108" Scientific Reviews, 



uncalled-for attempt of Mr. Williams to alter the received reading, 

 just because it did not suit his hypothesis, we think our readers 

 mil be convinced of the existence of such a people as the Gara- 

 niaei, in opposition to the assertion of this author, and that the 

 geographer of Alexandria was perfectly correct in placing them 

 amongst the Assyrian tribes. We have not the smallest doubt that 

 Gordyeei or Carduchi, and Ashurim, were generic names for all 

 the people inhabiting Assyria, and consequently that the Garamaei 

 were an Assyrian or Carduchian tribe, who derived their name 

 from the river which watered the district ; but the question is, if 

 the ancients understood the names Assyrian and Carduchian as of 

 the same latitude — or if the latter name was restricted to some 

 particular district or districts of Assyria — and, consequently, where 

 did they place them ? As usual, the ancients have spoken very 

 confusedly on the site of the Gordyaei or Carduchi, saying one thing 

 at one time, and another at another. Their oracles are quite of 

 the Delphic cast, and can suit any inquirer, and may be quoted 

 for any thing. But it seems clear to us, that they used the name 

 Gordyaei or Carduchi not as a generic name for the whole of the 

 Ashurim or Assyrians, but as a peculiar appellative to a particular 

 tribe and district. We neither can help nor reconcile the incon- 

 sistent descriptions of the Gordyaeans, to be met with in the writ- 

 ings of the ancients ; but must attribute it solely to the imperfec- 

 tion of their knowledge, and the total want of that accurate use of 

 terms and names, which is now found to be an essential requisite 

 in modern geographical description. We dismiss the subject with 

 expressing our best wishes to Mr Williams in the prosecution of 

 his literary labours, and only desire that, in any future work of a 

 similar kind, he would be less dogmatic, less given to theory and 

 conjectural emendations, and exercise a little more forbearance to 

 such as have preceded him in the path of comparative geography. 

 We would also recommend to him, that if he appear again before 

 the public on a similar subject, he keep strictly to his text, and not 

 interrupt the reader at every turn, with digression upon digression, 

 and quotation heaped on quotation successively, till the main point 

 is in a manner completely lost sight of. These digressions should 

 be put in the form of notes at the end of the work, with marked 

 references for the sake of the reader, or else occupy distinct chap- 

 ters, that the attention of the reader may not be distracted at every 

 term, till it is completely bewildered in the mazes of digression, 

 and often irrelevant quotation. 



A System of Geography, Popular and Scientijlc, Sj'C. By Jamks 

 Bell. Vols. 1 and 2, and Vol. 3, Part I. Blackie, Fullarton, 

 & Co, Glasgow. 



The science of the greatest importance to the happiness of man- 

 kind, is indisputably that which indicates the means of creating, of 



