these legends is important, there can be no objection to their insertion with the verses in the notes, leaving it to the taste of the pupil to learn them or not; but they should not fill the room that might be occupied by really important matter which is very often omitted. Still, while we point out what we conceive to be defects in the principle which has guided him in the selection of facts, we freely acknowledge that Dr. Butler has occasionally ventured out of the region of fable into the more open paths of history. In the opening sentences, for instance, of Italia Antiqua' and 'Græcia Antiqua,' some remarks are ventured on the early inhabitants of the respective countries. Here, however, as if unwilling to leave his old haunts, he dives deep into the poets to fetch up lore, and sadly confounds truth and fiction.

6

'Italia was called Hesperia by the Greeks, as being west of Greece (auct. Virg. Æn. i. 534-8.) It was called Italia, from a prince of the name of Italus; Ausonia from the Ausones, a people found in Latium; notria, from a prince called (Enotrus, the son of Lycaon, who settled in Lucania; Saturnia, from having been the fabled residence of Saturn, after his expulsion from heaven by Jupiter, (auct. Virg. Georg. ii. 75; Æn. vi. 792.)'

Virgil and Horace are admirable poets, but not the best guides as antiquarians. There is here no intelligible account at all of the various races living in Italy within historic limits; nor even is the fact of the early acceptation of the term Italia, and its subsequent extension, noticed in the slightest degree. The translation of Niebuhr's History of Rome, in 1828, might have suggested some improvement in Dr. Butler's edition of 1830; but we see that it is like its predecessors.

The remaining observations that we shall make on the book before us, will be chiefly to point out particular errors or omissions. We must, however, previously repeat, what was remarked before, that Dr. Butler's adoption of a 'familiar' instead of a scientific' designation of positions, is a cause of great confusion in the topical descriptions of ancient countrics. Many a position is rendered doubtful, by the obscurity or vagueness with which it is laid down; nor are the learner's doubts always cleared up by referring to the maps, as these do not properly illustrate the book, and, besides, are by no means sufficiently exact to serve as a corrective of the errors in the description. While we notice some of the particular mistakes or omissions in the sketch now before us, it would be a troublesome task to sift the whole work for specimens; we therefore make a few remarks on Greece, in the description of which we shall notice some errors that

will satisfy any reasonable person, respecting the general merits of the book.

p. 173. A little north-east of Argos was Mycene, now Krabata, the royal city of Agamemnon.' Gell lays it down near Krabata, five miles and a half north of Argos. The Cyclopian walls, the treasure-house of Atreus, and other highly curious remains, pass unnoticed. Tiryns is not where Dr. Butler places it, but, as Pausanias describes it (ii. 25), on the road from Argos to Epidaurus, as we turn to the right. p. 174. The capital of Laconia was Sparta, or Lacedæmon.' A reference to Pausanias (iii. 11.) would have suggested the propriety of mentioning the superior antiquity of the first name. The real Spartans plumed themselves on their birth. Not a remark is offered on Sparta. Near Amycle was Therapne.' The river Eurotas separates them at a considerable distance from each other. What objection is there to stating briefly the particulars that fix a position?

p. 175.- On the western side of Messenia was Methone, now Modon, and above it the Messenian Pylos, now Navarin.' The position of Pylos is both vaguely and incorrectly laid down in the book, and in the map too. It should be placed at old Navarin, on the north side of the bay, which will make it, as Pausanias says, about one hundred stadia from Methone: new Navarin is little more than fifty stadia. In the description of Elis, the editions before us differ as to the position of Olympia. Dr. Butler placed Olympia in its right position in the improved edition of 1825; but the map retains its error. Scillus, Xenophon's retreat, is not placed right, either in the map or the book. According to Xenophon himself (Anab. v.3), it is twenty stadia from Olympia on the road to Lacedæmon.

p. 178. The Emperor Nero attempted in vain to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth.' He, however, was not the first nor the only one who attempted this; for it seems to have been a favourite project to unite the gulfs.

Megalopolis is said to exist in ruins at Leondari, or rather Sinano. Which does Dr. Butler mean? Leondari is five miles south of Sinano, and is on the site of another town. The geography of Arcadia is very bad altogether.

p. 180. The first province above the isthmus is the small district of Megara.' 'This is evidently a misprint for Megaris. It shows great carelessness, however, to propagate the error through so many editions. Megaris is the district, as Dr. Butler shortly after states; Megara the town, whose Port was Nysæa, as Dr. Butler has it, for which read Nisæa.

p. 181. The long wall which connected the Piræus with

the city, is stated to be sixty stadia, and the Phaleric wall somewhat less in length. Thucydides makes the Piraic walls forty, and the Phaleric thirty-five stadia long. Dr. Butler confounds the wall round the Piræus with that connecting the Piræus and the city. Compare Butler, p. 181, and Thucydides, i. 93, and ii. 13.

p. 184.-Acharnæ and Phyle are correctly described in the book, but not so placed in the map which we have of Dr. Butler's.

p. 185. Mount Citharon is about midway between Thebes and Corinth.' This statement is scarcely consistent with Strabo's assertion that the roots of Citharon reach to Thebes; nor is it at all a correct description of this mountainous ridge. Eleuthera is placed among the towns of Boeotia, it should, however, be observed that it became Attic (Pausan. i. 38). Oropus was sometimes Athenian and sometimes Boeotian, lying in a debatable position, though doubtless it was originally Boeotian.

p. 187. In the description of Phocis we read of the renowned city of Delphi, also called Pytho.' The fact is, that Pytho was the name of the city, and Delphi originally the name of a people belonging to the district. The word Delphi in Herodotus always refers to people. The temple of the Delphi was the great treasury of Greece; but it did not enter into Dr. Butler's plan to mention this.

p. 188.- North-east of Delphi was the Corycian-cave, and still north-east Elatea, now Turco-chorio.' The Corycian cave is near the summit of Parnassus, but we believe its exact position is hardly known; while Elateia is on the Cephissus, as much as ten or fifteen miles distant, at a place called Elata. The description conveys no idea of the fact.

p. 190.-In the description of Ætolia no notice is taken of the great difference between these people and the more commercial nations of Greece. Thucydides observes (i. 5, and iii. 94,) that they were still, even in his time, engaged in piracy and plunder.-See also Polybius.

p. 191. In the account of Acarnania, Stratus, its largest city, on the Achelöus, mentioned by Thucydides and Polybius, is passed over without any notice. The map places Stratus, as a small place, in Ætolia. It certainly did belong to the Etolians, after the age of Alexander, but was originally an Acarnanian town.

The above are a few errors, picked with little trouble out of twenty pages of the work.

Before we conclude, we shall notice a few misstatements,

chiefly in Asiatic and African geography, taken from other parts of the book. The Doctor's facts are placed in one column, and the true facts in another.

Herodotus does not say any thing of the kind.

Faioum is the name of a province, not the name of a town. The town supposed to stand on the site of Arsinoe is called Medinet-el-Faioum, to distinguish it from other places, called Medinet (city), such as Medinet-Abou.

The site of the Labyrinth is unknown. The ruins, sometimes called those of the Labyrinth, are not very magnificent.

Ariana was the proper name of this country of large extent.

Susa, which does not signify lilies in the language of the country, is now Sus, about forty geographical miles from Suster.

The site of Pasargadæ, if it is known, is Murghaub, where there is a tomb. At Fasa, which we presume is Dr. Butler's Pasa, there are no remains at all. -(See Sir W. Ouseley.)

Susiana cannot be called a part of Persia in the sense in which Dr. Butler correctly uses the word Persia, by which he means the modern Fars.

At the mouth of the Strymon was the city of Eion, not mentioned by Dr. Butler. Amphipolis was 25 stadia higher up. (Thucyd. iv. 102.)

Several of these mistakes may appear to some people of trifling importance; such as they are we offer them to their notice. The want of useful and sufficient information in nearly the whole of the Geography of Asia is, in our opinion, a greater defect in the book than such errors as we have noticed.

On comparing this edition with some of the earlier, we find that improvements and corrections have been occasionally made: for example, in some very early editions the Great Seleuceia is said to have been on the Euphrates; while, in the last edition, and probably in others preceding it, this city is correctly placed on the Tigris. Many of the modern names of places in Asia, and some in Africa and Europe, are not

written in the most approved mode; but it is often difficult to know what is the best way of writing such words, as authorities are frequently at variance.

The book contains two indexes, one modern and the other ancient, which, as far as we know, are accurate, and certainly very useful.

THE ENGLISH ALMANACS.-1832.

WHEN half a million copies of a particular class of books are annually sold, it may fairly be held that these books are worthy of being regarded,-first, as indications of the state of knowledge amongst the people; and secondly, as exercising a positive influence themselves upon the state of knowledge. The produce of the almanac duty for England, in 1830, was £30,789, which amount, the stamp being one shilling and three-pence upon each almanac, exhibits a sale of 492,624 copies. The English almanacs, therefore, may be properly treated as Works of Education, with reference to their extensive sale.

The total number of almanacs published may be divided into the Astrological and the non-Astrological. The Astrological are published by the Stationers' Company only. There was a third class of the Company's Almanacs, the obscene; but this class was discontinued in 1829.

There are now only two Astrological Almanacs, Vox Stellarum, by Francis Moore, Physician,' and 'Merlinus Liberatus, by John Partridge.' Moore's improved Almanac has this year ceased to belong to this class. These two contribute, there is good reason to believe, one half of the revenue upon almanacs-that is, they sell two hundred and fifty thousand copies. Of these, again, nine-tenths of the number sold may be put to the account of Francis Moore ; so that this relic of ancient absurdity is probably more read than any other work in the kingdom.

Of the non-Astrological Almanacs about a hundred thousand are Sheet-Almanacs. Of the Book-Almanacs, therefore, with the exception of Moore and Partridge, there are only about a hundred and fifty thousand sold. Of these, the Stationers' Company publish, White's Ephemeris, the Gentleman's Diary, the Lady's Diary, Moore Improved, Goldsmith, Rider, the Clerical, the Clergyman's, the English