The Zenjeed tree here is very common, and exhales a most fragrant perfume; the trees have a profusion of scarlet blossoms; and their leaves, of a silvery white hue, form a very good contrast with the other vegetation. In addition to what has been before stated respecting this tree, it may be here observed, that the flowers grow in small bunches like the lilac, of a vermilion colour within, and a silvery white on the outside. It blossoms in June, and therefore exhales its potent fragrance rather later than other flowering shrubs; thus affording a sort of incense to celebrate the return of harvest, and the first gathering of cherries, apricots, and other summer fruits. From its association with these agreeable occasions we may in some degree account for the mysterious effects ascribed to its influence. At this season the Persian ladies are particularly induced to seek the refreshing shade of the gardentrees, where they freely indulge their taste for ripe fruits, which no doubt tend to give a livelier circulation to the blood, and a more joyous flow to the spirits. Hence, and in consequence of the state of luxurious seclusion and tranquillity in which they live, they may become more than usually susceptible of the tender passion; and as summer has ever been hailed as the peculiar season of love, they may have ascribed to this blossom, which blooms when other flowers are faded, an exclusive and fanciful charm. The stimulating effects, said to be produced by the fragrance of the Zenjeed flower, may therefore be traced generally to more sensible causes to the influence of the season and of its enjoyments, on the ardent temperament and imagination of the Persian fair. I do not mean at all to dispute the excitement of strong and luscious odours; perhaps on the delicate nerves of females it may be much more evident, and thus they may have been able to trace back the effect to its most obvious cause.'

Chapter xii. brings us to Meana. The bug peculiar to this district is in the author's narrative much less formidable than in that of Captain Kotzebue, of which we made mention in our last Number. As we there stated, from that author, our travellers had the good fortune to fall in with the Russian embassy; and they speak in the highest terms of the urbanity and generous civilities of General Yermoloff: thus reciprocating the obliging expressions of the Russian writer which we have already recorded.

The thirteenth chapter conducts the journey from Tabriz to Teflis; and the fourteenth gives a striking sketch of Georgia. The quarantine-precautions adopted at the Russian frontier are censured as troublesome, delaying, and inefficacious. The antient practice of fumigating the supposed pestiferous substances over charcoal-fires appears, after all, to be more secure and simple than all the refinements of modern chemistry.

Five more chapters conduct this instructive journey through Russia, Poland, and Prussia, and make the reader acquainted

with

with many individuals distinguished in European history; such as the Hetman Platoff, whose residence is visited, and whose hospitality, generosity, and attachment to the English are applauded.

The number of persons who go out from this country to Hindustan is very considerable; and we apprehend that much economy of time, of expence, and of ennui, could be accomplished by crossing the Continent instead of doubling the Cape. Might not a negotiation with the governments of Russia and Persia suffice to open regular relays of horses from Riga to Odessa; to obtain leave for establishing packet-boats between Odessa and Trebizond; to open relays and guard the roads between Trebizond and Mosul; and to run a steamboat down the Tigris to Bushire, whence the passage by sea to the coast of Malabar is short and easy? If a systematic and periodical conveyance of this mixed kind were once established, a regular flow of travellers along the new channel would presently appear, and curiosity would reinforce the numbers which ambition puts in motion. For British accommodation, British caravanserays would be founded along the whole road; and our arts of life, our manners and customs, our habits of dress and furniture, our ways of eating and drinking, would first be exemplified, then copied, in the principal towns of the East: thus in no slight degree contributing to the progress of civilization, and to the consumption of our manufactures. The heavy hours spent in a sea-voyage are nearly lost to observation and to useful industry: while the time passed in a journey over-land stocks the mind with various agreeable, rich, and instructive impressions; adapted to enliven the recollections of solitude, to adorn the narratives of conversation, to confer a knowlege of human nature, to excite a tolerance of its discordant usages and doctrines, and to domesticate a man (as it were) in every part of the earth.

ART. VI. Memoirs of the Life of the Elder Scipio Africanus: with Notes and Illustrations. By the Rev. Edward Berwick. Crown 8vo. pp. 200. 7s. Boards. Triphook.

wo former publications of this writer were noticed in our lxxiiid vol. p. 277., and lxxviiith vol. p. 175.

After

TWO having bestowed original research on the biographies on which we then commented, we saw no great reason to applaud the classical knowlege, pervasive inquiry, or sagacious inference of the author: but we hoped that habits of writing would insensibly accustom him to a sounder method of composition. In the work now before us, some progress of skill

has

has in fact been displayed; yet we still remark deficiencies of fact, and want of criticism in the application of the documents adduced.

From the antients, no specific life of Scipio has been inherited but the historical books of Livy include the principal materials of his biography. Caius Oppius, Julius Hyginus, and Plutarch, had indeed allotted separate works to the life of this hero, but their accounts have been swept away into oblivion. Accioli among the Italians, Seran de la Tour among the French, and Smith of Preston among ourselves, wrote lives of Scipio Africanus, but without establishing a prominent character for learning or eloquence of execution. It was not superfluous, therefore, to aim at superseding their labours.

Africanus was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, after whom he was named, and of Pomponia, from whose womb he was prematurely ripped in the year of Rome 517. The passage of Pliny, which records this fact, is indeed quoted by Mr. Berwick, but the fact itself does not appear in his text. Of Scipio's education nothing is known. He was early attached to the other sex; it appearing from Cneius Nævius, the poet, that his father led him away from a mistress in his shirt, that is, before he had assumed the toga virilis. At the age of seventeen he went into the army, served in the cavalry, and saved his father's life at the battle of the Ticinus. After the more destructive defeat at Cannæ, the dispersed Roman cavalry rallied at Canusium; chose Scipio, then only nineteen, for their leader; and, by his advice, went to Rome, and prevented the projected dispersion of the senate. This was a critical service, which saved the tottering republic. Scipio and his brother were in consequence chosen Ediles, although under the age prescribed by law, and in defiance of some opposition from tribunes of the people. Probably, fortifications had been recommended by him to render Rome more defensible against Hannibal, and the expence was to be assessed on the ædile's rate. These brothers were no doubt the ædiles who sold the land on which Hannibal was encamped, and applied the proceeds in sending assistance to the Spanish armies commanded by their father and uncle. The reinforcement, however, was unavailing, Publius and Cneius Scipio being both defeated in Spain, where they perished miserably. The news of their disaster reached Rome in the year of the city 542. All was consternation; and the proconsulship of Spain was shunned as a prelude to disgrace. With the magnanimity of a nobleman, however, Scipio offered himself as candidate, aspiring

to

to retrieve the misfortunes of his family; and he was elected with shouts of welcome, and received for his colleague Marcus Junius Silanus, a man of mild, grave, and religious character.

• As Livy and Polybius have given a particular account of Scipio's military transactions in Spain,' says Mr. Berwick, p. 26., I think it unnecessary to repeat them here.' Of what use is an English biography of Scipio, if that intelligence is to be omitted which Livy and Polybius have deposited" in the obscurity of a learned language"? It is true that these things have been well related in our language by Mr. Bower, who composed for the Universal History the Roman sections: but the biographer of a General is not to omit his military transactions, and refer to voluminous publications for the intelligence. If Mr. Berwick feels unequal to the criticism of strategic skill, why select for his topic a life that was passed in the army? The continence of Scipio, as it is called, is well and deservedly praised: still, it was the natural behaviour of a gentleman, who never subjects ladycaptives to violence; and it had the farther purpose of conciliating important families at Carthagena, who were likely to submit as willingly to the Italian as to the African foreigner. Lord Lyttelton, in one of his dialogues, justly observes that "it would be dishonouring the virtue of Scipio to think, he could feel any struggle with himself on that account." Some Spanish provinces are said to have offered a royal title to Scipio, which he declined as incompatible with his allegiance to Rome. His treatment of Massiva, the nephew of Massinissa, does him high honour. When the generosity and magnanimity of his character had detached successively the principal allies of the Carthaginians, he crossed over to Africa, intrusted his safety to the honour of Syphax, met Asdrubal at this prince's table, and came back to Carthagena, having obtained for Rome an important ally on the African continent.

Scipio returned from Spain in the year of the city 548, and then married Emilia, whose father had fallen at Cannæ. This lady was remarked for a liberal absence of jealousy, to which Scipio gave much provocation: she dissembled her husband's acquaintance with a female slave of the establishment; and, after his death, she manumitted and endowed the girl. Æmilia had for her daughter Cornelia, the celebrated mother of the Gracchi.

When Scipio had obtained from the senate the government of Sicily, with liberty to pass into Africa, he took over to Syracuse a considerable army, and remained there a long while: intent, no doubt, on establishing secret intelligence in Africa. REV. MAY, 1820.

E

The

The poet Terence, a native of Carthage, was probably at this time taken prisoner. Cato complained to the Roman senate of the prodigal style of expenditure in which their General indulged, and charged him specifically with subtracting monies from the treasury of the temple of Proserpine. "It is of the exploits that I shall perform, not of the expences incurred for them," replied Scipio, "that I must give the Roman people an account." This answer in fact admits the charge, and renders it probable that Scipio was no stern controller of malversation.

Of the African expedition of Scipio, Mr. Berwick gives a very good account, and the battle of Zama is well narrated and criticized. It was followed by a treaty, which terminated the second Punic war in a manner glorious to the Romans; who acquired Spain, the Mediterranean islands belonging to the Carthaginians, the right of burning the Carthaginian fleet excepting ten triremes, and a large sum of money in lieu of the plunder of Carthage, which Scipio could have inflicted. On these terms he agreed to evacuate Africa in fifty days. In his conduct to Sophonisba he displayed too little of generosity.

When Scipio arrived at Rome, the senate and people concurred unanimously in voting him a triumph, and in conferring on him the title of Africanus. He was also named consul, but incurred some odium by allotting separate seats in the theatre to the senate. In the year of Rome 561, says Mr. Berwick, (p. 120.) but, according to our copy of the consular fasti, in the year of Rome 564, Lucius Cornelius Scipio, a younger brother of Africanus, became consul, together with Lælius, the friend of Africanus, and his companion in arms during the African war.

The senate was divided as

to which of these persons they should intrust with the conduct of an impending Asiatic war against Antiochus. Africanus, in order to obtain a profitable command for his brother, offered to serve under him as lieutenant, which decided the appointment of Lucius: but this conduct of Scipio betrayed sort of family rapacity, and much of ingratitude to Lælius, whose merit was tried and known, and as yet unrewarded. Whether to Lucius or to Africanus is to be ascribed the invidious treatment of Hannibal cannot wholly be ascertained: but the repeated attempts to deprive this meritorious General of an asylum, in his old age, are dishonourable either to the Roman senate or to the Scipio family. It is related that Hannibal took poison in the castle of Libyssa, and died there, while it was besieged by the Romans: but it is much more probable that he made his escape by sea, and went to terminate his

days