own celestial regions. It looked like a real apotheosis! Heaven and earth appeared to combine to render it most solemn, overwhelmingly impressive, indelible. Astronomy, that queen of exact science (Regina mathematum), as she is styled, has taught us almost to believe in miracles-because she proved them. What used to be called Accident, Fate, Destiny, Necessity (ávȧyên), seems now to be misnomers in nature; all is a pre-ordained, eternal law and eternal order, emanating in and derived from one Omnipotent Will. In his statue at Warsaw, Copernicus is represented in a sitting posture, in his left hand holding a sphere, and with his right pointing to it with a compass. The pedestal is of a greyish marble from the quarries of Poland. The inscription on it is simply this: "Nicolao Copernico A medal executed by Oleszczynski, a Polish artist, was struck in commemoration of the inauguration, with the following legend: "Nicolao Copernico, Jagellonidum ævi civi Polono, alumno Academiæ Cracoviensi, immortalis gloriæ. Societatis regiæ Varsoviæ decreto, monumentum necdum perenne. MDCCCXXX." We have thus sketched, as far as the occasion permitted, the diverse phases of Copernicus's mortal career, and of his posthumous glory. In both instances we find him not only connected, but all one with Poland: while alive, by his nativity, education, and civic virtues; after his death, through historical records, monuments, and the national sympathies of his compatriots. Through him Poland became connected with the advancement of science, and especially with that of astronomy -and Copernicus, through Poland, with universal history. For each of these categories abundance of authenticated facts have been adduced; and as history from its nature admits no other truth beside one, all other claim on Copernicus but that which Poland has on him becomes untenable and delusive. With justice, therefore, Copernicus is the pride of Polandthe pride of the race to which he belonged, and the glory of the epoch at which, 300 years ago, he proclaimed to the world his Sta Sol. He was the great spirit of the age, and that tribute we are proud to pay him will not be denied him by the latest posterity. Lands are dark, times are dark: Copernicus was one of those who dispelled darkness and both lands and times were illumined by the divine rays of his system-uponsystem-grasping intellect. VOL. III.NO. II. DD 394 ART. II.-The Highlands of Ethiopia. By Major W. Cornwallis Harris, of the Hon. E. I. Company's Engineers. 3 vols. London: Longman & Co. 1844. Of all the regions of Africa to which the interest of the geographer, the philologer, and the slave-emancipator has been directed, none, whether regard be had to ancient fame, to modern love of research, or to both combined, more strongly merits our attention than Æthiopia. Deemed by the mythologist to have been honoured with the society of the gods, according to Diodorus Siculus, in all probability the parent of the religious system of the Egyptians, in many respects holding a creed and superstitions allied to those which have immemorially prevailed in India, it presents to us, even in its existing condition, attractions which few other countries possess, and encouragements of a high order to penetrate the darkness in which it is enveloped. It must have been at an early period after the dispersion in the plains of Shinar, that this empire was occupied by the race of Ham; according to popular legends, the great progenitor of the nation was Ethiops, one of the twelve descendants of Cush, from whom the land acquired the name of Itiopia or Ethiopia; but in the scriptural page the inhabitants are styled Cushim and Ludim. It appears from the general testimony of history, that the Cushites were first established in Arabia Felix, from whence they may be supposed to have crossed to the opposite coast, and gradually to have spread themselves over these territories. The close analogy which the Geez, the dialect of Tigré and the Amharic bear to the Arabic, is a strong argument in favour of this opinion, whilst the Coptic words which occur in the book of Genesis, being an evidence that such then was the language of Egypt, as clearly show that Ethiopia scarcely could have been colonized from thence. And if a sufficient time had elapsed for the descendants of Mitzraim to have organized a government, and founded cities in Egypt, in the days of Abraham, assuredly there must have been sufficient for Ethiopia to have been populated, when it was first mentioned in history. The ancient city of Axum, which was of Cushite origin, and *The Ludim, who sprang from Mitzraim, probably extended themselves towards this country in the direction of Meroë. This city, however, is recorded to have been built by the Cushites. celebrated on account of its splendour and idolatrous pomp, was one of the seats in which the learning and symbols of this mighty people were studied. We may infer from the pages of Homer how vast was the reverence which was attached to their institutions, and in what high esteem the hierophants of this order were regarded far and wide. Hence was it that Æthiopia was a term used by the Greeks in a most extensive sense, and applied to people, possibly connected with them by religious or commercial relations, who were of a different family. Thus is it that we occasionally discover them to have been confounded with the Hindoos, which is scarcely extraordinary, since in consequence of the trade between the two countries, which, by means of caravans, was extended to the interior of Africa, we observe names of places near their coast similar to those in Hindoostan, as Abu'lfeda and Edrisi have remarked. At one time the African tribes were styled Western Ethiopians, and those to whom the name is properly applicable, Eastern; but Herodotus, Arrian, and Strabo, carefully distinguished the one race from the other by the difference of their hair. Those who occupied the southern* tract were, beyond doubt, the Asiatic Ethiopians of Herodotus; for Edrisi particularly records, that even in his day Hindoos lived there, mixed with the native inhabitants. Several of the occupants of the Highlands are averred to have come from Palestine, whose arrival Ethiopic fabulists have referred to the days of Maqueda, Queen of Sheba, and her son, Menilek. There is a strong argument, that Abyssinia was the country from which she visited Solomon, in the fact, that she is also styled the Queen of the South, probably from Saba or Sabo, which in Ethiopic signifies south, and is the name of the range of mountains running parallel to the Red Sea, on the African side. During the conquests of the Khalifs, Jews flocked in great numbers to Ethiopia, and others are said to have previously settled there, after the destruction of Jerusalem; but whatever may have been the real date of their settlement, whilst remaining, as elsewhere, a separate people, they nevertheless have, in an unprecedented manner, influenced the national religion, and filled the whole country with their prejudices and superstitions. It is not to them, however, that we must refer the Semitic * See Polyhymnia, 7, 70. Strabo, 1. 1, speaking of Homer's notion, writes, Toy Ὠκεανὸν τὸ καθ' ὅλον τὸ μεσημβρινὸν κλίμα τεταγμένον, καὶ τοὺς ̓Αιθίοπας· γὰρ ἂν τόπῳ τοῦδε τοῦ κλίματος προσβάλλοις τὴν διάνοιαν, και ἐπὶ τῷ Ωκεανῷ ἔση καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ ̓Αιθιοπία. character of the language. The Geez, or ancient Ethiopic, which was the vernacular tongue of the shepherds, and until the fourteenth century of the Christian era, prevailed over the whole Abyssinian empire, probably arose among the Cushites of Yemen; and the Hamyarites are especially recorded by the Arabian writers to have spoken a language differing from the common Arabic. As the dialect which Abraham spoke varied in some degree from that which was peculiar to the Canaanites, and, therefore, was denominated Hebrew, or that of the descendent of Eber, or, according to some, that of the colonist from the other side of the Euphrates, so the Cushite language, notwithstanding its points of similarity, would naturally have been distinguished from the pure Arabic, on account of the discrepancies which it presented. The Amharic, too, which has succeeded to it, though still retaining the leading Semitic features, has received large incorporations from the surrounding African languages, and thus is but imperfectly known to the European scholar. The Lexicon of it, which Ludolf compiled, contains but very few of its terms: and those who would interpret a document transmitted in it, must trust to the precarious chance of discovering cognate words in the Arabic. Krapf and Isenberg have, however, published copious Dictionaries of the Amharic, and Vocabularies of the Dankali and Galla Tongues, with Grammars of the first and last. These works were printed by the Church Missionary Society. Mr. Hoskins, whose discoveries in Northern Abyssinia promise the most desirable results, has been too inattentive to these inquiries, although it might have been expected that his taste for the study of the hieroglyphics would have induced him to seek among every barbarian tribe, if, perchance, any remains of the Coptic existed in their dialect. The book which forms the subject of this article relates to an expedition which sailed from India to explore the southern part of Abyssinia, and to open a commercial treaty with the negroes of Shoa. Having landed at Tajúra, once a place of great importance but now sunk to a state of wretchedness, yet still carrying on an extensive traffic with Aussa and Abyssinia, and exchanging Indian and Arabian manufactures, salt, pewter, zinc, brass, and beads, for slaves, ivory, grain, and other produce, they encountered tedious delays and extortions, and were subjected to every annoyance which the filth and impertinence of the inhabitants could occasion. The trade, in which Tajúra is most actively engaged in the interior, is in kidnapping slaves, whom it exports to Arabia; but it also derives great emolument from caravans, which it escorts to Shoa. After leaving it, the expedition entered on a frightful region of volcanic formation, sufficient to bar all progress into the country without the aid of experienced guides; and in the pass of Tehama, amidst an overpowering heat, and an unhealthy atmosphere, treachery, and grumblings of conductors, continual dangers from lurking assassins, and want of water, they pursued an irksome and perilous way towards Abyssinia. In constant succession were chasms, half-choked passes, and precipitous ascents: at times they went between lofty and perpendicular walls of columnar lava; at times huge blocks of stone and detritus from basaltic cliffs presented obstacles which every exertion was required to surmount, and, in one place, not being three hundred yards from summit to summit, they cast a gloom which was scarcely penetrable. The whole of this region, though well worthy of the attention of the geologist, from its difficulties and dangers, and the suspicious escort which conducted the travellers through it, could not be scientifically examined, though at every step it added new evidences of mighty convulsions of Nature, which had thrown, as it were, into a fantastic chaos the original appearance of these parts. Such a scene might the antients well have supposed to have been the entrance to the infernal abodes; and there was not a chasm, nor a rock, which was destitute of its legendary horrors. As they proceeded, they came to the extraordinary Salt Lake, named Bahr Assál, which was surrounded by a dancing mirage. It is girded on three sides by lofty mountains, and on the fourth by half-formed rocks of lava; and lies without a ripple in an elliptical basin, which is seven miles in its transverse axis. This basin is half filled with the water, and half with solid salt, the offspring of evaporation. Respiration was almost impeded by the mephitic stench which arose from its exhalations; the sight was distressed by the overpowering glare; and during the parching north-western wind, which was then blowing, "the air was inflamed, the sky sparkled, and columns of burning sand, which at quick intervals towered high into the dazzling atmosphere, became so illumined as to appear like tall pillars of fire." At 570 feet below the ocean is this unventilated hollow, which at the first glance seems to indicate the site of a crater, whose cone had fallen into the subterranean abyss; but Major Harris rather imagines, that at a very remote period it formed "a continua |