of Rome, who has described the monument in the Annals of the Institute (1842, p. 37), remarks-" That this figure represents Neptune seems to me beyond a doubt; it is shewn, not only by the attribute in his hand, but also by the tree sacred to that deity which stands at his side. However it be, no one can presume to deny that the figure bearing an oar indicates a maritime city, such as Pliny in truth implies Vetulonia to have been."

Dr. Braun is of opinion, in which he is joined by the Cav. Canina (Bullet. dell' Istit. 1840, 93), that this bas-relief formed one of the sides of a square pedestal, and that the three other sides bore similar emblems of other cities-the twelve confederates of the great Etruscan League. This seems indeed highly probable, and may be admitted as presumptive evidence of the power and magnificence of Vetulonia.

It will be seen at once how utterly incompatible is the hill of Castiglion Bernardi, fourteen or fifteen miles from the sea, and on no navigable river, with the site of a great maritime city, such as Vetulonia must have been.

Cav. Inghirami lays great stress on the latitude and longitude assigned to Vetulonia by Ptolemy; so much so, that he proposes to make it the basis of his researches for the site of the city (p. 93). Seeing that Ptolemy fixes the longitude of Populonium at 33° 30', of Vetulonium at 34°, and of Sana at 34° 20′; and gives to Populonium a latitude of 42°, to Vetulonium of 42° 30′, and to Volaterra of 42° 40', he concludes that Ptolemy meant to assign to Vetulonia a site between the three cities of Populonia, Volterra, and. Siena, which he thinks may correspond with the hill of Castiglion Bernardi. If the above statements of Ptolemy be correct, as Inghirami assumes, the site of Vetulonia must be looked for at Monte Guidi, north of the Cæcina, in a direct line between Pomerance and Siena, about twenty-five miles from the sea, and very far north of Castiglion Bernardi. But the truth is, that no dependence can be placed on the positions indicated by Ptolemy, who is much more often wrong than right; and if the towns of Etruria were arranged according to the latitudes and longitudes given in his tables, we

7 Inghirami, however, has quoted Ptolemy incorrectly. That geographer states that the latitude of Ποπλώνιον ἄκρον is 42o, but of the Tóλig 42° 30′; and assuming this to be correct, as above, we

should look for Vetulonia near Perolla, to the south-east of Massa, and as remote as Monte Guidi from the hill of Castiglion Bernardi.

should have a completely new map of that land. How indeed can we expect the accuracy of modern calculations, seeing the imperfect state of geographical science in his day? Not being able personally to visit every country he described, he was compelled to take his data from the charts then existing, from itineraries, and from the accounts of travellers and previous geographers, and the marvel is, that with such materials he should in any case approximate to the truth.

By taking certain of Ptolemy's statements as correct, to the exclusion of the rest, Inghirami obtains a latitude for Vetulonia between the parallels of Populonia and Volterra; but if I take certain other of his statements as fixed and ascertained, I arrive in the same manner at a widely different conclusion. For instance, Ptolemy assigns to Cære a latitude of 41° 56', to Saturnia of 42° 40′, and to Vetulonium of 42° 30', which gives us a spot half a degree to the south of Populonia, instead of as much to the north, as Inghirami has considered him to indicate. But the latitudes of Care and Saturnia happen to be perfectly correct (which cannot be said of those assigned to Populonia and Volterra), and that of Vetulonium is almost precisely that of the newly found city, which is 42° 33′, instead of 42° 30′. Again, by assuming that Ptolemy is correct in the longitude he assigns to Luca 33°, to Cortona and Volsinii each 35°, I obtain a relative position for Vetulonia, whose longitude he calls 34°, exactly corresponding with that of this newly found city. I do not adduce these things as substantial evidence in favour of my opinion, for Ptolemy is so full of errors and inconsistencies, that it is impossible to argue correctly from any of his statements, but I cite them merely to shew, that by assuming certain of his data to be correct, to the exclusion of the rest, he may be forced to favour almost any opinion. This at least is evident, that any mode of interpretation favouring the view of Castiglion Bernardi being the site of Vetulonia may be applied with equal, nay superior, success to the newly found city near Magliano.

Be this city Vetulonia or not, it is clear that it must have been of great importance in the early history of Italy; as it is not surpassed in size, or excelled in advantages of situation, navally or commercially, by any city of that age and country. Future researches will perhaps remove the uncertainty which hangs over this long-forgotten city.

GEORGE DEnnis.

XVI.

ON THE STUDY OF SANSCRIT, AND F. BOPP'S VERGLEICHENDE GRAMMATIK DER SANSCRIT, ZEND, GRIECH, LAT., &c. (BERLIN, 1833, &c. 4to.)

In the year 1787 Sir W. Jones, in his fourth anniversary] address to the Asiatic Society, took occasion to pronounce, that Europe was indebted to the university of Leyden for such knowledge of the Arabic language as was then accessible to her students. Since the period of that discourse, another great field of inquiry has been opened in the East, in the earlier exploration of which Sir W. Jones himself was the conspicuous leader. In the case of the Sanscrit, British followers of that great man have lived, and still live, sufficient in number and talent, to save us from a confession of exclusive reliance on foreign assistance, which would be disgraceful to us as rulers of the Indian peninsula. Even, however, with regard to this region, which the ordinary rules of the division of intellectual labour would assign specially to this country, in one respect, second to none in importance, and intimately connected with the objects of this publication, we are still obliged to accord a pre-eminence to German talent and assiduity; nor can we avoid the confession that, for assistance in a certain direction of inquiry, the English student must resort to Berlin, Bonn, or Copenhagen, rather than to Oxford or Calcutta-our meaning is this, that if he wish to master the Sanscrit itself, and for itself, he can doubtless obtain at home the key to its treasures; but if, with more comprehensive views, he desire to trace its relations to those numerous languages of which it is the common source, he must seek such foreign auxiliaries as Rask, Burnouf, Lassen, Westergaard, and Bopp. We are far from undervaluing the former object; even if we could adopt Mr. Mill's low standard of the value of Sanscrit science and literature, we should still consider it the duty of England to push their investigation to the utmost. The second object, however, is one more catholic in its nature; it will be found to interest the philologer of every country in Europe. It has nothing to do with the questionable value or disputed antiquity of Sanscrit records. The Ramayan and Mahabarat may be the nonsense Mr. Mill describes them, the Sacontala an insipid farce, and the Cali Yug an imposture, the language itself may be a system in which redundancy and

complication are raised to their highest power. The fact will still remain, that subjects of every government in Europe are writing and speaking living derivatives of that language, that every university is occupied in teaching its two noblest extinct varieties, and that philology must cease to exist as a study and a science, when interest ceases to attach to the exploration of a connection so curious and so extensive as that which binds together the members of the Indo-Germanic family. In this point of view, the Sanscrit claims an indisputable preference, as a subject of European research, over the two other great streams of language which seem to have descended from the Caucasus, the Semitic and the monosyllabic system which has pervaded China. So far, indeed, as the Greek language is concerned, the English student has already access to a valuable repertory of information in the Cratylus of Mr. Donaldson. For a more comprehensive view of this vast subject, he will, however, find it necessary to resort to Mr. Bopp's Comparative Grammar of the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, and German languages. We are inclined to believe that a translation of this extraordinary work would requite the toil of its execution. The undertaking is not without difficulty. We believe at this moment the Berlin press is the only one in Europe provided with types of the Zend language, and it is obvious that no work of this description can be published in England, except by means of large pecuniary assistance from some quarter, public or private. We have, however, reason to hope that these difficulties might be overcome, and we consider the victory worth the effort. It may, indeed, be alleged that translation is in this case superfluous, because the probable readers, fit though few, will be masters of the German medium through which the Berlin professor has conveyed his knowledge. We apprehend, however, that many a future student, who may not have found time or opportunity to familiarize himself with German at Addiscombe or Hertford, would thank a translator for having spared him that preliminary exertion; and we think that, by appearing in an English form, the work itself would obtain in England all that it wants for its due appreciation,-notoriety. That portion of the work which concerns the Zend language will derive some additional interest at this moment from the circumstance of the controversy which is now in progress at Bombay, between Pro

testant missionaries and the Parsi depositaries of the faith of Zoroaster. It was said of Hugh Broughton, a very arrogant divine of James the First's reign, who left this country in disgust that he had not been employed on the translation of the Bible, that he was gone abroad to teach the Jews Hebrew. A Danish professor, Mr. Westergaard, following the steps and example of Anquetil and Rask, is now, we believe, in India, pursuing his researches into the extinct language above mentioned; and it would be neither sarcasm nor exaggeration to say, that he or his fellow labourers, Bopp, Lassen, and Burnouf, would be competent to teach the Parsi more than the latter could convey in return of the real meaning of the original Zendavesta text. Meanwhile, controversy is raging at Bombay, in religious periodicals, and in the Gujaráti language, a curious account of which will be found in the work of Mr. J. Wilson, missionary of the Church of Scotland at Bombay, on the Parsi religion. The rich and educated votaries of Zoroaster seem disposed to spare neither money nor labour in protecting the dying flame of their once powerful superstition from the breath of Christianity. It is difficult, however, to imagine that men who have received an English education, who are able to read our classics, and have passed through schools in which Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers is a class-book, should cling in after-life to the Vandidad or the Yacna.

The best explanation of the object and compass of Professor Bopp's work will be derived from the following translated extracts from his own preface :

:

"I contemplate in this work a description of the organism of the languages enumerated in the title-page, comparative, and comprehending all the features of their relationship, an inquiry into their physical and mechanical laws, and the origin of the forms which distinguish their grammatical relations. One point alone we leave untouched, the secret of the roots, or the foundation of the nomenclature of the primary ideas; we investigate not, for example, why the root I signifies go and not stand; why the combination of sounds STHA, or STA, signifies stand and not go. We attempt, however, in addition, to follow out, as it were, the language in its stages of being and march of developement, yet in such a manner that those who are predetermined not to recognize as explained that which they maintain to be inexplicable, may perhaps find less to offend