BO , OKS.

zinnias's riccanzer'e.•

IT is surprising how little is really known of 'the history, institu- tiona, aud-manners- of the Phoenicians, when we consider the great

antiquity and long duration of their kindred cities, the number and extensive range of their settlements, the geographical dis- coveries they made, and the wealth and celebrity which their ex- tensive commerce produced. This paucity of knowledge is yet more remarkable when it is borne in mind, that though the Phoe- nicians may not have invented the alphabet and the existing arts

of writing and numeration, they probably gave them to Greece, and henoe to the Western world. By far the greater part of what we do know about-them is derived hem foreign not native writers.

It is from the Hebrew prophets that we learn, perhaps with some poetic colouring, the extent of the Phoinician commerce, the tyranny they exercised over the people where they settled, the wealth and

luxury of the merchants, as well as their high social position.

Homer bears testimony to the great excellence of the Pbcenioian manufactures, and confirms the Jewish charges of man-stealing and slaveselling, by instances which match any modern kidnap- ping tricks on the coast of Africa or in the Southern States of America. It is Xenophon who acquaints us with the order and discipline that prevailed on board their larger vessels. The greater historical events—as the alliance of Hiram with Solomon—are recorded in Scripture. Incidental glimpses of daily life—as the remark of Strabo, that the putrefaction of shell-fish (whisk

furnished the Tyrian dye) rendered Tyre not a pleasant .plaee of residence in an olfactory sense—may be gleaned from olaiseioal

authors. Archaeological or chronological facts—as the supposed' original seat of the Pheenicians, the foundation of their cities, the progress, extent, and eras of their settlements—are pre-

served in Greek writers from traditions, or have to be deduced by inference from many circumstances. What is preserved of Phcenician literature is preserved by quotatior, ; the meat: important historical passages being in Jesephus, and having-

reference to the history of his own nation. They deal in names and facts, without life, manners, or oircumstrinees. So far as they go, they indicate a state of violence, commotion, and murder, not greatly dissimilar to what existed in the Italian cities of the middle ages. The events of Phcenician history after the Persian and Greek subjections are fuller, but derived from classical sources. The Thenioians have hardly left monument or inscription behind them at home or abroad. "The entire want of specimens of archi- tecture, sculpture, painting, and manufacturing art," says Mr. Xenrick, "is a perpetual Donnie of regret to the historian. Phcenician archeology is almost an entire blank." What is-stranger than all, no coined money is extant prior to the time of their sub- jection by the Cheeks. Mr. Xenrick ably -defends the Pheenicians from the stigma which has been cast upon them as a commercial people ; but not, we think, successfully. The narrowness and selfishness of a trading community are traceable throughout their history. Like all other ancient peoples, their origin and early chrono- logy are doubtful. They appear to have been of Arab race, and to have emigrated from the Persian Gulf. So much doubt rests upon representations supposed to be ancient, especially as regards time, that chronological certainty is hardly to be hoped for. If the

logical conclusion is pushed to its full extent, the mention of Tershish, in the tenth chapter of Genesis, would show that the Phcenicians had. passed the Straits of Gibraltar in the fifteenth cen- tury before Christ. It appears as clear as any of these early dates can be, that Gadeira was founded eleven hundred years before Christ, and Carthage full eight hundred, the settlement of -Utica

having preceded that of•Carthage byupwarde of two centuries and a half. The date of the Phoenician discovery of the Scilly Isles and Cornwall, and the route or mode of voyaging to Britain, are un- known. The Phcenician and Carthaginian discoveries in the Atlan- tic and along the Western coast of Africa appear from the isolated facts that have come down to us to have been extensive and valu- able. But all is obscure, owing to the trading maxims of secrecy and monopoly. It is possible that six centuries before Christ, the Phcenioian discoveries towards the Tropics and in the Atlantic were as considerable as were made for two thousand years after- wards ; but the world reaped not the benefit, the Phcenicians and Carthaginians lieeping their liaowledge -to themselves. A

superior dye, and. a superior glees, ;with improvements in the art of shipbuilding, 'were, the sum of their- undoubted con- tribution to the progress of mankind. Letters, fine arts, philo-

sophy, or science, owe little or nothing to the Phcenicians. That

their trading expeditions conferred, as our author says, "benefits upon mankind ''—or rather upon themselves and customers—

may be true ; but the motive was none of the loftiest : they established no great truth, nor discovered anything which could not have been done without or in spite of them. The ereeke followed them in their settlements in Cyprus, the Isles„ and Sicily, as they colonized Italy, which the Phoenicians do not seem to have effecter'. All that the Phcenicians did beyond improvements in mechanical arts must have been done by the gradual advance of population and civilization. In fact, their discoveries were redis- covered by the Romans so far as regards Britain, and the Atlantic and countries North of the Straits of Gibraltar. The Phcenicians left no impress of themselves where they settled. A fort or fortified factory, with an adjacent island as a warehouse, hardly accessible to

• Pluenicia. By John Remick, M.A. With Maps and Illustrative Plates. Pub- lished by Fellowes.

tions, and religion of the people. The whole is terminated by a narrative history, commencing with the earliest assigned period, and brought down to the time of the Turkish conquest of the country in the sixteenth century after Christ.

The want of materials for historical narrative renders the plan of disquisition which Mr. Kenrick has followed the best fitted for exhibiting the widely scattered facts relating to Phcenicia. These he has collected, with great industry, arranged with judg- ment, and commented upon with an acumen at once worldly and seholaistic. Something of dryness, for the majority of readers, will inevitably attach to investigations referring to the ethnography of the earliest nations, and to the dates of the foundation of cities and colonies that have to be established on the evidence of names to which only a few scholars attach an idea. Even the some- what richer discussion that tarns up anon antiquarian remains na- tural features, or occasional passages n ancient writers, can hardly rdlv be made popular. The treatment by Mr. Kenrick is managed broadly, and is made as interesting as such discussions can ever be by the evident purpose with which they are conducted. Arts and manufactures are handled with full knowledge of ancient writings and ft sufficient acquaintance with modern discovery and processes. Nothino relating to Phoenicia seems to have been overlooked in the notices or, allusions of classical or modern authors, and the spattered passages have been skilfully disposed to throw all the light that is possible upon the subject. In the earlier parts, the historical narrative may be rather encumbered, from the writer having to prove as he goes ; the later periods are clear, concise, and rapid, with occasional touches of the picturesque,. Mr. Kenrick's Rhcenicia must be considered as the most thorough and philosophi- cal account of the subject that has yet appeared from the favour- able point of view.

The first account of the Phcenieians, embracing living pictrires as Well as naked facts, that we have from contemporaries, are from Homer and the Jewish poets or prophets. Subject to an allowance for national prejudice, their moral judgment upon the "crafty Phcenicians" may be received as conclusive. Opinions touching the wealth, the skilful workmanship, and the excellent manufac- tures of the Phcenicians, are not entitled to such absolute credit,

date after national independence had yielded to Persian influence, and after the people had the means of improving their arts by the example of other nations. In their particular line—navigation and manufactures—they do not, however, seem to have been ex- celled by any people of antiquity. This account of their naval discipline is entitled to full authority, as coming from a man who bad the organ of order as strongly developed as any one. "Sidon, the oldest of the Plicenician cities, appears to have enjoyed the highest reputation for naval skill.- Of the form, or tonnage, or rigging of their vessels, we know nothing, as we have neither coins of any high antiquity nor sculptures nor paintings; but their internal arrangement was admirable, add, like our East Indiamen in former times, and the Spanish galleons, they were equipped for war as well as for trade. In the CF.conomicus of Xenophoe, (oh. 8,) lechomachus, discoursing on the advantages of order, says= The best and most accurate arrangement of things I think I ever saw, was when Ivent to look at the great Phceniclan ship. For I saw the greatest quantity of tackling separately disposed in the smallest stowage. You know that a ship comes to anchor or gets under way by means of many wooden instru- ments and many ropes, and sails by means of many sails, and is armed with many machines against hostile vessels, and carries about with it many arms for the crew, and all the apparatus which men use in a dwelling-house, for each mess. Besides all this, the vessel is filled with cargo which the owner carries for his profit. And all that I have mentioned lay in not much greater space than would be found in a chamber large enough conveniently to hold ten beds. All things, too, lay in such a way that they did not obstruct one another; so that they needed no one to seek them, could easily be got to- . ...d there were no knots to be untied and cause delay if they were

. The Tyrian dye, the silk trade, and the manufacture of glass, were among the most prominent articles of Phoenician industry. Beyond the weaving and dyeing, the silk could only have been a traffic: the material, then and long afterwards, came from the further East. The purple dye and the glass manufacture were considered

+ Spectator 100, Page 950.

• ■ • _

the barbarous natives ond readily defensible against them, was the plan of their settlements. They mostly yielded without a contest when pressed by a people of enterprise and martial virtue like the Greeks, and paesed on to newer countries.

As in this author's Egypt under the Pharoahs,f the present work is leas a continuous history than a series of historical disqui- sitions on the leading subjects connected with Phcenicia. Mr. Kenriok opens his volume with an elaborate account of the geogra- phy, climate, and productions of the country; he then investigates with equal if not greater elaboration the origin of the nation. The commencement, extension, and final limits of the Phcenician settle- ments, are next considered, from inference or description as the ma- terials admit. language, commerce, navigation, arts, and manufac- tures are separately treated of, as well as the government, institu- rex, and its employment in dyeing wool.

since they were only comparative—measured by the writer's inex- goods. The law proved as vain as sumptuary laws usually are; and succeed- perienee , ing Emperors not only conceded the liberty of using it, but themselves set

d simplicity. The opinion of a "noble savage" on a menu- ce

factured article might widely differ from that of a juryman at the ! still appears to have retained the exclusive manufacture of the imperial Paris Exhibition. The criticism to be depended upon is of a ; purple. * * "It was once considered doubtful whether the ancients had attained to any great perfection in the working of glass; but the discoveries at Pompeii and elsewhere, and the knowledge which has been obtained of the true na- ture of the Portland vase and similar remains, have shown that, however we suddenly wanted for use. I found the mate of the steersman, who le called may surpass them in rapidity, quantity, and cheapness of manufacture, we the pro wsman, so well acquainted with the place of each article, that even are inferior to them in beauty of material, in grace of design, and dexteritY when absent he could tell where everything Tay, and what their number was, i of hand."

as one who has learnt to read could tell the number and order of the letters in the name of Socrates. I saw this man examining, at an unoccupied time, everything that is of use on board a ship; and on my asking him the I reason, ho replied, Stranger, I am examining whether anything is deficient , or out of order; for it will be no time to look for what is wanting, or put to ' rights what is awkwardly placed, when a storm arises at sea.' As Athens was at this time the first naval power in Greece, this appeal to .a foreign yea- eel as an example of the benefit of order, shows that the Phoinieuins ex- , celled all other maritime nations in the internal discipline of their ships."

by. the ancients to have been the invention of the Phcenicians Kenrick doubts the fact, or at least that these were their peculiar invention. The following passages are fragmentary, but they suf- fice to exhibit the author's views and to convey an idea of his tieat. went.

"Babylon no doubt poasessed the art of dyeing, and there is nothing in the names by which the purple and hyacinthine dyes are called in Hebrew to fix them exclusively to Plicenicia. But there is no probability that in Egypt or in Babylon purple and hyacinth were dyed by means of an animal substance. The family of shell-fish which furnish it is not abundant in the Persian Gulf; nor are the muddy shores of Egypt suitable to them. Even in Phoenicia, it was only on the rocky part of the coast, from the Tyrian Climax to Haifa, near Mount Carmel, that they were found in perfection. The unanimous voice of antiquity assigns to Tyre the discovery of the mode of obtaining two most beautiful tints of purple from the Buccinum and Mu- "The mollusks which inhabit these shells have a receptacle or sac behind the head, in which a very minute portion of a colourless creamy fluid is con- tained, which has a strong smell of garlic. If it be carefully extracted by a hook or a pointed pencil, and applied to wool, linen, or cotton, which is then exposed to a strong light, it successively becomes green, blue, red, deep purple-red, and by washing in soup and water, a bright crimson, which is permanent. • • * "The property of the Murickhe to furnish a purple dye was not a secret of the Pheenicians. It is applied to this use by the Chinese, and by in- habitants of the coast of South America. Bede mentions its use by the an- cient Britons; and it was from hearing that it was still employed in Ireland, that Mr. Cole of Bristol, in 1684, was induced to make the first researches in modern times, and ascertained that the liquor was obtained from the hued- num lapillus. Nor was its skilful manufacture =lined to Phoenicia. The coast of Laconia furnished a purple second only to that of Phcenicia ; Ta- rentum, in later times Hydrus (Otranto), Ancona, the North coma of Africa, Gietulia, and the Canary Islands, are all mentioned as places in which it was carried on. In most of these we trace the influence of Plicenician colo- nization; Cythera, on the coast of Laconia, which bore the name of Perphy- ruse, was one of their earliest settlements. Pbcenicia, however, maintained the preeminence. It had the advantage of an inexhaustible supply of the shell-fish furnishing the brightest dye, a brilliant sunlight, and probably some knowledge of chemistry, by which the native colour of the liquor was heightened. • • •

Extraordinary statements are found in the ancients respecting the dura- bility of the best purple dye. When Alexander took possession of Suss, he found among its treasures 5000 talents in weight of purple cloth, from lier- mione in the Peloponnesue, which had been laid up there for one hundred and eighty years, and yet retained all the freshness and brilliancy of its origi- nal colour. Its durability no doubt enhanced its price, which, with the increase of luxury, became enormous, especially when it was applied to so costly a material as silk. At least as early as the time of Aristotle, who describes the silk-worm, (Hist. An. v. 19,) raw silk had been brought to the island of Cos, and there mixed with linen or cotton in producing those garments whose fineness is celebrated by the Latin poets, and which were dyed of a deep purple. Before the introduction of the silk-worm from the East by Justinian, silk had been sometimes worth its weight in gold. The costliness, however, of purple cloth, did not prevent its being used by private persons ; and the Roman Emperors published edicts designed to confine it to official station. Tiberius, finding the prohibitory decree of Augustus ineffectual, laid aside his own purple that the Romans might be compelled to follow the fashion. Nero restricted the sale to a few ounces on each market-day ; and having on one occasion, when he was exhibiting his own musical powers, perceived a matrou among the audience clad in the forbidden colour, he not only sent his officers to turn her out, but seized the garment and confiscated all her

since they were only comparative—measured by the writer's inex- goods. The law proved as vain as sumptuary laws usually are; and succeed- up manufactories of purple in various parts of the empire. Tyre, however,

" As the purple dye was the characteristic production of Tyre, so was glass of Sidon. The ancients attributed its invention to accident. We have already mentioned the inexhaustible supply of fine white sand, free from all admixture of clay, which the coast near Mount Carmel affords. The locality in which it is found resembles, by its vicinity to the chalk, the spots whence our manufacturers derive their supplies of silicious sand—Brighton, Reigate, the Isle of Wight, King's Lynn, and Calais. Syria, however, does.not pro- duce the mineral alkali, (soda or natron,) which must be combined with diem in order to make glass; and this appears to be shadowed out in the fable of its invention. Some merchents, it is said, who were conveying a cargo of natron, which was used in Syria for soap, had landed on this coast. While preparing their meal, they propped their cauldron, for want of stones, whioh the sandy coast did not afford, with lumps of the natron. These were melted by the heat, and mixing with the sand produced a stream of glass. The discovery may have been accidental as regards Sidon ; but the probability is that the art was derived from Egypt, which is supplied with sand by the Desert and with soda by. the Natron Lakes. The operation of glass-blowing is represented in the paintings of Benihassan, to which we cannot attribute an antiquity of less than 3500 years; and a specimen of Egyptian glass is in existence bearing the name of Sesortasen, a sovereign of the twelfth dy- nasty. No date is assigned by the tradition to the Sidonian invention; but from the absence of all mention of glass in the Old Testament, it is natural to conclude that the establishment of the manufacture there was not of very high antiquity.