and of their influence on their respective territories, were deducted from the history of humanity, the narrative remaining would be the reverse of attractive. "In such case, the kind of picture which human society must everywhere have presented, would be such as we see in the condition, from the earliest time, of the wandering hordes of Mongolians and Tartars, spread over the vast flats of Central Asia. In those regions scarcely any thing has been 'made' by man. But this happy circumstance, as it seems to be accounted— the total absence of any thing reminding you of human skill and industry-has never been found to realize our poetic ideas of pastoral beauty and innocence. It has called forth enough of the squalid and of the ferocious, but little of the refined, the powerful, or the generous." Take an opposite picture,-that of the association of man with his fellows. If anything be certain it would seem to be certain that man is constituted to realize his destiny from his association with man, more than from any contact with places. The great agency in calling forth his capabilities, whether for good or evil, is that of his fellows. The picturesque, accordingly, may be with the country, but the intellectual, speaking generally, must be with the town. Agriculture may possess its science, and the farmer, as well as the landowner, may not be devoid of intelligence; but in such connexions, the science and intelligence in common with the nourishment of the soil, must be derived, in the main, from the studies prosecuted in cities, and from the wealth realized in the traffic of cities. If pasturage is followed by tillage, and if tillage is made to partake of the nature of a study and a science, these signs of improvement are peculiar to lands in which cities make their appearance, and they become progressive only as cities become opulent and powerful. Listen to an account of the extent to which commercial confidence may reach, and where it finds its best growth. Commercial credit, from its humblest to its very highest form, is based on moral confidence-confidence, not so much perhaps in what the individual trusted might probably do if left to himself, as in what he will be constrained to do rather than brave the resentment with which the moral feelings of society would be prepared to visit the unjust or dishonourable. If much should be wanting in the principle of the individual, much will be supplied by the principle of society; and if the man should wholly fail in this respect, the community will not. With every step in social advancement, this system of credit widens, and becomes more intricate; and, in the greatness of its compass, and in the delicacy of its details, we perceive that as men become more opulent and civilized, they learn to place increasing confidence in each other, manifestly regarding each other as more trustworthy-more moral. In all these respects the morality of law is the public morality embodied. We may add, that order, punctuality, promptitude, courage, all are more or less necessary to mercantile success, and all are in the same degree necessary as elements of moral habit. Nor can it be less obvious, that the constant and earnest occupation which so effectually precludes idleness, must do much to preclude vice. Our last extract from this delightful book, so full of generous sympathy and profound thought, carries us to another branch of the subject so copiously handled by Dr. Vaughan, we allude to his exposition of the influence which manuscripts, in the absence of the press, must have had on letters, and the relation which such scantily circulated writings must have borne to the general civilization of a people. Even in Athens and Rome, the absence of printing was sufficient to render literary tastes the distinction of a class rather than the acquisition of a people. Without the printing-press, the only existence of books must be in the shape of costly manuscripts. The possession of a library, accordingly, was restricted to the rich, and the classes below them were almost without a stimulus even to learn to read. In classical antiquity, mental culture, even in the case of the educated, followed much more from what men heard than from what they read. Classical authors, in consequence, wrote to the few and not to the many. Hence, in great part, the patient elaboration by which their works are characterized. In general, the men who bought books were the men who could best judge of them. Authors who commended themselves to a lower level of discernment, did so at the hazard of not finding either purchasers or readers. It should be observed, therefore, that in those times the republics in letters, in common with the republics in politics, were such in name much more than in reality; the number of the privileged, who shared in the influence of literature directly and powerfully, being very small compared with the number of the commonalty, who were affected by it only indirectly and feebly. ART. IX.-Etruria-Celtica.-Etruscan Literature and Antiquities Investigated. By SIR WILLIAM BETHAM, Ulster King-of-Arms. Dublin, Hardy; London, Groombridge. 2 vols. PATIENT research, various learning, and deep earnestness, mark these two elaborately illustrated volumes. And yet ingenuity and curious fancy rather than demonstration are the principal characteristics of a work that seeks to identify the language of the Iberno-Celtic. with that of the ancient and illustrious people of Etruria, and to show both to have been Phoenician. We confess that we have not been able to discover that Sir William has been successful in the attempt to establish this fact or theory; and in the absence of any thoroughly authenticated Irish document to become the foundation and guide of his researches, and while there has not yet appeared any satisfactory solution of the meaning of the Etruscan inscriptions, it will hardly be expected that his effort should prove other than doubtful in its issue. Sir William Betham, however, is very confident on the subject, even when conducting his readers to such an unexpected, and we may add, unlikely source of evidence as that on which he has fallen. Yet his opinion in any department of the kind, especially when Irish antiquities are concerned, is deserving of respectful attention. True, we are not ignorant that the most conflicting as well as extravagant theories have been broached with respect to the ancient civilization as well as the origin of the Irish race; one of these theories tracing this people to Phoenicia, and representing them as far advanced in social and intellectual improvement, when other European nations that have greatly distanced the natives of the Emerald Isle, in the march of civilization, were in a state of barbarism. At the same time, although our author's conclusions reach to this great and flattering length, be it borne in mind that he is not an Irishman by birth, and therefore cannot be presumed to have any overweening prejudice in favour of ancestry on this question; unless indeed we set down whatever confidence and warmth of conclusion that he may display to an enthusiasm acquired in a branch of study that he has pursued perseveringly, and not without some important discoveries or solutions. In fact, Sir William has contributed efficiently to the elucidation of Irish literature. In a former work he tells us that, "having been impressed with the idea that the demonstration of the true origin and history of the Irish people would afford powerful aid towards elucidating those of other European nations, I have pursued this investigation for many years, and the results have justified the accuracy of the opinion I had formed beyond my most sanguine expectations." He also tells us that in that volume " 'I endeavoured to demonstrate the identity of race of the Irish, Britons, and Celtic Gauls of Cæsar's day, and suggested that they were all of Phoenician origin." He has, however, seen cause to change his opinion upon some points, although he has not found much to recall ; subsequent inquiry having for the most part established the general ground taken. But in the present work, as already intimated, he has proceeded much farther with his theory; for having by accident been led to compare the Etruscan language with the Iberno-Celtic, and in the course of the investigation thus set on foot, having discovered that his conjecture, with regard to the former being essentialy Celtic, was well founded, he has been at the great labour to give the results of the investigation in the volumes before us. Now, we do not see that there is any very serious objection to entertaining the conjecture, that the ancient inhabitants of the North of Italy may have belonged to the Celtic family. It is, however, a very different thing to prove that the Irish can trace a civilization back to a period contemporary with that of the people of Etruria. On the other hand, according to Roman historians, especially Tacitus, the Irish were a barbarous and contemned race, not being thought worthy of conquest. But it is right that we should let our author be heard concerning the Eugubian tables upon which so much stress is laid in this discussion, the argument in favour of these relics being, he holds, above all suspicion. Gubbio, or Ugubbio, is an episcopal city in the duchy of Urbino, within the papal territory, in the delegation of Ancona, containing a population of about 4,000 souls, in latitude 40 deg. 30 min. north, longitude 13 deg. 31 min., at the western point of the Apennines, about ten British miles north of Perugia. It was anciently called Eugubium or Inguvium. Mrs. Hamilton Gray, in her account of the papal cities, says "Of these I place Gubbio first. It is a beautiful place, and ought to be included in every tour. Its ancient name was Ikuvine, and it was much favoured by Rome after it lost its liberty. It is an Umbrian city of untold antiquity, and was conquered by the Etruscans about one thousand years before the Christian era. There are kept the famous Eugubean tables found at La Scheggia, a little to the north of the town, in A.D. 1444, close to the temple of Jove Apenninus. They are tables of brass or bronze, engraved on both sides (?) with a long liturgy, and the names of places and deities, and references to land, manners, and customs, which but for them would be unknown. These tables were seven in number, but only six are preserved. One was sent to Venice to be translated before the conquest by Napoleon, and has never been recovered. It and the old Italian MSS. of the four Gospels are probably in some private collections. According to Sir William Gell, eight of the inscriptions are in Umbrian, or Pelasgic, commonly called Etruscan, and four in Latin characters. In the latter, which seem to be like the other tables as to their contents, but somewhat modernised, the letter o appears instead of v, and sometimes instead of f. The g is also introduced, which was not used, as is imagined, till about the year 400 B.C. Those in the Umbrian character may be three hundred years older; that is, about the time of Romulus and Numa. The lines run from right to left. A slight alteration had taken place in the language when the tables in the Roman letters were written. The archæological professors at Rome told me that the language here called Umbrian was the Oscan, not identical with the Etruscan, but as near to it as the Swedish is to the German, and Portuguese to Spanish; perhaps as near as modern English is to that of Henry II. or The third table is an edict for the feast called "Plenarum Urnarium." One of the oldest Latin tables is a prayer for the agriculture of Ikuvium, after written IIOVINA, or thus, ANIVVOII. tables was not understood in the days of Cicero or Livy. The reader is probably aware that, among all the nations of eastern origin, the ancient mode of writing public acts was on tables of stone or brass, and that such writings were held sacred as laws, or records of history. Specimens may be seen in the capital of the consular times, which look as fresh and as sharply engraved as if they had not been more than a twelvemonth out of the workman's hands. The cathedral of Gubbio, with one or two churches containing excellent pictures, the duke's palace, the town-house, and public library, are particularly well worth notice." This account of these tables, VOL. I. (1843) NO. I. nearer. The Latin of these I given to Mrs. Gray by the Italian savans, differs widely from the statements of their own writers; even their number is inaccurate. Mrs. Gray's volume is full of amusement and instruction; the errors in it are not hers, but of those whose statements and opinions she relates. Mrs. Gray says the tables are engraved on both sides; but this would appear inconsistent with the account given by Conciolus, who states that they were found fixed up against the wall. The statement that the city of Gubbio was called Icubini, or Iiovina, arose from these words occurring so often in the tables, and its having some similarity to the name Iguvium, or Eugubium; but is doubtful whether they had any reference to the name of the city. It is, however, possible the dedication of the temple to Minerva, and this shout of Icubine, Icubini, Iovini, and eventually Io Pæan, may have had the influence of giving name to the temple and the city. Antonius Conciolus states, in his description of the city of Gubbio, that while certain excavations were going on at a hill near the city, in the year 1444, the workmen came in contact with buildings of compact masonry, which, on being cleared from the earth and rubbish, exposed to view an ancient temple or crypt, in one of the chambers of which were found, fixed up against the wall, nine tables, or plates of ancient brass or bronze, covered with inscriptions in the Etruscan character and language. Of these tables, seven are still preserved in the museum of Gubbio; two are said to have been sent to Venice in 1505 for the purpose of being interpreted or translated. Of the seven tables now remaining at Gubbio, five are written from right to left in the old Etruscan character, and two from left to right, in what is now called, and has ever been considered, the Roman character. Father Gori, in his Museum Etruscum, calls the character in which the two last are written the Pelasgic by what authority it is not easy to imagine. Müller calls it the Latin character. Sanctes Marmochini, in the preface to his MS. Dialogue, p. 16, on the back, says, that he saw five tables of brass at Gubbio written in Etruscan characters, which he transcribed into his little book; but he takes no notice of the two written in the Roman character, or of the eleven lines in the same character added at the end of Table III.: probably he did not consider them Etruscan, being in the Roman character. But, admitting these inscriptions to be genuine and originals, by what laws does Sir William conduct his interpretation of them? It appears to us that his method is in a great measure arbitrary, and in observance of a preconceived theory that is as likely to be wrong or defective as otherwise. Again, we by no means feel convinced that he reads the Irish language correctly. This is a point upon which we should speak with the utmost diffidence, having no pretensions to any acquaintance with that tongue, or that dialect of the Gaelic. But we are at the same time aware that but very few persons can lay claim to more than a very imperfect knowledge of it, or of its literature; and although Sir William has studied the Irish language, with a view to the furtherance of his antiquarian researches, we do not discover that he has guarded against an over-sanguine appreciation of the genuineness of its relics, and a certain degree of credulity |