fhall find how impoffible it was that the poet, in the above paffage, could defcribe the Lucrine lake and the lake of Avernus by the term oceanus. "He was unacquainted with the Avernus, for he did not go up the country; and before Agrippa had levelled the high fhore of this lake, on the fide next the fea, and had united it with the Lucrine lake, it was not vifible from the fea. "And even if Homer had afcended this high fhore, he would have been convinced of the fmall circumference of the lake, and certainly would not have called it the ocean. "That in later ages, though long before the time of Virgil, the refidence of the dead was fought for in this country, I very well know. It was later ages that dedicated to Proferpine her grove, and to Pluto his gloomy palace. Livy tells us that Hannibal led a part of his army to Avernus, under the pretext of facrificing there; but in reality to make an attempt upon Puteoli, and the Roman garrifon that it contained. . "I believe it is a very ancient opinion that Homer led his Ulyffes to this place. The idea was flattering to the Greeks, who inhabited thefe coafts; and very flight grounds would make it credited, by the people of Cuma, Puteoli, Baiæ, and Parthenope: the prefent Naples. They were likewife intercfted in a political view: it made them repected. Befide, offerings no doubt were brought to their temples; and the nature of the country favoured the prejudice. The inundating, noxious, vapour-exhaling, water of the fea and the rivers, the at that time fiery Epoineus of the ifland of Ifchia, the caverns exhaling fulphur, the volcanic traces of the country, where the inhabitants ftumbled as it were over the ruins of nature, the frequent earthquakes, and add to thefe the vicinity of all the delights of nature contrafted with all her horrors, thefe circumftances, taken collectively, gave rife to, and food for, the imaginary fables and terrors of the empire of death: an empire in which, according to the relation of Homer, the abodes of the bleifed border on the confines of the damned. "As an attentive reading of the neid has long vindicated Virgil from the abfurdity of having placed his entire hell in regions well known upon earth; fo likewife, had the travels of Ulyffes been attended to in the fame fpirit, they would not have led the reader to discover the fhades of death in this place. Without having recourfe to the strange confufion of the lake of Avernus with the ocean, this hypothefis is felf-deftructive. "What reafon could Ulyffes have to return from the fhades of hell to Circe? Had he passed the Avernus, his navigating back to the goddes was unneceffary. His route led him fouthward, to the ifland of the Sirens: Why did he fail back to the north, when he must a fecond time have neceffarily failed paft the Avernus? Why did Circe tell him, when he entreated her to fend him back to Ithaca, that he muft previoufly go another way, a obor, to the abode of Pluto, Aidaes; and to the terrible Proferpine, Perfephoneia; to queftion the foul of thể prophet Tirelias? Ulyffes informed his companions of this other voyage. The intelligence grieved them to the heart; fo that they wept and tore their hair. And why? The danger of the defcent into hell was the task only of Ulys fes: but this unknown voyage, over feas which none of them had yet them all. navigated, was equally terrible to in imagination, he might welcome this holy horror as the proper element for the creation of his boldest imagery. The characteristic marks of melancholy and gloom predominate through the whole of the eleventh book of the Odyssey. "Neither did thefe clamours in the leaft agree with a voyage to the thores of Avernus, which lay in their way and the fecond vifit to Circe was ftill more abfurd. Should it be answered that Ulyffes returned to inter Elpenor, who had broken his neck in the palace of the goddefs, and whom, oppreffed by other cares, he had left unburied, his meeting with the foul of Elpenor in the lower regions will thew the error of this opinion. He entreated Ulyffes to remember him, and to fee him buried: for I know,' faid he, that thou wilt land on the Ææan ifland.' Ulyffes promifes a ready compliance, as a thing eafily to be performed. Had he been excited by other cares, which had induced him to leave him unburied the first time, a ceremony that at the utmost would have required only the delay of a few days in order to afford him this token of his affection, what could now induce him to perform fuch a voyage for his fake? Elpenor well knew that Ulyffes would not unneceffarily wander over an unknown fea but would more will ingly return by a route that he had already navigated, and afterward continue a coafting voyage. "Where then was the hell of Homer fituated? In anfwer to this I muft refer you to the map of Vols, which contains the countries defcribed by Homer; and to his own inquiries concerning ancient geography. The empire of death may be concealed in that terrific and difmal gloom in which the poet found it, among the records of tradition: or he might have purposely enveloped it in the darkness of amazement, and of horror. As fagacious in the conduct of his poem as he was rich 1797 whether the dark kingdom of this benighted people was the creation of Homer, or, which to me is much more probable, the picture of more early fable, I cannot determine: but it does not appear to me that this paffage is applicable to the Cimmerii of Italy; who Hyed under ground. The latter, whether they actually buried themselves in fubterranean caverns or not, were probably fo called from the Ciminerii described by Homer. "I fhall again have occafion to fpeak of the Cimmerii of Italy; and of the light under which they have been confidered by the last commentators on the ancients; particularly the Italians. "Whoever has a juft notion of the ftate of geography among the Greeks in much later times than thofe of Homer, whoever is familiarized with oceanus, in the Prometheus of Æfchylus, with the Arimafpi, and with the daughter of Phorcus-he, I fay, who is but flightly acquainted with the ancient Ionic bards, the contemporaries of Homer, will know that they might imagine thofe places, though they were but a day's fail beyond the promontory of Circe, that is, a day's fail to which the goddess lent favourable winds, to be the limits of the earth. Later times have thrown back Cimmerian darkness farther to the north. Hence the inhabitants of Jutland, and the Danish iflands, have at length been called the Cimbri. "The fables of the ancients have frequently wandered from place to place; and the motley multitudes of fyftem-makers have been eager to wander in their company. "Great fhade of the greatest of poets, out of whofe ever youthful imagination the Iliad and Odyffey fprang, blooming, wouldft thou not, from thy real not fabulous Elyfium, look down, and laugh, didft thou three thousand years after the exiftence of thy Cimmerii, who were thy own offspring, behold a tribe of learned infects, induftrious bookworms, point out out thy empire of hell on the map of Homan? An empire which thou, with all the caution of wifdom, haft placed beyond the ken of cold curiofity, in the necromantic darkness of legend; whofe non-exifting phantoms, embodied by thee, are pointed to as realities, and as the traces of geographical truth! "During the whole peregrinations of Ulyffes from people to people, we can follow him without difficulty. How greatly is the poetical truth of the Odyffey realized by this circumftance! The wonderful phenomena of Scylla and Charybdis, which deterred the companions of the hero from near enquiry. contribute to the poetical fiction of their being living montters The Læftrygons, a wild people inhabiting the northern fhores of Sicily, were probably by the contemporaries of the poet fuppofed to be giants: and was it a poet's bufinefs to represent them as common men? "How fublime was the, fhall I call it poetical fiction, or, tradition of the island, which was governed by the prince and lord of the winds, Æolus! Homer took good care, that we might have no trace of any fuch ifland, to leave it floating in the fea. Both modern and ancient commentators fuppofe the largest of the Lipari iflands, near Sicily, to be the place. What I have faid of the Læftrygons is equally applicable to the Cyclops. Homer might well, three thousand years ago, with apparent probability people an island with giants in which only two hundred years ago Fazello, a valuable Sicilian author, was perfuaded of the truth of the skeletons of giants having been found near Trapani, in the year 1342; and that one of them was the giant Eryx, flain by Hercules. "The cautious poet likewife left the fituation of the island of Ogygia, the refidence of the goddefs Calypfo, fo undetermined that fome have fuppofed it to be Malta, others Gozo near Malta, others again a little ifland below the bay of Taranto, and others an island near Albania, the ancient Epirus. "Yet who fo determinate and circumftantial as Homer, when he can by that means promote poetical effect? Who fo lively, in defcribing and producing the fcenery, when he can thus give greater animation and reality to his characters? Who knows like him to favour poetical illufion by light clouds, or by dark, that now conceal, now magnify and render objects dreadful, and now glimmer round them; while they communicate thofe tender trembling lights, which enchant the curiofity that they excite "Children "Children cry for the rainbow; and the childish in understanding are diffatisfied with the poet, whofe narrative is not as circumftantially barren as a gazette, or as talkative as the tales of old women." INVESTIGATION of the SITE of TROY. [From DALLAWAY'S CONSTANTINOPLE, ANCIENT and MODERN.] THE HE diftance from the Grecian camp to the fite of Troy, has fupplied those who contend againft its existence with many plaufible objections. It is, however, certain that the prefent village of Koum-kaleh is fituate on a fand bank of more than a mile in extent, which will reduce the distance, fuppofing it to be an accretion from the Hellefpont, to lefs than eight Englith miles from Bounàr bathi, where the Scæan gate once ftood. The advanced works both of Greeks and Trojans leffened the intermediate fpace. If the Grecian camp was between the shore and the junction of the Simoeis and Scamander, then known only by the latter name, the united river will anfwer to all the epithets given to it by Homer. "We began our furvey of the plain of Troy. Croffing the Simo,eis over a long wooden bridge near its embouchure, we paffed over an extenfive level of ploughed fields, and Goulù-fui, a brook which empties itself into the fea near In-tepè, or the tomb of Ajax Telamonius. This tumulus is now irregularly fhaped. Near the top is a mall arched way almoft choaked up with earth, which was the entrance into the vault, and over it a broken wall, where was once a fmall fepulchral fane, called the Aiantèum. The whole feems to be of a much more modern date than the death of Ajax. Marc Antony removed his urn and afhes into Egypt, which were afterward reftored with funeral honours by Auguftus, when it is probable that the prefent vault was made, and the fuperftructure erected. This compliment was paid to his manes to gratify the Ilian citizens, who confidered him as their tutelar. The city of Ilium was about two miles diftant, near the junction of the Scamander and Simoeis, and owed its origin to Alexander and Lyfimachus, who repaired the temple. of Minerva, and furrounded it with a wall. It is not improbable that when Alexander was enthufiaftically investigating the fite of ancient Troy, that the priests of Minerva fhould attach him, from poliey, to this fpot for the foundation of a city which had likewife fuperior maritime advantages, Mænætus, governor of Ilium, went out to meet Alexander in his Perfic expedition, and prefented him with a golden crown. It was first taken by Charidemus Orites; and fubfequently befieged by Fimbria, the general engaged in the caufe of Marius, and levelled with the ground; this injury was afterward feverely revenged by Sylla. They enjoyed the patronage of Julius Cæfar. It excites no wonder, that after fo long poffeffion of it by the Turks, not a tone thould remain, yet fome contend against the existence of K 2 Troy, Troy, because no veftiges were difcoverable when Alexander founded the fecond city, whilst they admit the latter fact equally unauthorised by prefent appearances. fic. They feast separately on pilav, and retire at an early hour, when the ceremony is concluded. "The fucceffion of five tumuli, under the diftant horizon, tends more than any other proof to afeer. tain the Trojan war. About an hour and a half from Bournabashi, on an eafy eminence facing the west, we difcovered veftiges of an ancient city. On the right are ftanding feven granite pillars feveral feet high, but it rather appears that they are not placed in their original order. On the other fide, we faw a fmall block of marble with an infcription, a few inches above the ground, which being dug up, we found to be of the date of the Roman emperors, and too much mutilated to be decyphered fatisfactorily. "From this fpot we had a moft interefting profpect independent of its local hiftory; the magic of which, and its effects on the mind, are beautifully defcribed by Lucan. The left fkreen is a low ridge of hills; the middle distance is the great area, upon which the Greeks were encamped; beyond was the fcene of many of the great events of the war; and the offikip and skirting line were compofed of the promontory of Tenedos, Bethiktepè, Sigèum, the village of Koum-kaleh, down to the water edge, and a broad winding reach of the Hellefpont, into which the oppofite headland and caftle were brought forward with confiderable effect. The fea then spreads very widely, and the view is clofed by the blue mountains of Imbros. The length and extent of this ifland have been extremely mistaken, as fcarcely a map is extant which defcribes it above half its real fize. We rode about half an hour over heathy ground, much elevated, to Halyleli, near the village of Thimbrik-keuy, and at the inftant of our paffing, a Turkish wedding was celebrating among the villagers; the bufinefs is fummary. The parents of both parties, or the bridegroom for him-" With respectful deference to a felf, fettle the contract, which implies what dower he fhall give the bride. This arrangement made, the bridegroom affembles his friends; they mount horfes, and are accompanied by mufic, fuch as a very rude hautboy, or pipe, and a drum, can make. The bride is demanded, and has likewife a cavalcade of her female relatives, when they return home animated with the fame mu "From the detail of topographical notices given by Homer, and from a comparison of the circumftances he mentions, the ftrongeft affurances will follow not only of the existence, but the locality of Troy. To infift that the poem fhoud be hiftorically exact, would be to make no allowance for the Hberty of a poet. That it is topogra phically fo, an examination of the prefent face of the country will amply prove, and it is equally an object of claffical curiofity, whether Troy exifted or not, fince the fable, if fuch it must be, is invariably ac commodated to the scene of action. name fo long efteemed in the republic of letters as that of Mr. Bryant, I humbly but totally diffent from his fcepticifm on this fubject. For it is not to the tastelefs fyftem of Le Boffu in his Effay on the Epic, who has preceded Mr. Bryant in a fimilar hypothefis, that the opinion of many ages, and the fatisfaction of ocular infpection, can be readily conceded. To establish a conviction |