as well as from the various, accurate, and, in many cases, most important information, which he acquired, that these expences must have been very considerable.  From his work it is certain that he was endowed with that faculty of eliciting the truth from fabulous, imperfect, or contradictory evidence, at all times so necessary to a traveller, and indispensably so at the period when he travelled, and in most of the countries where his enquiries and his researches were carried on.  His great and characteristic merit consists in freeing his mind from the opinions which must have previously occupied it;—­in trusting entirely either to what e himself saw, or to what he learned from the best authority;—­always, however, bringing the information acquired in this latter mode to the test of his own observation and good sense.  It is from the united action and guidance of these two qualifications—­individual observation and experience gained by most patient and diligent research and enquiry on the spot, and a high degree of perspicacity, strength of intellect, and good sense, separating the truth from the fable of all he learnt from the observation and experience of others, that Herodotus has justly acquired so high degree of reputation, and that in almost every instance modern travellers find themselves anticipated by him, even on points in which such a coincidence was the least likely.

His travels embraced a variety of countries.  The Greek colonies in the Black Sea were visited by him:  he measured the extent of that sea, from the Bosphorus to the mouth of the river Phasis, at the eastern extremity.  All that track of country which lies between the Borysthenes and the Hypanis, and the shores of the Palus Maeotis, he diligently explored.  With respect to the Caspian, his information affords a striking proof of his accuracy, even when gained, as it was in this instance, from the accounts of others.  He describes it expressly as a sea by itself, unconnected with any other:  its length, he adds, is as much as a vessel with oars can navigate in fifteen days:  its greatest breadth as much as such a vessel can navigate in eight days.  It may be added, as a curious proof and illustration of the decline of geographical knowledge, or, at least, of the want of confidence placed in the authority of Herodotus by subsequent ancient geographers, that Strabo, Pomponius Mela, and Pliny, represent the Caspian Sea as a bay, communicating with the great Northern Ocean; and that even Arrian, who, in respect to care and accuracy, bears no slight resemblance to Herodotus, and for some time resided as governor of Cappadocia, asserts that there was a communication between the Caspian Sea and the Eastern Ocean.