to the promontory of Lectum, diminishing in altitude and copper. (Clem. Alex., Strom., 1, p. 420.) The as it proceeds towards the latter. Mr. Hawkins says Chronicle of Paros places the date of this discovery that this ridge is not inferior in height to that which under the reign of Pandion, king of Athens, that is to faces the plain of Troy. Herodotus, Xenophon, and say, 1432 years before the Christian era. (Marm., Strabo evidently design by Ida the ridge towards Oxon. Epoch., 11.) Strabo informs us, that, accordTroy; or at least they exclude Gargarus. The for- ing to some ancient writers, the Curetes and the Corymer, in describing the march of Xerxes northward bantes were the offspring of the Idæi Dactyli; that 100 from Pergamus, Thebes, and Antandros, to Ilium, men, the first inhabitants of Crete, were called by this makes the Persian monarch leave Ida "on his left latter name; that these begat nine Curetes, and that hand" (7, 42), that is, to the west. Now the summit each one of these nine begat in his turn ten sons, of Gargarus being little short of an English mile in al-named Idæi Dactyli like their grandfathers. (Strabo, titude, what should have induced Xerxes to lead his 473, seqq.) Strabo remarks on this occasion, with army over such a ridge, when he might have gone a great good sense, that early antiquity was accustomed straighter and smoother road by avoiding it, and when, to throw the garb of fable around many notions based after all, he must of necessity have crossed the west- in reality on the nature of things. An ingenious anern ridge also in order to arrive at Ilium?-Again, tiquary of modern times, struck by the truth of this Xenophon says (Anab., 7), that in his way (southward) remark, first calls our attention to the metrical sense from Ilium through Antandros to Adramyttium, he of dákтvλos (finger), and then adds, with every apcrossed Mount Ida. Of course it must have been the pearance of reason, that the numbers 100, 9, and 10, western and southern ranges, as is done at present by applied to the Dactyli and the Curetes, belong probathose who travel from the Dardanelles to Adramyt or bly to some arithmetical or physical theory. As to Adramyttium. Strabo unquestionably refers the ideas the name Dactyli itself, whether we must seek its etyof Demetrius respecting the mountains of Cotylus mology in the number of fingers on each hand, or else (i. e., Gargarus) and its views to the Trojan Ida; nev- in the idea of measure, and, consequently, of cadence, er supposing that the lofty mountain over Antandros equally derived from the movement of the fingers, and and Gargara was Cotylus, the highest point of Ida, identical, besides, with the idea of number, still it is whence Demetrius derives the fountains of the Sca- thought that, in forging iron by the aid of their hands mander, the sepus, and the Granicus. Strabo con- and fingers, the Dactyli observed at first a species of cluded that all these rivers sprang from that chain of dactylic rhythm, and that these forgers were the first Ida bordering on the Trojan plain which he had in that applied the dance to this same rhythm; from all view from the seacoast; and which, it appears, was which arose their peculiar name. (Jomard, sur le Systhe only Ida known to him. (Rennell's Observations tème Métrique des anciens Egyptiens.-Descript. de on the Topography of Troy, p. 17, seqq.)-Ida was l'Egypte, Antiquités, Memoires, vol. 1, p. 744, seqq.) remarkable for its thick forests and excellent timber. Its name is thought to be derived from the circumstance of its being covered with woods, idŋoi KaтηрEns, as Herodotus says of a part of Media (1, 110). It was the source of many streams (Hom., Il., 12, 19), and on Ida also Paris adjudged to Venus the prize of beauty.-II. The highest and most celebrated mountain of Crete, rising nearly in the centre of the island. According to Strabo, it was 600 stadia in circuit, and around its base were many large and flourishing cities. (Strab., 475.-Compare Dionys. Perieg., v. 501.) The summit, named Panacra, was especially sacred to Jove. (Callim., Hymn. in Jov., 50.) Here Jove was fabled to have been educated by the Corybantes, who on that account were called Idæi. The modern name of the mountain is Psiloriti. (Cramer's Anc. Greece, vol. 3, p. 381.)

IDEA, the surname of Cybele, because she was worshipped on Mount Ida. (Lucr., 2, 611.)

IDAI DACTYLI, priests of Cybele, who, according to Ephorus (ap. Diod. Sic., 5, 64.-Fragm., ed. Marx, p. 176), were so called from Ida, the mountain of Phrygia, where they had their abode. The poets and mythologists vary much in their accounts of this class of individuals. Some make them to have been the sons of Jupiter and the nymph Ida; others confound them with the Curetes or Corybantes; while others, again, make the Curetes their offspring. The same diversity of opinion exists as to their number. Some make them to have been only five (Pausan., 5, 7), and hence they suppose them to have been called Dactyli, from the analogy between their number and that of the fingers (dúkтvλoi) on each hand. Others make the number much larger. Pherecydes, one of the early Grecian historians, spoke of 20 Idæi Dactyli placed on the right, and of 32 on the left, all children of Ida, all workers in iron, and, moreover, expert in sorcery. (Schol. ad Apoll. Rh., 1, 1129.-Pherecyd., fragm., ed Sturz., p. 146.) Hellanicus pretended that the Dactyli on the right were occupied with breaking the charm formed by those on the left. In one thing all the ancient authorities agree, namely, that the Idæi Dactyli first taught mankind the art of working iron

IDALIUM, a height and grove of Cyprus, near the promontory of Pedalium. It was the favourite abode of Venus, hence called Idalia, and here, too, Adonis was killed by the tooth of the boar. Virgil speaks of this hill or mountain under the name of Idalium (Æn., 1, 681), and shortly after makes mention of the groves of Idalia (1, 693). By this last is meant the entire region ('Idañía xúpa.-Heyne, ad Virg., l. c.). On another occasion (En., 10, 86), he speaks of a city named Idalium. (Compare Theocritus, 15, 101. Toλyús тe kaì 'Idáλiov.-Steph. Byz., s. v.) The city or town of Idalium is passed over in silence by the ancient geographical writers. It is first referred to by the later scholiasts. (Serv., ad Virg., Æn., 1, 681. Schol. ad Theocrit., 15, 101.) It no doubt existed from an early period, but was too insignificant to excite attention. D'Anville is inclined to make the modern Dalin correspond to the ancient grove and city. Idalium is said to signify literally, "the place of the goddess," in the Phoenician tongue. (Bochart, Geogr. Sacr., lib. 1, c. 3, p. 356.-Compare Gale's Court of the Gentiles, as cited by Clarke, Travels, vol. 4, p. 36, Lond. ed., 1817.)

IDAS, a son of Aphareus, famous for his valour. He was among the Argonauts, and married Marpessa, the daughter of Evenus, king of Ætolia. Marpessa was carried away by Apollo, and Idas pursued him, and obliged him to restore her. (Vid. Marpessa.) According to Apollodorus, Idas, with his brother Lynceus, associated with Pollux and Castor to carry away some flocks; but, when they had obtained a sufficient quantity of plunder, they refused to divide it into equal shares. This provoked the sons of Leda; Lynceus was killed by Castor, and Idas, to revenge his brother's death, immediately slew Castor, and in his turn perished by the hand of Pollux. According to Pausanias, the quarrel between the sons of Leda and those of Aphareus arose from a different cause. Idas and Lynceus, as they say, were going to celebrate their nuptials with Phoebe and Hilara, the two daughters of Leucippus; but Castor and Pollux, who had been invited to partake the common festivity, carried off the brides, and Idas and Lynceus

neighbouring country abounded in thick groves of these trees, together with the tree which afforded the balm or balsam of Gilead. At present, however, there is not a tree of any kind, either palm or balsam, and scarcely any verdure or bushes, to be seen about the site of this deserted city. But the desolation with which its ruins are surrounded is rather to be ascribed, according to Mr. Buckingham, to the cessation of the usual agricultural labours on the soil, and the want of a distribution of water over it by the aqueducts, the remains of which evince that they were constructed chiefly for that purpose, than to any change in the climate or the soil; an observation which may be extended to many parts of the Holy Land. (Mansford's Scripture Gazetteer, p. 208, seqq.)

such accounts from them as would have substantiated what has just been advanced. As regards the early population of this island, it may, we believe, be safely assumed as a fact, that the northern half of the country was peopled by the Scoti; not only because in later years we find Scoti in this quarter as well as on the Isle of Man, but because even at the present day the Erse language is not completely obliterated in some of the northern provinces. The southern half of the island seems to have had a Celtic population. It is a very curious fact, however, that the names of many places in ancient Ireland, as given by Ptolemy, bear no resemblance whatever either to Scottish or Celtic appellations. This has given rise to various theories, and, in particular, to one which favours the idea of migrations from the Spanish peninsula. Tacitus considers the Silures in Britain as of Spanish origin; but this supposition is merely grounded on an accidental resemblance in some national customs. Inquiries have been made in modern days into the Basque language, which is supposed to contain traces of the ancient Iberian, but no analogy has been discovered between it and the modern Irish. The Roman arms never reached Ireland, although merchants of that nation often visited its coasts. From the accounts of the latter, Ptolemy obtained materials for his map of this island. It is worthy of remark, that this geographer does not name a single place in northern Scotland, whereas, in the same quarter of the sister island, he mentions as many as 10 cities, one of them of considerable size, and three others of the number situate on the coast. Is not this a proof that Ireland, at this early period, had attained a considerable degree of civilization? A barbarous people never found cities on the coast. In addition to what has thus far been remarked, it may be stated that Herodotus was equally ignorant of Ireland and Britain. Eratosthenes gives a general and rude outline of the latter, but knew nothing of the former. Strabo had some knowledge, though very imperfect, of both. Pliny's information, with regard to both Britain and Ireland, greatly surpasses that of his predecessors. Diodorus Siculus calls the latter Iris or Irin, and copies a foolish story of the natives being cannibals. (Mannert, Geogr., vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 33, seqq.)

IERNE, one of the ancient names of Ireland. Pytheas, who, to his own personal acquaintance with this quarter of the globe, added much information respecting it, which he had obtained from the early inhabitants of Gades in Spain, is the first who calls Ireland by the name of Ierne ('Iépvn). From Aristotle, a contemporary of his, we learn that what are now England and Ireland were then denominated Вpeтavikai vñool. (De Mundo, c. 3.) In Cæsar's commentaries a change of appellation appears. England is there styled Britannia, and Ireland, Hibernia. (B. G., 5, 12, &c.) The idea very naturally suggests itself, that Cæsar may have given this name to the latter island of his own accord, for the purpose of denoting the severity of its climate, and that the meaning of the term is nothing more than Winter-land. Such a supposition, however, although it may wear a plausible appearance, seems to have no foundation whatever in fact. It is more than probable that Cæsar gives the name as he heard it from others, without associating with it any idea of cold. He merely places the island to the west of Britain. It was Strabo who made it lie far to the north, and, in consequence of this error, first gave rise to the opinion, if any such were ever in reality entertained, that the climate of Ireland was cold and rigorous. But a question here presents itself, whether Ierne or Hibernia be the true appellation of this island. The latter, we believe, will, on examination, appear entitled to the preference. It is more than probable that Pytheas received the name Ierne from the mouths of the neighbouring nations, contracted from Hibernia. This supposition would approach to certainty, if we possessed any means of substantiating as a fact, that the appellation Hiberni, which is given to the inhabitants of the island, was used in the old accounts respecting it, and not first introduced by so late a writer as Avienus. A strong argument may be deduced, however, from what appears to have been the ancient pronunciation of the word Hibernia. The consonant b may have been softened down so as to resemble ou in sound, a change far from uncommon; and hence Hibernia would be pronounced as if written 'lovepvía, whence Ierne may very easily have been formed. IGNATIUS, a martyr who suffered at Rome during (Consult remarks under the article Iuverna.) The the third persecution of the Christians. He was a modern name Erin, which is sometimes applied to Syrian by birth, and an immediate disciple of St. John Ireland, is an evident derivation from Ierne, if not the Evangelist, who, in the 67th year of the Christian itself the ancient Erse root of that term. Ireland era, committed the church at Antioch to his pastoral was known at a very early period to the ancient mar-superintendence, as successor to Euodius. Over this iners of southern Europe, by the appellation of the Holy Island. This remarkable title leads to the suspicion that the primitive seat of the Druidical system of worship may have been in Ireland. Cæsar, it is true, found Druids in Gaul, but he states, at the same time, that they were always sent to complete their religious education in Britain; and we shall perceive, if we compare later authorities, that the sanctuary of the Druids was not in Britain itself, but in the island of Anglesea, between which and the adjacent coast of Ireland the distance across is only 85 miles. Had the Romans extended their inquiries on this subject to Ireland itself, we should evidently have received

JERUSALEM, the capital of Judæa. (Vid. Hierosolyma.)

IGILGILIS, a town of Mauretania Cæsariensis, west of the mouth of the river Ampsagas, and north of Cirta. It is now Gigeri or Jigel. (Pliny, 5, 2.—Amm. Marcell., 29, 5.)

IGILIUM, now Giglio, an island of Italy, near the coast of Etruria, off the promontory of Argentarius. The thick woods of this island served as a place of refuge for a great number of Romans, who fled from the sack of Rome by Attila. (Mela, 2, 7.-Rutilius, It. I., 325.)

bishopric he presided for upward of 40 years, when the Emperor Trajan, after his triumph over the Dacians, entering the city, exercised many severities towards those who professed the Christian faith, and summoned the prelate himself before him, on which occasion Ignatius conducted himself with such boldness in the imperial presence, that he was forthwith sent to Rome, and ordered to be exposed in the amphitheatre to the fury of wild beasts. This dreadful death he underwent with great fortitude, having availed himself of the interval between his sentence and its execution to strengthen, by his exhortations, the faith of the Roman converts. After his decease, which took place A.D. 107, or, accord

4, 12.-Appian, B. Civ., 2, 42.) In the reign of Gallienus it was almost entirely destroyed by the barbarians, who, migrating from Germany, ravaged the western parts of the empire. It is now Lerida in Catalonia. (Auson., Epist. ad Paullin., 26, 59.—Id., Profess., 23, 4.-Ukert, Geogr., vol. 2, p. 451.) ILERGETES. Vid. Ilerda.

ing to some accounts, A.D. 116, his remains were carried | (now Tortosa) and Tarraco (now Tarragona) were two to Antioch for interment.-If, as some suppose, Ignati- of their towns. (Ukert, Geogr., vol. 2, p. 418.) us was not one of the little children whom Jesus took up ILERDA, the capital city of the Ilergetes in Spain, in his arms and blessed, it is certain that he conversed situate on the Sicoris or Segre, a tributary of the Ibefamiliarly with the apostles, and was perfectly acquaint-rus. (Strabo, 161.) The situation of this place, near ed with their doctrine. Of his works there remain the foot of the Pyrenees, exposed it incessantly to seven epistles, edited in 1645 by Archbishop Usher, the horrors of war, from the time that the Romans berepublished by Cotelerius in 1672, in his collection of gan to penerate into Spain. It was celebrated for the the writings of the apostolical fathers; and again print-resistance it made against Cæsar, under the lieutenants ed in 1697 at Amsterdam, with notes, and the com- of Pompey, Afranius and Petreius, who were, howmentaries of Usher and Pearson. An English transla-ever, finally defeated. (Cas., B. Civ., 1, 61.—Flor., tion of them, from the pen of Archbishop Wake, is to be found among the works of that prelate. There are some other letters of minor importance, which, though the question of their authenticity has met with supporters, are generally considered to have been attributed to him on insufficient authority.-II. A patriarch of Constantinople, about the middle of the ninth century. He was son to the Emperor Michael Curopalata, and on the deposition of his father assumed the ecclesiastical habit. The uncompromising firmness which he displayed after his elevation to the patriarchal chair in 847, in subjecting Bardas, a court-favourite, to the censures of the church, on account of an incestuous connexion, caused him to undergo a temporary deprivation of office. Under Basil, however, he was restored to his former dignity, and presided in his capacity of patriarch at the eighth general council. His death took place about the year 878. (Gorton's Biogr. Dict., vol. 2, p. 162.)

ILIA, otherwise called Rhea Silvia, daughter of Numitor, king of Alba, was appointed one of the vestal virgins by Amulius, after the latter had wrested from his brother Numitor the kingdom of Alba. Amulius made his niece a vestal to prevent her having any offspring, the vestals being bound to perpetual chastity. Mars, however, according to the old legend, overpow ered the timid maiden in the sacred grove, whither she had gone to draw water from a spring for the service of the temple. She became the mother of Romulus and Remus, and, according to one account, was buried alive on the banks of the Tiber. Ennius, howIGUVIUM, a city of Umbria, on the Via Flaminia, to ever, as cited by Porphyrion (ad Hor., Od., 1, 2, 17), the south of Tifernum, and at the foot of the main makes her to have been cast into the Tiber, previous to chain of the Apennines. It is now Eugubbio, or, as which she had become the bride of the Anio. Horace, it is more commonly called, Gubbio. Iguvium was a on the contrary, speaks of her as having married the municipal town; and, as it would seem from the im- god of the Tiber. Servius (ad En., 1, 274) alludes portance attached to its possession by Cæsar when he to this version of the fable as adopted by Horace and invaded Italy, a place of some consequence. (Cas., others. Acron also, in his scholia on the passage in Bell. Civ., 1, 2.-Compare Cic. ad Att., 7, 13.-Plin., Horace just cited, speaks of Ilia as having married the 3, 14.) This city has acquired great celebrity in mod-god of the Tiber. According to the account which ern times, from the discovery of some interesting he gives, Ilia was buried on the bank of the Anio, and monuments in its vicinity, in the year 1440. These the river, having overflowed its borders, carried ber consist of several bronze tablets covered with inscrip- remains down to the Tiber; hence she was said to tions, some of which are in Umbrian, others in Latin have espoused the deity of the last-mentioned stream. characters. They have been made the subject of many a learned dissertation by modern literati. The most recent work on the subject is by Grotefend, entitled Rudimenta Lingua Umbrica, 4to, Hannov., 1835-39.

ILIAS, a celebrated poem composed by Homer, upon the Trojan war, which delineates the wrath of Achilles, and all the calamities which befell the Greeks, from the refusal of that hero to appear in the field of battle. It finishes with the funeral rites of Hector, whom AchilILBA or ILVA, an island of the Tyrrhene Sea, off the les had sacrificed to the shade of his friend Patroclus, coast of Etruria, and about ten miles from the prom- and is divided into twenty-four books.-Modern critontory of Populonium. It was early celebrated for its ics differ very much in opinion with regard to the rich iron mines; but by whom they were first discov- proper termination of the Iliad. Wolf and Heyne, ered and worked is uncertain, as they are said to ex-with others, think that there is an excess of two books, hibit the marks of labours carried on for an incalculable time. (Pini, Osserv. Mineral. sulla miniera di ferro di Rio, &c., 1777, 8vo.—Lettre sur l'histoire naturelle de l'sle d'Elbe, par Koestlin, Vienne, 1780, 8vo.) It even seems to have been a popular belief among the ancients, that the metallic substance was constantly renewed. (Aristot., de Mir., p. 1158.-Strab., 223. -Plin., 34, 14.) It is probable that the Phoenicians were the first to make known the mineral riches of this island, and that it was from them the Tyrrheni learned to estimate its value, which may have held out to them no small inducement for settling on a coast otherwise deficient in natural advantages. It is to the latter people that we ought to trace the name of Ethalia, given to this island by the Greeks, and which the latter derived from aïow (to burn), in allusion to the number of forges on the island. According to Polybius (ap. Steph. Byz.), the same appellation was given to Lemnos, a Tyrrhenian settlement in early times. Ilva is now Elba. (Cramer's Anc. Italy, vol. 1, p. 210.)

ILERCAONES, a Spanish tribe, east of the Edetani, on both sides of the Iberus, near its mouth. Dertosa

and that the death of Hector is the true end of the poem. The 23d and 24th books, therefore, they consider as the work of another author. Granville Penn, however, has undertaken to show (Primary Argument of the Iliad, Lond., 1821), that the poem is to be taken as a whole, and that its primary and governing argument is the sure and irresistible power of the divine will over the most resolute and determined will of man, exemplified in the death and burial of Hector, by the instrumentality of Achilles, as the immediate preliminary to the destruction of Troy-The following observations on the unity and general character of the Iliad, taken from an able critique in the Quarterly Review (No. 87, p. 147, seqq.), may be read with advantage by the student. "Does the Iliad appear to have been cast, whole and perfect, in one mould, by the vivifying energy of its original creator, or does it bear undeniable marks of its being an assemblage of unconnected parts, blended together, or fused into one mass by a different and more recent compiler?-We cannot but think the universal admiration of its unity by the better, the poetic age of Greece, almost conclusive testimony to its original uniform composition. It was

not till the age of the grammarians that its primitive in- | Pisistratidæ, it is surely unaccountable that, considertegrity was called in question; nor is it injustice to ing the whole of the Trojan war must have been a faassert, that the minute and analytical spirit of a gram-vourite subject with these wandering bards, all the marian is not the best qualification, for the profound feeling, the comprehensive conception of an harmonious whole. The most exquisite anatomist may be no judge of the symmetry of the human frame, and we would take the opinion of Chantrey or Westmacott on the proportions and general beauty of a form rather than that of Mr. Brodie or Sir Astley Cooper.-There is some truth, though some malicious exaggeration, in the lines of Pope :

"The critic eye, that microscope of wit,

more valuable part of this poetry should easily combine into a plan, embracing only so short a period of these ten years of splendid Grecian enterprise. Had not one of these numerous Homers touched with Homeric life and truth any of the other great poetical events which preceded, or the still more striking incidents which followed the wrath of Achilles and the death of Hector-the destruction of the city, for instance the midnight devastation of ancient Ilium? We are far from asserting that many passages of the Iliad-as the adventures of Diomed, the night enterSees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit: prise of Diomed and Ulysses, with the death of RheHow parts relate to parts, or they to whole; The body's harmony, the beaming soul; sus-necessarily belong to that period of the war; it Are things which Kuster, Burman, Wasse, shall see, work by a later and a foreign hand; but it is someis possible that they may have been inlaid into the When man's whole frame is obvious to a flea.' what incredible that the compilers should have been -We would not comprehend, under this sweeping able to condense the whole of the nobler Homeric denunciation, men of genius as well as critical saga-poetry into the plan of the Iliad and Odyssey; and if city, such as Heyne and Wolf, still less those of the they rejected any passages of equal merit, what behighest poetic feeling, who, both in this and other came of them? Did they form the poems of Arctinus, countries, are converts to their system. Yet there is Stasinus, and Lesches? were they left to be moulded a sort of contagion in literary as well as religious scep-up in the Cyclic poems? But how immeasurably inticism; we like, in scholarship, to be on the stronger ferior, by the general consent of Greece, was all the side, and the very names of Bentley, Wolf, and Heyne rest of their epic poetry to the Iliad and Odyssey! It would sweep a host of followers into their train. In is probable that the better passages in the poem of the authors of a paradox, criticism, like jealousy, fur- Quintus Calaber are borrowed, or but slightly modnishes the food which it grows on; and it is astonish-ified, from the Cyclic poets; but how rarely do we ing, when once possessed with a favourite opinion, how it draws from trifles confirmation strong,' and overlooks the most glaring objections; while, if the new doctrine once forces its way into general notice, ardent proselytes crowd in from all quarters, until that which was at first a timid and doubtful heresy, becomes a standard article of the scholar's creed, from which it requires courage to dissent. Such to us appears to have been the fate of the hypotheses before us. -For, in the first place, it seems that many of the objections to the original unity of the poem apply with equal force to the Pisistratid compilation. It is, for instance, quite as likely, that in the heat of composition the bard should have forgotten something; that, for example, owing to his obliviousness, the Pylum-level surface of the ocean, but rather that of Atlas, the enes, whom he had slain outright in the fifth book, should revive, gallantly fighting, in the thirteenth; and thus, in a different way from the warrior of the Italian poet:

recognise the clear, the free, the Homeric life and energy of the two great poems! But we must go farther. To us, we boldly confess, the fable of the Iliad is, if not its greatest, among its greatest perfections; the more we study it, like a vast and various yet still uniform building, the more it assumes a distinct relation of parts, a more admirable consonance in its general effect: it is not the simple unity of the single figure, as in the Odyssey, but it is the more daring complexity of the historical design, the grouping of a multitude of figures, subordinate to the principal, which appears the more lofty from the comparative height of those around him. The greatness of Achilles in the Iliad is not that of Teneriffe, rising alone from the

loftiest peak of a gradually ascending chain; he is surrounded by giants, yet still collo supereminet omnes. Much of the difficulty has arisen from seeking in the Iliad a kind of technical unity, foreign to the charac'Andare combattendo, ed esser morto.' ter and at variance with the object of the primitive epopee: it is a unity, as a French critic, La Motte, The slow and cautious compiler is even less likely to long ago remarked, of interest. Mr. Coleridge has have made such an oversight than the rapid and inven- sensibly observed, it may well, indeed, be doubted tive poet; and, by-the-way, Sancho Panza's wife's whether the alleged difficulty is not entirely the critname is changed, through Cervantes' forgetfulness of ic's own creation; whether the presumption of the such trifles, in the second part of Don Quixote; but necessity for a pre-arranged plan, exactly commensuno such lapsus can be alleged against the spurious rate with the extent of the poem, is not founded on a continuator of the romance, Avellenada. Nor, sec- misconception of the history and character of early ondly, will any critical reader of Homer pretend that heroic poetry.' The question is not, whether the we possess the Homeric poems entire and uninterpo- whole fable is strictly comprised within the brief proplated. That they were, at one period of their history, osition of the subject, in the simple exordium, but recited in broken fragments; that the wandering rhap- whether the hearer's mind is carried on with constant sodists would not scruple to insert occasionally verses and unfailing excitement; whether, if the bard had of their own; that certain long and irrelevant passages stopped short of the termination of his poem, he would of coarser texture may have thus been interwoven into not have left a feeling of dissatisfaction on the mind; the rich tissue of the work-all these points will read- at least, whether every event, even to the lamentations ily be conceded: but while these admissions explain over the body of Hector, does not flow so naturally almost every discrepance of composition and anomaly from the main design, and seem so completely to carry of language and versification, they leave the main ques- us on in an unbroken state of suspense and intense tion, the unity of the original design, entirely un- curiosity, that even to the last verse we are almost intouched. We will hazard one more observation be-clined to regret that the strain breaks off too soon :

fore we venture to throw down our glove in defence of the suspected unity of the Iliad. If, on Heyne's

supposition (for the objection does not strictly apply to that of Wolf), the Iliad was compiled from scat

"The angel ended, and in Adam's ear
So charming left his voice, that he a while
Thought him still speaking.".

tered fragments of ancient poetry in the age of the It is much to be desired, that, as the xwpícovres, the