It is the opinion of most Oriental scholars, that no two copies will be found exactly to correspond, even in the original contracted work, and still less so in the more enlarged manuscripts. The original work has probably been frequently increased, through the different provinces and kingdoms of the east, by the addition of such tales as were popular in each, either as a continuation, or blended into one work. For this reason the copy of Cairo will be found to differ from that of Constantinople. This also is a very strong reason, and amply accounts for any difference there may be in the same story, as literally translated by Mr. Richardson at the end of his Arabic Grammar, and as given by M. Galland. The former made use of a manuscript belonging to Sir William Jones; the latter translated from that in the king’s library at Paris. The copy also which was formerly in the possession of Dr. White, has the signature of the person who transcribed it, and of the family to which he belonged; namely, “Omar al Siftee;” but it has not the name of the place where he resided; it is now, therefore, impossible to ascertain the place whence Mr. Montague procured the manuscript. Many of the tales, also omitted by Galland, besides those which are uninteresting, are extremely indelicate, both as to language and sentiments, and consequently very unfit for the perusal of a chaste and discerning public. There have also been four volumes of tales published, as the continuation of the Arabian Nights, and which M. Galland did not translate, although the Arabic manuscript of the whole, as the French translator states, was brought over, and placed in the library of the king of France at the same time. This latter French work has since been published in English. These, however, are universally believed to be spurious, and the work of an European. Abundant evidence might be given of this, were I inclined to enter into the question. I shall only mention one instance.--An inhabitant of the country where the fact happened, is made to express the greatest astonishment at an appearance the most common. “What a thick infectious mist! How could it arise from dry sand, destitute of water! It is a very extraordinary phenomenon!” The man who wrote this could never have been in Arabia, nor even have consulted modern travellers, or he would have known, that this appearance is most frequent: and I cannot here resist giving, in proof of this, the words of an early Arabian poet, as beautifully translated by that elegant scholar, Professor Carlyle, whose death must be considered by all as a severe loss, from the elegance and refinement of his cultivated mind. I must be permitted to transcribe the whole of this exquisite little poem. The passage alluded to is in the last stanza but one. It is an elegy by Lebid Ben Rabiat Alamary, a native of Yeman, and a contemporary with Mahomet, to whom he was an early convert. “This elegy, as is evident from its