ystem has not all the objections which meet the other, on the score of precipitancy; but still it accounts only for that part of romance which is evidently built upon classic ground. Much of the machinery is wholly different; and from the comparatively few allusionsfrom the indistinct and monstrous perversion of Grecian or Roman fable, we are sure that their knowledge was very limited. But, in fact, a union of classic traditions with oriental fiction is not only probable but certain; yet my hypothesis still traces it to the East'.

1 The process by which Ulysses preserved himself from the charms of Circe, is very similar to that which occurs in the story of " Beder Prince of Persia, and Giahaure Princess of Samandal," in the Arabian Tales; and the fable of the Cyclops is found in the third voyage of Sinbad the Sailor. But Homer is known to have picked up much traditionary

been a great wanderer, and to have matter in the East and elsewhere. Speaking of the fable of Atalanta, Warton has observed, (Diss. on the Gest. Rom. v. 3.) that "It is not impossible that an oriental apologue might have given rise to the Grecian fable." This, I am inclined to think, has often been the case.

For it will be noticed, that Eastern conceptions invariably predominate, even where the subject is confessedly classic; as in the stories of Alexander, Cæsar, and others. Besides the incursions of these leaders into that quarter of the world, might, as it has happened in similar cases, leave certain traditionary monuments of their own belief'. This, however, I by no means intend to urge.

When instances of those who fled, or were exiled to the East, or voluntarily settled there, are so numerous, it would be idle to weary the reader's attention, by entering into any lengthened detail. The names of Clemens of Alexandria, of Ignatius, Tertullian and Origen, are conspicuous in the second and third centuries, with many others, who were in

1 There is in the British Museum, I understand, a TURKISH MS. Poem, of which Alexander the Great is the hero. It is said to have been written in the 14th century, if not earlier.

constant intercourse with the West; and the soft and yielding character of these times presented a plastic surface, to every, even the slightest touch. In the early part of the fourth century the foundation of Constantinople, which drew from Italy such a large population, would facilitate the interchange of literature; for it is not improbable, that many of the Asiatics, driven from their settlements by the influx of the foreigners, would hasten to occupy the homes which the others had vacated. At all events, the new settlers in the East had friends and connections in their father-land, with whom it was natural, and even necessary, that there should be a certain

1 I use this term, and one or two following, with some latitude. Gibbon calls the little town of Chrysopolis, or Scutari, "the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople:" and the extreme approximation of the two shores; the constant and easy intercourse from, and before the time of Xerxes, &c. downward, not omitting the Asiatic Рориlation which has been so long naturalized there, sufficiently authorize the expression.

intercourse, Towards the conclusion of the third century, when monachism was so vehemently propagated, and the East inundated with a restless class of men, who strolled about in pursuit of proselytes (not much unlike the errant-knights of a subsequent age) the position I have laid down is more clearly evinced. It would be doing injustice to my subject, if, in speaking of this singular fact, I used other language than that of the historian of the Roman empire. "The progress of the monks," says this philosophic writer," was not less rapid, or universal, than that of Christianity itself. Every province, and at last, every city of the empire, was filled with their increasing multitudes; and the bleak and harren isles, from Lerins to Lipari, that arise out of the Tuscan sea, were chosen by the Anachorets, for the place of their voluntary exile. An easy and perpetual intercourse by sea and

land connected the provinces of the Roman world; and the life of Hilarion displays the facility with which an indigent hermit of Palestine, might traverse Egypt, embark for Sicily, escape to Epirus, and finally settle in the island of Cyprus. The Latin Christians embraced the religious institutions of Rome. The pilgrims, who visited Jerusalem, eagerly copied, in the most distant climes of the earth, the faithful model of monastic life. The disciples of Antony spread themselves beyond the tropic, over the Christian empire of Ethiopia'. The monastery of Banchor', in Flintshire, which contained above two thousand brethren, dispersed a numerous colony among the barbarians of Ireland; and Iona, one of the Hebrides, which was planted by the Irish monks,

1 See Jerom. (tom. i. p. 126); Assemanni, (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 92. p. 857-919) and Geddes's Church Hist. of Ethiopia, p. 29, 30, 31.

2 Camden's Britannia, Vol. i. p. 666, 667.