Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/71

 CHAP. ii. 30. INTRODUCTION. fore to bear its name. Further, the best known pec of a country are those which have something of the a paradox, and are likely to arrest general attention, ui tnis kind are the rising of the Kile, and the alluvial depo- sition at its mouth. There is nothing in the whole country to which travellers in Egypt so immediately direct their inquiries, as the character of the Nile ; nor do the inhabitants possess any thing else equally wonderful and curious, of which to in- form foreigners ; for in fact, to give them a description of the river, is to lay open to their view every main characteristic of the country. It is the question put before every other by those who have never seen Egypt themselves. To these con- siderations we must add Homer's thirst after knowledge, and his delight in visiting foreign lands, (tastes which we are as- sured both by those who have written histories of his life, and also by innumerable testimonies throughout his own poems, he possessed in an eminent degree,) and we shall have abund- ant evidence both of the extent of his information, and the felicity with which he described objects he deemed important, and passed over altogether, or with slight allusion, matters which were generally known. 30. These Egyptians and Syrians 1 whom we have been criticising fill one with amazement. They do not understand [Homer], even ^when he is describing their own, countries, but accuse himof ignorance where, as our argument proves, they are open to the charge themselves. Not to mention a thing is clearly no evidence that a person is not acquainted with it. 2 Homer does not tell us of the change in the cur- rent of the Euripus, nor of Thermopylae, nor of many other re- markable things well known to the Greeks ; but was he there- fore unacquainted with them ? He describes to us, although these men, who are obstinately deaf, will not hear : they have themselves to blame. Our poet applies to rivers the epithet of " heaven-sent." And this not only to mountain torrents, but to all rivers alike, since they are all replenished by the showers. But even what 1 Namely Crates and Aristarchus. The last was of Alexandria, and consequently an Egyptian^ Crates was of Cilicia, which was regarded as a part of Syria. *^~ ^ 2 This is a very favourite axiom with Strabo, notwithstanding he too often forgets it himself.