e agencies to the industry of
the Phoenicians, and a variety of advantages which are incalculable. They
possess themselves every profusion of luxury, in articles of plate and
sculpture, in furniture of beds, tripods, and other household
embellishments, far superior in degree to any thing that is seen in Europe:
their expence of living rivals the magnificence of princes: their houses
are decorated with pillars glistening with gold and silver: their doors are
crowned with vases and beset with jewels: the interior of their houses
corresponds with the beauty of their outward appearance, and all the riches
of other countries are here exhibited in a variety of profusion. Such a
nation, and so abounding in superfluity, owes its independence to its
distance from Europe; for their luxurious manners would soon render them a
prey to the European sovereigns, who have always troops on foot prepared
for any conquest; and who, if they could find the means of invasion, would
soon reduce the Sabeans to the condition of their agents and factors;
whereas they are now obliged to deal with them as principals."

The importance and the bearing of these curious facts, first brought to our
notice by Agatharcides, as well as the inferences which may be drawn from
them regarding the mode in which the ancients obtained their commodities of
India, will call our particular attention afterwards: at present we shall
merely notice the characteristic and minute picture which Agatharcides has
drawn of the Sabeans, and the just notions he had formed on the nature of a
commerce, of which all the other writers of antiquity seemed to have been
utterly ignorant.

Beyond Sabaea to the east, Agatharcides possessed no information, though,
like all the ancients, he is desirous of supplying his want of it by
indulging in the marvellous: it is, however, rather curious that, among
other particulars, undoubtedly unfounded, such as placing the Fortunate
islands off the coast beyond Sabaea, and his describing the flocks and herds
as all white, and the females as polled;--he describes that whiteness of
the sea, to which we have already alluded, as confirmed by modern
travellers. From these unfounded particulars, our author soon emerges again
into the truth; for he describes the appearance of the different
constellations, and especially notices that to the south of Sabaea there is
no twilight in the morning; but when he adds, that the sun, at rising,
appears like a colum