omantic legend--the awful superstition--the gossipy anecdote--which
yet characterize the stories of the popular and oral fictionist in the
bazaars of the Mussulman, or on the sea-sands of Sicily. Still it has
been rightly said, that a judicious reader is not easily led astray by
Herodotus in important particulars. His descriptions of localities, of
manners and of customs, are singularly correct; and travelers can yet
trace the vestiges of his fidelity.

Few enlightened tourists are there who can visit Egypt, Greece, and
the regions of the East, without being struck by the accuracy, with
the industry, with the patience of Herodotus. To record all the facts
substantiated by travelers, illustrated by artists, and amplified by
learned research, would be almost impossible; so abundant, so rich,
has this golden mine been found, that the more its native treasures
are explored, the more valuable do they appear. The oasis of Siwah,
visited by Browne, Hornemann, Edmonstone, and Minutuoli; the
engravings of the latter, demonstrating the co-identity of the god
Ammon and the god of Thebes; the Egyptian mode of weaving, confirmed
by the drawings of Wilkinson and Minutuoli; the fountain of the sun,
visited by Belzoni; one of the stelae or pillars of Sesostris, seen by
Herodotus in Syria, and recognized on the road to Beyrout with the
hieroglyphic of Remeses still legible; the kneading of dough, drawn
from a sculpture in Thebes, by Wilkinson; the dress of the lower
classes, by the same author; the prodigies of Egyptian architecture at
Edfou; Caillaud's discovery of Meroe in the depths of AEthiopia; these,
and a host of brilliant evidences, center their once divergent rays in
one flood of light upon the temple of genius reared by Herodotus, and
display the goddess of Truth enshrined within.

The following are the main subjects of his nine books, which were
named after the nine muses:--

Book I. CLIO.--Transfer of the Lydian Kingdom from Gyges to
Croesus--minority of Cyrus--his overthrow of the Lydian power--rising
greatness of Athens and Lacedaemon.

Book II. EUTERPE.--Dissertation on Egypt--Egyptian customs, and the
regal succession of that Empire.

Book III. THALIA.--Achievements of Cambyses--his total subjugation of
Egypt--election of Darius Hystaspes to the Persian throne, then vacant
by the assassination of Smerdis, the impostor.

Book IV. MELPOMENE.--Full narrative of the calamitous expeditions of
the Persians against the S