charge of occupying too much space, and giving too much attention to an
enterprize generally deemed fabulous, and so obscured by fable and
uncertainty, as to be little capable of illustration, and little conducive
to the improvement of geographical knowledge. This defence we shall borrow
from a name deservedly high among those who have successfully illustrated
ancient geography, for the happy and successful mutual adaptation of great
learning and sound judgment, and not less worthy of respect and imitation
for his candour and liberality: we allude to Dr. Vincent, the illustrator
of the Voyage of Nearchus, and the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.

"The reality of the Argonautic expedition, (he observes in the Preliminary
Disquisition to the latter work), has been questioned; but if the
primordial history of every nation but one is tinctured with the fabulous,
and if from among the rest a choice is necessary to be made, it must be
allowed that the traditions of Greece are less inconsistent than those of
the more distant regions of the earth. Oriental learning is now employed in
unravelling the mythology of India, and recommending it as containing the
seeds of primæval history; but hitherto we have seen nothing that should
induce us to relinquish the authority we have been used to respect, or to
make us prefer the fables of the Hindoos or Guebres, to the fables of the
Greeks. Whatever difficulties may occur in the return of the Argonauts,
their voyage to Colchis is consistent: it contains more real geography than
has yet been discovered in any record of the Bramins or the Zendevesta, and
is truth itself, both geographical and historical, when compared with the
portentous expedition of Rám to Ceylon."

In discussing the subject of the Argonautic expedition, we shall
successively consider its probable era--its supposed object--the voyage to
Colchis, and the various tracks by which the Argonauts are said to have
returned.