Gazette Of The United States

A person of observation who has lately returned to this country from his travels through the dominions of the Eastern Turks, relates that the contents of the Ottoman Library, kept in the Seraglio, are at length brought to light by the treachery of one of the pages of the Seraglio, who was prevailed upon to translate clandestinely every day, a few lines of the large catalogue, till the whole was completed; and thus we have in possession at last, what the Turkish jealousy has so long kept from the world.

The merits and value of this library, however, it appears have been greatly over-rated. Commentaries, explanations, &c. on the Alcoran, occupy the largest portion. There are also some treatises on jurisprudence, with commentaries and marginal notes. The histories are not numerous, and chiefly confined to the Ottoman Empire. Under the head philosophy, are, the mysteries of nature, the truths of Plato, of Pliny, and Aristotle's logic.

The learned have long imagined that the lost Decads of Livy, the whole works of Tacitus, and the poems of Homer were deposited in this library—but all these hopes are dissipated, as none of these works are to be found in the catalogue—Printing is now carried on to great perfection in Constantinople, and this alone will probably in a course of years, by diffusing knowledge, lead to a total revolution in the sentiments and manners of the Turks.

The greater number of their publications consists of the history and annals of their empire, and their wars with other nations, digested in a regular series—which will doubtless furnish ample materials for a more authentic history of the Eastern nations, than any that has yet been communicated to the public.