of lime-stone rock, "amid wreaths of drifting sand," is described as having the appearance, in spite of the heat of a brilliant sun, of a fortress in the midst of snow. Here they were, however, out of the desert. Two days more brought them to the village of Dair, the first in the pashalic of Acre. Beautifully undulating plains, covered with flocks and herds, with here and there cultivated fields of barley, lentils, and tobacco, met the eye. Among the the sick who crowded round the author, were some who had to exhibit, in severe sabre-wounds, the marks of a skirmish with the inhabitants of a neighbouring village.

"Strife between the different villagers and different herdsmen here, exists still, as it did in the days of Abraham and Lot. The country has often changed masters; but the habits of the natives, both in this and other respects, have been nearly stationary. Abraham was a Bedoween; and I never saw a fine venerable looking sheikh busied among his flocks and herds, that it did not remind me of the holy patriarch himself."

Gaza still retains marks of its ancient strength and consequence. The ruins of Askelon lie about an hour's distance out of the direct line of march to Ashdod. This once proud city, the birth-place of Herod the Great, is now without an inhabitant. "We passed on through the centre of the ruins, and about the middle of them came to a ruined temple or theatre, part of which had been lately cleared by the exertions of the Lady Hester Stanhope." Thus strikingly, remarks Dr. Richardson, is the prophecy of Zechariah fulfilled, that "the King shall perish from Gaza, and Askelon shall not be inhabited."

The next day's route brought them to Jaffa; here the party rested for two days, and then set forward for Jerusalem. In about two hours and a half from their leaving Ramla, they entered upon the hill country of Judea, which is very graphically described.

"The aspect of the country was now be come bleak, the trees both few and small, the grass withered from the little depth of soil, hard, and of a bad quality. For some tine before we reached the mountains, we kept looking up to their dusky sides, as they

rose in towering grandeur to the height of about 1000 or 1500 feet, covered with sunstrips of the bare horizontal rock, and diburnt grass; here and there disclosing versified with a few bushy trees that stood at very unfriendly distances from each other. Having entered the mountain defiles, we moved along a deep and most uncomfortable track, covered with big, sharp stones, sometimes down a steep and almost precipitous descent, which obliged us to alight and lead our mules; at other times along the dry, stony bed of a winter torrent, which we had to cross and recross half a dozen times in the course of a hundred yards; at other times we climbed a heavy and lengthered ascent, with only a few shrubs between us and the edge of the precipice.

"The hills from the commencement of the mountain scenery, are all of a round handsome shape, meeting in the base, and separated at the tops, not in peaks or pointed acuminations, but like the gradual retiring of two round balls, placed in juxtaposition. Their sides are partially covered with earth, which nourishes a feeble sprinkling of grass, with here and there a dwarf tree or solitary shrub. They are not susceptible of cultivation except on the very summit, where we saw the plough going in several places.-The features of the whole scenery brought strongly to my recollection, land-But there are two remarkable points the ride from Sanquhar to Lead-hills in Scotof difference; in the northern scenery, the traveller passes over an excellent road, and travels among an honest and industrious population, where the conversation of the surprise the man of letters. But among the hills of Palestine, the road is almost impassable, and the traveller finds himself among a set of infamous and ignorant thieves, who would cut his throat for a farthing, and rob him of his property for the mere pleasure of doing it."

commonest people will often delight and

The distinctness of the following description vouches for its accuracy: it is worth whole pages of rhapsody penned in the closet.

"These plain embattled walls in the midst of a barren mountain track, do they inclose the city of Jerusalem? That hill at a distance on our left, supporting a crop of barley, and crowned with a half-ruined hoary mansion, is that the Mount of Olives? where is Mount Zion, the glory of the whole Where was the Temple of Solomon, and earth? The end of a lofty and contiguous mountain bounds our view beyond the city on the South. An insulated rock peaks up on our right, and a broad, flat-topped mountain, furrowed by the plough, slopes

Called by the author, Mount Gihon. + Supposed to be Scopo, where Titus encamped.

adding, that the polished block of marble serves their purpose equally well; and it is kissed and venerated accordingly.

"If." says Dr. Richardson, "the historians of the sacred premises were to exercise the same degree of candour with the guide above alluded to, respecting the stone on which the angel sat, we might probably learn that the stone trough called the Sereer Sidn Aisa by the Turks, was the sarcophagus originally exhibited as the tomb of Christ. And should the Greeks or Romans ever expel the Mussulmans, and become masters of the Holy City, we should not wonder if the present sarcophagus were slily smuggled away, and the other replaced in its stead; or it might be reinstated with mighty pomp, as Siroes restored the true Cross to Jerusalem, which his father Cosroes had carried away; or as Bonaparte remanded to the church of Notre Dame the

true Crown of Thorns that had been made

at his command, and called the old original

crown preserved in the Royal Library during the stormy period of the Revolution, and which he then exhibited in a new gilt case, to gull and amuse the Parisians, and direct their attention from his purposes of

despotism and aggrandizement. My Lady

of Loretto might, perhaps, deign to send a wax candle to burn on the occasion in Jerusalem, as she did one to shine upon the christening of the King of Rome in Paris."

The subterranean colonnade which supports the lower edge of the Haram Schereef, is an object of much greater interest, inasmuch as the workmanship is, in Dr. R's opinion decidedly Jewish. "The whole of this subterranean colonnade is called Habsul, or the hidden; and when we compare the accumulation of rubbish in other parts of the town with the depth of the rubbish in the Haram Sche

reef, I think there is little doubt the columns were once above ground. They rest upon rock or large coarse stones regularly laid. The Turks informed me that there are 3000 such columns under El Aksa."

Josephus speaks of enormous pillars and arches under ground, supporting the Southern cloisters of the Temple; and he mentions more than once the vast magnitude of the stones employed in the erection of the buildings.-To whatever age, however, they are referred, their undoubted antiquity renders them an object of high interest. It is very possible, that excavation might bring to light some of the goodly workmanship even of Hiram the worthy servant of King Solomon.-But the time for excavating is not yet come;

nor will it ever be permitted while the Turks are masters of Jerusalem.

Our author was witness to some of the scenes of unutterable foolery and wickedness periodically acted on the supposed site of the sacred places, which degrade the Romish religion far below that of Islamism itself. It happened that the year he was at Jerusalem, the day on which the Latin festival of the Invention of the Cross fell, was the same as that on which it is celebrated by the Greeks; and a fair Irish row was the consequence. “We witnessed," says the author, "all the tug of war, the biting and the scratching, the pommeling and the pelting, the brickbats and clubs, the whimpering and the mewling, of extatic, spawltheir chapel, like kites and crows for ing, palpitating monks, fighting for their nest.' Another scene equally edifying, was the celebration of the Resurrection by the Greeks, who, as their religion does not allow them to make use of a bloody image for the purpose, like the Romans, have a man to play the part of the dead body of our Lord, who is carried about on a board, with a mighty uproar of riotous fellows, having more the appearance of bacchanals or maniacs than of any thing else. The grand juggle of the Greek fire, performed by the Greek bishop, followed, and all this took place in the presence of many Turkish officers.The reflections of Dr. Richardson are so admirably judicious, and so much in unison with our own views, that, altho' we have but little room for extract, we cannot refrain from citing them.

"Need we be surprised, that monotheistical Moslems deride the Christian devo

tees, insult them to the face, and call them dogs and idolaters? Had I been summoned without any premonition to witness such a the God, when such are the rites, and these ceremony, I should have inquired, who is are the priests? But knowing what they profess, I now inquire, by what authority dost thou these things? God is a spirit, and God is truth, and demands to be worship

ped in spirit and in truth. What then must be his indignation, to be offered mockery instead of praise! And what horrid profanation of his sanctuary is this, knowingly and deliberately to pass off error for truth; to mingle the sinful inventions of man with the Gospel of Christ; and to call upon God to witness a lie, in the very spot

where his Blessed Son expired on the cross, to atone for the sins of our fallen and guilty race! To exhibit as Divine miracles the paltry tricks of human hands, is an insult to the Creator, a blasphemy of the deepest dye, and cannot be held in sufficient abhorrence. For what purpose is all this done? That lying impostors may pocket money, and appear to miraculize for the God of heaven.-Neither the apostles nor the early Christians appear to have had any regard whatever for the holy sepulchre. For it is not once mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, or in any of the Epistles. The apostle Paul, in all his visits to the Holy City, or in all his meetings with the Christians, never once names Calvary or the sepulchre of Christ. The minds of these holy men seem to have been wholly intent on the spread of the Gospel, in awakening men to a sense of their sins, and turning them from the wickedness of their ways to the belief of the practice of the religion of Christ; and in all their forcible appeals to

the hearts and understandings of their hearers, the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ are constantly mentioned, but the places where these glorious events occurred is never once named. Having satisfied themselves that the body of the Messiah did not remain in the tomb after the third day, they ceased to frequent it, or to seek the living among the dead."

Our author sums up his opinion respecting the holy places by saying, that he believes the Holy Sepulchre is not known, and never can be known, and that he is disposed to entertain the same opinion respecting Mount Calvary."

We cannot spare room to dwell on the attractions and advantages of Scham Schereef," the Mouth of Mecca, the Florence of Turkey, and Flower of the Levant," the noble Damascus. Greatly surpassing Grand Cairo in cleanliness and comfort, it has in all ages been considered as one of the most delicious situations in the world. The population is estimated at 150,000 souls: among all these, according to Dr. R. "there is neither a reading nor a writing individual."* The Christians are calculated to be 12,000. But what are these Christians? Dr. R. says:

"The Turks have never seen a Christian church as it ought to be, and they never have seen, and know nothing of Christianity: hence their aversion to it, and to-Chris

* Unless this be meant of the Moslems only, the assertion must be understood with some qualification.

tians, and to every thing that comes from them: disgusted with their idolatry, they slight and despise their science. Who will take the veil off Israel's race, and teach the Mussulman and the Jew, that there is but one Mediator between God and man, and that there is no idolatry or polytheism in the religion of Jesus ?"

He speaks of the natural capabilities of the Turks as of the highest order, and their dispositions as in many respects amiable, while they appear to have a most exemplary reverence for the Divine name. Nor let it be forgotten, that the religion of the mosque, which makes it death to its possessors to abjure that faith, yet protects both Greek and Latins in the free exercise of their idolatries, is, in the former respect, not less tolerant, and, in the latter, far more so than the church of Rome. At the present moment there is a higher degree of religious liberty enjoyed in Turkey than in Spain.

At Tibereas, our author had the honour of prescribing for the Pasha, "the Viceroy of Palestine," and the still higher gratification of sharing in an interview with Lady Hester Stanhope.

"We had more than once profited by her kind offices and good word, and her polite and enlightened conversation made us regret that we had so little opportunity of benefitting by her society. Her great talents and almost universal acquaintance all over the Levant, together with her condescending and pleasant address, render her traveller. Her Ladyship's usual residence name of the first consequence to the oriental is at Mar Elias in Mount Lebanon. After midsummer, when the weather becomes warm, she usually retires higher up the mountains, and lives in her tent among the Druses in the neighbourhood of Dair el Gamr, the residence of their prince Bushir. Her Ladyship was dressed in the habit of a Turkish nobleman. It is impossible for a female to travel in those countries, and mix sembles so much the lady's riding habit in in society, in any other dress; and it rethis country, that there is nothing improper or indelicate in its appearance. She receives visitors in the same manner with any

Turk or Arab of distinction, and entertains them with the same fare of sherbet, coffee, and tobacco. No person can be more respected and esteemed than this noble lady is through the Levant; but she has no cončern whatever in the government of any part of the country as has frequently been represented in England.-She looked very pale, but I believe was in good health, and conversed in a cheerful and sprightly manner."

IN consequence of the general inter

6

est excited by the Remains,the relatives of the author, it is stated by Mr. Southey, were often advised and solicited to publish a farther selection; and applications to the same effect were made and addressed to the Editor. The wishes thus privately expressed for a further selection were seconded by the publishers; but so little bad any such intention been originally entertained, that the poems, and some prose compositions, which from time to time had been recovered, and thought worthy of preservation, had been inserted in the former volumes as the opportunity of a new edition occurred. length, however, when some letters of more than common interest were put into Mr. Neville White's possession, the propriety of bearing a future publication in mind, was perceived; and, from that time, such letters and compositions as were discovered, were laid aside with this view. From these, and from the gleanings of the original collection, the present volume has been formed.'

At

We are, however, much mistaken if the contents of this publication will not gratify a very numerous class of our readers--all, indeed, to whom genius is an object of emulation, and piety of af fectionate esteem. Youth and age, the learned and the unlearned, the proud intellect and the humble heart have derived,' Mr. Southey remarks of the former volumes, from these melancholy relics, a pleasure, equal perhaps in degree, though different in kind.' The same feeling will, we think, extend itself to these additions, although detached from the collected works, they will be the more severely scrutinized; and it is a great disadvantage, that they are so completely disconnected with the affecting memoir which reflected an interest on every line of Henry's poetry.

WINTER.

Rouse the blazing midnight fire,
Heap the crackling faggots higher;
Stern December reigns without,
With old Winter's blust'ring rout.

Let the jocund timbrel sound;
Push the jolly goblet round;
Care avaunt with all thy crew,
Goblins dire, and devils blue.

Hush! without the tempest growls,
And the affrighted watch dog howls;
Witches on their broomsticks sail,
Death upon the whistling gale.
Heap the crackling faggots higher,
Draw your easy chairs still higher;
And to guard from wizards hoar,
Nail the horse-shoe on the door.

Now repeat the freezing story,
Of the murder'd traveller gory,
Found beneath the yew-tree sear,
Cut his throat from ear to ear.

Teil, too, how the ghost, all bloody,
Frighten'd once a neighbouring goody:
And how still at twelve he stalks,
Groaning o'er the wild-wood walks.

Then when fear usurps her sway;
Let us creep to bed away;
Each for ghosts, but little bolder,
Fearfully peeping o'er his shoulder.

We shall transcribe another of the "early poems" which possesses almost equal merit.

TO THE MORNING STAR.

Many invoke pale vesper's pensive sway,
When rest supine leans o'er the pillowy clouds,

And the last tinklings come

From the safe fulded flock.

But me, bright harbinger of coming day,
Who shone the first on the primeval morn,—

Me thou delightest more
Chastely luxuriant.

Let the poor silken sons of slothful pride,
Press now their downy couch in languid ease,
While visions of dismay

Flit o'er the troubled brain.

Be mine to view, awake to nature's charms,
Thy paly flame evanish from the sky,

As, gradual, the day usurps
The welkin's glowing bounds.
And thou, Hygeia, shall my steps attend,

'early poem.'

As on my restless bed
Slow past the tedious night;