have lasted forever, which seems to have been the intention of the founders of them.""

"Their very aspect," says Savary, "would awaken the genius of a polished nation; but the Turks and Copts, crushed to dust beneath an iron sceptre, behold them without astonishment, and build huts which even scarcely screen them from the sun, in their neighbourhood. These barbarians, if they want a millstone, do not blush to overturn a column, the support of a temple or portico, and saw it in pieces! Thus abject does despotism render men." "All here is sublime, all majestic. The kings seem to have acquired the glory of never dying while the obelisks and colossal statues exist, and have only laboured for immortality. They could preserve their memory against the efforts of time, but not against the efforts of the barbarism of conquerors; those dreadful scourges of science and nations, which in their pride they have too often erased from the face of the earth." "With pain one tears one's self from Thebes. Her monuments fix the traveller's eyes, and fill his mind with vast ideas. Beholding colossal figures and stately obelisks, which seem to surpass human powers, he says,' Man has done this,' and feels himself and his species ennobled. True it is, when he looks down on the wretched huts standing beside these magnificent labours, and when he perceives an ignorant people instead of a scientific nation, he grieves for the generations that are past and the arts that have perished with them; yet this very grief has a kind of charm for a heart of sensibility.'

Mons. Champollion speaks of Thebes in terms of equal admiration: "All that I had seen, all that I had learned on the left bank, appeared miserable in comparison with the gigantic conceptions by which I was surrounded at Carnac. I shall take care not to attempt to describe anything; for either my description would not express the thousandth part of what ought to be said, or if I drew a faint sketch, I

should be taken for an enthusiast, or perhaps for a madman. It will suffice to add, that no people, either ancient or modern, ever conceived the art of architecture on so sublime and so grand a scale as the ancient Egyptians. Their conceptions were those of men a hundred feet high."

"The temple of Luxor," says Belzoni, "presents to the traveller at once one of the most splendid groups of Egyptian grandeur. The extensive propylæon, with two obelisks and colossal statues in front, the thick groups of enormous columns, the variety of apartments, and the sanctuary it contains, the beautiful ornaments which adorn every part of the walls and columns described by Mr. Hamilton, cause in the astonished traveller an oblivion of all that he has seen before. If his attention be attracted to the north side of Thebes, by the towering remains that project a great height above the wood of palmtrees, he will gradually enter that forest-like assemblage of ruins, of temples, columns, obelisks, colossi, sphinxes, portals, and an endless number of other astonishing objects, that will convince him at once of the impossibility of a description. On the west side of the Nile still the traveller finds himself among wonders. The temples of Gournou, Memnonium, and Memdet Aboo attest the extent of the great city on this side. The unrivalled colossal figures in the plains of Thebes; the number of tombs excavated in the rocks; those in the great valley of their kings, with their paintings, sculptures, mummies, sarcophagi, figures, &c., are all objects worthy of the admiration of the traveller, who will not fail to wonder how a nation, which was once so great as to erect these stupendous edifices, could so far fall into oblivion that even their language and writing are totally unknown to us. Very imperfect ideas," he continues, can be formed of these extensive ruins, even from the accounts of the most skilful and accurate travellers. It is absolutely impossible to

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imagine the scene displayed without seeing it. The most sublime ideas that can be formed from the most magnificent specimens of our present architecture, would give a very incorrect picture of these ruins; for such is the difference, not only in magnitude, but in form, proportion, and construction, that even the pencil can convey but a faint idea of the whole. It appeared to me like entering a city of giants, who, after a long conflict, were all destroyed, leaving the ruins of their various temples as the only proofs of their former existence."

Travellers have sometimes taken a fancy to view these ruins by moonlight; and the view which they then present, though of course wanting in distinctness, is described as extremely impressive. Mr. Carne paid his second visit in this manner, and he says that it was still more interesting than the other. "The moon had risen, and we passed through one or two Arab villages in the way, where fires were lighted in the open air, and the men, after the labours of the day, were seated in groups round them, smoking and conversing with great cheerfulness. It is singular, that in the most burning climates of the East the inhabitants love a good fire at night, and a traveller soon catches the habit; yet the air was still very warm. There was no fear of interruption in exploring the ruins, for the Arabs dread to come here after daylight, as they often say these places were built by Afrit, the devil; and the belief in apparitions prevails among most of the Orientals. We again entered with delight the grand portico. It was a night of uncommon beauty, without a breath of wind stirring, and the moonlight fell vividly on some parts of the colonnades, while others were shaded so as to add to rather than diminish their grandeur. The obelisks, the statues, the lonely columns on the plain without, threw their long shadows on the mass of ruins around them, and the scene was in truth exquisitely mournful and beautiful."

TROJA, AND OTHER CITIES OF THE TROAS.

"IT has been asserted," says Sir William Gell, "and confidently maintained, that there does not exist the smallest vestige of the ancient city of Priam; and it is not the only capital concerning which the same erroneous idea has prevailed. The 'etiam periere ruinæ' of Virgil* seems to have been the foundation of this opinion; and it is not wonderful that it should maintain its ground until the truth was investigated, when we recollect that the ignorance of travellers for a long time countenanced the idea that not the smallest trace of the great and powerful Babylon remained, though destroyed at a period when the credibility of history is universally admitted. The existence, however, of the ruins of Babylon is now perfectly established. If the situation of the most magnificent capital of the four great monarchies of the world could have so long escaped the researches of modern inquirers, it will be granted that the vestiges of a city comparatively inconsiderable, the capital but of a small territory, and destroyed in a very remote age, might be easily overlooked."

Diodorus Siculus relates that the Samothracians were accustomed to say that the Pontic Sea had once been a vast pool of standing water, which, swollen by rivers running into it, first overflowed to the Cyanæ, two rocks of the Thracian Bosporus; and afterward, forcing a way and flooding the champaign country, formed the sea called the Hellespont.

The Samothracians also related that Dardanus passed over from their island, the place of his birth, in a boat to the continent of Asia, and settled in the Troïa. Here, forming a community, he built a city, from him called Dardania, situated on a small eminence near Mount Ida and the Promontory of Siga

*Not of Virgil, but of Lucan, Phars., lib. ix.

um, at the distance of about four miles from the seashore.

This Dardanus is said to have espoused Asia, called also Arisba and Batia, daughter of Teucer, king of Teucria. He was succeeded by Erichthonius, his son, who is celebrated in the Iliad for having possessed three thousand horses; and for being, moreover, the richest of men. We ought to have first stated, however, that Dardanus was accompanied by his nephew Corybas, who introduced the worship of Cybele; that he himself taught his subjects to worship Minerva, and that he gave them two statues of that goddess, one of which is well known by the name of Palladium.

Erichthonius died 1374 B.C., after a reign of seventy-five years. He had one son, named Tros; and Tros had three sons, among whom Ilus was his successor. His barrow is mentioned in the Iliad as still remaining in the plain before the city. He married Eurydice the daughter of Adrastus, by whom he had Laomedon, the father of Priam. He greatly embellished the city of Dardanus, which from him was called Ilium, as from his father it had been called Troja.

Ilus was succeeded by his son Laomedon. This prince surrounded the city with walls; in which he is fabulously stated to have been assisted by two deities. For an account of this, the reader may consult Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and other ancient poets. Not long after he had built the walls, they are said to have been thrown down by Hercules, the streets made desolate, and Laomedon slain.

Priamus, one of the most unfortunate as well as most celebrated of princes, succeeded his father. The city, in his time, had recovered from the damage it had sustained, and became famous for its wealth, more especially in brass and gold. Homer, too, speaks greatly in praise of its walls and buildings. It was situated on a rising ground amid