like the rose-bud, were just opening, as if to address one, while a graceful smile met and enraptured the beholder. But the joy which sparkled in her eye, and the well-arched brows, and the grace and symmetry of her whole person, no description can adequately convey to posterity. But, O HELEN! matchless beauty! scion of the Loves! Venus's peculiar care! choicest gift of Nature! prize of victory! where were your nepenthes, and that sovereign balm of all ills, which Polydamna, the wife of Thone, bestowed upon you?-where were your irresistible philtres? why did you not employ them now, as formerly? I believe that Destiny had decreed that you should perish by fire-you, whose very image ceased not to inflame the beholders into love! I might almost add, that, by consigning this your image to the flames, the Latins avenged the manes of their ancestors3, and the destruction of their paternal city, Troy ! But the mad and unfeeling avarice of these men will not suffer me to indulge a pleasantry:-whatever was rare, whatever was beautiful, they coveted and destroyed. Those verses*, which Homer sang in thy praise, O beauteous Helen! were in vain addressed to illiterate barbarians, who were ignorant even of their very alphabet. Another circumstance must also be mentioned: Upon a column was erected A FEMALE FIGURE, in the prime of youth and (2) Vide Hom. Od. lib. iv. ver. 228. "Ultus avos Troja, templa et temerata Minervæ." (4) Vide Il. iii. ver. 215. "No wonder such celestial charms For nine long years have set the world in arms! : beauty her hair was collected together, and flung backward the height of the pillar was not beyond the reach of a person whose hand was outstretched: the figure itself was unsupported; and yet its right hand held with as much ease the statue of a Horse and its Rider as if it had been a goblet of wine; one foot of the horse being placed in the palm of the hand. He who sat upon the horse was of a robust appearance, clad in mail, with greaves on his legs, and ready for battle; the horse was erecting his ears to the sound of the trumpet; his neck was lofty, his nostrils snorting, and his eyes displayed his desire for the course; his feet were raised in air, and as if in the attitude of springing to the fight. Near to this statue, and close to the eastern goal of the Circus, which belonged to the Red faction', were placed the figures of VICTORIOUS CHARIOTEERS, as lessons of their art by their gesture, if not by their voice, they exhorted the drivers not to slacken the reins as they approached the pillar (called Nyssè)*; but, reining in their steeds, to turn them in a narrow compass, and, lashing them to their full speed, compel the adverse charioteer to make a larger sweep, and thus to lose ground, even though his horses were swifter of foot, if he were less skilful in the management of them.—Another group of surprising and exquisite workmanship in brass (1) Vide Gibbon, 40th chapter, who has described the different factions of the Circus,-the Green, the Red, the White, and the Blue. (2) For a particular description of the Chariot-race, we must look to the 25d Book of the Iliad, and read the instructions of Nestor to his son Antilochus: nor should we omit the lively and glowing description of a chariot-race, with its attendant accidents, in the Electra of Sophocles, ver. 700. closes the description. On a square plinth of marble, AN ANIMAL rested, which at first sight might have been taken for an Ox, only that its tail was too short, and it wanted a proper depth of throat, and its hoofs were not divided. ANOTHER ANIMAL, whose whole body was covered with rough scales, which even in brass were formidable, had seized upon the former animal with his jaws, and nearly throttled him. There were different opinions concerning these animals, which I shall not attempt to reconcile. Some imagined them to represent the Basilisk and the Asp others, the Crocodile and the River-horse of the Nile. I shall content myself with describing the extraordinary contest beteen them; how both were mutually injuring and injured; were destroying and destroyed; were struggling for the victory; were conquering and conquered. The body of one animal was swollen from the head to the feet, and appeared greener than the colour of the frog; the lightning of his eye was quenched, and his vital powers seemed failing fast, so that the beholders might have imagined him already dead, only that his feet still supported and kept his body upright. The other animal, which was held fast in the jaws of its adversary, was moving his tail with difficulty; and, extending his mouth, was in vain struggling to escape from the deadly gripe. Thus each was inflicting death upon the other; the struggle was the same, and the victory terminated in the common destruction of both. These examples of mutual destruction I have been led to mention, not only from the sculptured representation of them, and from their taking place among fierce and savage beasts, but because this mutual carnage is not unfrequent among the nations which have waged war against us Romans';-they have massacred and destroyed each other, by the favour of Christ towards us, who "scattereth the people that delight in war;" who has no pleasure in blood; who causes the just man 66 to tread upon the Basilisk and the Asp," and to "trample the lion and the dragon under his feet." (1) The Byzantine Historians were fond of giving to their countrymen the appellation of Romans; as Constantinople had long been the seat of Empire, and was considered as a New Rome, No. III. A LIST OF ALL THE PLANTS COLLECTED DURING THESE TRAVELS, IN GREECE, EGYPT, AND THE HOLY LAND. ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED. N.B. In this List will be found about sixty NEW SPECIES; the distinctive characters of which being fully described in the Notes to the Three Sections of PART THE SECOND, the Generic names only of the new-discovered Plants are now given. When the name of no Botanical writer occurs after the specific appellations of Plants which have been described by other authors, that of Linnæus is to be understood. The English vulgar names, having often no reference to the Latin, but being sometimes quite at variance with them, were placed before the scientific appellations in the body of the work; but as this could not be done consistently with an alphabetical arrangement, they have been now introduced as they were placed in the Appendix to the FIRST PART of these Travels; immediately following the Linnæan. Perhaps it might have been as well if they had been wholly omitted; but there are persons who desire their insertion. Holy Land. Holy Land. Purple-blossomed Alysson. Troas (Source of Scamander), |