Volney's ruins, or, Meditation on the revolutions of empires : translated under the immediate inspection of the author from the 6th Paris ed. To which is added, The law of nature, and a short biographical notice, by Count Daru; also, The controversy between Dr. Priestly and Volney

Front matter

ft. ii »

Here, said T, here once flourished an opulent city, here was the seat of a powerful empire.— CA. //

VOLNEY'S RUINS; .1

Contents

Invocation. - - - . . -11

The Life of Volney. - - - - 13

I. The Joiirney. - _ - « 21

Chapter I. The Journey

In the eleventli year of the reign of Abd-ul-Hamid, son of Ahmed., emperor of the Tyrks ;. when tlie victorious Russians seized on the Krimea, and planted their standards on the shore that leads to Con« stantinople ;

I was travelling in the empire of the Ottomans, and through those provinces which were anciently the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria.

My whole attention bent on whatever concerns the happiness of man in a social state, I visited cities and studied the manners of their inhabitants ; entered palaces, and observed the conduct of those who govern ; wandered over tlie fields, and examined the condition of those who cultivate tliem ; and nowhere perceiving aught but robbery and devastatio», tyranny and wretchedness, my heart was oppressed with sorrow and indignation.

I saw daily on my road fields abandoned, villages deserted, and cities in ruin. Often I me^ with ancient monuments, wrecks of temples, palaces and fortresses; columns, aqueducts, and tomfes; and tliis spectacle led me to meditate on times past, and filled my mind with serious and profound contemplations.

Arrived at Hems, on the banks of the Orontes, and being at no great distance from Palmyra of- the desert, I resolved to see its celebrated monuments ; after three days travelling tlirough an arid wilderness, having traversed tlie valley of caves and sepulchres, on issuing into the piain, I was suddenly struck with a scene of the most stupendous ruins : a countless multitude of superb columns, gtretching in avenues beyond the reach of sigiit. Among them were magnificent edifices, some entire, others in ruins. The ground was covered on all sides with freigments of cornices, capitals, shafts,, entablatures, pilasters, all of white marble, and of the mos.t excjulsite workmanship. After a walk of three quarters of an hour along these ruins, I entered the enclosure of a vast edifice, formerly a temple dedicated to the sun, a»d accepting the hospitality of seme poor Arabian peasants, who had built their huts on the area of tlie temple, I resolved to stay some days to contemplate, at leisure, the beauty of so many Dtupendous works.

Every day I visited some of the monuments which covered the plain; and one evening, absorbed in reflection, I had advanced to the valley of sepulchres; I ascended the heights which surround it, and from whence the eye commands tlie whole group of ruins and the immensity of the desf?rt. — ^The sun had just simk below the horizon : a red border of light still marked his track behind the distant mountains of Syria : the full-moon was rising in t!«e east on a blue ground over the plains of the Euphrates ; the sky was clear, the air calm and serene; the dying lamp of day still softened the horrors of approaching darkness; the refreshing breeze of night attempered the sultry emanations froin the heated earth ; the herdsmen had led the camels to their stalls ; the eye perceived no motion on the dusky and uniform plain; profound silence rested on the desert; the bowlings only of tiie jackal,* and the solemn notes of the bird of night were heard at distant intervals. Darkness now increased, and already, .hrough the dusk, I could distinguish nothing moi'e than the pale phantasies of columns and walls. The solitude of the place, the tranquillity of the hour, tlie majesty of the scene, impressed on my *ii!iii a religious pensiveness. The aspect of a great city deserted, he memory of times past, compared with its present state, all elevated my mind to high contemplations. I«sat on the shaft of a coliunu : nd tliere, my elbow reposing on my knee, and head reclining on my

and, my eyes fixed, sometimes on tlie desert, sometimes on the ruins,

fell into a profound revery.

* A kind of foy that roves only during the night

THE nuiNs. 23

Chapter II. Meditation

Here, «aid I, here once flourished an opulent city j here was the seat of a powerful empire. Yes ! these places now so desert, were once animated by a living multitude ; a busy crowd circulated in these streets now so solitary'. Within these walls, where a mournfui silence reigns, the noise of the arts and shouts of joy and festivity incessantly resounded : these piles of marble were regular palaces ; these prostrate pillars adorned the majesty of temples ; tliese rumed galleries surrounded public places. Here a numerous people assembled for tlie sacred duties of religion, or the anxious cai-es of their subsistence : here industry, parent of enjoyments, collected the riches of all climates, and the purple of Tyre >vas exchanged for the precious thread of Serica ;* the soft tissues wf Kachemire for the sumptuous tapestry of Lydia ; the amber of the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes of Arabia ; the gold of Ophir for the tin of Thule.

And now a mournful skeleton is all that subsists of this powerful city ! nought remains of its vast domination, but a doubtful and emp ty remembrance ! To the tumultuous throng which crowded under tliese porticoes has succeeded the solitude of death. The silence of the tomb is substituted for the bustle of public places. The opulence of a commercial city is changed into hideous poverty. The palaoes of kings are become a den of wild beasts ; flocks fold on the area of the temple, and unclean reptiles inhabit the sanctuary of the godsl — Ah ! Iiow has so much glory been eclipsed 1 — How have so many labors been annihilated 1 — Thus perish the works of men, and thus • do empires and nations disappear !

And the history of former times revived in my mind ; I recollected those distant ages when many illustrious nations inhabi4;ed these countries ; I figured to myself the Assyrian on the banks of the Ti-

* " Thread of Serica." — That is the silk, originally derived from the mountainous country where the great wall terminates, and which appears to have been the cradle of the Chinese empire, known to the Latins under the name of Regio Serarum, Serica.

" The tissues of Kachemire."— The shawls which Ezekiel seems to have described, five centuries before our era, under tlie appellation o Clioud-Choud.

gris, the Kaldean on those of the Euyhrates, the Persian reigning from the Indus to the Mediterranean. I enumerated the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea, of Jerusalem and Samaria, tlie warlike states of the Philistines, and the commercial republics of Phoenicia- This Syria, said I, now so depopulated, then contained a hundred flourishing cities ; and abounded with towns, villages and hamlets.* Everywhertt M'ere seen cultivated fields, frequented roads, and ci-owded habitations. — ^Ah ! what are become of those ages of abundance and of life 1 How have so many brilliant creations of human industry vanished 1 Where are tliose ramparts of Nineveh, those walls of Babylon, those palaces of Persepolis, tliose temples of Balbeck and of Jerusalem'? Whei-e are tliose fleets of Tyre, those dock-yards of Arad, those work -shops of Sidon, and that multitude of sailors, of pilots, of merchants, and of soldiers 1 Where those husbandmen, those harvests, those flocks, and all the createon of living beings in which the face of tlie earth rejoiced 1 Alas ! I have passed over this desolate land ! I have visited the palaces once the theatre of so much splendor, and I beheld nothing but solitude and desolation. — I sought tlie ancient inhabitants and their works, and could only find a faint trace, like that of the foot of a traveller over the sand. The temples are fallen, the palaces overthrown, the ports filled up, the cities destroyed, and the eartli, sti-ipped of inhabitants, seems a dreary burying-place. — Great God ! whence proceed such fatal revolutions '? What causes have so altered tlie fortunes of these countries 1 Why are so many cities destroyed 1 Why has not this ancient population been reproduced and perpetuated 1

Thus absorbed in contemplation, a crowd of new reflections continually poured in upon my mind. Everything, continued I, confounds my reason, and fills my heart with trouble and uncertainty. When these countries enjoyed what constitutes the glory and happiness of man, they were inhabited by an infidel people ; it was the Phoenician, that homicide sacrificer to Molock, who gathered into his stores the riches of aH climates ; it was the Kaldekn prostrate before a serpent,t who subjugated opulent cities, and despoiled the palaces of kings, and the temples of the gods ; it was tlie Persian, adorer of fiie, who received tlie tribute of a hundred nations ; it was the inhabitant of this very city, worshipper of the sun and stars, who

* According to the calculations of Josephus and Strabo, Syria must have contained ten millions of inhabitants ; there are not two at the present day.

[The dragon Bel.

erected so many mouuments of prosperity and lirxury. — Nnmerous liocks, fertile fields, abundant harvests, whatsoever should he the reward of piety, was in the hands of these idolaters : and now when a people of saints and believers occupy these fields, all is become sterility and solitude. Tlie eardi under these holy hands, produces only tliorns and briars. Man sows in anguish, and I'eaps only vexation and tears ; war, famine, pestilence, assail him in turn. — Yet, are not these the children of tlie prophets 1 the Mussulman, Christian, Jew, are they not the elect children of God, loaded with favors and miracles 1 Why then do' these privileged races no longer enjoy the same advantages 1 Why are these fields, sanctified by the blood of martyrs, deprived of their ancient benefits 1 Why have those blessings been banished hence and transferred for so many ages to other nations and different climes 1 v

At these words, revolving in my mind the course of vicissitudes which have transmitted the sceptre of the world successively to people so different in religion and manners, fronl those of ancient Asia, to the most recent of Europe, this name of a ^atal land revived in me the sentiment of my country : and turning my eyes towards her, 1 began to reflect on the situation in which I left her.*

I called to mind her fields so richly cultivated, her roads so sumptuously constructed, her cities inhabited by a countless people, her fleets spread over every sea, her ports filled with the produce of eitlier India : and comparing with the activity of her comraei-ce, the extent of her navigation, the magnificence of her monuments, the arts and industry of her inhabitants, what Egypt and Syria had once possessed, I was gratified to find in modern Europe tlie departed splendor of Asia : but the charm of my revery was soon dissolved by a last term of comparison. Reflecting that such had once been the activity of the places I was then contemplating : Who knows, said I, but such may one day be the abandonment of oiu- countries 1 Who knows if on the banks of the Seine, the Thames, or the Zuyder-Zee, where now, in the tumult of so many enjoyments, the heart and the eye suffice not for the multitude of sensations : wh* knows if some traveller, like myself, shall not one day sit on their silent ruins and weep in solitude over the ashes of their inhabitants, and the memory of their greatness 1

At these words, my eyes filled with tears : and covering my head with the fold of my garment, I sunk into gloomy meditations on hu-

* In 1789, at the close of the American war, 3 man affairs. Ah ! hapless man, said I, in my grief, a blind fatality sports Avilh thy destiny ! A fatal necessity rules with the hand of chance the lot of mortals. But no : it is the justice of heaven fulfilling its decrees I A mysterious God exercising his incomprehensible judgments ! Doubtless he has pronounced a secret anathema against this land : blasting with maledictions the present for tlie sins of the past generations. Oh ! who shall dare to fatliom the deptlis of the Divinity 1 * And I remained motionless, plunged in profound melancholv

Chapter III , The App^ition

Meanwhile a noise struck my ear : like to the agitation of a flowing robe, or of slow footsteps on dry and rustling grass. Startled, I opened my mantle, and casting around a timid glance, suddenly on my left, by the glimmering light of the moon, through the columns and ruins of a neighbouring temple, I thought I saw a p,ale apparition, clothed in large and flowing robes, as spectres are represented rising from their tombs. I shuddered : and while agitated ^nd hesitating whether to fly or to ascertain the object, a deep voice, in solemn accents, pronounced these words ;

" How long will man importune heaven with unjust complaint 1 How long, with vain clamors, will he accuse Fate as the author of his calamities 7 Will he then never open his eyes to the ligbt, and his heart to the insinuations of truth and reason 1 The light of truth meets him everywhere ; yet he sees it not ! The voice of reason strikes liis ear, and he hears it not ! Unjust man ! if for a moment you can suspend the delusion which fascinates your senses, if your heart can comprehend the language of reason, mterrogate these ruins ! Read the lessons which they present to you ! — And you, wit-

* Fatality is the u-niversal and rooted prejudice of the East: "It was written," is there the answer tc everything, — hence result an unconcern and apathy, the most powerful impediments to instruction and civilisation.

nesses of twenty different centuries, holy temples ! venerable tombs ! walls once so glorious, appear in the cause of nature herself! Approach the tribunal of sound reason, and bear testimony against unjust accusations ! come and confound the declamations of a false wisdom or hypocritical piety, and avenge the heavens and tlie eardi of man who calumniates them !

" What is that blind fatality, which without order and without lavv, sports with the destiny of mortals 1 What is tliat unjust necessity, which confounds the effect of actions, whedier of wisdom or of folly 1 in what consist those anadiemas of heaven over tliis land 1 Where is that divine malediction which perpetuates the abandonment of these fields 1 Say, monuments of past ages ! have tke heavens changed tlieir laws and the earth its motion 1 are the fires of tlie sun extmct in the regions of space 1 do the seas no longer emit their va • pors 1 are die rains and the dews suspended in the air 1 do the mountains widiliold their springs 1 are tlie streams dried up 1 and do die plants no longer bear fruit and seed 1 Answer, generation of farlsehood and iniquity, has God deranged the primitive and settled order of things which he himself assigned to nature 1 Has heaven denied to earth, and earth to its inhabitants, die blessings which once they proffered 1 If nodiing has changed in the creation, if die same means exist now which existed before, why dien are not the present what former generations were 1 Ah 1 it is falsely that you accuse fate and heaven I it is injuriously that you refer to God the cause of your evils ! Say, perverse and hypocritical race ! if these places are desolate, if powerful cities are reduced to solitude, is it God who has caused their ruin 1 Is it his hand which has overthrown these walls, destroyed these temples, mutilated these columns, or is it the hand of man 1 Is it the arm of God which has canned the sword into your cities, and fire into your fields, which has slaughtered the people, burned die har\'ests, rooted up trees, and ravaged the pastures, or is it the hand of man 1 And when, after the destruction of crops, famine has ensued, is it the vengeance of God which has produced it, or the mad fury of mortals 1 When, sinking under famine, the people have fed on impure aliments, if pestilence ensues, is it the wrath of God which sends it, or the folly of man 1 When war, famine, and pestilence, have swept away die inhabitants, if the eardi remains a desert, is it God who has depopulated it 1 Is it his rapacity which robs the luisbandman, ravages die fruitful fields, and wastes the earth, or is it the rapacity of those who govern 1 Is it his pride which excites murderous wars, or the pride of kings and their ministers 1 Is it the venality of his decisions which overthrows the fortunes of families, or the corruption of the organs of the law 1 Are tliey his passions which, under a thousand forms, torment individuals and nations, or are they tlie passions of man 1 And if, in the anguish of th^.ir miseries, tliey see not tlie remedies, is it the ignorance of God which is to blame, or their ignorance 1 Cease then mortals, to accuse the decrees of Fate, or tlie judgments of tlie Divinity !

If God is good, will he be the author of your misery "? if he is just, will he be the accomplice of your crimes 1 No, the caprice of which man complains is not the caprice of destiny ; tlie darkness that misleads his reason is not the darkness of God ; die source df his calamities is not in the distant heavens, it is beside him on the eartli; it is. not concealed in tlie bosom of the divinity ; it resides in man himself, he bears it in his owti heart.

" You murmur and say, Ho-w have an infidel people enjoyed the blessings of heaven and earth 1 Why is a holy and chosen race less fortunate than impious generations 1 Deluded man ! where tlien is the contradiction which offends you 1 Where is the inconsistency Avhich you impute to the justice of heaven 1 Take into your own hands the balance of rewards and punishments, of causes and effects. Say : when those infidels observed the laws of the heavens and of the earth, when tliey regulated their intelligent labors by the order of the seasons and course of the stars, ought God to have troubled the equilibrium of the universe to defeat tlieir pmdence 1 When their hands cultivated these fields with toil and care, should he have diverted the course of the rains, suspended the fertilizing dews, and caused thorns to spring up 1 When, to render these arid fields productive, their industry constructed acjueducts, dug canals, and led the distant waters across tlie desert, should he have dried up their sources in the mountains '{ Should he have blasted the harvests which art had created, wasted the plains which peace had peopled, overthrown cities which labor caused to flourish, disturbed in fine, tlie order established by the wisdom of man 1 And what is that infidelity which founded empires by prudence, defended them by valor, and strengthened them by justice ; which erected powerful cities, formed capacious ports, drained pestilential marshes, covered the sea witli ships, the earth with inhabitants ; and, like tlie creative spirit, diffused life and motion through the world 1 If such be infidelity, what then is the true faith 1 Does sanctity consist in destruction 1 The God who peoples the air with birds, the eartli with animals, the waters with fishes; the God who animates all nature, is he tlien a God of ruins and tombs 1 Does he ask devastation for homage, and conflagratiop for sacwfice 1 Requires he groans for hymns, murderers for votaries, a ravaged and desert eaitli for liis temple 1 Yet such, holy and believing people, are j'our works I These are the firuits of your piety !

You have massacred the people, burnt their cities, destroyed cultivation, reduced the earth to a solitude ; and you ask ll\e reward of your works ! Miracles then must be performed, tlie laborers whom you cut off must be recalled to life, the walls reedified which you have overthrown, the harvests reproduced which you have destroyed, the waters gathered together which you have dispersed ; the laws, in fine, of heaven and eartli reversed ; those laws, established by God himself, in demonstration of his magnificence and wisdom; those eternal laws anterior to all codes, to all the prophets ; those immutaiile laws, which neither the passions, aor the ign.orance of man can pervert ; but that passion, which mistakes, that ignorance which observes not causes, and predicts no effect, has said m the folly of her heart : * Everything comes from chance ; a blind fatality dispenses goqd and evil on the earth, so that prudence and wisdom cannot guard against it.' Or else, assuming the language of hypocrisy, she has said : * All things are from God ; he takes pleasure in deceiving wisdom, and confounding reason ; ' and ignorance, applauding herself in her malice, has said : ' Thus I shall not be inferior to that science which I detest : I will render useless that prudence which fatigues and torments me ;' and cupidity has added : ' I will oppress the weak and devour the fruits of his laboi^s ; and I will say : It is God who decreed and fate who ordained it so.* — But I ! I swear by tlie laws of heaven and earth, and by the law which is written in tlie heart of man, the hypocrite shall be deceived in his guile, the oppressor in his rapacity ; the sun shall ch<inge his course, before folly shall prevail over wisdom and knowledge, or stupidity surpass prudence in the delicate and sublime art of procuring to man his true enjoyments, and of building his happiness on a solid foieidation '' 8* so THE RUINS.

CHAPIER IV.

Thus spoke tlie Phantom. Astonished at his discourse, and ray heart agitated witJi diflerent reflections, I was for sometime silent. At kngth, taking courage, I thus addressed him : " O Genius of tombs and ruins ! your presence, your severity have disordered my sehses ; but the justness of your reasoning restores confidence to my soul. Pardon n^y ignorance. Alas ! if man is blind, can tliat which constitutes his torment be also his crime 1 I may have mistaken the voice of reason ; but never knowingly have I rejected her authority. Ah ! if you read in my heart, you know with what sincerity, • witli what enth.usiasm it seeks Trulii — And is it not in pursuit of her tliat you see me in lliis secmestered spot 1 Alas ! I have wandered over the earth, I have visited cities and coimtries ; and seeing everywhere misery and desolation, a sense of the evils which oppress my fellow-men have deeply afflicted iny soul. I have said with a sigh : Is man then born but for sorrow and anguish 1 And I have meditated upon human miseries, that I might find out their remedy. I have said : I will separate myself from corrupt societies ; I v/ill retire far from palaces where the mind is depraved by satiety, and from the hovel where it is debased by misery. I will go into the desert and dwell among ruins; I will Interrogate ancient monuments on the wisdom of past times; I will invoke from the bosom of tiie tombs the spirit which once in Asia gave splojdor to states, and glory to nations. X will ask of the ashes of legislators, by what secret causes do empires rise and fall ; from what sou^rces spring the prosperity and misfortunes of nations ; on what principles can tlie peace of society and the happiness of man be established."

I ceased ; and awaited in submissive silence to tlie reply of the Genius. " Peace and happiness,'* said he, " attend on him who practises justice ! Young man ! since your heart searches after truth with sincerity, since you can still recognise her tlirough the mist 6f prejudice, your prayer shall not be vain : I will unfold to your view that truth you invoke ; 1 will teach your reason that wisdom you are in search of; I will reveal to you the Wisdom of the tombs and the science of ages. — Then approaching and laying his hand on my head : " Rise, mortalj" said he, " and extricate tliy senses from the dust in which tliou movest." — Suddenly a celestial flame seemed to dissolve the bands which fix us to the earth ; ajid like a light vapor, borne up on the wings of the Genius, I felt myself wafted to tlie regions above. Thence, from the aerial heights, looking down on tlie eartli, I beheld a scene entirely new. Under my feet, floating in the void, a globe like that of the moon, but smaller and less luiainous, presented to me one of its phases ;* and that phase had the aspect of a disk variegated with large spots, some white and nebulous, others brown, green or gray ; and while I strained my sight to distinguish what were these spots : " Disciple of trutli," said the Genius, " do you know that object? " " O Genius !" answered I, " if I did not see the moon in another quarter of tlie heavens, I should have supposed tliat to be her globe ; it has tlie appearance of that planet, seen tlirough the telescope dm-ing the obscuration of an eclipse : these variegated spots might be mistaken for seas and continents."

" They are seas and continents," said he, " and sliose of the very hemisphere which you inhabit. — "

" What ! " said I., " is that the eartli, the habitation of man 1 — "

" Yes," replied he : " that dusky space which occupies irregularly a great portion of the disk, and envelopes it almost on every side, is what you call the great Ocean, which advancing from tlie soutli pole towards the equator, forms first the great gulf of India and Africa, then extends eastward across the Malay islands to the confines of Tartary, while towards tlie west it encircles the continents of Africa and Europe, even to the north of Asia.

"That square peninsula under our feet is the arid counti-y of ttie Arabs ; the great continent on its left, almost as nalied in its interior, with a little verdure only towards its borders is the parched soil inhabited by the black-men.t To tlie north, beyond a long, narrow and irregular sea,:}: are the countries of Europe, rich in meadows ^d cultivated fields ; on its right, from the Caspian, extend the snowy and naked plains of Tartar}'. Returning again this way, that white space is the vast and di'eary desert of Gobi, which separates China from the rest of the world. You see that empire in the furrowed plain which seems by a sudden obliquity to escape from the view. On yonder coasts, those narrow * See plate II, representin?, half the terrestrial globe, t Africa. % The Mediterranean.

necks of land and scattered points are the peninsulas and islandit of the Malays, the wretched possessors of the spices and pei-fumes. That triangle which advances so far into the sea, is the too famous peninsula of India.* You see tiie winding couise of the Ganges, the rougli mountains of Tibet, the lovely valley of Kachemire, the briny deserts of Persia, the banks of the Euphrates, and Tygris, the deep bed of the Jordan, and the canals of the solitary Nile. — "

" O Genius," said I, interrupting him, "die sight of a mortal reaches not to objects at such a distance..." Inunediately he touched my eyes, and they became piercing as tliose of an eagle ; nevertheless the rivers still appeared like waving lines, tlie mountains winding furrows, and the cities little^ compartments like the squares of a chess-board.

And the Genius proceeding to point out tlie objects to me : " Those piles," said he, "wliich you see in that narrow valley, watered by the Nile, are the skeletons of opulent cities, the pride of tlie ancient kingdom of Etliiopia ; behold Thebes with her hundred palaces,t

* " The too famous peninsula of India." What real advantage does the commerce of India, composed entirely of articles of luxury, procure to the mass of a nation ? what are its effects, unless to export, by a marine expensive in men, objects of necessity and utility, and to' import useless commodities, which only serve to mark more strongly the difference between the ri Ji and poor ; and what a mass of superstition has not India added to the general superstition.

« t " Behold Thebes with her hundred palaces." The French expedition to Egypt has proved that Thebes, divided into four or five cities, on both banks of the Nile, could not have the hundred gales mentioned in Homer. ( See the 2nd. vol. of the commission of Egypt.) The historian Diodorus Siculus had already shown the cause of the error, by observing that the oriental word, gate, signified also a palace (onaccotmt of the public vestibule always at its entrance,) and this author seems to have understood the cause of the Greek tradition, when he adds : " From Thebes to Memphis, there were along the river a hundred royal stables, the ruins of which are still to be seen, and which contained each two hundred horses (for the service of the monarch :)" all these are exactly t'lie same numbeis as Homer's. (See Diodorus Siculus, book 1st. sect 11, § of the first kings of Egypt.) The name of Ethiopians here applied to the Thebans, is justified by the example of Homer, and by the really black color of that people. The expressions of Herodotus, when he says that the Egyptians had a black skin and woolly-hair, coinciding with the head of the sphinx of the pyramids, necessarily induced the author of Travels in Syria to believe," that this ancient people was of negro race , but all the mummies and engraved heads discovered by the French expedition contradtct this idea ; and the traveller, yielding to evidence^ has abandoned his opinv)n, with several others consigned in a chronological memoir, composed at the age of twenty-two, and which was erroneously inserted in the Encyclopedia in 4to. 3 \ol. of Antiquities Experience and study have enabled him to correct many errors, in a late work published at Paris, in 1814 and 1815, entitled New Researches on Ancient History. (See the 3 vjI concerning the Egyptians.)