THE Volumes before us are by the author of LyriThe pieces least worthy of the author are those cal Ballads, a collection which has not undeser-entitled Moods of my own Mind. We certainly vedly met with a considerable share of public ap-wish these "Moods" had been less frequent, or plause. The characteristics of Mr. W.'s muse are not permitted to occupy a place near works which simple and flowing, though occasionally inharmo-only make their deformity more obvious: when nious verse, strong and sometimes irresistible ap- Mr. W. ceases to please, it is by "abando ing" his peals to the feelings, with unexceptionable senti- mind to the most common-place ideas, at the same ments. Though the present work may not equal his former efforts, many of the poems possess a native elegance, natural and unaffected, totally devoid of the tinsel embellishments and abstract hyperboles of several contemporay sonneteers. The last sonnet in the first volume, p. 152, is perhaps the best, without any novelty in the sentiments, which we hope are common to every Briton at the present crisis; the force and expression is that of a genuine poet, feeling as he writes:"Another year! another deadly blow! Another mighty empire overthrown! -, possess all the beauties, and few of the de fects of this writer: the following lines, from the last, are in his first style:- "Ah! little doth the young one dream, When full of play and childish cares, (1) "I have been a reviewer. In 1807, in a Magazine colle Monthly Literary Recreations. I reviewed Wordsworth's trash of that time. In the Monthly Review I wrote some articles time clothing them in language not simple, but The stream is flowing, The green field sleeps in the sun; Are at work with the strongest; The cattle are grazing, Their heads never raising, There are forty feeding like one. Like an army defeated,. The snow hath retreated, And now doth fare ill, On the top of the bare hill." his muse to such trifling subjects. We trust his of classical students than can at present acquire it motto will be in future, “Paulo majora canamus.” by his means:-but, as such expostulations are ge Many, with inferior abilities, have acquired a lof-nerally useless, we shall be thankful for what we tier seat on Parnassus, merely by attempting strains can obtain, and that in the manner in which in which Mr. Wordsworth is more qualified to Mr. Gell has chosen to present it. excel. REVIEW OF GELL'S GEOGRAPHY OF ITHACA, (Monthly Review for August, 1811.) THAT laudable curiosity concerning the remains of classical antiquity, which has of late years increased among our countrymen, is in no traveller or author more conspicuous than in Mr. Gell. Whatever difference of opinion may yet exist with regard to the success of the several disputants in the famous Trojan controversy; (1) or, indeed, relating to the present author's merits as an inspector of the Troad, it must universally be acknowledged that any work, which more forcibly impresses on our imaginations the scenes of heroic action, and the subjects of immortal song, possesses claims on the attention of every scholar. The former of these volumes,.we have observed, is the most attractive in the closet. It comprehends a very full survey of the far famed island which the hero of the Odyssey has immortalized; for we really are inclined to think that the author with the Ithaca of Homer. At all events, if it be has established the identity of the modern Theaki effected by an ingenious interpretation of the pasan illusion, it is a very agreeable deception, and is sages in Homer that are supposed to be descriptive of the scenes which our traveller has visited shall extract some of these adaptations of the ancient picture to the modern scene, marking the points of resemblance which appear to be strained and forced, as well as those which are more easy and natural: but we must first insert some preliminary matter from the opening chapter. The following passage conveys a sort of general sketch bly adequate notion of its contents:— of the book, which may give our readers a tolera We "The present work may adduce, by a simple and correct survey of the island, coincidences in its geography, in its natural productions, and moral state, before unnoticed. Some will be directly pointed out; the fancy or ingenuity of the reader may be of the Odyssey will recognise with satisfaction the scenes thememployed in tracing others; the mind familiar with the imagery selves; and this volume is offered to the public, not entirely without hopes of vindicating the poem of Homer from the sceppoetical composition, unsupported by history, and unconnected ticism of those critics who imagine that the Odyssey is a mere with the localities of any particular situation. "Some bave asserted that, in the comparison of places now existing with the descriptions of Homer, we ought not to expect the kingdom of Ulysses, or any other, can be identified, as, if coincidence in minute details; yet it seems only by these that such an idea be admitted, every small and rocky island in the Ionian Sea, containing a good port, might, with equal plausibility, assume the appellation of Ithaca. Of the two works which now demand our report, we conceive the former to be by far the most interesting to the reader, as the latter is indisputably the most serviceable to the traveller. Excepting, indeed, the running commentary which it contains on a number of extracts from Pausanias and Strabo, it is, as the title imports, a mere itinerary of Greece, or rather of Argolis only, in its present circumstances. This being the case, surely it would have answered every purpose of utility much better by being printed as a pocket road-book of that part of the Morea; for a quarto is a very unmanageable travelling companion. The maps (2) and drawings, we shall be told, would not permit such an arrangement: but as to the drawings, they are not in general to be admired as specimens of the art; and several of them, as we have been assu-buted to raise those doubts which have existed on the identity of red by eye-witnesses of the scenes which they describe, do not compensate for their mediocrity in point of execution, by any extraordinary fidelity of representation. Others, indeed, are more faithful, according to our informants. The true reason, however, for this costly mode of publication is in course to be found in a desire of gratifying the public passion for large margins, and all the luxury of typography; and we have before expressed our dissatisfaction with Mr. Gell's aristocratical mode of communicating a species of knowledge, which ought to be accessible to a much greater portion (1) We have it from the best authority that the venerable. leader of the Anti-Homeric sect, Jacob Bryant, several years before his death expressed regret for his ungrateful attempt to destroy some of the pleasing associations of our youthful studies. One of his last wishes was-" Trojaque nunc stares," elc. The Venetian geographers have in a great degree contri the modern with the ancient Ithaca, by giving, in their charts, the name of Val di Compare to the island That name is, howriably called Ithaca by the upper ranks, and Theaki by the vulever, totally unknown in the country, where the isle is invagar. The Venetians have equally corrupted the name of almost every place in Greece; yet, as the natives of Epactos or Naupactos never heard of Lepanto, those of Zacynthos of Zante, or of its name, on such authority, as it would be to assert that no such island existed, because no tolerable representation of its form can be found in the Venetian surveys. the Athenians of Settines, it would be as unfair to rob Ithaca "The rare medals of the island, of which three are represented in the title-page, might be adduced as a proof that the name of thaca was not lost during the reigns of the Roman emperors. They have the head of Ulysses, recognised by the pileum, or (2) Or, rather, map; for we have only one in the volume, and that is on too small a scale to give more than a general idea of the relative position of places. The excuse about a larger map not folding well is trifling; see, for instance, the author's own map of Ithaca. pointed cap, while the reverse of one presents the figure of a cock, the emblem of his vigilance, with the legend IAKON. A few of these medals are preserved in the cabinets of the curious, and one also, with the cock, found in the island, is in the possession of Signor Zavo, of Bathi. The uppermost coin is in the collection of Dr. Hunter; the second is copied from Newman, and the third is the property of R. P. Knight, Esq. "Several inscriptions, which will be hereafter produced, will tend to the confirmation of the idea that Ithaca was inhabited about the time when the Romans were masters of Greece; yet there is every reason to believe that few, if any, of the present proprietors of the soil are descended from ancestors who had Ενθ ̓ ἦλθεν φίλος υἱός Οδυσσῆος θείοιο, the closer description of the scene. After some account of the subjects in the plate affixed, Mr.Gell remarks: "It is impossible to visit this sequestered spot without being struck with the recollection of the fount of Arethusa and the rock Korax, which the poet mentions in the same line, adding, that there the swine eat the sweet (2) acorns, and drank the black water." Αὐτὰρ ἐπὴν πρώτην ἀκτὴν ἐθάκης ἀφίκηαι, Νῆα μὲν ἐς πόλιν ἐτρῖναι καὶ πάντας ἐταίρους· Αὐτὸς δὲ πρώτιστα συβώτην εἰσαφικέσθαι, κ. τ. λο Οδυσσεί. Ο. These citations, we think, appear to justify the author in his attempt to identify the situation of long resided successively in the island. Even those who lived, his rock and fountain with the place of those menat the time of Ulysses, in Ithaca, seem to have been on the pointtioned by Homer. But let us now follow him in of emigrating to Argos, and no chief remained, after the second in descent from that hero, worthy of being recorded in history. It appears that the isle has been twice colonised from Cephalonia in modern times, and I was informed that a grant had been made by the Venetians, entitling each settler in Ithaca to as much land as his circumstances would enable him to cultivate." Mr. Gell then proceeds to invalidate the authority of previous writers on the subject of Ithaca. Sir George Wheeler and M. le Chevalier fall under his severe animadversion; and, indeed, according to his account, neither of these gentlemen had visited the island, and the description of the latter is “absolutely too absurd for refutation." In another place, he speaks of M. le C. "disgracing a work of such merit by the introduction of such fabrica tions;" again, of the inaccuracy of the author's maps; and, lastly, of his inserting an island at the southern entry of the Channel between Cephalonia and Ithaca, which has no existence. This observation very nearly approaches to the use of that monosyllable which Gibbon, (1) without expressing it, so adroitly applied to some assertion of his antagonist, M. Davies. In truth, our traveller's words are rather bitter towards his brother tourist but we must conclude that their justice warrants their severity. In the second chapter, the author describes his landing in Ithaca, and arrivai at the rock Korax and the fountain Arethusa, as he designates it with sufficient positiveness. This rock, now known by the name of Korax, or Koraka Petra, he contends to be the same with that which Homer mentions as contiguous to the habitation of Eumæus, the faithful swineherd of Ulysses. We shall take the liberty of adding to our extracts from Mr. Gell some of the passages in Homer to which he refers only, conceiving this to be the fairest method of exhibiting the strength or the weakness of his argument. “Ulysses," he observes, "came to the extremity of the isle to visit Eumæus, and that extremity was the most southern; for Telemachus, coming from Pylos, touched at the first south-eastern part of Ithaca with the same intention." Καὶ τότε δή ρ' Ὀδυσσήα κακός ποθεν ἤγαγε δαίμων (1) See his Vindication of the 15th and 16th chapters of the Decline and Fall, etc. Δήξις τόν γε σύεσσι παρήμενον· αἱ δὲ νέμονται Πίνονται Οδυσσεί· π. "Having passed some time at the fountain, taken a drawing, and made the necessary observations on the situation of the place, we proceeded to an examination of the precipice, chmbing over the terraces above the source, among shady fig-trees. effects of the mid-day sun. which, however, did not present us from feeling the powerfu After a short but fatiguing ascent, we arrived at the rock, which extends in a vast perpendicular semicircle, beautifully fringed with trees, facing to the southUnder the crag we found two caves of inconsiderable extent, the entrance of one of which, not difficult of access, is seen in the view of the fount. They are still the resort of sheep east. and goats, and in one of them are small natural receptacles for the water, covered by a stalagmitic incrustation. "These caves, being at the extremity of the curve formed by the precipice, open toward the south, and present us with another accompaniment of the fount of Arethusa, mentioned by the poet; who informs us that the swineherd Eumæus left his guests in the house, whilst he, putting on a thick garment, sheltered him from the northern blast. Now we know that the went to sleep near the herd, under the hollow of the rock, which herd fed near the fount; for Minerva tells Ulysses that he is to go first to Eumæus, whom he should find with the swine, near the rock Korax and the fount of Arethusa. As the swine then fed at the fountain, so it is necessary that a cavern should be found in its vicinity; and this seems to coincide, in distance and situation, with that of the poem. Near the fount also was the fold or stathmos of Eumæus; for the goddess informs Ulysses that he should find his faithful servant at or above the fount. "Now the hero meets the swineherd close to the fold, which was consequently very near that source. At the top of the rock, and just above the spot where the waterfall shoots down the precipice, is at this day a stagni or pastoral dwelling, which the herdsmen of Ithaca still inhabit, on account of the wate necessary for their cattle. One of these people walked on the verge of the precipice at the time of our visit to the place, and seemed so anxious to know how we had been conveyed the spot, that his inquiries reminded us of a question probaby not uncommon in the days of Homer, who more than once represents the Ithacenses demanding of strangers what ship bac brought them to the island, it being evident they could not come i (2) Sweet acorns." Does Mr. Gell translate from the Latin To avoid similar cause of mistake μevorryiz should not be rendered suavem but gratam, as Barnes bas given it. on foot. He told us that there was, on the summit where he stood, a small cistern of water, and a kalybea, or shepherd's hut. is There are also vestiges of ancient habitations, and the place now called Amarathia. tion does not prove correct. bitants danced before their houses; and at one we saw the figure which is said to have been first used by the youths and virgins of Delos, at the happy return of Theseus from the expedition of the Cretan Labyrinth. It has now lost much of that intri-cacy which was supposed to allude to the windings of the habitation of the Minotaur," etc. etc. This is rather too much for even the inflexible gravity of our censorial muscles. When the author talks, with all the reality (if we may use the expression) of a Lemprière, on the stories of the fabulous ages, we cannot refrain from indulging a momentary smile; nor can we seriously accom "Convenience, as well as safety, seems to have pointed out the lofty situation of Amarathia as a fit place for the residence of the herdsmen of this part of the island, from the earliest ages. A small source of water is a treasure in these climates; and if the inhabitants of Ithaca now select a rugged and elevated spot, to secure them from the robbers of the Echinades, it is to be recollected that the Taphian pirates were not less formidable, even in the days of Ulysses; and that a residence in a solitary part of the island, far from the fortress, and close to a celebrated fountain, must at all times have been dangerous, without some such security as the rocks of Korax. Indeed, there can be no doubt that the house of Eumæus was on the top of the precipice; for Ulysses, in order to evince the truth of his story to the swineherd, desires to be thrown from the summit if his narra-pany him in the learned architectural detail by "Near the bottom of the precipice is a curious natural gal- the ground-plot of the house of Ulysses,-of which which he endeavours to give us, from the Odyssey, lery, about seven feet high, which is expressed in the plate. the actually offers a plan in drawing!"showing may be fairly presumed, from the very remarkable.coincidence between this place and the Homeric account, that this was the how the description of the house of Ulysses in the scene designated by the poet as the fountain of Arethusa, and Odyssey may be supposed to correspond with the the residence of Eumæus; and, perhaps, it would be impossible foundations yet visible on the hill of Aito!"-Oh, to find another spot which bears, at this day, so strong a resemblance to a poetic description composed at a period so very Foote! Foote! why are you lost to such inviting remote. There is no other fountain in this part of the island, subjects for your ludicrous pencil!-In his acnor any rock which bears the slightest resemblance to the count of this celebrated mansion, Mr. Gell says, one side of the court seems to have been occupied by the thalamos, or sleeping-apartments of the men, etc. etc.; and, in confirmation of this hypothesis, he refers to the 10th Odyssey, line 340. On examining his reference, we read, Korax of Homer. "The stathmos of the good Eumæus appears to have been little different, either in use or construction, from the stagni and kalybea of the present day. The poet expressly mentions that other herdsmen drove their flocks into the city at sunset, -a custom which still prevails throughout Greece during the winter, and that was the season in which Ulysses visited Eumæus. Yet Homer accounts for this deviation from the prevailing custom, by observing that he had retired from the city to avoid the suitors of Penelope. These trifling occurrences afford a strong presumption that the Ithaca of Homer was something more than the creature of his own fancy, as some have supposed it; for though the grand outline of a fable may be easily imagined, yet the consistent adaptation of minute incidents to a long and elaborate falsehood is a task of the most arduous and complicated nature." After this long extract, by which we have endeavoured to do justice to Mr. Gell's argument, we cannot allow room for any farther quotations of such extent; and we must offer a brief and imperfect analysis of the remainder of the work. In the third chapter, the traveller arrives at the capital, and, in the fourth, he describes it in an agreeable manner. We select his account of the mode of celebrating a Christian festival in the Greek church: "We were present at the celebration of the feast of the Ascension, when the citizens appeared in their gayest dresses, and saluted each other in the streets with demonstrations of pleasure. As we sate at breakfast in the house of Signor Zavo, we were suddenly roused by the discharge of a gun, succeeded by a tremendous crash of pottery, which fell on the tiles, steps, and pavements in every direction. The bells of the numerous churches commenced a most discordant jingle; colours were hoisted on every mast in the port, and a general shout of joy announced some great event. Our host informed us that the feast of the Ascension was annually commemorated in this manner at Bathi, the populace exclaiming avέorn 6 Xpistos, άànОcvòs & còs, Christ is risen, the true God." In another passage he continues this account, as follows:-" In the evening of the festival, the inha ἐς θάλαμόν τ' ιέναι, καὶ σῆς ἐπιβήμεναι ἐννῆς· where Ulysses records an invitation which he received from Circe to take a part of her bed. How this illustrates the above conjecture, we are at a loss to divine: but we suppose that some numerical error has occurred in the reference, as we have detected a trifling mistake or two of the same nature. Mr. C. labours hard to identify the cave of Dexia, near Bathi (the capital of the island) with the grotto of the Nymphs, described in the 13th Odyssey. We are disposed to grant that he has succeeded; he supports his opinion; and we can only exbut we cannot here enter into the proofs by which tract one of the concluding sentences of the chapter, which appears to us candid and judicious : "Whatever opinion may be formed as to the identity of the only from his inaccurate account of it, but from his citation We must, however, observer that "demonstra In his description of the "Have-with-you to the House of Ulysses," as the present. With Homer in his pocket, and Gell on his sumpter-horse or mule, the Odyssean tourist may now make a very classical and delightful excursion; and we doubt not that the advantages accruing to the Ithacenses, from the increased num of Mr. Gell's account of their country, will induce them to confer on that gentleman any heraldic honours which they may have to bestow, should he ever look in upon them again.—Baron Bathi would be a pretty title: tion" is a strong term. Leucadian Promontory (of which we have a pleasing representation in the plate), the author remarks that it is "celebrated for the leap of Sappho, and the death of Artemisia." From this variety in the expression, a reader would hardly conceive that both the ladies perished in the same man-ber of travellers who will visit them in consequence ner: in fact, the sentence is as proper as it would be to talk of the decapitation of Russell, and the death of Sidney. The view from this promontory includes the island of Corfu; and the name sug gests to Mr. Gell the following note, which, though rather irrelevant, is of a curious nature, and we therefore conclude our citations by transcribing it: "It has been generally supposed that Corfu, or Corcyra, was the Phæacia of Homer; but Sir Henry Englefield thinks the position of that island inconsistent with the voyage of Ulysses, as described in the Odyssey. That gentleman has also observed a number of such remarkable coincidences between the courts of Alcinous and Solomon, that they may be thought curious and interesting. Homer was familiar with the names of "Hoc Ithacus velit, et magno mercentur Atridæ.”—VIRCIL. For ourselves, we confess that all our old Grecian feelings would be alive on approaching the fountain of Melainudros, where, as the tradition runs, or as the priests relate, Homer was restored to sight. We now come to the "Grecian Patterson," or Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt; and, as he lived about the time of "Cary," which Mr. Gell has begun to publish; and Solomon, it would not have been extraordinary if he had intro-really he has carried the epic rule of concealing duced some account of the magnificence of that prince into his poem. As Solomon was famous for wisdom, so the name of Alcinous signifies strength of knowledge; as the gardens of Solomon were celebrated, so are those of Alcinous (Od. 7. 112); as the kingdom of Solomon was distinguished by twelve tribes under twelve princes (I Kings, ch. 4, so that of Alcinous (Od. 8. 590) was ruled by an equal number; as the throne of Solomon was supported by lions of gold (I Kings, ch. 10), so that of Alcinous was placed on dogs of silver and gold (Od. 7. 91); as the fleets of Solomon were famous, so were those of Alcinous. It is perhaps worthy of remark, that Neptune sate on the mountains of the SOLYMI, as he returned from Ethiopia to Ege, while he raised the tempest which threw Ulysses on the coast of Phæacia; and that the Solymi of Pamphylia are very considerably distant from the route. The suspicious character, also, which Nausicaa attributes to her countryinan agrees precisely with that which the Greeks and Romans gave the Jews." The seventh chapter contains a description of the monastery of Kathara, and several adjacent places. The eighth, among other curiosities, fixes on an imaginary site for the farm of Laertes: but this is the agony of conjecture indeed!-and the ninth chapter mentions another monastery, and a rock still called the School of Homer. Some sepulchral inscriptions of a very simple nature are included. The tenth and last chapter brings us round to the port of Schoenus, near Bathi; after we have completed, seemingly in a very minute and accurate manner, the tour of the island. We can certainly recommend a perusal of this volume to every lover of classical scene and story. If we may indulge the pleasing belief that Homer sang of a real kingdom, and that Ulysses governed it, though we discern many feeble links in Mr.Gell's chain of evidence, we are on the whole induced to fancy that this is the Ithaca of the bard and of the monarch. At all events, Mr. Gell has enabled every future traveller to form a clearer judgment on the question than he could have established without such a "Vade-mecum to Ithaca," or a the person of the author to as great a length as to that of his numerous brethren. It is offensive, who describes the scenes to which he introduces us; and that it is not a mere translation from Strabo or Pausanias which we are reading, or a commentary on those authors. This reflection leads us to the concluding remark in Mr. Gell's preface by much the most interesting part of his book) to his Itinerary of Greece, in which he thus expresses himself: "The confusion of the modern with the ancient names of ever, mentioned in such a manuer, that the reader will soon places in this volume is absolutely unavoidable; they are, howbe accustomed to the indiscriminate use of them. The neces-, sity of applying the ancient appellations to the different routes will be evident, from the total ignorance of the public on the subject of the modern names, which, having never appeared in print, are only known to the few individuals who bave visited the country. "What could appear less intelligible to the reader, or less useful to the traveller, than a route from Chione and Zaracca to Kutebukmadi, from thence to Krabata to Schænochorio, and | by the mills of Peali; while every one is in some degree ac |