because we are too near it." Many will not understand this; those who do will at the same time see that the comparison is in itself absurd, and proceeds upon a supposition which is not true. In another passage a woman is mentioned, "whose every word was a spark detached from the storehouse of wisdom," where sparks and storehouses are brought nearer to one another than prudence could justify. "It was the torment of the reflex act of the soul eating into itself, that furnished the spark that lighted up my flame." This style of composition, has, we believe, two names: some call it fine writing, and some call it nonsense.

We scarcely deem it necessary to apologize to our readers for the length of our remarks upon this performance. If novels were in themselves contemptible exertions of genius, which they are not, they would still derive importance from their extensive circulation. Besides, Mr. Godwin is an author of no inconsiderable reputation; he has still a train of admirers; whatever production issues from his pen will be read by many, and therefore ought not to be lightly passed over in a literary journal.

ART. VI.-Illustrations (chiefly Geographical) of the Expedition of Cyrus, from Sardis to Babylonia; and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks from thence to Trebisonde and Lydia. With an Appendix, containing an Enquiry into the best Method of Improving the Geography of the Anabasis, &c. explained by Maps. By James Rennel, F. R. S. L. & E., &c. &c. 4to. G. and W. Nicol. London, 1816.

THE great merit of Major Rennel's work on the geography of Herodotus is universally acknowledged. Many of our readers will recollect the flattering eulogy which Gibbon pronounces on D'Anville, as the guide who had conducted him over continents without ever leading him astray. Yet the geographer thus panegyrized by one so well qualified to judge, has been detected by Rennel in errors neither few nor inconsiderable. The accuracy with which particular positions are assigned in the "Geographical System of Herodotus" constitutes but a secondary part of its merits; for many of the disquisitions which it contains may claim, not merely the praise due to minute correctness of investigation, but the higher honours which original and extensive views are alone entitled to demand. The comparison of the notions of antiquity concerning Scythia, with the actual limits of the regions to which that appellation was given;-the account of the different levels of Asia ;-the proofs that the apex of the Delta has

been gradually descending to a lower point of the Nile, and the explanation of the causes of that change; -the details respecting the canals which, at different times, were conducted from the Nile to the Red Rea;-the inquiry into the extent of Hanno's voyage along the western coast of Africa; into the supposed circumnavigation of that coninent by the ancients in ships, which, setting out from the Red Sea, returned by the Mediteranean, and the assistance or hindrance which such an attempt would meet with from the winds and currents of the Indian and Atlantic oceans:—all these discussions are conducted in so masterly a manner, as to awaken in the reader an interest which no other geographical work excites, and to give the book, where they are to be found, a claim to the frequent and attentive perusal of all who take, or pretend to take, any delight in ancient litera

ture.

If the work which Major Rennel has now given to the public is not equally interesting with his former production, the difference is to be ascribed to the dissimilarity of their respective subjects. He is now confined to a comparatively narrow track. As he must follow the motions of an army, much of his labour is occupied in ascertaining particular positions. The greater sameness and minuteness of his theme, therefore, can scarcely fail to render his reasonings more fatiguing, while his conclusions have less to gratify the imagination, than when he was wandering with the Father of History over every region of the globe that was known to ancient Greece. Yet the talents, which we admire in the illustrations of the Geography of Herodotus, may be plainly traced in the Illustrations of the Expedition and Retreat of the Ten Thousand. We here behold the same extensive learning collecting materials from quarters widely remote; the same minute observation discovering circumstances of importance where a common eye sees only common things; the same comprehensive ingenuity employed in bringing facts apparently insulated into comparisons from which valuable truth is ultimately elicited. A still rarer excellence, of which this writer may boast, is his freedom from that undue influence which the authority of preceding geographers sometimes possesses. Ancient maps exhibit to us a vast variety of places, the sites of which appear to be accurately determined, though in fact they are frequently assigned upon very vague conjecture. There is nothing to enable us to distinguish between positions that are ascertained, and positions that are only guessed at: we believe that to be fixed beyond dispute which is in truth altogether undetermined; and are ready to point out the exact situation of places, without stopping to weigh the evidence on which their designation depends. It is not within our department to go through the long series of un

authorized positions which have been transmitted without examination, from each race of geographers to their successors. We are happy to say, however, that no such unsifting credulity can be alleged against Major Rennel. Ever on the alert to seek, to find, and to scrutinize proofs, he takes no site for granted. The data upon which he proceeds, in fixing each position, are given: and if these are not always completely satisfactory, they at least afford approximations to the truth for the present, and means of correction for the future. Other geographers have written to illustrate their maps: Rennell constructs his maps to illustrate his memoirs. Had he wrought only upon old materials, we have no doubt but that he would have corrected many current mistakes: but to increase the value of his work, the superiority of his talents has fortunately been aided by much practical and recent information derived from Niebuhr, Sullivan, M. De Beauchamp, and Captain Beaufort.

From the nature of a work of this kind, it is not easy to give such an abstract of it as will enable a reader to estimate its merit: but as the price of the work may probably render it dif ficult of access to many who would take an interest in the results of the disquisitions which it contains, we shall briefly follow the writer over the principal positions through which he traces the march of the Greeks.

Cyrus, setting out from Sardis, and crossing the ridge of Messogis, and the Mæander, passed by Colossa to Celænæ; from which, after a delay of thirty days, he proceeded in four marches to the forum of the Ceramians. Pococke has placed Celænæ at the present Ashkly or Ishakli; a position to which Rennel objects on very satisfactory grounds. For Ashkly by no means agrees with the geographical authorities by which the site of Celænæ must be determined: and in particular, Celænæ stood on one of the heads of the Mæander, from all of which Ashkly is at a considerable distance. By Rennel, Celænæ is placed twenty miles to the N. E. of Ashkly, at Sandukly, where ruins are known to exist, though they have not hitherto been described by any European traveller. The forum of the Ceramians he supposes to be Cutahiah, the Cotyæum of the Romans, nearly due north from Celænæ. Now in this part of the route two difficulties occur, which we should have been glad to have seen removed. First, why did not Cyrus take the direct road to Celænæ, keeping to the north of Messogis? The passage of that mountainous ridge seems to our ignorance to be an unnecessary deviation from the line of his march. Secondly, the forum of the Ceramians is at a greater distance from Iconium (through which the army is afterwards to pass) than Celænæ. To what then were the four marches from Celænæ to the forum

purpose

of the Ceramians? Major Rennel supposes that they were made for the sake of collecting provisions. But the explanation is far from being satisfactory. No hint is given by the historian of any departure from the straight road with such an intent. We have no reason to believe that the track, into which they deviated, abounded more in the necessaries of life than the direct route from Celænæ to Iconium. Stores might have been, and probably were collected, before the expedition set out. Or, if this important care had been overlooked, in a friendly and populous district, the deficiency could easily have been supplied without circuitous movements on the part of the troops. These two detours, therefore, which Cyrus makes in the beginning of his march, remain to be accounted for.

From the forum of the Ceramians, Cyrus advanced by the plain of Caystrus, Thymbrium, and Tyriæum, to Iconium, and thence to the Cilician pass. From Tyriæum to Iconium is said by Xenophon to be twenty parasangs; which, according to the scale adopted in the work before us, are equal to about forty-three geographical miles of direct measurement. But Major Rennel asserts that the distance is overrated; and endeavours to support his assertion by a proof, which perhaps borders upon hypercritical ingenuity, though it displays the activity of the writer's mind in bringing remote collateral circumstances to bear upon the topic immediately before him. He shows that Laodicea was afterwards built at the distance of nine hours' travelling, or twenty geographical miles N. W. from Iconium: and according to the Theodosian tables, Philomelium was twenty geographical miles from Laodicea in the route to Synnada. Philomelium, therefore, lay forty geographical miles from Iconium, and in the very line of Cyrus's march. But Strabo, in tracing a route from Ephesus to the Euphrates at Tomisa, places Tyriarium (undoubtedly the same with Tyriæum) between Philomelium and Iconium; and as Philomelium was only forty geographical miles from Iconium, the distance between Tyriæum and Iconium must have been still less. We are not prepared to deny the inference: yet we are inclined to suspect that the conclusion is more peremptory than the premises warrant. May not Philomelium have been farther from Iconium than the strictness of Major Rennel's calculation allows? Is it quite clear that the route from the one of these towns to the other led through both Tyriæum and Laodicea? In reasonings which involve a multitude of circumstances, especially when applied to minute topographical disquisitions, and to the determination of very short distances, there must be so much vagueness, that we can never, without reluctance, admit them in opposition to the express authority of a writer like Xenophon.

The description of the physical geography of the country through which this part of Cyrus's march lay is given with considerable elegance of style, and with a precision which enables the fancy to form to itself a very distinct map of the districts that are mentioned.

"In order to understand the general nature of the tract into which Cyrus had now entered, contiguous to the northern side of the region of Mount Taurus, it is proper to state, that there are several parallel ridges, and some of these very lofty, connected with the greater chain of Taurus, on the side next to Phrygia and Cappadocia. These the ancients do not appear to have regarded as members of Taurus.

"The spaces included between these secondary ridges and the principal one, may be considered as elevated valleys; an intermediate step between the high level of Taurus, and the common level of the interior of Asia Minor. Some of them are of extent sufficient to form large provinces; and contain lakes salt as well as fresh, formed of the waters from the adjacent heights, but pent up by the inferior ridges.

"Beginning from the westward, the first of these valleys included the original country of Isauria, noted for the extreme roughness and strength of its natural defences, situated in the recesses of its surrounding barrier of mountains. A second valley, but of a nature perfectly accessible, contains the just mentioned country of Phrygia Parorias. It is beautiful and well watered; in position parallel to and adjacent to Isauria on the North, but a step lower in point of level. Here too the waters are all pent up by a ridge, which is the second from the main ridge of Taurus, Isauria lying between.

"The third valley, more extensive than either of the former, included the country of Lycaonia, more resembling Phrygia Parorias than Isauria, being composed generally of large plains, subject to inundations, although a part of its waters escaped northwards, to form the western branch of the Halys. A fourth valley, still going eastward, is that of Tyana, bordering on the Cilician Taurus, and containing the famous pass denominated occasionally from Tyana, but more commonly named the Pass of Cilicia, from the circumstance of the great military road leading through it into Cilicia.

"These are the valleys which form the series, through which the route of Cyrus lay: and immediately on the east of Tyana, but beyond the line of his route, commences the very famous, rich, and extensive valley of Cataonia, anciently celebrated for its containing the temple of Comana of Cappadocia, whose site is now recognized in Bostan."

To this accurate and (in spite of some verbal inelegancies) pleasing account of a region so often mentioned in the remains of classical antiquity, we wish that our limits would allow us to add the very interesting details into which our author enters with respect to the passes of Cilicia. The general result of his investigations is, that these passes are in number four. The first is that through which both Cyrus and Alexander are said