MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

Miscellaneous Writings in Prose and Verse, comprising Dramatic Charades, Poems, Songs, Tales, Translations, Travels, &c. &c. by A. H. E. Boileau, Captain, Bengal Engineers. Calcutta, Published by W. Thacker and Co. and Ostell and Lepage, 1845. NOTWITHSTANDING the amount of talent which abounds in this country, especially in the Civil and Military Services of the East India Company, it is matter of surprize that so little has been done by the members of these bodies towards the promotion and establishment of a healthy local literature. Under a different state of things, and where there absolutely existed a dearth of intelligence, the imputation under which we have long labored, of having little or nothing in the shape of an indigenous literature would, at least, be justifiable, and cease to be an object of attention. But as the case has always stood, the intellectual stagnation has been so remarkable that the most careless observer cannot contemplate it without concern. It is true, that within the last twenty years, efforts have, from time to time, been made by a few enterprizing individuals to counteract this apathy and to rouse into activity, by the force of example, the slumbering energies of the educated portion of the community. With this view, also, reviews, magazines, annuals, and other periodicals, have, as circumstances presented themselves, been started into existence; and though their management was entrusted to men, who, from their attainments and energy, were well qualified to inspire a love for literature, these vehicles for the transmission of thought, though at first to all appearance vigorous, ere long exhibited symptoms of speedy dissolution and decay. In most instances during the brief career of our periodicals every delicacy that could be supposed to gratify the taste, and invite to participation was, in its turn, served up. The reason as well as the fancy were addressed; the floating good sense and peculiarities of the times were eagerly caught up and embodied; rational principles of reform, opposed to any thing like extensive and sudden innovation, were advocated; impartial, and as often virulent, strictures on public men and measures were made; class interests were defended and reprobated; the occupations of the field and water, which afford so much amusement to the thorough-going sportsman, were liberally canvassed: in short, every stimulant that could excite was resorted to but in vain. Readers admired, but did nothing more. There was no such thing as emulation, and a desire to co-operate and excel. The energy of the leaders of public taste, under the action of so much indifference and so little sympathy, gradually waxed fainter and feebler. It lapsed into listless inactivity. It died away; and thus the few shoots

* Dr John Grant, H. M. Parker, R. Rattray, H, Torrens, Captains Macnaghten and Richardson were the most strenuous supporters in the service of periodical litera

ture.

that were the harbingers of an abundant literary harvest by degrees shrunk up and withered.

It would, doubtless, be an agreeable and profitable task, to such as have the ability and leisure, to trace the cause of this indifference to literary pursuits in India, the successful cultivation of which, more perhaps than aught else, has, both by its original destination, as well as by the power which it has ever exercised, contributed to the worth and glory of all civilized nations. Some speculators have attributed this indifference to the despotic character of the government, which, independently of conducting its affairs with secrecy, discourages, to a certain extent, among its servants the free interchange of opinion on questions of public importance; others, to the oligarchical and exclusive constitution of the services, which, from the liberal manner in which the members are remunerated and the certain prospect they have, without dread or fear of competition, of attaining a comfortable eminence, unless they commit some flagrant offence, has the effect of removing from them all incentive to mental exertion, beyond that required for the exercise of their official functions; others, to the little encouragement that is held out by the dispensers of patronage to those whose inclinations lead them to be aspirants for literary fame ;-and not a few attribute the indifference to the base motive of fear, which compels many to oppose their natural propensities, in case their exercises in the higher domains of pure reason and intellect, should act as a bar to their advancement in life, on the often urged plea, we apprehend, that a man of erudition and fancy lives so much in the region of his own thoughts as to be quite unsuited for those employments which more properly belong to the every day working world. Whether one, or all of these causes combine to fetter the exercise of the mental powers, and keep our men of education the drudges, as it were, of a heavy and complicated routine, we will not stop to enquire. The fact nevertheless stands out in all the nakedness of metaphysical abstraction, that the dignity of literature, if not contemned, is viewed with indifference in India, and that literary pretensions are seldom or ever a passport to preferment.

In spite of these chilling influences which are sufficient to nip the blossoms of genius, and check the free unbosoming of the soul, a few "choice spirits" have nevertheless ventured, with commendable boldness, to present their " imaginings" to the public in a form more durable and compact than they could possibly have received from our transient periodical press. The first of these, for be it remembered our retrospect goes no further back than twenty years, was the author of the "Draught of Immortality and other poems," Henry Meredith Parker, whose versatile genius, it is said, woke the admiration of that great utilitarian, Lord William Bentinck, and induced him to admit, what he had hitherto considered impossible, that literary attainments and excellence in dry official routine, were qualifications which admitted of a happy combination. Parker's writings must be familiar to most of our readers. They would have shown to advantage, and commanded attention, had they appeared in any of our English periodicals. The immediate impression on perusing them, is that they are the outpourings

of a man of quick sensibility, vivid imagination, and exqusite refinement,- -one who to vigour and felicity of language added an exuberance of wit and elasticity of spirits, the ready and agreeable accompaniments of natural genius.

After Parker came Captain D. L. Richardson, author of “ Literary Leaves in Prose and Verse," and almost, we regret to say, the only one that is left to us of the small band who, in days gone by, struggled manfully to impress the public mind in Calcutta with the importance of having a periodical literature. Perhaps of all our Indian literati, Richardson can alone claim the proud distinction of having, through good report and evil report, clung to literary avocations with the greatest tenacity. His productions, possessing as they do great elegance of diction, condensation of thought, and a succession of delicate images "sicklied o'er" perhaps too much with the feeling of despondency, have, as it is well known, elicited the applause, in England, of men who are fully alive to the genuine breathings of genius, and who are not liable to be deceived and dazzled by insipidity and fictitious glitter.

The next literary competitor was Dr. Hutchinson, Secretary to the Medical Board, and author of the "Sunyasse," a poem, which, independently of its possessing a few happy touches of feeling and fancy, was, on its appearance, assailed by the daily press, with all the virulence of offended criticism. Its merits were not, in our opinion, fairly tested. A lurking animosity towards the author had, in some measure, sharpened the edge of the critical knife; and with the existence of such feelings nothing was to be expected but an unsparing attack, which, while it would expose the poet to the derision of multitudes, would at the same time have the effect of wounding his feelings. Had the "Sunyasse" been less disfigured by pedantry and conceit, it might have attained a transient, though not permanent, celebrity; but with such blemishes the vast majority were too much disposed to join in the merriment which the raillery of the literary censors had raised. The work soon sank into contempt; and before many weeks had elapsed became the sole property of the pastry cook, and the itinerant vendors of old books.

With the exception of the three whom we have incidentally mentioned, and whose productions, may be reckoned the property of the past, no one save Mr. Robinson and Captain Boileau have, since the commencement of our career, afforded us an opportunity of testing their "epical pretensions to the laurel." Whatever may be the difficulties against which we have to contend, we cannot, though the field for poetry in the East is extensive, conscientiously complain, like our brethren of modern Athens, that poets swarm here like the spawn of the cod fish, with a vicious fecundity that invites and requires destruction." We have, it is true, had a few of the description of authors here complained of, but their destruction was rendered unnecessary, as their publications, in every instance, fell" still born" from the press. But to proceed with Captain Boileau.

Most of the miscellaneous pieces which compose the volume before us have before been wedded to immortal type, so that the attentive reader

of our journals, metropolitan and mofussil, will not fail to discover among the "great variety," which Captain Boileau has here crowded together, many familiar faces. As the volume (which we may here mention is a disgrace to typography in this country) contains no preface, we cannot precisely divine the motives which induced the publication. Nor is it at all necessary, that we should. Our author's researches in the field of science, as his lectures on Iron Suspension Bridges, and his labors in the Great Trigonometrical Survey abundantly testify, have been eminently successful; and it was perhaps this very success in one great department of human knowledge, propelled no doubt by that love for fame and restlessness inherent in many natures, which induced him to collect together his soarings in the wide expanse of poetry and song. The attempt, under any circumstances, was a hazardous one: for a mind constituted as our author's is, and accustomed to scientific investigation, subtle analysis, and classification, can scarcely be one which we would pronounce best suited to

Give to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

Captain Boileau first introduces his readers to a journal of operations against Bhurtpore. As a dry piece of journalism, written to wile away the tedious hours of a campaign, it is a very clear and creditable performance; but that he should publish it, after so long an interval, without subjecting it to a revision, by the rejection of all such matter as was useless and uninteresting, is a proceeding the propriety of which we consider somewhat questionable. Let us not be misunderstood. There are for instance recorded in the "Journal of Operations" many incidents which can afford no interest to the general reader, and many rumours noted which have been either confirmed or falsified by time; such as that—"On the 25th March 1826, Colonel Auburey gave a dinner to Major Lockett, the Political Agent, Captain Williamson, Assistant Surgeon Steart, and ourselves ;" and again, "On the 29th January heard sundry reports not much to our credit, concerning the manner in which Doorjun Sall was treated upon being made prisoner. He was plundered of every article of his dress except the bare lungootee, and remained thus naked, until an officer gave him a table cloth as a wrapper, which was the only clothing that he possessed during the two days that he remained in camp. Can this be true?" Now Captain Boileau has had ample opportunity for ascertaining whether this question, so innocently asked, be true or not. If true, it has detracted, in no small degree, from the reputation which the British have ever maintained for treating their enemies with consideration and humanity,-if false, he assuredly ought not to have allowed such a stigma to go uncontradicted. From the two elaborate journals of a "Tour through Shekhawutee and of a "Mission to Beekaneer," the former of which was published in the Gleanings in Science in 1831, and the latter in the Delhi Gazette, and which are fair samples of Captain Boileau's industry, inquisitive disposition, and masculine understanding, we shall turn to those compositions, on which his fame, as a successful cultivator of the muses,

depends. The first in the list of precedence and by far the most comprehensive, is an offering to Calliope, in five cantos, entitled the siege of Bhurtpore.

It was said of Alexander the Great, that on viewing the earthen tumuli which tradition pointed out as the graves of Achilles aud Patroclus, he wept, mourning the fate of the hero who had not a Homer to hand down his achievements to posterity. The feeling was a natural one, and, whatever the cold blooded sons of sobriety and prudence may say, is one which has been shared in by many a hero from Macedonia's madman to the Swede. But unfortunately poets are not so plentiful as heroes, and many a successful leader, who has experienced all the delights arising from the "earthquake shock of victory," has, for the want of a bard, gone down to the grave "unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown." To rescue the chief of Bhurtpore, Lord Combermere, from so dire a calamity our author, with a feeling of enthusiasm, for he was an actor in the seige, comes to the rescue, and endeavours to narrate in rhyme the glories of his hero, and the incidents of that eventful campaign.

It would be a waste of time to enter on the oft debated question whether the Iliad, the Æneid, and the Jerusalem of Tasso are the only poems deserving of the title of epic, or whether others may not be reckoned in the category. It is sufficient for our present purpose that we here quote the dictum of a celebrated modern critic who asserts that, the epic poem is universally allowed to be, of all poetical works, the most dignified, and, at the same time, the most difficult in execution ;" and then follow it up, by pointing out briefly a few of the requisites which, we conceive, ought to be possessed by those who aspire to commemorate, in song, great and heroic enterprizes.

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And first of all the event which is to be pourtrayed, in a poetical form, ought to be great and interesting, and one, if possible over which antiquity has thrown its hoar. This latter consideration is material, for a poet cannot, with contemporary and well authenticated history, safely avail himself of all those collateral and fictitious aids, the judicious employment of which have materially contributed to raise the writings of our celebrated epic poets to so sublime a pitch. In so far Captain Boileau has been unfortunate in the selection of his subject. The "Siege of Bhurtpore" however signal the victory achieved by the British, and no one ever anticipated any other result, does not, to our apprehension, contain materials for the formation of an epic poem. There is little or no story connected with it, no plot, no incident sufficiently striking to inspire, which could not be infinitely better told in "humble prose. "But admitting that both plot and incident did exist, our author, we fear, lacks the creative power," the vision and the faculty divine” to do them justice. He is deficient in sublimity, in description, which is the true touchstone of warmth of imagination, and above all in force of expression-three distinct qualities but which ought to be harmoniously blended in an epic poet. But for fear we should be supposed to deal too severely with Captain Boileau, we shall lay before our readers a few extracts taken at random from his poem.