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when on horseback. We have, therefore, never pretended to issue our journal before the time mentioned on the face of it; nor shall we in the future. In our first prospectus we promised to issue the work in March, June, September, and December, respectively, and accordingly there never has been a number of it issued on any other month, earlier or later.

Some have regarded us as slow on this account. There are those who think us "late," because we do not issue our September number in August, our December number in November, &c., &c., although not one of our subscribers or patrons has ever reproached us with being one or the other. The reason is, that both are not merely intelligent; they are persons who think as well as read. Such do not expect journalists, more than other sinners, to perform miracles; they know that if we are slow and late, because we do not pretend to outstrip Time, the editors of the greatest periodicals in the world are slow and late.

Thus, for example, if it be asked which is the ablest and most famous periodical in Europe, the general reply will be "The Edinburgh Review." We cheerfully admit, not only that this is the reputation it has always enjoyed, but that it has eminently deserved it. No periodical anywhere has done more good, yet according to a certain class of our critics, it is "always late," since a number of it has never been published before the month mentioned on the face of it. Sometimes it has been published at the beginning of the month, sometimes in the middle, and sometimes towards the close: nay, there have been occasions when it did not appear until the opening of the following month. Then, indeed, it was admitted to be late, but none pretended that it was a whit the less interesting, or the less valuable on this account.

Incredible though it may appear to the class alluded to, its editors have always claimed the right to delay it a week, two weeks, or three weeks, according as the public interest seemed to warrant them in doing so. Every one acquainted with the history of that celebrated periodical is aware that it has often been delayed two or three weeks for an important debate, a general election, or the ratification of an im

portant treaty, &c. But it is only necessary to glance at the work as printed at home in order to see what little importance its conductors attach to the difference of a few days, or even weeks, in the time of its publication. In each number of several volumes now before us, which have been published at intervals of years, it is announced at the close of the reading matter, that the number for the ensuing quarter will be issued some time during the first month of that quarter; thus at the close of the January number we read, “No. CXXVII. will be published in April;" at the close of the April number, " No. CXXVIII. will be published in July," &c., &c.

We mention the "Edinburgh," however, only as an example; all the other great periodicals of Europe, including those of Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Florence, pursue the same course. There is not a city of any extent in Europe, or America in which the Revue des Deux Mondes, or the Revue Contemporaine has not subscribers, but never does either attempt to outstrip time a single day, for the purpose of increasing its "freshness," or diminishing its "staleness."

ART. VIII. 1. Storia degli antiqui popoli italiani. MICALI, Rome. 2. Annales de l'Institut de correspondance archeologique de Rome. 3. Die Etrusker. K. O. MULLER, Breslau.

4. Alphabetum veterum Etruscorum. AMADUZZI, Rome.

5. Saggio di lingua etrusca e di altre antiche d'Italia. LANZI, Rome.

6. On the Antiquities discovered in Etruria. By C. MULLIGAN,

London.

Of all the ancient nations of Italy none appears to have such claims upon our notice as that of the Tuscans. Their celebrity at a time when Rome as yet had no existence, the superiority of their political institutions, their progress in navigation, commerce, and many other arts of civilized life, when the surrounding nations were all enveloped in ignorance and barbarism, are circumstances which even at the

present day, must excite inquiry, and command alike the attention of the historian and the philosopher. Whence this improvement in civilization, this rapid advancement in political growth, is a question which immediately suggests itself to every inquirer, and for which he seeks in vain for an answer in the scanty fragments of antiquity, which shed but a faint and glimmering light on the annals of this singular and illustrious people.

So evident, indeed, has the insufficiency of historical information on the origin of the Tuscans appeared, that many antiquaries of celebrity in the last century, despairing of obtaining any clue from the conflicting testimony of ancient writers, have not hesitated to quit altogether the beaten track of history, and to venture amidst the alluring mazes of conjecture. The consequence of this mode of investigation was easy to be foreseen; system followed system, till there scarcely remained any nation of acknowledged antiquity, to which the honor of having colonized Etruria was not ascribed.

Thus it was supposed that the Tuscans might be descended from the Egyptians,* the Canaanites,† or the Phonicians. Others, again, contended for their Celtics origin. The multiplicity of these opinions is the best proof of the little dependence that is to be placed on systems which trust for support to conjecture alone. The records of history, even where they seem most to fail us, will be found a safer and surer guide than reasoning which is founded on mere assumption and hypothesis. It is, then, with the united aid of history, and conjecture used with moderation, that we shall endeavor to feel our way through this intricate subject; and there are three sources from which we derive information respecting the origin of ancient Tuscany, viz.: The accounts of Greek writers, those of the Romans, and the existing national monuments discovered in Etruria.

With respect to the Romans, it is well known that they concerned themselves little about inquiries into the origin of

* Dempster. Italia antiqua, lib. i. p. 79.

+ Swinton. De Lingua Etruria, p. 92. VOL. XVIII.-NO. XXXV.

↑ Maffei. Degli Italia prim., p. 218-228.

§ Pellosetior. Hist. des Celtes, lib. i. p. 178, 10

nations, but received without much examination all the accounts, even of the early population of Italy, which were transmitted to them by the Greeks, their masters in every species of literature; so that little original information can be derived from them in an inquiry which is to be traced considerably higher than the foundation of their city. The evidence which is supplied by the inscriptions and coins of Etruria, respecting the origin of its inhabitants has hitherto done little towards settling the question; and since the age of their monuments, which had been greatly exagerated, has been proved by able judges* to be posterior to the commencement even of the Roman republic, we are obliged to seek among the historians and poets of Greece for the earliest records of Etruscan history.

If we are to credit the famous Lydian tradition recorded by Herodotus, that ancient people ought to be considered as the parent stock of the Tyrrhenians. According to their accounts a great famine arose in Lydia during the reign of Atys, one of the earliest kings; when it had lasted for several years, it was at length determined that the nation should divide itself into two parts, under the respective commands of Lydus and Tyrrhenus, the two sons of Atys; one of which was to migrate, the other to remain in possession of the country. It fell to the lot of Tyrrhenus to abandon Lydia with the people under his charge. He accordingly equipped a fleet in quest of a country to settle in; when, after passing by various nations and countries, he finally arrived among the Umbri, where he founded several cities, which the people, who from him were called Tyrrhenians, occupied up to the time of Herodotus, who simply delivered this account as he received it from the Lydians.

Frerett has observed, that the Lydians were never considered as a maritime people; and, at any rate, that the art of navigation at the period which we ought to assign to the Lydian colony, according to the account of Herodotus, must have been quite in its infancy. With regard to this objec

*Lanzi. Saggio di Lingua Etrusca, iii. 38.
Freret, Mem. de l'Acad., xviii. 91.

tion it is remarkable, that in the naval epochs of Castor,* we find the Lydians mentioned as an early maritime power. It is evident that the art of navigation had already attained to a certain degree of perfection before the siege of Troy, but we cannot admit so late a period as this for the Tyrrhenian migration, since the existence of the Tyrrhenian Italy before the siege of Troy, appears to be placed beyond a doubt.

Not to mention the Phoenicians, who in the most remote ages are known to have navigated every part of the Mediterranean sea, as well as other seas, we find that Minos, King of Crete, had a powerful navy for that age, and made expeditions into Sicily and Italy. The insignia of royalty, such as the curule chair and purple robe, which the Romans borrowed from the Tuscans, are recognized by Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, himself, as Lydian badges of honor; and the eagle standards of Rome, also originally Tuscan, appear to have been common to the armies of Persia. The comic dancers of Etruria, called Ludii, were celebrated for their agility and grace; and according to Val. Maximus, who mentions their introduction at Rome, they derived this talent from the Curetes and Lydians. It is also remarked that divination and augury, which form so leading a distinction in the religion of Etruria, took their rise in Caria, according to Pliny. The superstitious practice of divining from the inspection of the livers of victims, obtained in Asia, at a very early period, being alluded to by the prophet Ezekiel,§ where Grotius observes, that the Lydians had probably derived this practice from the Chaldeans, and had transmitted it to the Tuscans.

It is a fact sufficiently established on good authority, that the Greeks were acquainted with a people whom they called Tyrrhenians, but whose geographical position was very different from that of their Italian namesakes. Thucydides has noticed them in the Chalcidic region, near mount Athos;

* A Greek of Marseilles, who flourished under the Ptolomies, and wrote on the nations who in ancient times were masters of the sea. ‡ Xen. Anab., i. 10. § C. xxi, v. 21.

↑ Herodotus, vii., 169.

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