L

the eyes of philofophers. It would be fuperfluous to difcufs all the fuperftitious ceremonies invented afterwards by priests at different periods; but the origin of that worship is here explained by facts, too palpable to be rejected.'

This fubject requires farther confideration than it has yet received. The facred groves, which furrounded all oracles, the oak of Dodona, the groves and the oaks of our own Druids, fhow, that fome common original must have fuggefted the fame or fimilar rites to diftant nations. The oracles at Dodona and at Delphi were no more the foundations of the original inhabitants of thefe places, than the Druidical fyftem and rites; which it is neceffary to obferve, did not receive the appellation from dps an oak, but from the Cumraig word drw, a fage.This, however, is from our purpose.

Our author's account of Thermopyla, is by no means accurate. The Spartans, as we had formerly occafion to show, were furrounded, but they might have efcaped, had it been confiftent with their character, or fuitable to their wifhes. We fhall, however, tranfcribe M. Pauw's narrative, merely as a fpecimen of the accuracy and precifion with which mi litary fubjects are treated. Though the argument, in this inftance, is carried too far, the narrative is on the whole judi cious.

When the Greek writers, guided by their enthusiasm and national vanity, made ufe of continual exaggerations, they did not fuppofe that pofterity would difcover fuch an art as hiftorical criticifin, to tear away from truth the veil of fiction. It is eafy by this method to estimate juftly the exploit of the three hundred Spartans against the Perfian army at the ftraits of Thermopyle. In the first place, it is impoffible that ever any combat, fuch as hiftorians have defcribed, could have taken place there, because the defile was then closed by a very folid wall, extending from the foot of the mountains to the fea. The Lacedæmonians, placed to the south of this rampart, so far from being able to attack, were prevented by their own works from even difcovering the enemy towards the north; and the pofition they had chofen was contrary to all the rules of war then in practice. The Perfians having detached a body of troops by fome neglected paths on mount Oeta, hemmed them in fo completely, that they could not efcape; and, as Titus Livius obferves very judicioufly, their death was by far more memorable than their combat. In fact, the whole of that affair was nothing more than the maffacre of fome men, whofe lives were thrown away without any utility either to their own ftate, or the reft of Greece.

The fame fault was afterwards committed in that very place by king Antiochus, who encountered a moft fignal defeat from the Romans. That prince likewife conftructed an infurmountable wall, without

without thinking of the other paffes, through which Cato found means to penetrate, as the Perfians had done when they exterminated Leonidas. It was certainly the greatest imprudence on the part of the Lacedæmonians, and likewife of Antiochus, to occupy fuch a confined poft, without having fortified all the other paffages through which an enemy could fall on their flank and rear, as they experienced fucceffively.'

The character of the Lacedæmonians is drawn with a fombrę pencil. Every unpleafing figure is exaggerated, every common one diftorted. The Lacedæmonians needed not this art, for they feldom afford a pleafing fubject of inquiry or confideration. We fhall conclude our account of these volumes with one other extract.

• None of the writers, who have mentioned that the virgins appeared naked at the gymnafia, ever pretended to affert this from their own knowledge; and as the circumftance appears almost incredible, it is neceffary to explain their affertion one way or another.

At Athens a man was faid to be naked, when he had quitted his cloak, although he continued to wear his tunic; and as this manner of speaking was very common throughout Greece, a woman might probably be faid to be naked, when the appeared in a robe, without wearing the veil, called peplos. The latter was fo effential a part of dress with the Grecian dames of diftinction, that they wore it in all public places at Argos, Athens, and Thebes; while the virgins of Lacedæmon, during the exceffive heat at the foot of mount Taygetus, frequently threw afide their veils to exercise themselves in running and dancing on the banks of the Eurotas. In this situation, a part of the breast remained uncovered, as well as the legs and arms; but it was far from that state of abfolute nakednefs, imagined by Propertius in an elegy, and by Plutarch in that romance, called the Life of Lycurgus.

In a country fo irregular as Laconia, covered with thick woods. and steep rocks, nothing could have been more inconvenient than long garments. It is not, therefore, extraordinary that the women, who were frequently employed in the chace, fhould adopt, amidst a military people, a species of clothing very immodeft in the eyes of the other Greeks, who were accustomed to the floating drapery of the peplos.

A more exact idea cannot be formed of the virgins of Laconia, than by observing some ancient ftatues of Atalanta or Diana. Their robes, adapted to a mountainous country, did not flatter the shape; for the folds of the tunic, lying fo thick on the hips, rendered those parts enormously bulky. From the fame caufe the women of Melos appear aukward and difagreeable to ftrangers at firft fight; and yet they cannot properly be called phenomerides, although this epithet was given to thofe of Sparta, because they were not covered to the knee.

It is very probable, that anciently a great difference could be obferved between the Achæan women,who inhabited the towns, and thofe of the Doric race, employed in hunting, with exactly fuch bows and arrows as were ufed in Crete. Befides, the climate in that country, extending beyond the thirty-feventh degree of latitude, had a very confiderable influence on the complexion of the inhabitants. This is ftill remarkable in the Mainots, called Cacovougnis or banditti of the mountain, who, expofed to the impreffions of the air on the high rocks of Cape Tenarus, appear very tawny in comparison with the Turk fh families, inhabiting the more fhady country around Mifitra.'

To this tranflation two maps, one of antient and the other of modern Greece, are annexed; but we are forry to be obliged to remark, that they are copied with little care from fome im perfect charts.

The Wanderings of Warwick. By Charlotte Smith. 12mo. Vol. I. 45. fewed. J. Bell. 1794.

THE productions of Mrs. Charlotte Smith, though marked with pretty different degrees of comparative merit, are all ftamped with knowledge of the world and fertility of invention; they all fhew confiderable powers of defcription, and at vein of poetical fancy, and are all intitled to rank far above. the common run of thefe kind of publications.

ance.

The prefent ftory is built upon the ground-work of her laft novel, The Old Manor House, and is a kind of epifodiacal story of one of the dependent characters, fo that the author has not the trouble of introducing her hero to us as a new acquaintWe are not sure whether this is perfectly judicious; it rather tends to take off the intereft, by taking off the glofs and novelty of the ftory; and, perhaps, implies more recollection of the preceding piece, than an author has a full right to expect with regard to a fictitious ftory, which has been now publifhed fome time. Not but in reality the Wanderings of Warwick make a compleat story by themselves. They contain the adventures of a gay young officer and his wife, who having difobliged their friends by marrying for love, encounter many hardships and difficulties in various climates, particularly in the Welt Indies, and in Spain and Portugal; fo that the fcenery is fufficiently varied. A little adventure in Jamaica is fo well told, and conveys fo ftriking a moral, that we fhall give it entire to our readers. Warwick, after mentioning a planter with whom he had been intimate in the former part of his life, fays:

This gentleman had a daughter, heirefs to his great eftate, whom in confideration of my relationship to nobility, and of being the prefumptive heir of general Tracy, he feemed not unwilling to give me; and I very soon perceived that young lady was not difposed to let me defpair: fhe was handíome enough, very lively, and apparently very good-humoured. But at that time being little more than eighteen, I felt a prodigious averfion to matrimony. I was determined to be one of thofe agreeable rakes for whom I saw, in England, all the women dying; and nothing could be better calcu lated than Jamaica for beginning with confiderable success the career of glory. I was already contended for as a partner at every ball, and diftinguished from my companions by the name of the handfome enfign. To facrifice all these advantages, and become a married man, was not to be thought of, though my fair creolian could have given me the whole ifland. But the advantage her fortune of fered appeared in quite another light to a young lieutenant of the fame regiment: a cadet, like me, of an honourable house, who had nothing but his pay; and to whom therefore a fortune of near four thoufand a year was by no means a matter of indifference. —“ You don't care about that girl, Warwick?" said he, one evening after a ball at which I had been dancing with her.

"Not I," anfwered I carelessly.

"And you have no thoughts of availing yourself of the favour you are in with her and her father?"

"None upon earth.”

"Then perhaps," rejoined my friend, " you would not cut my throat if I tried an experiment which they fay feldom fails-whether in the opinion of fuch a girl the most agreeable man is not he who flatters her the moft?"

“Oh!" answered I, "try it, dear Jack; I have not the least objection. On the contrary, I fhall be obliged to thee, my friend; for I find it fatiguing to adminifter fo continually to one woman's vanity."

"And thou wanteft more to adminifter to thine.--But understand me, Warwick-If I can poffefs myfelf of an advantage to which you. feem totally indifferent, and carry off this heiress of the ifle-have I your confent?"

"With all my foul, and I heartily with you fuccefs-making only this bargain, Jack, that I won't have it faid the left me for you--No, damn it, that would be too mortifying-No, no; I will have it known that I might have had her if I would.”

My friend had fenfe enough to humour my ridiculous and boyish vanity while he defpifed it; and it was agreed between us, that I fhould relax in my attentions while he grew more afiiduous. The fcheme fucceeded; and the nymph became more partial to the lieutenant than she had ever been to me, whom the could not forgive for hav ing deferted her for the attractions of a young widow, who had late

ly re-appeared in fociety after her mourning for a husband who had left her a noble eftate; and who, though four or five years older, was in beauty and in wealth her rival, and of course heartily detested.

6

Though nothing was further from my thoughts than matrimony, and though my lively widow feemed to understand the value of the liberty fhe had regained too well to be willing foon to refign it, the good-humoured Jamaica world talked loudly of our attachment; while my friend fucceeded fo happily in his, that the father of the lady, perceiving her affection for him, had confented to their mar riage. On the part of the young lieutenant, what began with intereited views was now become a ferious affection; and my friend, who was a very amiable and worthy young man, believed himself likely to be most happy in an alliance where pecuniary advantages were added to personal attachment.

6

Every thing was preparing for the fumptuous celebration of the wedding, and the happy lover was admitted to vifit his mistress with that degree of freedom which their approaching marriage allowed. She had loft her mother fome years before; and had, though only feventeen, been long mistress of her father's house, who treated her with the moft boundlefs indulgence.

It happened that the lieutenant, who had been upon duty at Kingfton, was difmiffed by the commanding officer fooner than his turn of duty was at a end, on another fubaltern's taking his place; and as he was to be married in a few days, he hastened at a very early hour of the morning to the country-houfe where his mistress refided.

He took a gay leave of his comrades, for it was probable that he would be married before he rejoined them: though the day was not yet fixed, but was to be left to the decifion of the lady herself; who would not, he flattered himself, name a very diftant one.

But my furprife was extreme to fee him amid the violent heats of the fame day, when nobody ever thinks of ftirring out, enter my room, where I was about to take my fiefta, with an air fo dejected that I immediately perceived fomething very difagreeable had hap pened. I inquired eargerly after his intended bride: he answered coldly that she was well.-" And when is the wedding to be?" cried I with vivacity." Never," replied my friend;-and throwing himself into a chair, he yielded for fome time in filence to the ex+ treme vexation he felt. But I at length drew from him the following

account:

"I entered the houfe," faid my friend, "as I ufually do, after giving my horfe to the negro who waited in the ftable.-You recol Ject that above stairs there is an open calonnade that runs round the houfe: I was thewn into the apartment where Mifs Shaftesbury fits in a morning-it was elegantly dreifed with flowers;—her toilet was taftefully fet out;-her mufick-book was open at a pathetic fong: