Letter Ninth.

BELOVED EL HASSAN,

THE attention, which I have lately paid to the fubject of Hindu and American poetry, infenfibly led me to a perufal of the facred books of this country, which I had often heard commended, as containing the first instances of poetical grandeur and beauty. My labor has met its complete reward, in the pleasure which I have experienced from the discovery of feveral complete books of poetry in thefe facred writings, and of numerous paffages, fcattered up and down, among profaic performances, which, from this very circumftance, fhine with peculiar beauty and fplendor.

A SHORT paftoral Poem, intituled "The Song of Solomon," which, in its literal fenfe is a celebration of mutual love; a reciprocal and highly elegant defcription of the graces and beauties of the lovers;

and a rich poetical painting of the paftoral fcenes, in which their loves are to be enjoyed. Confidered in its literal meaning, it is a moft elegant and charming paftoral. It has all the fimplicity of nature, bold in language and fentiment. The perfons of the lovers are beautiful, graceful and elegant, as they came from the hand of nature, without the decorations of fplendid ornament, or the blandishments of artificial manners. Their fentiments are natural, glowing and tender; and their mutual affection and afpirations after each other's fociety, are warm and impaffioned in the higheft degree. The fcenery is rich, brilliant and poetical. The objects mentioned are thofe, which charm every eye, and footh every heart. The delicacies and beauties of nature are brought into one view, which, prefents whatever can delight the fenfe, and charm the foul. The ftyle is fimple, but harmonious and elegant. With all these advantages, it cannot fail to intereft a lover of nature, of whatever religion or country.

BUT these advantages are in the view of the Chriftians the leaft, which it has to boaft. Their most learned and pious Brahmins agree in opinion, that this beautiful poem is merely a figurative expreffion of the reciprocal love of JESUS CHRIST and his CHURCH; and as fuch they read it with the most devout fentiments, while the profane confider it, as being the effu-. fion of the uxorious and poetical mind of Solomon, which delighted in the contemplation of love and poetry.

I CONFESS I am of opinion, that the literal meaning is not the true one. If it was really the daughter of love and poetry, why has it found a place in a collection of writings, whofe principal object appears to be the fubjugation of every natural propenfity, to the dominion of the foul? Thou, my friend, who haft often perused the pages of Hindu and Perfian poetry, knoweft, that many of the most important doctrines of the religions of Perfia and Hinduftan are conveyed in poetical numbers, and in a figurative'

style. The literal meaning often appears voluptuous, but the mystical is holy and elevated.

ALL the charms of fociety, of love, and of wine, are drawn in to aflift the fervor of religious affections; and while the imagination of a voluptuary would revel in intellectual luxury, the religious mind foars on the wings of rapture to the great First Cause.

BUT which ever opinion may be correct, with respect to the Song of Solomon, I was inftantly ftruck by the fimilarity of the defign, to that of the Gitagovinda of our charming lyric poem Jayadeva.

THIS, thou wilt remember, is a pastoral drama, drawn from the tenth book of the Bhagavet, in which are celebrated the loves of CHRISHNA (called alfo by feveral other names) and RADHA; or, as our Brahmins interpret it, "the reciprocal attraction between the divine goodness and the human foul." Thou, my dear El Haffan, haft been present with me at Calinga, the reputed native place of Jay

adeva; where the people "celebrate in honour of him an annual jubilee, paffing a whole night in representing his drama, and in finging his beautiful fongs."

THERE We have heard the mellifluous numbers of this delightful poet; while the moon has liftened in the heavens, and the fongfters of night have fung refponfively from the groves. The poetical painting of the Gitagovinda is rich and fplendid. The colors are glowing, yet tempered with that mild radiance, which foothes, and relieves, while it delights the eye. The defcriptions are particular, and therefore precife. The tree, the flower, and the rivulet, ftand forth to the eye; every object is painted in its own appropriate colors; there is no unmeaning rhapsody and obfcure daubing; but every part is perfect in itself, and maintains a just relation to the whole. The characters, particularly the two principal ones, viz. CHRISHNA and RADHA, although fingular, and out of life (as indeed that of Crifhna ought to be, fince he is represented, as a God)