so many heaps of ruins; enough however remained of some to admit of their being restored by the pencil to their original form which is neither deficient in beauty, symmetry of arrangement, nor in decoration. Each small temple had originally thirteen niches filled with as many statues of mythological characters, taken from the Hindoo legends; but the exterior of the great central temple had no human or emblematical figures, or niches, though it contained a great variety of ornamental sculpture. The style, taste, and manner of execution are every where light, chaste, and beautiful, evincing a fertile invention, most delicate workmanship, and experience in the art.'

Bóro Bódo is unquestionably a temple of Boudh; it is a square stone building, consisting of seven ranges of walls, each range decreasing as you ascend, till the building terminates in a kind of dome.' The style and ornament, we are told, are found to resemble very much those of the great Boudh temple at Gai-ya, on the continent of India. The extensive ruins on the elevated plain, or table land of Dieng, or Práhu, are, perhaps, the most interesting of all. This plain is ascended by a flight of huge stone steps on each of its four sides, consisting of not less than a thousand steps. The contiguous mountain seems to have been in a state of eruption since the formation of these ancient stair-cases, for it is stated that the greatest part of this wonderful memorial of human industry lies buried under huge masses of rock and lava.'

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On another elevated plain near the former many temples remain in a tolerable state of preservation, with numerous images scattered about, mixed with large fragments of hewn stone. On a more minute examination of this plain,' says Mr. Raffles, traces of the site of nearly four hundred temples were discovered, having broad and extensive streets, or roads, running between them at right angles.'

Mr. Raffles states his reasons for supposing that these numerous temples must have been constructed between the sixth and ninth century of the Christian era; and the Devanagari characters,on the inscription found at Brambánan are recognized by Mr. Wilkins to be such as were in use on the continent of Hindostan, about eight or nine hundred years ago. When the followers of Boudh were persecuted by the Bramins, they spread their arts and their religion over the eastern archipelago, where they might still have flourished if the intolerant spirit of proselytism had not forced upon the islanders the faith of Mahomet with fire and sword.

We must now take leave of Mr. Raffles, of whose elaborate volumes we have scarcely been able to skim the surface: the mass and variety of matter which he has there brought together render it almost impossible to search them in vain for any species of information respecting Java, while whatever is found, may be depended on as strictly authentic; but we cannot avoid repeating that a better arrangement of the materials would have saved the necessity of many repetitions, and considerably reduced the size of the work. In the administration of the government of the island, Mr. Raffles's conduct has been above all praise; the East India Company could not possibly have had a better servant; the Javanese cannot hope to find again so good a friend. By the abolition of forced services and arbitrary and vexatious imposts, and by the establishment of a moderate and equitable land-tax, the commerce and the agriculture of the island so rapidly improved, that the amount of the revenue received in three years, from 1812 to 1815, was 18,810,149 Java rupees, while the amount of the preceding three years, under the extortions practised by Marshal Daendels, who placed himself above the usual formalities, and disregarded every law,' was no more than 8,425,765 rupees: the expenditure, however, it must be admitted, was proportionably great.

ART. IV. Comic Dramas, in Three Acts. By Maria Edgeworth, Author of Tales of Fashionable Life, &c. &c. London, 1817.

THE late Mr. Sheridan, as we are informed in the Preface to

this work, advised Miss Edgeworth to turn her thoughts to the composition of comedy. Report adds that the novel of Belinda

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was the performance, whence he derived so high an opinion of his countrywoman's talents. The authority of Mr. Sheridan was more than sufficient to justify an attempt in that walk of literature which he himself adorned: yet the attempt might fail without much imputation on his sagacity, and without discredit to the genius of Miss Edgeworth. His judgment must have proceeded upon analogies somewhat remote, the exact value of which he was, perhaps, not sufficiently at leisure to estimate. He read some of the scenes of Belinda with a pleasure not unlike that which comedy imparts; and hence he inferred, that the talents which produced them might be exerted with success in a new direction. The pleasure which we derive from a novel bears, indeed, in its general character, a resemblance to that which the drama gives; yet each has peculiar tints to distinguish it, and is excited by appropriate means. We shall briefly trace the general similarity and the specific differences: as, in attempting to detail the grounds of Mr. Sheridan's judgment and the causes of his mistake, we shall, at the same time, diminish the surprize which many may be disposed to feel, at finding that the work now before us cannot claim, among the productions of the comic drama, a rank corresponding to that which is held by some of Miss Edgeworth's tales in their proper department.

Many have framed ingenious speculations concerning the sources of the delight which we receive from compositions that represent a series of fictitious adventures, and concerning the reasons why this is more lively, and felt more generally, than the satisfaction imparted by the truth of history. Some have looked upon it as an effect of the weakness and degeneracy of our nature, which, too grovelling to relish the majestic loveliness of truth, surrenders itself a willing captive to the meretricious allurements of fiction. Otherst, of a better and a loftier school, have told us that the soul, tired with the dull uniformity of life, disgusted with the tameness of real characters and events so disproportionate to its exalted nature and to the dignity of its final destination, rejoices to escape into the regions of fancy, where it can luxuriate in ever-varying combinations, and gratify its high aspirings by the contemplation of personages rich in the assemblage of all possible perfections. The true sources of the pleasure derived from fictitious narratives and dramatic compositions, are our sympathy with the feelings, and our curiosity concerning the fate of the persons introduced to our notice. Why the exercise of sympathy is agreeable, why the sentiment as well as the gratification of curiosity is accompanied with pleasant emotions, we do not stop to inquire. It is enough for us that the facts are cer

Beattie in his Essay on Fable and Romance, and many others.

† Lord Bacon, &c.

VOL. XVI. NO. XXXIII.

G

tain,

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