among the ancients, was a large intricate edifice cut out into various alleys and meanders running into each other, so as to render it difficult to get out of it.

There is mention made of several of these edifices among the ancients; but the most celebrated are the Egyptian and the Cretan labyrinths.

That of Egypt, according to Pliny, was the oldest of all the known labyrinths, and was subsisting in his time after having stood 3600 years. He says it was built by King Peteficus, or Titheos; but Herodotus makes it the work of several kings: it stood on the banks of the lake Moeris, and consisted of 12 large contiguous palaces, containing 3000 chambers, 1500 of which were underground.—Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, and Mela, speak of this monument with the same admiration as Herodotus: but not one of them tells us that it was constructed to bewilder those who attempted to go over it; though it is manifest that, without a guide, they would be in danger of losing their way.

It was this danger, no doubt, which introduced a new term into the Greek language. The word labyrinth, taken in the literal sense, signifies a circumferenced space, intersected by a number of passages, some of which cross each other in every direction like those in quarries and mines, and others make larger or smaller circuits round the place from which they depart like the spiral lines we see on certain shells. In the figurative sense, it was applied to obscure and captious questions, to indirect and ambiguous answers, and to those difficulties which, after long digressions, bring us back to the point from which we set out.

The Cretan labyrinth is the most famed in history or fable; having been rendered particularly remarkable by the story of the Minotaur, and of Theseus who found his way through all its windings by means of Ariadne's clue. On Plate CCLXXXIX, is exhibited a supposed plan of it, copied after a draught given by Meursius*, taken from an ancient Rome.—But what * In Crete was the real nature of this labyrinth, merits a more liberal particular inquiry.

Diodorus Siculus relates as a conjecture, and Pliny as a certain fact, that Daedalus constructed this labyrinth on the model of that of Egypt, though on a less scale. They add, that it was formed by the command of Minos, who kept the Minotaur shut up in it; and that in their time it no longer existed, having been either destroyed by time, or purposely demolished. Diodorus Siculus and Pliny, therefore, considered this labyrinth as a large edifice; while other writers represented it simply as a cavern hollowed in the rock, and full of winding passages. The two former authors, and the writers last mentioned, have transmitted to us two different traditions; it remains for us to choose that which is most probable.

If the labyrinth of Crete had been constructed by Daedalus under Minos, whence is it that we find no mention of it, neither in Homer, who more than once speaks of that prince and of Crete; nor in Herodotus, who describes that of Egypt, after having said that the monuments of the Egyptians are much superior to those of the Greeks; nor in the more ancient geographers; nor in any of the writers of the ages when Greece flourished?

This work was attributed to Daedalus, whose name is alone sufficient to discredit a tradition. In fact, his name, like that of Hercules, had become the resource of ignorance, whenever it turned its eyes on the early ages. All great labours, all works which required more strength than ingenuity, were attributed to Hercules; and all those which had a relation to the arts, and required a certain degree of intelligence in the execution, were ascribed to Daedalus.

The opinion of Diodorus and Pliny supposes, that in their time no traces of the labyrinth existed in Crete, and that even the date of its destruction had been forgotten. Yet it is said to have been visited by the disciples of Apollonius of Tyana, who was contemporary with these two authors. The Cretans, therefore, then believed that they possessed the labyrinth.

"I would request the reader (continues the abbot Barthélemy†, from whom these observations are extracted)" LAC

At Napulia, near the ancient Argos (says that judicious writer), are still to be seen vast caverns, in which are constructed labyrinths that are believed to be the work of the Cyclops: the meaning of which is, that the labours of men had opened in the rock passages which crooked and returned upon themselves, as is done in quarries. Such, if I am not mistaken, is the idea we ought to form of the labyrinth of Crete.

"Were there several labyrinths in that island? Ancient authors speak only of one, which the greater part place at Cnossus; and some, though the number is but small, at Gortyna.

"Belon and Tournefort have given us the description of a cavern situated at the foot of Mount Ida, on the south side of the mountain, at a small distance from Gortyna. This was only a quarry according to the former, and the ancient labyrinth according to the latter; whose opinion I have followed, and abridged his account. Those who have added critical notes to his work, besides this labyrinth, admit a second at Cnossus, and adduce as the principal support of this opinion the coins of that city, which represent the plan of it according as the artists conceived it. For on some of these it appears of a square form, on others round; on some it is only sketched out; on others it has, in the middle of it, the head of the Minotaur. In the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Lettres, I have given an engraving of one which appears to me to be of about the 15th century before Christ, and on which we see on one side the figure of the Minotaur, and on the other a rude plan of the labyrinth. It is therefore certain, that at that time the Cnossians believed they were in possession of that celebrated cavern; and it also appears that the Gortynians did not pretend to contest their claim, since they have never given the figure of it on their money.

"The place where I suppose the labyrinth of Crete to have been situated, according to Tournefort, is but one league distant from Gortyna; and, according to Strabo, it was distant from Cnossus five or seven leagues. All we can conclude from this is, that the territory of the latter city extended to very near the former.

"What was the use of the caverns to which the name of labyrinth was given? I imagine that they were first excavated in part by nature; that in some places stones were extracted from them for building cities; and that in more ancient times they served for a habitation or asylum to the inhabitants of a district exposed to frequent incursions. In the journey of Anacharsis through Phocis, I have spoken of two great caverns of Parnassus, in which the neighbouring people took refuge; in the one at the time of the deluge of Deucalion, and in the other at the invasion of Xerxes. I here add, that, according to Diodorus Siculus, the most ancient Cretans dwelt in the caves of Mount Ida. The people, when inquiries were made on the spot, said that their labyrinth was originally only a prison. It may have been put to this use; but it is difficult to believe, that, to prevent the escape of a few unhappy wretches, such immense labours would have been undertaken."