are honestly and indefatigably pointed to this great object. At the same time he is one of those observant authors, that imbodies in his pages he ideas of his own, as well as those of all former times. Never, surely, was a writer more successful in illuminating the darkest passages, and turning to practical account such as escape an ordinary reader. His well-furnished mind cashiered every thing like prosing and prolixity. Though his theological views are occasionally tinctured with Calvinism, we observe no wresting of the scriptures to support any hypothesis. He removes difficulties, that holy writ may inform the head, and mend the heart. Should any be disposed to lay undue stress on passages apparently favourable to high Calvinism, they would do well to keep others in view of a contrary tendency. Thus, on Eccles. viii. 8.-" He is the Saviour of all men, 1 Tim. iv. 10—not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation, that his elect may lay hold on eternal life, and reprobates may have this for a bodkin at their hearts one day, I was in a fair possibility of being delivered." This appears to have been one of his standing sentiments, as appears from his note on 2 Thess. i. 8. "And that obey not the gospel: This is the grand sin of this age, John iii. 19. No sin will gripe so in hell as this. This will be a bodkin at the heart one day-I might have been delivered; but I have willingly cut the throat of my poor soul, by refusing those rich offers repeatedly made to me in the gospel.”

On the whole, with all deference to the invaluable labours of others since his time, I cannot but think Mr. Trapp's commentary deserving a place among those of the first class-it ranks high in my estimation, as the most excellent I ever consulted for every thing a work of the kind should be. Every preacher, in particular, who feels it incumbent on him to inculcate the true sayings of God, and who deserves the character of "preacher and expounder of God's holy word," will find in Mr. Trapp the richest assistance. It would be an undertaking worthy of an age in which the grammatical sense of holy writ is appealed to as the test of religious doctrine, to perform an act of justice to the memory of this admirable writer, by removing some passages rather adapted to his day than the present; exchanging some words now obsolete for others more modern; and presenting the five portable folios to the public in a form calculated for general purchase and perusal, JOHN CALLAWAY.

St. Austell, Cornwall.

HISTORY OF NAVIGATION.

THE antiquity of naval architecture is proved in the oldest and most authentic of all records. Now, it is not to be supposed that the structure and use of the ark would be soon forgotten, by the descendants of those who were preserved by it from the devouring flood. Vast and wonderful as the vessel was, it demonstrated the practicability of transporting persons and goods from one shore to another. If, therefore, necessity be the mother of invention, the means, by which the world had been repeopled, could not fail to be remembered with veneration, and consequently to be made an object of imitation under all circumstances, where the adoption of it as a model became expedient.

That such was the case is put beyond all doubt, by the religious honours paid to the ark among different nations, widely separated from, and having no intercourse with, each other. Some of these were accustomed to carry about small navicular shrines, and even to build their temples in the form of ships. Diodorus Siculus says, that the Egyptian king Sesostris constructed a vessel which was two hundred and eighty cubits in length; that it was made of cedar, and covered with plates of gold and silver.

This extraordinary and magnificent structure could not have been intended for a maritime purpose, as the situation in which it stood was the inland district of the Thebais, so named from Thebah, the ark. What is very remarkable, there are yet the ruins of a similar temple still existing near Dundalk, in Ireland. Its form is that of a mutilated galley, and such is the appellation by which it is distinguished among the Irish to this day.

The reverence for the ark must have extended its practical use on the element which it may be said to have commanded. Accordingly, we read that "the posterity of Japhet divided among themselves the isles of the Gentiles, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations," Gen. x. 5. Now, his colonization could not have been accomplished, however near the islands might be to each other, without vessels, and some skill in the management and direction of them, in the day by oars or sails, and in the night by observation of the stars. Thus far, the earliest existing history of those ages enables us to trace the origin of navigation; but of long voyages we meet with no account to be relied on, either as to time or object, till about the reign of Solomon. Here, however, poetry and fable, when cautiously trusted may,

serve to enliven the inquiry, if not to supply the defect of evidence.

Among the legends of classical antiquity, one of the most famous is that of the Argonautic expedition. The object of this enterprise was to recover from Æetes, king of Colchis, the golden fleece, which Phrixus had consecrated to Mars, after sacrificing to the deity the ram that had conveyed him across the Hellespont, to avoid the wrath of Ino. Pelias, king of Ioleus, fearing that his relative Jason would supplant him in the government, commanded him to sail to Colchis, and bring from thence the fleece, which was under the care of a dragon that never slept. Thus commissioned, Jason employed Argus the son of Phrixus, to build a ship, which was named from him, the ARGO. Every thing being completed, the two adventurers, accompanied by some of the most intrepid Grecian youths, departed with a fair wind from Pagasa. Previous to embarkation, however, Chiron, a famous astronomer, was consulted, who gave the heroes proper instructions for their guidance, and at the same time, with his daughter Eippo, framed for their use a sphere; but the credit of this invention is given by some writers to Musæus. On this sphere, which was the first ever constructed, the stars were formed into asterisms, that the Argonauts on inspection might with certainty direct their course in this perilous voyage. At the rising of the Pleiades, in obedience to the counsel of Chiron, the adventurers set sail; but with respect to the route they took, either in going or returning, the ancients who have written the history differ greatly. The general account makes them coast along the shore of Macedonia to Thrace, and thence to the Bosphorus. Here were two rocks, called the Cyanean and the Sympligades, which dashed against each other with such violence as to render it nearly impossible for the smallest vessel to pass between them. In this exigency the voyagers let loose a dove, which flew with such rapidity, that the feathers of its tail alone were brushed by the collision of the rocks. Encouraged by this, the Argonauts entered the passage, and cleared it with little damage.

On their arrival at Colchis, they demanded the golden fleece; which Eetes refused, unless Jason would undertake to tame to the plough certain brazen-hoofed fiery bulls, and to sow the ground with the remaining teeth of the serpent slain by Cadmus at Thebes. Such were the conditions required by Eetes, and accepted by Jason, who, with the help of Media, daughter of the king of Colchis, subdued the bulls, escaped the

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fury of the armed men generated by the teeth of the serpent, and, having laid asleep the guardian dragon, succeeded in carrying off the prize, together with the princess.

Eetes, enraged at the loss of the fleece and his daughter, pursued the Argonauts, who, however, escaped by taking a circuitous route, and, on their return home, consecrated, their ship to Neptune.

Though this relation is palpably mythological throughout, many writers, both ancient and modern, have treated it as historic truth; and some men, of the first repute for science, have endeavoured to ascertain, by calculation, when the expedition actually took place. Petavius fixed its date in the year 1226 before Christ; while Newton brought it down to the year 937, that is, about twenty-five years after the death of Solomon. On this visionary basis, our illustrious philosopher even formed a system of chronology; to support which, he took infinite pains, by bringing together all the lights that could be obtained from the oldest Greek writers, and the scattered fragments, relating to the Argonauts, that were preserved by different compilers. His principal authority is the unknown author of a work called Gigantimachia, quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus. From such a doubtful source did Sir Isaac draw what has been termed his astronomical argument.

Next, it is assumed by Newton, that Chiron, the oracle of the Argonauts, was a practical astronomer, and, either invented the sphere, or was at least the first that disposed the stars into constellations, which he performed for the use of the Argonauts, who were to sail by night. Newton next supposes that Chiron placed his colures so as to pass through the middle of the signs Cancer and Capricorn, over the back of Aries, and through Chela. In the same hypothetic strain, the great calculator takes it for granted that the precession of the equinoxes was unknown in the time of Eudoxus; and that, therefore, when he made the colures pass through the middle of the signs, as Hipparchus says he did, it was no more than supposing that they continued in the same place where they had been originally fixed by Chiron. The conclusion of the argument is, that, as the equinox retrogrades fifty seconds in a year, and one degree in seventy-two years, therefore, by counting back from the beginning of 1690, when the star called Prima Arietis, was in Aries twenty-eight degrees, fifty-one minutes, it will place the Argonautic voyage in the period assigned for it; that is, within one thousand years of the Christian era.

Notwithstanding the labour bestowed upon this ingenious scheme, neither the

calculations themselves, nor the high repu tation of the illustrious author, could keep it up. The foundation was sandy, and every prop, affixed to support the hypothesis, tottered and fell with it to the ground. The passage from Clemens Alexandrinus, on which so much stress is laid, mentions yows and propitiatory sacrifices, in connection with the σκηματα ολυμπs, which Chiron and his gifted daughter Hippo provided: whence it is evident, that instead of planispheres, the Argonauts received horoscopes or astrological configurations, to encourage them in their enterprise; and that nothing else could be meant by the historians and poets who have celebrated this adventure. Thus, the inference from science is demolished at a stroke; and the rest of the his tory is doomed to a similar fate. The whole tale, in short, is only a poetic and highly coloured allegory or mythos of the renewal of the world by means of the ark, the safety of which was augured in the mission of the dove.

But fictitious as the story of this voyage is, in its details it shews the early practice of building and navigating ships; for all fabulous representations are drawn from things and customs in familiar use and observation.

Another poetic evidence to the same effect we have in the Iliad and Odyssey. It is beside the present purpose to enter into the history of Homer, or the question so much agitated, of the reality of the Trojan war. It is sufficient for the object of this inquiry, that two of the oldest poems extant are full and accurate in the description of shipping, and the art of practical seamanship. If Homer had not been thoroughly acquainted with nautical affairs, he never could have given such exquisitely painted pictures as he has done; particularly in the adventures of Ulysses, which the learned Bryant conceives, with great reason, to be a veiled history of the poet's own adventures. What, for instance, can be finer than the following representation of the hero when struggling with the waves: Ως αρα μην ειποντ' έλασεν μεγα κυμα και

ακρής

Δεινον επεσσυμενον, κ. τ. λ.

Just as he spoke, a mighty wave, wide spread, Rose high behind, and burst upon his head. He felt his raft whirl'd round, of winds the play, And, from the helm he grasp'd was borne away; Rent was the mast, and in the middle fail'd, A whirlwind wild o'er all the sea prevail'd; A fierce impetuous hurricane, combin'd Of every stormy gust and lawless wind."

The Phenicians, as they were called by the Greeks, but Canaanites, or merchants, in scriptural language, were certainly the

first who discovered the art of navigating vessels. Their situation on the coasts of Syria was peculiarly favourable to commercial pursuits; and Sidon, which was originally their capital, held the entire sovereignty of the Mediterranean sea, till sup. planted by its own colony of Tyre. The flourishing state of Sidon soon drew thither numerous emigrants, many of whom became settlers there; but the territory being small, it was found necessary to dismiss some of the new inhabitants, and to establish them in other places. Their first settlements were in the isles of Cyprus and Rhodes. Afterwards they passed successively into Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain. For a long time their maritime expeditions were confined within the limits of the Mediterranean, but at length they ventured to pass the Pillars of Hercules, or the Straits of Gibraltar, and, being attracted by the convenience of the isle of Cadiz for trade, they took possession of it, and there founded a city, which became the principal emporium of their western commerce.

That, among other countries, the adventurous Phenicians visited Britain, is a fact too well established to require any laboured argument. But at what period this intercourse began, is not so easy to determine. Some antiquaries have given it no earlier a date than the fifth or sixth century before the Christian era. This, however, is set aside by the historic fact, that, in the time of Solomon, tin was brought in great quan. tities to Jerusalem. We learn also from Homer, that, the use of this metal, which he calls Kaooirepos, was familiar among the Greeks before the Trojan war, for he mentions it more than once, in his description of the shield of Achilles.

But common as tin was, the country that produced it remained concealed even from the Greeks for many years; and all they knew of the matter was, that it came from certain remote islands which were called the Cassiterides. This ignorance was owing to the extreme caution observed by the Phenicians in the management of their commercial concerns; of which reserve, Strabo relates a remarkable instance. The master of a Phenician ship, perceiving that his course was tracked by a Roman vessel, purposely ran his own ashore, to prevent the trade in which he was engaged from being discovered. The enterprising Romans, however, succeeded afterwards in gaining a share of this valuable traffic; and having opened an intercourse with the inhabitants of the Cassiterides, taught them to improve their resources by working the mines to a greater depth, and carrying the produce to

the continent, instead of selling it to foreign merchants.

The Cassiterides are commonly supposed to have been the Scilly Islands, which Strabo says were no more than ten in number; though in fact they now consist of one hundred and forty.

Now, though we may admit that some or other of this cluster constituted the first objects of Phenician curiosity and enterprise, it is not to be supposed, that a people so active and intelligent as they were, should neglect to visit the opposite shore, or mainland of Cornwall. There, and all along the line of coast to Plymouth Sound, they must have found many capacious harbours, far more convenient for their commercial purposes than any of the adjacent islands. Falmouth, in particular, could not have escaped the observation of these experienced navigators; and that port was, beyond all question, the great depôt to which the natives carried their tin and other commodities, which they disposed of, for money, or in barter, to the foreign traders.

From a connexion like this, first with the Phenicians, and next with the Greeks and Romans, the western Britons, or Danmonii, must have acquired the knowledge of many useful arts, and, among the rest, those which related to navigation. When Cæsar landed on the coast of Kent, he found no other vessels in use there, than boats of wickerwork, made of osiers, and covered with skins; whence they had the name of coracles. Such continues to be the structure, and such also is the appellation of the fishing-boats on the rivers in Wales at this day.

Now, a traveller that should witness one or two of these simple vehicles on the Wye, or the Towy, and thence infer that the people had no craft of a superior description for a maritime purpose, would reason just as correctly as those writers do, who, upon the authority of Cæsar, conclude that all the Britons were without shipping when the Roman legions landed at the mouth of the Thames.

Whatever caution the Phenicians might think it necessary to adopt, to secure the monopoly of the trade of Briton to themselves, it was impossible for them to hinder the people with whom they trafficked, from imitating what they admired and perceived to be of so much practical utility. Ship, building, therefore, though probably in a very limited state, and adapted only to the coasting trade, would be the effect of this intercourse. It deserves to be noticed also, that as the voyages of the Phenicians were necessarily long, their vessels must have stood in need of occasional repair; and

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sometimes in want of new planks, of masts, and yards. There is upon record a remarkable circunstance in proof, that Britain stood high as a maritime station long before the settlement of the Romans in the island. When Archimedes built that famous ship at Syracuse, which Hiero presented to Ptolemy king of Egypt, they were obliged to procure a mainmast from the mountains of Britain. As this was more than two centuries prior to the expedition of Cæsar, it shews in what repute the island stood among those powers best qualified to estimate its value and importance for naval purposes.

But it is time now to follow the Phenicians in another direction. Ever in search of new sources of gain, they extended their dominion to the western coast of Africa, and there founded several settlements, from whence they drew immense riches. But the most extraordinary circumstance in the history of these people, and that which has perplexed all who have undertaken to trace the rise and progress of nautical science is, the account of their circumnavigating the African continent, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The circumstance is related by Herodotus, who, however, calls the truth of the story in question, on account of a fact which in reality confirms it.

Certain Phenician voyagers, he says, related, that in sailing round the extremity of southern Africa, they witnessed a singular phenomenon, and that their shadow, instead of falling to the north, fell in a contrary direction. This appeared so incredible, and contrary to all experience, that, though the father of history thought it worth while to record what he had heard, he at the same time acknowledges his disbelief of this part of the narration. Yet the very thing which he considered as throwing a doubt upon the veracity of the relators, is now known to all mariners. Notwithstanding this, some great writers of our own country have set the entire story of the Phenician voyage down as a mere fable. Dr. Robertson, in his disquisition on the knowledge which the ancients had of India, decides the point summarily, by saying that the Phenician vessels were too small for such an undertaking; which is a gratuitous assumption, unsupported by any authority, and directly opposed by all that we learn of the expeditions of those adventurous and enterprising people.

Dr. Vincent labours the question more like a scholar and a man of science, in his "Periplus of the Erythrean Sea;" though he too discredits the account of the circumnavigation of Africa, in any age before the discovery of the route to India by Vasco d

Gama. The learned dean's general argument is wholly negative. "Had this fleet," he asks, 66 no difficulties to encounter, because we read of none but the want of provisions? Can we suppose the Phenicians so superior to the Greeks in the art of navigation, as to have no dread of passing the greatest promontory in the world, when Nearchus and his officers shuddered at Mussendon, and dared not attempt Ras-elhad? Can we believe that Phenicians, who had never crossed the Indian ocean, were bolder mariners than the Arabians, who trusted themseves to the monsoons? and yet the Arabians never dared to try the Mosambique current, during their neighbourhood to it, for fourteen hundred years, when these Phenicians launched into it at first sight? To them the terrors of the stormy Cape were no barrier, and the promontories on the western coast of the vast continent no obstacle. Were all these, which the Portuguese surmounted only by repeated attempts, and by a persevering spirit exerted for almost a hundred years, to be passed by Phenicians on their first expedition, and in the course of a few months? Raise them as we please above Greeks, Romans, and Arabians in science, they were doubtless inferior in courage to them all. And whatever science we allot them, the smallest bark could have been conducted by the knowledge of a Portuguese pilot in greater safety than the largest vessel ever fitted out of Egypt."

It must be confessed that these objections to the Phenician voyage are forcibly put; yet they are all answered at once by another question. How could Herodotus be told that the Phenician navigators had witnessed such a phenomenon as that described, and which the historian himself disbelieved, if nothing of the kind had ever been observed? The report could not have been fabricated for the purpose of deception; and as to the alleged inferiority of the Phenicians to the Greeks and Arabians in scientific skill and courage, it is repugnant to the testimony of all history. In short, Dr. Vincent may be answered by himself "Great moderation is due," says he, "in juding all writers who speak of a country, in the first instance. Things are not false because they are strange, and an example occurs which ought to set rash judgment on its guard. Agatharchidas mentions the worm which is engendered in the legs, and is wound out by degrees. Plutarch ridicules the assertion, and says it never has happened, and never will. In our days every mariner can vouch the truth of the fact."

(To be continued.)

DESCRIPTION OF THE MONASTERY OF THE

GRANDE CHARTREUSE, SITUATE IN THE SOUTH-EAST OF FRANCE, NEAR GRENOBLE.

THE interior of France does not present a range of more extraordinary mountains than those forming the groupe known under the name of the Grande Chartreuse; and though their greatest height, which does not exceed 6,600 feet perpendicular, is much less than that of the Alps, of which they are a portion, still they abound with scenery displaying more of the genuine terrific than can be met with in most other parts of that range. But before we proceed to a description of the scenery, it may not be amiss to give some account of the celebrated ecclesiastical establishment which they enclose within this precinct.

The Grande Chartreuse is a monastery of the Carthusian order, which was founded by one Bruno, a native of Cologne, about A. D. 1080. The following is the legend told concerning the foundation of this order.

Bruno, who was a very learned man, and professor of philosophy at Paris, was one day attending the funeral of a friend of his, whose ill-spent life had been closed by a sudden death, when, to the surprise of all present, during the performance of the service, the corpse, which was laid on a bier before the altar, raised itself up, and the dead man cried out with a loud voice"By the just judgment of God, I am accused; the just judgment of God is given against me; by the just judgment of God, I am damned.”

This miracle had such an effect upon Bruno, that, taking with him six companions, on whom it had equally wrought, he retired to the Desert of Chartreuse in Dauphiné, and, on a spot of ground given to him by Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, founded his first monastery, and established the Carthusian order of monks, which, next to that of La Trappe, is the most severe rule in the Romish church.

The monks wear hair-cloth next their skin, never eat flesh, fast on Fridays on bread and water, eat alone in their cells, except on certain festivals, when they dine together in the refectory. But on these occasions they are ordered "to keep their eyes on the food, their hands on the table, their attention on the reader, and their heart fixed on God." Their silence is almost perpetual; nor are they allowed even to speak to their own brother without leave first obtained from the prior. They are not permitted to leave their cells except to go to chapel, and for necessary occasions,