156 
JOURNEY FROM 
what he terms modern geography, Signor Della Celia now assumes a 
more decided tone, and taking boldly for granted what he has just 
advanced on supposition, proceeds to deduce from it an unqualified 
conclusion ; and this leads him into his favourite practice of scepti- 
cism, for which his deeply-rooted antipathy to all commentators and 
editors seems to have given him a most decided partiality. 
“ Encouraged by this coincidence,” (are the Doctor’s own words) 
“ in my opinion, so plausible, of ancient and modern geography, I no 
longer hesitate to believe that the ancient ruins which we met with 
on the road, after three hours’ journey from Elbenia, point out the 
spot which is called, by Strabo, Charax.” 
Without attempting to give the least description of these ruins? 
or any explanation of the reasons why he thinks they are those of 
Charax, the Doctor all at once proceeds to criticise the passage in 
Strabo, and to offer a new reading for the approbation of his friend, 
the professor, on the subject of the silphium and the liquor which 
was extracted from it. We do not pretend to any skill in logic, 
but the train of argument here adopted by Signor Della Celia does 
certainly appear to us a little extraordinary : it seems to run thus — 
“ If Zaffran be Aspis, the tower with a cupola must be the tower of 
Euphrantas ; and, as the tower of Euphrantas was a boundary under 
the Ptolemiesj the three square piUars with the illegible inscriptions 
are also boundaries ; and the ruins which are met with three hours 
afterwards are those of Charax, which Strabo says was used by the 
Carthaginians for a fair, at which the juice of the silphium was 
exchanged for wine ; and, as I read in this passage, juice of the sil- 
