TOP 
tains. The topaz of the ancients is sup- 
posed to be our chrysalite. The Saxon 
topaz is most valued by jewellers, thbugh 
even this is in no very high estimation. 
TOPIC, in rhetoric, denotes a probable 
argument, drawn from the several circum- 
stances of a fact, &c. Hence the art of 
finding and managing such arguments is 
called by the ancients topica. 
TOPOGRAPHY. This term is applied 
to all those writings which have for their 
subject the description of tracts of country, 
and the buildings on their surfaces. We 
often meet with passages in the works of 
ancient authors which are topographical, or 
in otlier words, descriptive of particular 
places; hut rarely or never with volumes 
dedicated wholly to this purpose. The 
scriptures haye many of the former, parti- 
cularly the account of Solomon’s temple ; 
Homer abounds with such in his Iliad and 
Odyssey, and Virgil in his jEneid ; to which 
might be added subsequent writers, though 
not of equal celebrity. The two Pliuy’s 
have favoured us with sketches of this na- 
ture, one of which, by the younger, we 
shall introduce as a specimen. Speaking of 
his Tuscan villa, he says, “ The face of the 
country is extremely beautiful. Imagine 
to yourself an amphitheatre of immense cir- 
cumference, such as could be formed only 
by the hand of nature : a wide-extended 
plain is surrounded by mountains, whose 
summits are covered with tall, ancient 
woods, stocked with game for all kind of 
hunting; the descent is planted with under- 
woods, among which are frequently little 
risings, of a rich and deep soil, where a 
stone,- if sought for, is scarce to be found : 
in fertility they yield not to the finest vales, 
and produce as good crops of corn, altliough 
not so early in the year. Below these, on 
the side of the mountain, is a continued 
range of vineyards, that extend themselves 
I without interruption far and near, at the 
foot of which is a sort, of border of shrubs. 
From thence you have meadows and open 
fields : the arable grounds require large 
oxen and the strongest ploughs ; the earth 
is so tough, and rises in such large clods 
when it is first broken up, that it cannot 
be reduced till it has been ploughed nine 
times; the meadows glitter with flowers, 
and produce the trefoil and other kinds of 
grass, always soft and tender, and appear- 
ing always new; for they are excellently 
well watered with never-failing springs ; 
yet where these springs are in greatest con- 
fluence, they make no marshes, the decU- 
TOP 
vity of the land discharging into the Tiber 
all the water that it does not drink in.” 
Had it been the custom at those very 
distant periods of time to write thus, fre- 
quently, and had the art of printing been 
then invented, how much valuable informa- 
tion w’ould have reached us that is now 
irretrievably lost ; and with what pleasure 
should we have read descriptions of many 
important places, the scites of which are 
now only known by conjecture from some 
casual circumstance ! Numbers of beautiful 
cities, far surpassing any existing at pre- 
sent in the magnificence of their public 
structures, have been deserted, through dif- 
ferent causes, by their inhabitants, and are 
yet splendid in their ruins: those offered 
every incitement for description, but have 
perished without obtaining this act of jus- 
tice. Egypt, in particular, furnished the 
writer with the means of immortalizing his 
name as a topographer ; and it is a subject 
of severe regret, that we have not been 
gratified by an account of that country, 
when all the wonderful fragments scattered 
over its surface were connected bjf the 
chain of society, and perfect in themselves ; 
then; we have every reason to suppose, rich 
woods fringed the borders of their cities, 
and extensive gardens afforded equal plea- 
sure and advantage to the inhabitants : like 
a sublime picture, we should have been en- 
abled to contrast its ancient softest tints 
with its present dreary wastes and gloomy 
ruins. 
The French have ever been an enter- 
prizing people, and very early turned their 
attention to travelling, and topographical 
description ; an interesting account of which 
may be found in Mr. Johnes’s rec ent trans- 
lation of “ Bertrand de la Broquiere’s Tra- 
vels in Palestine,” about the year 1432. 
The English nation did not entirely neglect 
this species of literature, in the earliest pe- 
riods of their annals; as several monks 
might be mentioned, who gave their bre- 
thren, in different parts of the country, 
manuscript accounts of the foundations of 
their monasteries, and some slight descrip- 
tion of them and their scites. We' shall in- 
troduce the title of one of those, quoted by 
Mr. Malcolm, in his “ History of St. Bar- 
tholomew’s Priory, London,” in order to 
convey to the reader an idea of their 
abilities in our language, about the time 
of Henry III. or perhaps rather earlier: \ 
“ For as mooche that the meritory and no- 
table operacyons of famose goode and de- 
youte faders yn God sholde be remembred, 
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