ON THE POSITION OF THE MERIDIONAL LINE, &C

the first time, that, except in the isthmus of Suez, the continent of Africa ig on all sides encompassed by the sea. In the autumn of the first and sécond year, these bold navigators landed on some convenient spot, committed their seeds to the ground, patiently waited the returns of the next harvest, and resumed their voyage with a fresh supply of provisions. ‘The Phoenicians reported that, in sailing round Africa, they had seen the sun on their right hand, “ a phenomenon (says Herodotus) which ta some may seem less incredible than it does to me.”

Since the modern discoveries of the Portuguese, we know the possibility, and we suppose the reality of an ancient circumnavigation of Africa. The reign of Nechus is accurately fixed in the last and most authentic period of the history of Egypt: his father Psammetichus had opened the country to the Greeks, and his death did not happen more than one hundred and ‘sixty years before the travels of Herodotus. An inquisitive spirit forms the character of the historian whose authority has been fortified by the improvement of criticism and science: he had visited Egypt before the chain of tradition was buried in the ruins of the temples and sacerdotal colleges: he investigated the remains of the docks or arsenals which Nechus had built; and the Pharaoh, after the example of Solomon, might reasonably entrust his vessels to the most skilful navigators of the east. The ignorance of the Greek might tempt him to deny, but his impartiality forbade him to dissemble, the astronomical fact, which, in our eyes, is the surest pledge of his veracity. As soon as they had passed the line, the sun would appear on the right hand of the Phoenicians.

I have allowed full weight to these specious probabilities, but I must object, with equal fairness, that Herodotus was a stranger in Egypt, who. saw with-his awn eyes, but who heard with the ears of his careless or credulous interpreters. The priests were ambitious of impressing the minds of strangers with a splendid idea of their celestial and terrestrial science; and in the observatories of Thebes and Heliopolis, the astronomers could'safely calculate the motions and aspects of the planets. <A journal of the voyage of the Pheenicians, which Herodotus had never seen, must have demonstrated its truth or falsehood: their adventures would be measured by the standard of probability, and the

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