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~mander." (Hist. Nat. v. c. 30.) It seems also that their junction was then as it is now, viz. that during the rainy season they flowed into the Palo Scamander; and that in the dry season their union was hardly visible, leaving the ground only swampy. It is to be assumed, then, that the union of these rivers was formerly more evident than it is now, on account of posterior accumulations of sand: but that a branch of the Simois, when that river was swoln by the rains, ran directly to the sea, is deducible from Ptolemy, who names successively Δάρδανον, Σιμόευτος ποταμέ ἐκβόλαι. Σκαμάνδε ποταμᾶ εκβολαί. Σίγειον ἄκρον. 107. με ismoi antr

To speak correctly, the Scamander is never dry, owing to the liquefaction of the snows of Ida: but the Simois, of which the source is found in a less elevated part of the Idean chain, is, towards the end of the summer, almost absorbed by artificial irrigations and natural filtrations, before it reaches the lower part of the plain; a change incidental to most of the rivers of Asia Minor and European Greece. The marsh of the plain, in which the Gheumbrek-dere-su loses itself, is certainly indicated by Strabo, when he says that the Astipalæi built a city near the Simois in a swampy place, which they were afterward obliged to abandon; and this is an additional proof of the identity of the river The Gheumbrek also corresponds exactly with the Simois of Homer, inasmuch as its course is short and rapid, and it runs like e a torrent after the least fall of rain, carrying with it as in former days whole masses of rock, and trunks of trees.

The Mender was the Scamander in the time of Herodotus, because he computed it to be the first river at which Xerxes arrived when he had left Sardis. It was also the Scamander of -Strabo and the other geographers. Its source is in the Kasdagh, the Gargams and Cotylus of the antients. Many of the common streamlets, swelled by mutual combinations, constitute a river, which issues from an excavation in the side of the mountain, and falls into the valley below in a magnificent perpendicular cascade, about fifty or sixty feet high. The valley is formed by a vast aperture in the mountain, whose vertical sides are covered with a dark forest of savage pines; while in the valley, and all round the mouth of the cavern, vast and melancholy oaks mixed with oriental planeStrees ascend majestically from the rock, and present themselves in aa hundred fantastic groupes to the eye. A river flowing from the -bosom of the mountain through a mysterious cavern, the termin-ation of which no human being had explored, became, to a people enthusiastic like the Greeks, an appropriate object of superstition: they resorted thither from all parts, to worship at the consecrated fountain; and it is one of the remnants of the antient religion which the Greek church has preserved. Should Christianity one day prevail in this district, we should not be surprized if divine honours are again paid to the mysterious sources of the Scamander. -The surrounding scenery, the venerable forests of Ida, and the silence which reigns, interrupted only by the fall of the cataract, Lexalt the imagination, and speak loudly in behalf of the antient superstitions of the place. (P. 44-46.) bercomel ells to sred

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It is almost needless to remark that, if the map prefixed to this treatise be correct, and the reasons contained in it be unanswerable, then the plans and drawings of Chevalier and his sect, Bonar-Baschi, and its fabled springs, must all "vanish into thin air." Setting aside, however, the other objections to the hypothesis of Le Chevalier, the very circumstance of its tepid spring is sufficient to negative the claims of Bonar-Baschi to be the place of the "divine city of Troy."

We regret that we cannot follow the author into the various circumstantial arguments of his elaborate and erudite treatise : but we congratulate him on the general result of his labors. He does not, indeed, pretend to discover the ruins of Priam's palace, nor the secret apartments of Helen: but, in conjunction with other travellers, he has brought a considerable accession to the amount of our topographical knowlege of the Troad. He has found the antient name of almost every remarkable site, with Homer in his hand, and aided by the lights of the old geographers and of the early traditions. By means of a series of negative propositions, which, we think, he has successfully established, having first disencumbered the question from much of its difficulty, he has confirmed by reasonings of considerable weight Dr. Clarke's opinion that the Iliam of Homer was near to Tchiblak; and that the modern Ilium was Palaio-Califatli. He has also restored to the Gheumbrek and Mender (in this point dissenting from that writer) the honours of being the Simois and the Scamander; has clearly identified the various tumuli on the Trojan plain with those which existed in the time of Strabo; and has at least raised a probable inference that they were those which were designated by Homer himself. The essential difference between the father. of poetry and modern writers consists in arguments deduced. from the sources of the Scamander, and from the hill on which Troy is supposed to have stood. This difference he has reconciled; and, with due deductions for the licences and exaggerations permitted to a poet, he has made the topography of the country correspond both to the delineations of the lad and the notices of the geographers while he has candidly and perspicuously summed up the arguments of other writers, giving to each their due and appropriate weight.

The tract contains also much antiquarian discussion, into: which we are forbidden by our limits to enter. Indeed, we do not feel the Iliac passion sufficiently strong to dedicate a greater space to a subject, concerning which enough (perhaps more than enough) has been said to fulfil the only practicable purpose of such commentaries; namely, a clearer exposition of the Homeric writings. It often happens, however, that beyond

yond a certain degree of discussion, the question to be solved grows more intricate and confused; and it is then that the maxim, which Lord Bacon applies to juridical, becomes also appropriate to literary controversies; "Expedit, ut finis sit litium."

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ART. IX. Biographie Nouvelle des Contemporains, &c. i.e. New Biography of Contemporaries, &c. By MM. ARNAULT, JAY, JOUY, NORVINS, and others. Vols. III. IV. V. and VI. 8vo, Paris. 1821-2. Imported by Treuttel and Co. Price 14s. each.

THE

HE first and second portions of this comprehensive repertory were duly noticed at p. 536. of our xcivth volume. It continues to be conducted with equitable candour and frank politeness, and forms a convenient book of reference to the historic fortunes of those contemporaries who have recently played, or are playing, a prominent part on the stage of the world. Not being confined to living merit or notoriety, ta, such as are yet alive and kicking," it includes many names of those over whom the grave has already heaped its mold., We cannot better give an idea of the execution of the work than by translating or abridging a life from each volume.

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(Vol. III.) Mary Francis Xavier Bichat was one of the most dis tinguished anatomists of the present times; and, though he did not live thirty years, he led the way to the revolution which has lately been accomplished in physiology. Devoted to the service of the human race, he consecrated to it all his genius, and set the example in society of every private virtue. He was born 11th November, 1771, at Toissey, in the department of the Ain. His father, a physician of eminence, sent him to study first at Nantua and then. at Lyons, where he walked the hospitals, under the direction of Mark Anthony Petit. At the age of twenty, he was distinguished by this celebrated surgeon, and received from him private instructions: but the civic troubles of 1793 separated the pupil from the master, and Bichat now removed to Paris, where he attended the lectures of Dessault. One day he made some inquiries and some observations which struck that professor, who soon after. ward employed him as an assistant, and took him into his house. When Dessault died in 1795, he wrote a eulogy of him, and prefixed it to a collective edition of his works which appeared in 1797. He also continued to board with the widow of his protector, and assisted in the education of the son. Having become a member of the Medical Society of Emulation, he published, in the Transactions of that body, his various researches. Before his day, the metaphysician Barthey, and the observer Borden, had shaken that doctrine of physical and chemical laws which Boerhaave had introduced: but it was reserved for him to banish it from the schools; and his perfect knowlege of anatomy, his indefatigable "APF. REV. VOL. XCIX. LI patience,

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patience, the prodigious number of his observations and experiments, seconded by the general movement of the age, succeeded in erecting on the ruins of former theories the vitalism of Bichat. His observations, which successively extended over the membranes and their different kinds, over the humours which lubri'cate the articulations, and over the symmetry of certain organs, resulted from innumerable dissections, and from the minutest spirit of comparison. He was always at the hospitals, examining bodies whose organs had been diseased, or seeking in the entrails of living animals the evanescent mystery of life. In 1800 he began to collect and edit separately his contributions to the medical journals, and published three distinct works, intitled 1. Traité des Membranes. 8vo. Paris. 1800. 2. Récherches Physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort. 8vo. Paris. 1800. 3. Anatomie générale, appliquée à la Physiologie et à la Medecine. 4 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1801. These treatises include some memoirs which had been printed separately in 1797, and which advanced the simple and ingenious doctrine of vital properties, and the distinction between an internal and an animal life. He had begun a work intitled Traité d'Anatomie descriptive, when a putrid fever snatched him from science and from friendship, in July, 1802. The widow of his late master watched his last moments with assiduity; and MM. Rour and "Buisson completed, with some help from his papers, this last effort of his pen. He was buried at the Hôtel Dieu, in the same Yvault with Dessault, and one inscription records the memory of -both.':

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An interesting life in this volume is the account given of Bolivar, the independent General of the South Americans: but it is considerably too extensive for our limits. A portrait of him is also attached to the biography. He was born in 1785, at Caraccas, sent to study at Madrid, and then to travel. He visited France, England, Italy, and part of Germany; became intimate with Humboldt and Bompland, and accompanied them in one division of their journey. He married, at Madrid, the daughter of the Marquis of Ustariz. It was in 1813 that he assumed the command of the military forces of his country, and hoisted the standard of independence which now floats on the altar of victory.

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Sir Francis Burdett is here recorded with respect: but, agreeing in this point with some of his partizans in this country, the editors ascribe to him a natural indolence which circumscribes the sphere of his political utility.'

(Vol. IV.) E contrà, in this volume another of our celebrated political men, the late Marquis of Londonderry, better known as Lord Castlereagh, has a place assigned to him, with no partial hand. The part which he acted in the late war was certainly not calculated to secure for him the praises of

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of French biographers who evidently are not Ultra-Royalists, and who thus sum up his character as an orator:

We shall spare our readers even a list of his speeches, of, which it is doubtful whether any one survives the occasion that called it forth, and shall confine ourselves to a view of the effect which he usually produces in the House of which he is a member. When he speaks, it is pleasing to contemplate him; his fine figure, his noble manners, his apparent suavity, and the tempered grace. of his ready elocution, often conciliate his bitterest opponents; and, as he listens to others with attention and respect, he is generally heard with deference. It is scarcely perceived that he thinks but little, that his pronunciation is affected, that his in-: formation is superficial, and that he is not endowed with energy, with imagination, or with simplicity. He is an able minister, and. a voluble speaker: but to this praise not another word can be added without committing an outrage on truth.'

"We must also observe that the preceding account of the veteran Major Cartwright which is favorable to his political career and character, is marked by two mistakes. In the first place, he is improperly endowed with the honor of knighthood, and is miscalled Sir John; and next the circumstance of his having been a Major in the Nottingham militia, and not being allowed to succeed to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy, of that regiment, is magnified into his deprivation of the LordLieutenancy of the county! Dr. Cartwright, his brother, is next introduced, but his relationship to the Major is not stated.

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The life of the Empress Catherine of Russia forms one of the prominent decorations of this volume, and is written with. considerable boldness. In the days of Horace, the penalty of reproach limped after crime with a lame foot; and a bad prince did not incur the brand of infamy even during the reign of his successor; but the press has now given to reputation a swifter step, so that justice often overtakes the living culprit, and is frequently ready with a sincere funeral oration. The memoir of Catherine, Ex-queen of Westphalia, is written with interesting accuracy. That of Francis Augustus, Viscount Chateaubriand, will be read with curiosity, but is, perhaps, too controversial. In the account of Chatterton, poor Chaucer is metamorphosed into Chancer. An author little known in this country is Clement, and we will extract the notice concerning him.

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Francis Clement was born at Beze, in the department of Cote d'Or, during the year 1714. At the age of seventeen, he entered into the society of the Benedictines at Saint Maur, and aspired to emulate the learned men who have illustrated this order. In 1770 he published a new and enlarged edition of the Art of verifying

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Dates,

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