678 



Monthly Review of' Lileralure, 



[Dbc. 



Anil thought found worjs, the passionate uords 



of song. 

 And all to me was poetry. 

 We dress our words and looks in borrowed 



robes : 

 The mind is as his face — for who goes forth 

 In public walks without a veil at least? 

 'Tis this constraint makes half life's misery. 

 'Tis a false rule : we do too mucli regard 

 Others' opinions, but neglect their feelings ; 

 Thrice happy if such order were reversed. 

 Oh, why do we make sorrow for ourselves. 

 And, not content with the great wretchedness 

 Which is our native heritage — those ills 

 We have no mastery over — sickness, toil. 

 Death, and the natural grief which comrades 



death- 

 Are not all these enough, that we must add 

 Mutual and moral torment, and infiict 

 Ingenious tortures we must first contrive? 

 I am distrustful — I.have been deceived 

 And disappointed— I have hoped in vaiu. 

 I am vain— praise is opium, and the lip 

 Cannot resist the fascinating draught, 

 Though knowing its excitement is a fraud — 

 Delirious — a mockery of fame. 

 I may not image tlie deep solitude 

 In which my spirit dwells. My days are past 

 Among the cold, the careless, and the f.alse — 



&c. &c. 



Travels in Chaldea, S^c, Tty Caplain 

 Mit/na7i ; 1829. — Captain Mignan is an of- 

 ficer in the East India Company's service, and 

 from Bussorah projected avisit to Bagdad and 

 the ruins of Babylon, which he successfully 

 accomplished, chiefly on foot, attended by 

 half a dozen Arabs, and up the Tigris as 

 far as Bagdad, accompanied by a boat with 

 eight stout rowers. After leaving Kooma, 

 the ancient Apamea, built at the confluence 

 of the Euphrates and the Tigris ; and pro- 

 ceeding up the Tigris, the vntrodden desert 

 was, he observes, on both banks. This spot, 

 he adds, " is conjectiu'ed to be the site of 

 the Garden of Eden — conseqncntly there 

 api)eared, as the prophet Joel says, the land 

 of Eden before us, and behind us a desolate 

 wilderness." Nevertheless, Captain Mig- 

 nan could see nothing but desolation before 

 any more than behind. A few miles north 

 of the confluence of the rivers, he detected 

 the rtiins of a bridge, which none of his 

 companions had ever see.i before — they 

 having always passed the spot when the 

 river was fuU, and that was now unusually 

 low. The ruins extend sixty feet by seven, 

 teen ; and the highest point of the most 

 perfect pier eight feet above the surface 

 of the stream — all of brick, kiln-burnt of 

 course, or it could not so long have stood 

 the action of the water. Col. IM. Kinnier 

 mentions a boat of his stranding on one of 

 tlie piers of an ancient stone bridge, some, 

 where hereabouts — probably tlie same, but 

 stone of course it was not. There is none 

 in the country, except here and there a so- 

 litary piece of considerable dimensions, for 

 tlic ai)pearancc of which nobody accounts. 

 Brick, sun-burnt or kiln-burnt, is the sole 



building materials, which well accounts for 

 the general crumbling of the ruins, and the 

 floods, as well for the clean sweeping of the 

 country, leavifig nothing but the larger 

 masses. 



A few miles still higher up the river, he 

 meets with the ruins of INIumlihah, which 

 are described in Mr. Keppel's Personal 

 Narrative, very accurately Captain Mignan 

 allows, except that he has unliR-kily placed 

 them on the wrong side of the river. This, 

 however, is a little blunder of the Captain's 

 own ,• — he has not observed, and very odd 

 it is, he has not, that travellers, speaking of 

 right and left banks of rivers, refer to the 

 course of the stream, while he himself 

 chooses to talk of right and left with refer- 

 ence to his own course. 31 r. Keppel places' 

 the ruins on the left bank, that is, as every 

 body would understand him, on the cast 

 bank, and on the east bank Captain Mignan 

 finds them. 



Within a few miles of Bagdad, he passed 

 the site rather than the ruins of Ctesiphon, 

 though one magnificent piece still survives 

 the effects of time, violence and inundation, 

 the Tauk Kesra — Tank meaning arch, and 

 Kesra being the family name of tlie Par- 

 thian kings. The eastern face of the ruin 

 extends 300 feet. The arch itself is semi- 

 circular, 80 feet in the span, and rising to 

 103. The whole front is surmounted by 

 four rows of small arched recesses, resem. 

 bling in form the larger one. Ctesiphon 

 was the Parthian city ; and digging into 

 one of the neighbouring mounds Captain 

 Mignan had the felicity of discovering a 

 silver coin of one of the Parthian kings, and 

 a brass one of Seleucas Nicator. On the 

 op)X)site bank of the river stood Seleucia, 

 the Greek city, but there the devastation is 

 even more complete — not one building re- 

 mains. 



For particulars descriptive of Bagdad, the 

 author refers to Col. 31. Kinnier's faithful 

 account, only glancing himself at a few of 

 the principal buOdings, and hastens to Hil- 

 lah and the site of Babylon — the idtimate 

 and chief object of his tour. These he care- 

 fully travelled over on foot, and has as care- 

 fully described — the description is the most 

 complete that has been given, and probably 

 the most to be relied upon. He gives also 

 a ground plan on a scale of nearly an inch to 

 a mile. Hillah on the west bank, the mo- 

 dern representative of Babylon, is a misera- 

 ble, dirty, neglected spot, very hke Bussorah, 

 and contains the same number of inhabi- 

 tants, about 6,000. The most remarkable 

 ruins on the surrounding plain — consisting 

 of masses of broken brick-work — are Mujel- 

 libah about three and a half miles to the 

 north of HHJah, and on the east side of the 

 river, and one mile from the river ; a second 

 mass called the Kasr, nearly midway be- 

 tween Mujcllibah and Hillah, close to the 

 river, and also on its eastern bank ; and a 

 third called Birs Ncniroud, five miles to the 

 smith of Hillah, and as many from any 



