surface, climate, and temperature, is adapted for the growth of almost every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food."Vol. i. pp. 266-70. In the post-diluvian question of the period of Job's history, the author scarcely evinces as much ingenuity as in this which belongs to the first dawn of creation. His theory seems to rest mainly on his indentifying Eliphaz, the Temanite, who appears in the Book of Job, with a person of that name who was a contemporary with Jacob, thus fixing the year 1851 B.c. as that in which Job lived. But we do not think he succeeds in establishing this identity, and on the whole there is considerable obscurity in the reasoning. author is more happy in his identification of the ancient Ophir of the Scriptures with the peninsula of Malacca, and the adjacent tracts. The The second volume of this work differs essentially from the first, resembling it only in its ulterior object-the illustration of the countries of which it treats, and the mass of research it accumulates with that view. No crevice is here unpacked; every line is freighted with an important fact. The first fifteen chapters comprise an abstract of the history of mankind, as connected with these great biblical regions, from the dispersion after the Deluge to the establishment of the Turkish power in Europe. Of this section of the work the first seven chapters may be described as the narrative of the Old Testament, accompanied by a kind of running commentary in the shape of the most authentic versions and addenda of Gentile writers. The sacred and profane chronicles, thus placed side by side, and mutually illustrating one another, are mutually corroborative and explanatory. The former frequently supplies a clue to eliminate the truth from the allegorical corruptions of the latter, whilst these again, even through the unfaithful paraphrase of scriptural facts which they present, often bear witness to the verity of the inspired page; whilst, meantime, the importance and resources of those regions which were in ancient times the great theatre of man's activity, rendered thus more apparent, suggests the inference of their capability for future renovation. After the seventh chapter the Scripture history subsides, and the eventful pagan episodes of the Younger Cyrus and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, Alexander the Great and Darius, Surena, Trajan, and Julian, &c., succeeding chronologically, furnish, by a kind of lay supplement, an additional series of illustrations of these countries, the geography of the several expeditions being exhibited in maps and text. Then follows the great Arabian story, its prophet and apocalypse, its duel of ten centuries with Christianity, three continents forming the lists, and finally its collapse into modern insignificance and inanity. This brings us to the end of the fifteenth chapter. The four remaining ones are independent dissertations, but bear more expedition. They treat, respectively, or less practically on the object of the of the intercourse between Asia and Europe from the earliest ages, their ancient and modern commerce, and the literature, science, and art of the Western Asiatic countries. This portion of the work is almost an encyclopædia in itself, and carries the reader through a large and diversified field of research. It will, however, depend upon the definition that may be given to the extremely vague expression, "physical geography," whether this plan, viewed as the continuation of that of the first volume, on the whole fulfils it. Certainly it does not fall short of, however it may exceed it. Its adequacy can only be disputed on the ground of its superabundance. The historical sketches in this volume are an important accession to the department to which they belong, supplying, as they do, a series of new versions taken on the spot, with all the reality of personal inspection to verify them, of those great events which characterise the annals of the East, from the period of the first Cyrus, five hundred years before the Christian era, to the capture of Constantinople in the fifteenth century. Their value consists mainly in their painstaking fidelity, the fastidious accuracy and severity of truth with which the writer sifts every fact, and maps the whole course of the history. But neither is that interest wanting which invites the general reader; and it is perhaps the more attractive, that it is not artificially excited in order to cater for his amusement, but seems to flow spontaneously from the author's own enthusiasm for his subject. Thus the accounts of the battle of Arbela, of Alexander's intrepid assault in the battle with the Malli, of Zenobia, and her defence of Palmyra, &c., &c.—all of them already familiar passages of history-derive a freshness and originality from the earnest spirit in which they are recounted. But it is, perhaps, the classical scholar and the military student who will find these sketches more practically available. They will here find the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand" and the expedition of Alexander traced with an official precision that gives to these respective narratives, in those portions of them where it is suitable, the character of despatches written from the field of operations, whilst a carefully-executed chart of the whole line of route in each case signally enhances the value of this portion of the work. Having touched on the subject of the celebrated "Retreat," we extract a note from the second volume on the disputed passage of the Anabasis with respect to the Median Wall. It may interest the classical scholar :- "The translation of this passage of Xenophon, ἀφίκοντο πρὸς τὸ Μηδιάς τεῖχος καὶ παρῆλθον αὐτοῦ εἴσω. (Anabasis lib. ii. cap. 4), has been much discussed and variously rendered. In Allpress's Xenophon, p. 80, the army is made to arrive at and pass along within the Median Wall, which translation is also given in the Anabasis of Xenophon, by Charles Anther, LL.D., William Tegg and Co., Cheapside; by the Rev. Dr. Butcher, F.T.C.D., as well as by Schneider, who, in a note on this passage, condemns Halbkardt for translating it-'Kamen sie zur Medischen Mauer, und setzten nun jenseit dirselbac ihren Marsch forr.' Viger, in his Greek Idioms, also quotes an instance from Xenophon, where the verb occurring in the passage in question, joined with a substantive in the genitive case, signifies departure from' or deflection; and Donnegan's Greek Lexicon gives low as an adverb, with the signification of 'in the interior,' 'inside,' or within, which renderings of the passage are in conformity with the relative geographical positions of the Median Wall and Sitace. On the other hand, Hutchinson, in his edition of Xenophon, p. 139, and Mitford's History of Greece, vol. iv. p. 189, states that the Greeks came up to and passed through the Median Wall; and this interpretation has been followed by Bishop Thirlwall, in his History of Greece, vol. iv. p. 335, ed. London, 1847, since he conceives, in accordance with Passow, in his Greek Lexicon, that when joined with a verb of motion, slow must bear the signification of to the inside, not on the inside. The Bishop of St. David's considers that Schneider's condemnation of Halbkardt arises solely from the great difficulty of reconciling his translation with the geographical position of Sitace, but that the philological difficulty thus raised by Schneider is quite as great as the geographical difficulty of the other. The same opinion appears to be held by other Grecian scholars-the Right Rev. Dr. Wilson, Lord Bishop of Cork and Cloyne, and the Rev. Dr. Mac Donnell, S.F.T.C.D., among the number."-Vol. ii. pp. 220-1. We append the sketch of Zenobia and the siege of Palmyra by Aurelian : "Zenobia was prepared to defend herself in what was deemed an almost impregnable and well-garrisoned position; while, in consequence of its central situation at the commercial entrepôt of the east, Palmyra was in the highest state of wealth and prosperity which had ever yet been attained by any city, Tyre and Carthage alone excepted. As lately as the time of Odenatus, it had been skilfully fortified, and, in addition to the advantages of high and strong walls, it possessed that of an isolated situation in a wide-spreading desert. Here the resources of the besieging army, in water, would be limited to a scanty supply, while the city was amply provided for a protracted defence, which, from the enormous wealth of the people, their devotion to their queen, and her determined valour, promised to be successful, supported as it was, outside the walls, by the Arab, Persian, and Armenian auxiliaries. Such a state of things, at a period when defensive siege-warfare was equal, if not superior, to that of attack, almost justified the answer of defiance which was sent in the name of Zenobia, by her secretary, to the summons of Aurelian, who from that time appears to have determined to be revenged on this minister. Thinking their city impregnable, the inhabitants, from the summit of their walls, irritated the Romans with reproachful epithets; while the latter gradually raised towers, and carried on their approaches with timber supplied by the neighbouring dategroves. Sorties and other efforts were not wanting; for, encouraged by their sovereign, and the influential men who were so much attached to Zenobia, the city was long and valiantly defended. But Syria being open to the besiegers, and reinforcements having joined them under Probus, the hope that supplies would fail them seemed vain, while, on the other hand, those of the city began at length to be exhausted. It was therefore resolved that Zenobia, in person, should seek further assistance from Persia. "The departure of the queen took place during the night, by, it is supposed, one of the channels constructed for cleansing the town; and, mounted on a dromedary, she made her way, almost unattended, towards Zelibi. But her escape having been made known, some fleet horsemen overtook the fugitive on the very banks of the Euphrates, and Zenobia returned as a captive to Aurelian. All hope of assistance from Persia was now at an end, and the question of capitulation, to avoid starvation, was therefore seriously agitated within the city. A certain party, animated by the spirit of the warrior-philosopher, Longinus, urged its defence to the last extremity, whilst another proposed to capitulate. The latter, which was headed by Sandarion, prevailed, and the siege terminated. "Taking with him the spoils of the city, Aurelian returned to Emessa, where he caused Zenobia, and those who had favoured her revolt to be examined. The queen pleaded the peculiar circumstances in which she had been placed, the weakness of her sex, and the injudicious advice of her counsellors, including, it is said, the faithful Longinus, who, to the disgrace of the emperor, was executed. "Zenobia claimed descent from Cleopatra and the Ptolemies. She is said to have understood the Egyptian, Greek, and Latin languages, and to have been acquainted, through Longinus, with Oriental and Egyptian history. To these intellectual accomplishments were added personal bravery and skill in martial exercises. Zenobia appears to have possessed some of the high qualities which so eminently belonged to her husband, although, during her reverses in Syria, and the latter part of the siege of Palmyra, she scarcely displayed that courage and constancy for which she has obtained such credit."Vol. ii. pp. 428-9. It appears that a hurricane, similar to that which wrecked the Tigris vessel, befel the Emperor Julian on the same river (Euphrates) nearly fifteen hundred years ago : "The storm of the 7th April, A. D. 363, is thus described by the historian:-'When the sun was declining near the western horizon, a small cloud appeared; the air suddenly became so thick that they could not see, and after repeated and threatening peals of thunder, accompanied by flashes of lightning, a soldier was struck down by lightning, with two horses which he was leading from the river after they had drank at it.' In another passage he adds:-'A whirlwind seized on them, and making numerous eddies, so confused the encampment, that many tents were rent to pieces, and most of the soldiers thrown on their backs and faces, not being able to keep their feet through the violence of the wind.'"-Vol. ii. p. 435. Just now that ethnology engages so much attention, and the interest excited by the discovery and interpretation of ancient inscriptions has received a new impulse from the labours of Layard, Rawlinson, Hincks, &c., the following observations upon that all but mythic people, the Himyarites, and their relics in this kind, are very acceptable: "A remarkable expedition appears to have proceeded under Abu Kurrab, the Himyarite, who, after having invaded India and Bactria, founded an empire in the latter territory, the capital of which was Samarcand. By some, however, even the name of this widely-spread race has been considered apocryphal; but it should be recollected that the existence of the Tobbáï, in Arabia at least, does not depend entirely upon tradition; for there are proofs that a civilised people existed at a very remote period, bearing this appellation, and speaking a language exclusively their own-a dialect of which is still in use amongst the people of Mahrah. It is no longer doubtful that they also had a peculiar written character of great antiquity, called Suri or Syrian, and many specimens have been found in different places, but more especially in Ejemen. Niebuhr was aware of the existence of inscriptions in an unknown character, at San'á and other places; but, as his usually persevering researches were frustrated by illness, it remained for Leitzen, the celebrated discoverer of Djerash, to set this part of the question at rest, by finding them at Dhafár, one of the places which had been formerly enumerated; and not far from the town of Jerim, Leitzen discovered three such inscriptions: one he purchased, and a second was copied; but the third was so deeply imbedded in a wall, that he failed in the attempt to copy it. Again, at Mankat, one hour from Dhafár, this lamented traveller met with five other Himyari inscriptions on different stones, which were built into the wall of a mosque. Of these only two were copied, the others being too high to admit of being deciphered. Four out of the five were on white marble, in relief; and it is remarkable that, in the case of the largest, which, in point of art and execution, equals any Greek inscription, the lines are attached to strokes, like the wellknown and most ancient Dévanágarí Sanscrit character."-Vol. ii. pp. 81-2. But we must refer the reader to the volumes themselves. The few specimens that our limits admit of our presenting give but a very inadequate idea of the extent of varied matter and research which they contain. With respect to the composition of the work, we perhaps best describe it by stating that it is consistent with the merits of the author already recognised. The style is unpresuming anp sincere, and, growing naturally out of the subject, is always easy and agree 392 able, whilst it not unfrequently attains to that involuntary eloquence which pictures the adventures and vicissitudes of a true and eventful history, as, for instance, the description of Alexander's heroism in the battle with the Malli, which is given with considerable animation. The absence, however, except in these instances, of a more ambitious vein, or of a systematic plan to please, may occasionally disappoint the reader whose taste is formed on the brilliant models of this attractive mode of writing. Thus he may be somewhat disconcerted when a world-famous city, such as Palmyra, Baalbeck, &c. slips under his notice, as it does here, without his having a presentiment or a preparation flourish,' as the old stage direction calls it to announce its advent on the stage, or any telling point or dramatic situation to cause excitement when it is there. a But this feeling, even in the class of readers we allude to, will, we think, subside; and they will, perhaps, gradually learn to not only acquiesce in the unaffected spirit that eschews dramatic effort in a great Thesaurus, like this, but to regard it with satisfaction, as a voucher for that fidelity which should be the motto of such an undertaking. Occasionally, however, there is an exception to this, and a dry and meagre mode of treatment is employed, as in the chapter on Arabian literature, which is inadequate, and short of the mark. fact is not always fidelity, no more Mere matter of than the skeleton is the body; and this is more specially the case in literature, where the supplement of form, beauty, and life, is the essential condition. We could have wished that the author had, in this department of his subject, thrown his matter into a more life-like shape, and given it less the air of a table of literary statistics or a cutalogue raisonné. Again, with respect to the method [Oct. observed in this work, we should add, that although in the larger divisions of it there is much methodical arrangeally miss it in the subdivisions and ment observable, yet that we occasionsmaller compartments, where we, in consequence, encounter some obscurity. Thus the description of the Himyarites a subject in itself dark, and suffering under a species of historical eclipse, and hence requiring as much precision of treatment as could consistently be applied-is not handled with suflicient exactitude. These are, pared with its striking and unqueshowever, the perhaps inevitable lapses incident to a large work; and as comtionable merits, are but slight deductions. The maps and charts which accompany these volumes are all large measures of geographical reform, Based upon scrupulous surveys, and daguer knowledge to shine full on it, they prereotyped, as it were, by those resources of science which allow the light of sent the most faithful transcript we have as yet obtained of that most interesting region. This same conscientious spirit is also We trust that the two volumes which THE MYSTIC VIAL; OR, THE LAST DEMOISELLE DE CHARREBOURG. 1.-TUR GAME OF BOWLS. MORE than a century ago—we know not whether the revolution has left a vestige of it-there stood an old chateau, backed by an ancient and funereal forest, and approached through an interminable straight avenue of frowning timber, somewhere about fifteen leagues from Paris, and visible from the great high road to Rouen. a The appliances of comfort had once been collected around it upon princely scale; extensive vineyards, a perfect wood of fruit-trees, fish-ponds, mills, still remained, and a vast park, abounding with cover for all manner of game, stretched away almost as far as the eye could reach. But the whole of this palatial residence was now in a state of decay and melancholy neglect. A dilapidated and half-tenanted village, the feudal dependency of the seignorial domain, seemed to have sunk with the fortunes of its haughty protector. The steep roofs of the Chateau de Charrebourg and its flanking towers, with their tall conical caps, were mournfully visible in the sun among the rich foliage that filled the blue hazy distance, and seemed to overlook, with a sullen melancholy, the village of Charrebourg that was decaving beneath it. The Visconte de Charrebourg, the last of a long line of ancient seigneurs, was still living, and though not under the ancestral roof of his chateau, within sight of its progressive ruin, and what was harder still to bear, of its profanation; for his creditors used it as a store-house for the produce of the estate, which he thus saw collected and eventually carted away by strangers, without the power of so much as tasting a glass of its wine or arresting a single grain of its wheat himself. And to say the truth, he often wanted a pint of the one and a measure or two of the other badly enough. Let us now see for ourselves something of his circumstances a little more exactly. The Visconte was now about seventy, in the enjoyment of tolerable health, and of a pension of nine hundred franes (£36) per annum, paid by the Crown. His creditors permitted him VOL, XXXVI.—NO. CCXIV, to occupy, besides, a queer little domi. cile, little better than a cottage, which stood just under a wooded hillock in the vast wild park. To this were attached two or three lilliputian paddocks, scarcely exceeding an English acre altogether. Part of it, before the door, a scanty bit we allow, was laid out in a little parterre of flowers, and behind the dwelling was a small bowling-green surrounded by cherrytrees. The rest was cultivated chiefly for the necessities of the family. In addition to these concessions his creditors permitted him to shoot rabbits and catch perch for the use of his household, and that household consisted of three individuals-the Visconte himself, his daughter Lucille (scarcely seventeen years of age), and Dame Marguerite; in better times her nurse-now cook, housemaid, and all the rest. He Contrast with all this what he had once been, the wealthy Lord of Charrebourg, the husband of a rich and noble wife, one of the most splendid among the satellites of a splendid court. had married rather late, and as his reverses had followed that event in point of time, it was his wont to attribute his misfortunes to the extravagance of his dear and sainted helpmate, "who never could resist play and jewellery." The worthy Visconte chose to forget how much of his fortune he had himself poured into the laps of mistresses, and squandered among the harpies of the gaming-table. The result, however, was indisputable, by whatever means it had been arrived at, the Visconte was absolutely beggared. Neither had he been very fortunate in his family. Two sons who, together with Lucille, had been the fruit of his marriage, had both fallen, one in a duel, the other in a mad-cap adventure in Naples. And thus, of course, ended any hope of seeing his fortunes even moderately reconstructed. We must come now to the lonely dwelling, which serves all that is left of the family of Charrebourg for a 2 D |