pear once in three months. Those, who can, by any honest modes of economy, reserve the sum of two dollars and fifty cents, quarterly from their family expenses, may pay for this work as fast as it is published; and we confidently believe that they will find at the end, that they never purchased so much general, practical useful information, at so cheap a rate.

In other Encyclopedias we find too much attempted and therefore too little effected. By trying to say something about every thing, they have too little room, within a tolerable number of volumes, to say anything well. We do not go to an Encyclopedia for the minutæ of any science, but to regular treatises on the several sciences. As very few persons have any use for treatises on Anatomy; and as those who need them, can be better supplied than it is possible for them to be in an Encyclopedia, this article deserves little attention in a work of this kind. In the book before us, about a page is devoted to this subject. Algebra occupies about a page and a half; arithmetic, less than half a page. This will show how such subjects are to be treated in this work.

Treatises on architecture are less common; and most persons want a book to tell them more than they know, or have ready means of learning. On this subject we here find more than ten pages; and this will serve for a sample of articles of this class. In biography all readers want more extended articles than in most other departments. Accordingly we here find about nine pages on Benedict Arnold, of whom we know little by common biography. About one page is devoted to Fisher Ames, whose memoirs and writings are well known. A page and a half are devoted to Aristotle; a little more than half a page to Archimedes; a page and a half to Samuel Adams; and seven and a half pages to John Adams.

Our readers will recollect that we have now only the first volume to refer to; and we have no doubt that they will form a favorable opinion of the attention given to this department of literature, from the statement here given. We have not room for specimens of American Biography; but those who know the talents of Mr. Walsh, will not doubt that his contributions will be honorable to our country.

Our remarks upon the manner of treating the few subjects which we have mentioned, are designed to indicate the general plan, according to which this work is executed. We have not now time nor space for further remarks; but shall take notice of the subsequent volumes when they are published. We shall

now only add, that the more fully we examine this volume, the more full is our conviction, that this Encyclopedia will be found admirably adapted to the wants of the American people. We can discover no trick; no book-making artifice; no narrow party or private ends involved. The preface, the specimen before us, the reputation of the editors and proprietors, all tell us plainly that the work will be well executed; and we have perfect confidence that all who examine it will form a more favourable opinion of its merits, than any can derive from our description and recommendation.

ART. VI.—An Introduction to the Study of Grecian and Roman Geography. By GEORGE LONG, Esq. late of the University of Virginia, now of the University of London; and ROBLEY DUNGLISON M. D. of the University of Virginia. Charlottesville. 1829. F. Carr & Co.

THE study of Geography, in itself one of the noblest and most comprehensive branches of general philosophy, so simple indeed as to be very fitly placed among the earliest objects of attention to children, yet so wide as to occupy a great portion of the care of the best read scholar, is only beginning to gain its right estimation and obtain its proper rank. Herodotus and Strabon seem to have had a more worthy conception of its importance than has until very lately been entertained among the moderns. The former, an honest and communicative traveller, who visited all parts of the earth most deserving to be seen, has contrived in a few introductory books to give us more extensive and more curious knowledge of the condition of the world than it would be easy, in so flowing a style, to communicate in a far greater space than he takes, in any language but his own. Scarcely any thing escaped his attention, and though he has had the fate to be disbelieved almost unanimously for nearly two thousand years, he is likely to have most of his incredible stories about Africa proved true by the diligent search of the English and French travellers, rediscovering and disinterring, what has so long been buried in the sands of ignorance, barbarism and the Lybian desert. The faithful Strabon kindles with honest enthusiasm at the view of the dignity of his subject

and the various accomplishments necessary to a good geographer.

'The various knowledge,' says he, speaking of the manner in which his art should be treated,' by means of which alone such a work can be well accomplished, 'belongs to him only who grasps within his view what is rightly called philosophy,—the science of the operations of nature and providence, and the works of men. So, indeed, its advantages, so manifold in the concerns of states and of governors, in the knowledge of the phenomena of the heavens, of animals, plants-the products of sea and land, and of whatever else is any where worthy of notice, cannot be rightly felt but by such a man, one interested in all the arts and enjoyments of life.' *

With what satisfaction does he dwell upon the scholars of older times who had cultivated his art, beginning with Homerus, the father of geographers as of poets, and Anaxamandrus who first made a geographical map,† the acquaintance and townsman of Thales.

Without the knowledge of climates, how, he asks, shall the geographer know whether Babylon or Alexandria in Egypt be farthest north; or, without the knowledge of eclipses, how they differ in longitude? without geometry he cannot measure the earth. He must be acquainted with politics, arts, mathematics, physics, familiar with history, not ignorant of mythology, for he must be able to entertain as well as instruct; but especially, he repeats, must he be versed in astronomy and geometry.

How many writers on geography in our own time, have come up to the requisitions of the old Greek, may be judged of by any one who will take the trouble to look into the multitudinous books, large and small, upon the subject, which are almost daily hurrying from the press. In the midst of this nameless and soon forgotten crowd, it is gratifying to be able to fix upon one which shows us that the modern advancement, which we so often hear spoken of, is not, so far as relates to geography, altogether a vain boast.

The work before us is contained in a small volume, of very modest pretensions part of it being the substances of some lectures that were read in the University of Virginia, in the autumn of 1827 and spring of 1828.' The compiler, as Professor Long calls himself, gives ample credit to Heeren,‡ on whose work he professes entirely to have founded several of the most

* Strabon, page 2.

+ Idem. p. 7.

Ideas on the Policy and Commerce of the Principal Nations of Antiquity.'

important chapters, and apologizes for errors and omissions by alleging his other engagements, the very limited time he had, and the small stock of books of reference to which he had access. The apology, so far as the book is concerned, is unnecessary; for he who makes a book better suited to its purpose than had before appeared in the language, is not called upon to give an apology. The generosity of a scholar of Prof. Long's reputation, in leaving behind him with the pupils, for whom it was written, a work which he saw to be imperfect, at the time he was going where he would have ample means of rendering it complete, is something we hope, better than an apology.

One of the advantages which this treatise has over most others that have been made for the same purpose, consists in the prominent place which is given to the polity and commerce of the ancient nations, during the period which the view embraces. Before the work of Heeren these had never received the attention which they deserve. That work, from the language in which it is written and its size, is inaccessible to the greater part of American scholars. Prof. Long gives us, in a moderate compass, what he considers the most important views of Heeren, combined with much that is curious in the monuments of arts, customs, revolutions, productions, &c. and in the races of the ancient nations, and adapted to a particular purpose, exceedingly interesting to the scholar, which is to illustrate the extant (Greek) writers who are worth studying.' What is said of the Asiatic nations, and the African, except the Carthaginians, relates principally to their condition before the time of Alexander. The Grecian geography has chief reference to the same period. The Roman is more modern.

The great object of the Treatise, the illustration of the Greek and Roman authors, is, considering its length, most fully accomplished. Every part of the work abounds in marginal references to original authors, very full and very exact. So full indeed are they, that by turning to the passages referred to, you may often, page after page, trace every important fact to its original authority, and possess yourself entirely of the grounds and be able fully to appreciate the reasonings and deductions of the compiler. Facts and illustrations drawn from

*We regret that this gentleman could not have found it convenient, before his departure for his native land, to visit our quarter of the country, where he would probably have found no difficulty, in the libraries of our university and of this city, in supplying the want of materials which he suffered so much from among the recently formed libraries of the south.

modern travellers and from the existing remains of art, are introduced whenever they can throw light on or give interest to the ancient authorities.

It would be an agreeable task to go over the different parts of the work and show, by quoting freely, how interesting a work on geography may be made. A few passages taken from that portion of the work which seems to be peculiarly Prof. Long's, the Grecian Geography, will suffice to show how skilfully the mention of historical events, of facts in physics, illustrations from modern travellers, and references to ancient authorities, are combined.

In speaking of Phocis and Locris, he says

''The summit of Parnassus was called Lycorea, now Liakura: it is considered inaccessible, and "the peak is covered with perpetual snow," according to Hobhouse, but other travellers have seen it bare. Delphi was one of the places at which the simi-anual meetings of the Amphictyons were held; Thermopyla was the other. This singular spot, from the union of religion, political power, and a considerable trade, possessed probably more wealth and more specimens of fine arts than any other town in Greece. Athens, perhaps, may be excepted. Pausanias, in his Phocica, has described the paintings, bronzes, and other works of art, which existed in his time.' pp. 134, 135.

:

'The elevation of the chief mountains in Greece is not exactly known the central chain of Pindus is conjectured to reach the height of seven thousand feet. Olympus on the coast of Thessalia, is said to be above six thousand feet high, and Parnassus may 'perhaps attain to nine thousand feet. The height of the mountains in the Morea cannot be correctly stated at present. They are supposed to be lower than those of northern and central Greece. The most striking characteristic of this country is the great limestone formation, generally of a whitish or bluish gray color, which occupies nearly all the surface: to the numerous caverns, large springs, subterraneous streams, and other peculiarities that accompany this formation, we may trace many of the ancient superstitions which the imagination of the Greeks invented and adorned.' p. 116.

Who would expect to ask in vain for the height of some of the mountains in a country the longest and once most fully civilized of Europe?

'Arcadia is the central province of Peloponesus; it is a mountainous country and contains the sources of most of the considerble rivers which flow into the seas surrounding the Peninsula. From its elevated situration, and the broken face of the country,