was something more than the creature of his own fancy, as some
have supposed it; for though the grand outline of a fable may be
easily imagined, yet the consistent adaptation of minute incidents to
a long and elaborate falsehood is a task of the most arduous and
complicated nature."

After this long extract, by which we have endeavoured to do justice
to Mr. Gell's argument, we cannot allow room for any farther
quotations of such extent; and we must offer a brief and imperfect
analysis of the remainder of the work.

In the third chapter, the traveller arrives at the capital, and in
the fourth, he describes it in an agreeable manner. We select his
account of the mode of celebrating a Christian festival in the Greek
church:--

"We were present at the celebration of the feast of the
Ascension, when the citizens appeared in their gayest dresses,
and saluted each other in the streets with demonstrations of
pleasure. As we sate at breakfast in the house of Zignor Zavo,
we were suddenly roused by the discharge of a gun, succeeded
by a tremendous crash of pottery, which fell on the tiles,
steps, and pavements, in every direction. The bells of the
numerous churches commenced a most discordant jingle; colours
were hoisted on every mast in the port, and a general shout of
joy announced some great event. Our host informed us that the
feast of the Ascension was annually commemorated in this
manner at Bathi, the populace exclaiming [Greek: anese o
Chrisos, alethinos o Theos,] Christ is risen, the true God."

In another passage, he continues this account as follows:--"In the
evening of the festival, the inhabitants danced before their houses;
and at one we saw the figure which is said to have been first used by
the youths and virgins of Delos, at the happy return of Theseus from
the expedition of the Cretan Labyrinth. It has now lost much of that
intricacy which was supposed to allude to the windings of the
habitation of the Minotaur," &c. &c. This is rather too much for even
the inflexible gravity of our censorial muscles. When the author
talks, with all the _reality_ (if we may use the expression) of a
Lempriere, on the stories of the fabulous ages, we cannot refrain
from indulging a momentary smile; nor can we seriously accompany him
in the learned architectural detail by which he endeavours to give
us, from the Odyssey, the ground-plot of the house of Ulysses.--of
which he a