The object of goureddin, " an Eastern Tale," is to show
the miseries which would naturally beset us if we had a knowledge of the future. The hero, by means of magic tablets, the gift of a genius, can make himself acquainted with any event which is to occur within the year; and by this knowledge he is eventually made very wretched. When his friends are in sickness or trouble, he consults his tablets ; and if they are finally to recover or pros- per, he gives himself no further concern about the business, and thus alienates, by his apparent want of sympathy, wife, father-in- .law, and friends. When impending misfortunes threaten him- .:* elf, lie is either made wretched by pondering over the coming evil and the vain efforts he makes to avoid it, or he sits down in stupid apathy to await the result. Having been duly led through a series of misfortunes,—losing friends, fortune, and wife,—Nou- reddin puts himself on a probation of goodness; gives up con- sulting his tablets, and finally renders them up to their original giver. The story is neatly and prettily told, and some art is occa- sionally displayed in the manner in which Noureddin's feelings are warped and changed: but the narrative is diffuse, and the manners of the East are not truly painted. The writer also should have remembered, that when the laws of nature are set aside, and spectosa miracula introduced into a story, the reader has a right to expect a proportionate fertility of invention and elevation of thought, as well as " a great moral lesson," which could not have been conveyed to us by common means.
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