, indeed, a solitary difficulty; but this, in the most
astonishing manner, has been removed. "Thus far," he writes, "had we
carried the argument, but had here been compelled to stop, for want of
further evidence; and the very stereotype plate that at first occupied
this page, expressed our regrets that we were not able more completely
to identify the Palenque statue as Hercules. At our publishers',
however, the eyes of that distinguished Orientalist, the Rev. Mr.
Osborn, chanced to fall upon a proof of the American goddess in the
fourth note to this chapter, which he at once recognized as Astarte,
represented according to an antique pattern. Her head-dress, he
insisted, was in the ancient form of the mural crown, without the
crescent, the prototype of that worn by Diana of the Ephesians, and so
too, he insisted, was her necklace of 'two rows.'" Thus the chain of
evidence was complete, and, for once, Mr. Wilson derived assistance from
eyes not placed in his own head.

But, whatever distinguished Orientalists may say, undistinguished
Occidentalists may be pardoned for inquiring when it was that this
stream of Phoenician emigration flowed to the American shores, in what
manner such an enormous body of colonists as the hypothesis necessarily
supposes were conveyed hither, and what has become of their descendants.
With an uncommon indulgence to our weakness of faith, Mr. Wilson
condescends to meet these obvious questions. The time he cannot exactly
fix; but it was "thousands of years ago,"--"before the time of Moses."
To the query in regard to the means of conveyance, he answers, that at
that remote period sailing ships were in common use,--as is proved by
representations of them found in Egyptian tombs,--although they were
afterwards superseded by galleys propelled by oars alone. The reason
assigned by Mr. Wilson for this change makes a valuable addition to the
stores of Biblical commentary. "The Greeks," he says, "appear to have
been selected from their imitative powers, to perpetuate such of the
arts and civilization of the elder world, as were to be preserved from
that decree of extermination, pronounced by the Almighty against its
nations. _Commerce had been the chief cause of the total demoralization
of antiquity_, and of this, they were permitted to preserve only a boat
navigation." Coeval with the decline of commerce and the extermination
of sailing ships was the cessation of this Phoenician emigration to
America. Th