the Odyssey revised as circumstantial as that of the Iliad. because it went on smoothly from beginning to end, and was finished in less than eight months.

"I cannot deliver these volumes to the public without feeling emotions of gratitude towards heaven, in recollecting how often this corrected work has appeared to me an instrument of divine mercy to mitigate the sufferings of my excellent relation. Its progress in our private hours was singularly medicinal to his mind; may its presentment to the public prove not less conducive to the honour of the departed author, who has every claim to my veneration. As a copious life of the poet is already in

the press, from the pen of his intimate friend Mr. Hayley, it is unnecessary for me to enter on such extensive commendation of his character, as my own intimacy with him might suggest; but I hope the reader will kindly allow me the privilege of indulging, in some degree, the feelings of my heart, by applying to him, în the close of this preface, an expressive verse (borrowed from Homer) which he inscribed himself, with some little variation, on a bust of his Grecian favourite.

Ως τε πατης ῳ παιδί, καὶ ἔποτε λήσομαι αυτό
Lov'd as his son, in him I early found
A father, such as I will ne'er forget.

NEW EDITION.

Sing, Muse, the deadly wrath of Peleus' son,
Achilles, source of many thousand woes
To the Achaian host, which num'rous souls
Of heroes sent to Ades premature,
And left their bodies to devouring dogs
And birds of beav'n (so Jove his will per-
form'd)

From that dread hour when discord first embroil'd

Achilles and Atrides, king of men.

Who of the gods impell'd them to contend?

Latona's son and Jove's. For he, incensed
Against the king, a foul contagion raised
In all the host, and multitudes destroy'd,
For the affront from Atreus' son received
By his priest Chryses. To the fleet of Greece
He came with precious ransom to redeem
His captive daughter, and Apollo's wreath
And golden sceptre bearing in his hand.

His supplication was at large to all The host of Greece, but most of all to two, The sons of Atreus, highest in command.

Ye gallant chiefs, and ye their gallant host, (So may the gods who in Olympus dwell Cive Priam's treasures to you for a spoil, And ye return in safety) take my gifts, And loose my child, in honour of the son Of Jove, Apollo, archer of the skies.

At once the voice of all was to respect The priest, and to accept the bounteous price;

But so it pleased not Atreus' mighty son, King Agamemnon, who with harsh rebuke And with loud threat'nings stern, him thus

dismiss'd.

Beware, old man! that at these hollow

barks

I find thee not now ling'ring, or henceforth

OLD EDITION.

Achilles sing, O goddess! Peleus' son;
His wrath pernicious, who ten thousand woes
Caused to Achaia's host, sent many a soul
Illustrious into Ades premature,

And heroes gave (so stood the will of Jove)
To dogs, and to all rav'ning fowls, a prey,
When fierce dispute had separated once
The noble chief Achilles from the son
Of Atreus, Agamemnon, king of men.

Who them to strife impell'd? What power divine?

For that the son of Atreus had his priest
Dishonour'd, Chryses. To the fleet he came
Bearing rich ransom glorious to redeem
His daughter, and his hands charged with
the wreath

And golden sceptre of the god shaft-arm'd

Who with rude threat'nings stern him thus

dismiss'd.

The tenth, Achilles from all parts conven'd The host in council. Jove's majestic spouse Moved at the sight of Grecians all around

The fuli assembly, therefore, now convened, Uprose Achilles ardent, and began.

Atrides! I suppose, if we escape

With life, we now must wander home again,
Since war and plague unite to lay us waste.
But time is urgent;-haste we to consult
Priest, prophet, or interpreter of dreams,
(For dreams are also of Jove) that we may

learn

What crime of ours Apollo thus resents, What broken vow, what hecatorib unpaid He charges on us, and if soothed with steam Of lambs or goats unblemished, he may yet Be won to spare us, and avert the plague.

Atrides, now it seems no course remains For us, but that the seas roaming again, We hence return; at least if we survive; But haste, consult we quick some prophet here,

Or priest, or ev'n interpreter of dreams, (For dreams are also of Jove) that we may learn,

By what crime we have thus incens'd Apolk, 'What broken vɔw, &c.

CXL. DENON'S TRAVELS in Upper and Lower Egypt.

(Concluded from page 561.)

HE caverns at Ssakkarah were

Topened while M. Denon was

there, and a sepulchral chamber containing more than five hundred ibis mummies were discovered, two of which were given to our traveller, who opened them to ascertain the manner of their embalming a long account of the way in which these birds had been preserved is given. It is remarked that there is a visible variety in the degree of care which was bestowed upon the embalments of these birds; it is supposed that there was for these, as for those of men, a variety of prices, and that the ibis, the destroyer of all reptiles, must have been held in veneration in a country where they abound at a certain season of the year; and that, like the stork in Holland, this bird being domesticated by the attention paid him, each house had its own fathful attendant, to whom, after its death the master, according to his means, gave the honour of sepulture. p. 121.

The author considers what Herodotus has related of winged serpents as fabulous, and introduces an account of the psylluses, from whom he obtained the sight of an inspiration, which is thus described. "The chief of the psylluses came to him in all the gravity of his supremacy: he was clothed in a long robe, of which the magnificence was relieved by the indifferent raiment of three of the initiated who accompanied him, and who had only a few rags on their bodies.

"They had brought some serpents; they put them out of a leathern bag in which they had them confined, and, by irritation, caused them to rise and hiss. M. Denon remarked that they were principally irritated by the light, for as soon as their anger ceased, and they no Jonger attempted to bite; they had this peculiarity, that below their heads, for the length of six inches, anger dilated their skin to the width of a hand. He clearly saw that he should for the future be as little fearful of the bite of a serpent as a psyllus; for having carefully remarked that in attacking them with one hand they

seized them close to the head with the other, he, to their great scandal, did all that they had done, and without danger. From this juggle they went to the grand mystery: a psyl lus took one of the serpents, the lower jaw of which he had previously brok

en, and of which he further scraped the gums till the whole palate was gone; this done, he laid hold of it with an affectation of transport, approached the chief, who bestowed on him the breath, that is to say, after some mysterious words he breathed in his mouth; instantly the other, seized with a holy convulsion, his arms and legs distorted, his eyes staring from his head, began to tear the animal with his teeth; and his two supporters, who held him with difficulty, moved by what he seemed to suffer, tore from his hand the serpent, while he resisted the attempt; as soon as he was separated from it, he remained as if in stupor: the chief approached him, muttered a few words, resumed the spirit by aspiration, and he returned to his natural state; but he who had obtained possession of the serpent, tormented with eagerness to consummate the mystery, demanded the breath likewise; and, as he was more vigorous than the former, his cries and convulsions were still stronger and more ridiculous. Here the jugglery ceased *." p. 123–125.

The following character is given of the ass: "Melancholy in Europe, and always the more sad the nearer he is to the north, is in Egypt in his most favourable climate; there, in conse quence, he seems to enjoy the fulness of his existence: spirited, active, and willing, he is the gentlest and surest animal that can be mounted; his natural paces are the amble and the gallop, and, without fatiguing his rider, he goes over the great extent of ground which it is necessary to cross in passing from one part of Kaira to another." p. 125, 126.

The following description of the country is given. "Visiting the entrance of the valley of Faïùm, about two miles to the west of Benézuef, after a march of two hours, the French arrived at Davalta, a beautiful village, that is to say, a beautiful landscape; for, in Egypt, nature, when she is beautiful, is admirable, in spite

The serpents are neither mischievous nor dangerous,

of all with which men disfigure her, and in spite of those detractors of Savary, who are angry with his delightful descriptions. With all deference to such, it must yet be allowed that here nature herself, unassisted by human industry, plants groves of palms, under which she unites the orange, the sycamore, the oponcia, the banana, the acacia, and the pomegranate; that these trees form groupes of the sweetest variety of verdure; that when these thickets are surrounded as far as the eye can see by fields covered with ripe dura of sugar canes ready for the harvest, with wheat, with flax, and with trefoil, which covers with velvet the cracks in the earth as fast as the inundation retires; when, during the winter months of Europe, there are beneath the eyes this brilliant picture of the riches of spring, assuring the abundance of summer, it must be said with the traveller mentioned, that Egypt is the country most wonderfully organized by nature, and that it wants nothing but shady hills, with rivulets flowing from the sides, a government that would render its population industrious, and the repulsion of the Bedûins, to become the finest and the best of regions." p. 148,

149.

મ

The opinion of the Egyptians concerning thunder is given in the following reply of a professor of the law to General Dessaix. "It is well known that the thunder is an angel, but one of so small a bulk that he cannot be seen in the air: he has the power, however of bringing clouds from the Mediterranean into Abyssinia; and when human wickedness has arrived at its height, he makes his voice heard, which is that of rebuke and threat; and, to prove that punishment is at his disposal, he causes the gate of heaven to open, whence darts the lightning: but, the mercy of God being always infinite, his anger is never further manifested in Upper Egypt." f. 192.

The buildings at Tinty ra and Thebes are described by the author: they afforded him much gratification, and he makes this conclusion. "Their ornaments, always founded upon reason, always agreeing with each other, and always significative, equally evinced fixed principles, a taste founded upon truth, and a concatenation of profound reasonings; and

though we have not acquired evidence of the eminent degree at which they had arrived in the abstract sciences, their architecture alone, in the state in which we have found it, should give us an idea of the antiquity, the refinement, the character, and the gravity of this people.” p. 206.

The first volume contains 264 pages. Volume II. is embellished with an engraved plan of Alexandria, and the following plate: Arms of the Mamluks; an Assembly of Shecks; Meccans brought before General Belliard in the tombs of Nacadeh; and the Battle of the Pyramids.

The author has given the following account of the crocodile. "Wan dering continually on the banks of this river, M. Denon saw a considerable number of crocodiles, of all sizes, from three to twenty-six or twenty-eight feet in length; several officers worthy of credit have assured him that they have seen one of forty: they are not so much to be feared as it is pretended; they affect certain shallows in preference to others, an habitude which proves that they live in families; it is on the low isles that they bask in the sun, the heat of which they seem to seek; several are seen at a time, always motionless, and usually asleep, in the midst of birds, whom they do not frighten. What is it upon which these bulky animals live? Many stories are told of them, but M. Denon was never a witness of a single fact; bold to rashness, the soldiers braved them; he himself bathed daily in the Nile; the greater tranquillity offered by the night induced him to risk pretended dangers which no event rendered probable. They ate some of the corpses which war scattered in their way, a food which should have excited their appetite, and engaged them in a chase that promised the same; and yet the French were never attacked, and never did they see a single crocodile at any distance from the river. It should appear that the Nile supplies them in sufficient abundance with an easy prey; that they digest slowly, having, like the lizard, cold blood and a stomach with but little activity. To conclude, having to fight in that part of the Nile which is known to us only for themselves and for men, they would be very alarmning to the latter,

if, covered as they are with a defensive arm, almost proof against every one of ours, they were skilful in the use of the offensive ones with which they have been provided by nature." p. 91, 92.

Much of this volume is taken up with describing the ancient ruins of Egypt. We select the following account of the ruins of the great temple at Tintyra, now called Berbeh, which, in a former visit, had engaged the admiration of M. Denon. "He began with that which was in some sort the object of this journey, the celestial planisphere which occupies a part of the ceiling of a little apartment built on the top of the cella of the great temple. Neither the extreme Towness of the roof, the darkness of the chamber, which allowed him only a few hours of the day for the pursuit of his labour, the multiplicity of the details, nor the difficulty of not confounding them, when reviewed in so incommodious a manner, could arrest his purpose; the thought of describing to the learned of his native country an Egyptian low-relief of so great importance led him to make a duty of suffering the twisting of the neck which was necessary to its examination. The remaining part of the ceiling is divided into two equal portions, by a great figure, which M. Denon believes to be that of Isis; her feet are supported by the earth, her arms extended towards heaven, and she seems to occupy all the space which separates these. In the other division of the ceiling is another great figure, which he believes either to be heaven or the year, touching, both with its feet and hands, the same base, and covering with the curvature of its body fourteen globes, seated in fourteen barks, distributed on seven bands or zones, separated by hieroglyphics without number, and too much covered with besmoked stalactites to be distinguished. Behind this little chamber there is another, which receives light only by the door, but which is similarly covered with the most interesting and best executed hieroglyphics. It is very difficult to fix a thought on the probable use of this little edifice, thus highly elaborate in its details, and ornamented with pictures evidently scientific: it would appear that those of the ceiling are relative to the motion of the

celestial bodies, and those of the wall to that of the earth, the influence of the atmosphere, and those of the water. The earth is every where represented by the figure of Isis; this was the divinity of all the temples of Tintyra, for her emblem is formed in all their parts: her head serves for the capital of the columns of the portico and of the first chamber of the great temple; she is on the centre of the astragal; she is gigantically sculptured on the exterior wall of the bottom; she is the object of the ornaments of the frieze and cornice; she is in all the pictures, with all her attributes; it is her to whom all the of ferings are made, when it is not she herself who makes them to Osiris, her husband; she is on the doors which form the entrances of the enclosure; it is to her that are dedicated the little temples that bear her inscription in that which is on the right of the entrance, she is triumphing over two evil geniuses; in that which is behind the greater, she is incessantly depicted as holding Orus in her arms, defending him against all attacks, confiding him only to the figures of cows, suckling him at all ages, from infancy to puberty, hold. ing him in her arms like a child just born, and sometimes as offering him the breast, which he receives standing, being already near the height of his mother.

"M. Denon devoted all the moments in which he was without light sufficient for his view of the planisphere, to measuring the capitals, the columns, taking the plans, and entering into other details. There remain neither hinges nor fastening to those doors which enclosed mysteries of which the priests were so jealous, which enclosed also, perhaps, the treasures of the state, concealed with the same care; for the sanctuaries, resembling strong boxes by their double enclosure, preceded by so many doors; the chambers, devoted to an eternal night; the mystery spread over the rites, as obscure as the temples; the initiations, so difficult to he obtained, to which no stranger was ever admitted, and of which we have no idea, except that they were mysterious; the government, and the

This appears to be a mistake: Isis is the moon, Orus the earth.