﻿2.0 THE FIFTH DISCOURSE : 



Dneiper, and, bringing it back eastward across the 

 Euxine, so as to include the peninsula of Krim, extend 

 it along the foot of Caucasus, by the rivers Cur and 

 Aras, to the Caspian Lake, from the opposite shore of 

 which follow the course of the Jaihun, and the chain 

 of Caucasean hills, as far as those of Imaus ; whence 

 continue the line beyond the Chinese wall to the White 

 Mountain and the country of Yetso ; skirting the bor- 

 ders of Persia, India, China, Corea, but including 

 part of 'Russia, with all the districts which fie between 

 the Glacial Sea and that of . Japan. M. de Guignes* 

 whose great work on the Huns abounds more in solid 

 learning than in rhetorical ornaments, presents us, 

 however, with a magnificent image of this wide re- 

 gion ; describing it as a stupendous edifice, the beams 

 and pillars of which are many ranges of lofty hills, 

 and the dome one prodigious mountain, to which the 

 Chinese give the epithet of Celestial, with a considera- 

 ble number of broad rivers flowing down its sides. 

 If the mansion be so amazingly sublime, the land 

 around it is proportionably extended, but more won- 

 derfully diversified ; for some parts of it are encrusted 

 with ice, others parched with inflamed air and covered 

 with a kind of lava : here we meet with immense 

 tracts of sandy deserts, and forests almost impenetni/- 

 ble ; there, with gardens, groves, and meadows, per- 

 fumed with musk, watered by numberless rivulets, 

 and abounding in fruits and flowers; and, from east 

 to west, lie many considerable provinces, which appear 

 as valleys in comparison of the hills towering above 

 them, but in truth are the flat summits of the highest 

 mountains in the world, or at least the highest in Asia. 

 Near one fourth in latitude of this extraordinary region 

 is in the same charming climate with Greece, Italy, and 

 Provence; and another fourth in that of England^ 

 Germany, and the northern parts of France; but the 

 Hyperborean countries can have few beauties to re- 

 commend them, at least in the present state of the 



