The Troad.

desponding Mussulman . Such a sweet , solitary home as Mr . Frederick Calvert has contrived to build for himself on that hallo ?' -p . d ground , close to the ruins of the Temple of the Thymbrian Apollo , such a farm as , with little capital and much industry , he is converting into a princely

estate , might well wean from the world many a weary heart , and clip the wings of many an unsatisfied ambition . And over this idyllic paradise where once a frail woman ' s beauty arrayed Asia and Europe in armsthe battles of Troy

, are once more fought by scholars bent on fishing historical truth out of the deep well of a poetical myth , bewildering themselves and the world by their dissertations as to what and where was Troy , and establishing theories where conjecture itself seems

almost hopelessly at fault . Was the site of Priam ' s Troy at Hissarlik , on the spot where Ilium Novum subsequently arose , and where Dr . Schliemann has lately opened the earth to so great a depth and extent , or was it on the more sublime ground near Bounarbashi , round the hill ofBalickgh , where men are supposed to have traced the circuit of the wall of Pergamus , and even

to have brought Hector ' s tomb into light ? All these questions have been and must be answered by the li ght of Homer ' s verse and by the bearings of the landmarks of Ida , the Scamander , Irnbros , Tenedos , the Sigteum , and other hills , ( fcreams , islands , and headlands to which frequent allusions

occur iu the great epic . Listen to Maclaren on one side and to Le Chevalier on the other , and see how satisfied every party leader and partisan is with his own view , how plausibly he stands by his own and demolishes his adversary ' s argument ; hear

how much has been , how much may be , said on both sides—as , indeed , on all sides of all questions—and then tell us who shall decide where so many aud such valiant doctors disagree ? "The identity of the site of Troy , " one will tell us , " may be

made out by two springs , one warm and one cold , flowing into , or from which flows the Scainander . '' Aye , but what if at Hissarlik the springs which must have been there have dried up , and those at Bounarbsishi are not two but forty , and all cold 1 " Round Homer ' s Troy , " says another , " flowed Scamander . " But what if the river has altered its course , and its

confluence with the Simois has been removed from its original spot ? What , besides , if the names are misapplied , if what we call Simois were Homer ' s Scamander , and if the sources of one river , whichit seemed natural to trace to the mountainslayafter allin

, , , the plain ? " Troy , " a third teaches us , " or at least its citadel , occupied a lofty , craggy , and conspicuous situation . " But what if time has smoothed down its

asperities , and the accumulation of the soil for 30 or 40 centuries has levelled its slope ? " Troy , " a fourth reasons , " was not too far aud not too near the sea . " But what if land has encroached upon the water , and the line of the shore has advanced far beyond its ancient limit ? Itisevenso . Everycritic

, like a bad tailor , strives to fit the ground to his own theory when at a lost how to shape the theory , so as to suit the particulars of the locality , Every one proves that his own pet Troy is Homer ' s Troy , or at least that it would be amazingly like it ,

had not untoward circumstances conspired to make it so unlike . Notwithstanding this irreconcilable discrepancy of opinion , however , it is not easy to deny that Dr . Schliemann , Mr . Frank Calvertandlastbut not leastMr .

Glad-, , , , stone , all partisans of Hissarlik , have good reasons in their favour , and that Bounarbashi seems , indeed , too far inland , and the ground of it too rugged to allow of chariot

races being run in its immediate vicinity , or of Achilles chasing the flying Hector three times round the walls of the city . But , on the other hand , the site of Hissarlik is mean and circumscribed to a small space not very loft y , and by no means craggy or rugged , and the area which is assigned to

the town is barely sufficient to accommodate a moderate-sized citadel , " about the size of Trafalgar-square , " as Dr . Schliemann himself said to Mr Gladstone . The world is doubtless greatly indebted to the good German doctor by whose rare energy and

at whose heavy expense such extensive excavations have been made , and so many valuable relics of antiquity have been brought into li ght . But it is difficult to look into the broad and deep trenches he has openedto view the mountains of

, rubbish he has heaped up , and to examine the basements and foundations of the buildings he has laid bare , without feeling as if the conclusions to which his dis-