Gebel el terr, or Mountain of the Birds; the Ruined Monastery in the Necropolis of Thebes, and the White Monastery; Saint Sabba, in the Dead Sea country; but especially, and above all, the Monasteries of Meteora in Albania, and those of Mount Athos. Here is much ground absolutely untrodden.

But what shall we do to give an idea of the book? It will not do to copy the whole of it. We will make an extract or two, and stop as soon as possible.

"The Monastery of Megaspelion, on the coast of the Gulf of Corinth, is built in the mouth of an enormous cave. The Monasteries of Meteora, and some of those on Mount Athos, are remarkable for their positions on the tops of inaccessible rocks; many of the Convents in Syria, the Islands of Cyprus, Candia, the Archipelago, and the Prince's Islands in the Sea of Marmora, are unrivalled for the beauty of the positions in which they stand; many others in Bulgaria, Asia Minor, Sinope, and other places on the shores of the Black Sea, are most curious monuments of ancient and romantic times. There is one on the road to Persia, about one day's journey inland from Trebizond, which is built half way up the side of a perpendicular precipice; it is ensconced in several fissures of the rock. The different parts of the Monastery are approached by stairs and flights of steps cut in the face of the precipice, leading from one cranny to another; the whole has the appearance of a bas-relief stuck against a wall; it partakes of the nature of a large swallow's nest. But it is for their architecture, that the Monasteries of the Levant are more particularly deserving of study, for after the remains of the private houses of the Romans at Pompeii, they are the most ancient specimens extant of domestic architecture. The Monastery of St. Katharine, at Mount Sinai, has hardly been altered since the sixth century, and still contains ornaments presented to it by the Emperor Justinian. The White Monastery, and that at Old Cairo, both in Egypt, are still more ancient. That of Kuzzul Vank, near the sources of the Euphrates is, I believe, as old as the fifth century." Int. pp. xv. xvi.

The influence of the Monastic system, we just remark here, is strikingly seen in this, that these poor creatures have nothing to do but study, and yet are so stupidly ignorant, as not to have the least idea of the value of the manuscripts which Mr. Curzon obtained from them, generally for money, and once, we regret to say, by making an Abbot half drunk with Rosoglio. He tells the story indeed with a keen sense of humor, but after the first involuntary smile, one feels that the whole transaction is a very sad one.

On p. 6, Mr. Curzon describes the first Arabs he saw:

"Long strings of ungainly-looking camels were continually passing, accompanied by swarthy men clad in a short shirt, with a red and yellow handkerchief tied in a peculiar way over their heads, and wearing sandals; these savagelooking people were Bedouins, or Arabs of the desert. A very truculent set they seemed to be, and all of them were armed with a long crooked knife, and a pistol or two stuck in a red leather girdle. They were thin, gaunt, and dirty, and strode along looking fierce and independent. There was something very striking in the appearance of these untamed Arabs. I had never pictured to myself that anything so like a wild beast could exist in human form. The motions of their half-naked bodies were singularly free and light, and they looked as if they could climb, and run, and leap over anything."

• We presume the connection between this language and the prophecy did not occur to Mr. Curzon. "And he shall be a wild (Heb. wild-ass) man."

Night on the Nile, brief but graphic. pp. 15, 16.

"We sailed on steadily all night; the stars were wonderfully bright; and I looked out upon the broad river and the flat silent shores, diversified here and there by a black-looking village of mud-huts, surrounded by a grove of palms, whence the distant baying of the dogs was brought down upon the wind. Sometimes there was the cry of a wild bird, but soon again the only sound was the gentle ripple of the water, against the sides of our boat."

Its fertility." We stopped at a village, or small town to buy some fruit. Here the surrounding country, a flat alluvial plain, was richly cultivated. Water-melons, corn, and all manner of green herbs flourished luxuriantly; every thing looked delightfully fresh and green; flocks of pigeons were flying about; and multitudes of white spoonbills and other strange birds were stalking among the herbage, and rising around us in every direction. The fertility of the land appeared prodigious, and exceeded any thing I had seen before. Numberless boats were passing on the river, and the general aspect of the scene betokened the wealth and plenty which would reward the toils of the agriculturist under any settled form of government. We returned to our boat loaded with fruit."

This is the country after which the Jews lusted in the desert. A merchant who had been in the East once told us, very unexpectedly, that he knew no way in which any one might amuse himself during a summer so delightfully, as by ascending and descending the Nile in a boat. He described it as a quiet, rich delicious. We cannot vouch for this, never having been there, but we hope some of our readers, languid by over-study, and blest with sufficient fortune, may be induced to try it.

ness.

Mr. Curzon found the apples of Sodǝm:

"We made a somewhat singular discovery when travelling among the mountains to the east of the Dead Sea, where the ruins of Ammon, Jerash, and Adjeloun, well repay the labor and fatigue encountered in visiting them. It was a remarkably hot and sultry day we were scrambling up the mountain through a thick jungle of bushes and low trees, when I saw before me a fine plum-tree, loaded with fresh blooming plums. I cried out to my fellow-traveller, Now then, who will arrive first at the plum-tree?' and as he caught a glimpse of so refreshing an object, we both pressed our horses into a gallop to see which would get the first plum from the branches. We both arrived at the same moment; and each snatching at a fine ripe plum, put it at once into our mouths; when, on biting it, instead of the cool, delicious, juicy fruit which we expected, our mouths were filled with a dry bitter dust, and we sat under the tree upon our horses sputtering and hemming, and doing all we could to be relieved of the nauseous taste of this strange fruit. I brought several of them to England. They are a kind of gall-nut. I found others afterwards upon the plains of Troy, but there can be no doubt whatever that this is the apple of Sodom to which Strabo and Pliny referred." pp. 180, 1.

He met an American in Turkey:

"Although I confess that I like deliberate travelling, I do not carry my system to the extent of an American friend with whom I once journeyed from the shores of the Black Sea to Hungary. We were taking a walk together in the mountains near Mahadia, when seeing him looking about among the rocks, I asked him what he wanted. Oh,' said he, 'I am looking out for a good place to go to sleep in, for there is a beautiful view here, and I like to sleep where there is a fine prospect, that I may enjoy it when I awake; so good afternoon, and if you come back this way, mind you call me.' Accordingly an hour or two afterwards, I came back and

aroused my friend, who was still fast asleep. I hope you enjoyed your nap,' said I, 'we had a glorious walk among the hills.' 'Yes,' said he, I had a famous nap.' And what did you think of the view when you awoke?' 'The view!' exclaimed he, why, I forgot to look at it.'" pp. 64, 5.

་

Here is the desert exactly:

"To those who are not familiar with the aspect of such a region as this, it may be well to explain that a desert such as that which now surrounded me, resembles more than any thing else a dusty turnpike road in England on a hot summer's day, extended interminably, both as to length and breadth. A country of low rounded hills, the surface of which is composed entirely of gravel, dust, and stones, will give a good idea of the general aspect of a desert. Yet, although parched and dreary in the extreme, from their vastness and openness, there is something grand and sublime in the silence and loneliness of these burning plains; and the wandering tribes of Bedouins who inhabit them, are seldom content to remain long in the narrow enclosed confines of cultivated land. There is always a fresh breeze in the desert, except when the terrible hot wind blows; and the air is more elastic and pure than when vegetation produces exhalations, which, in all hot climates, are more or less heavy and deleterious. The air of the desert is always healthy, and no race of men enjoy a greater exemption from weakness, sickness, and disease than the children of the desert, who pass their lives in wandering to and fro in search of the scanty herbage on which their flocks are fed, far from the cares and troubles of busy cities, and free from the oppression which grinds down the half-starved cultivators of the fertile soil of Egypt." pp. 80, 1.

Next, Mr. Curzon daguerreotypes some rare specimens of monks:

"These holy brethren were as black as crows; tall, thin, ascetic looking men of a most original aspect and costume. I have seen the natives of many strange nations, both before and since, but I do not know that I ever met with so singular a set of men, so completely the types of another age and of a state of things the opposite to European, as these Abyssinian Eremites. They were black, as I have already said, which is not the usual complexion of the natives of Habesh; and they were all clothed in tunics of wash-leather, made, they told me, of gazelle skins. This garment came down to their knees, and was confined round their waist with a leathern girdle. Over their shoulders they had a strap supporting a case like a cartridge-box, of thick brown leather, containing a manuscript book; and above this they wore a large shapeless cloak or toga, of the same light yellow wash-leather as the tunic; I do not think that they wore anything on the head, but this I do not distinctly remember. Their legs were bare, and they had no other clothing, if I may except a profuse smearing of grease. They seemed to be an austere and dismal set of fanatics: true disciples of the great Macarius, the founder of those secluded monasteries, and excellently calculated to figure in that grim chorus of his invention, or at least which is called after his name, La danse Macabre,' known to us by the appellation of the Dance of Death. They seemed to be men who fasted much, and feasted little; great observers were they of vigils, of penance, of pilgrimages and midnight masses: eaters of bitter herbs for conscience' sake. It was such men as these who lived on the tops of columns, and took up their abodes in tombs, and thought it was a sign of holiness to look like a wild beast-that it was wicked to be clean, and superfluous to be useful in this world; and who did evil to themselves that good might come. Poor fellows! they meant well, and knew no better." pp. 83, 4.

The Puseyites may say, "Et tu Brute!" at the following, which shows that they are working away," most ignorant in what they're most assured:"

"This church, (Gebel-el-terr. in Egypt,) one of the earliest Christian buildings which has preserved its originality, is constructed on the principle of a Latin basilica, as the buildings of the Empress Helena usually were; the Byzantine style of architecture, the plan of which partook of the form of a Greek cross, being a later invention; for the earliest Christian churches were not cruciform, and seldom had transepts, nor were they built with any reference to the points of the compass.

"It is much to be desired that some competent person should write a small cheap book, with plates or wood-cuts explaining what an early Christian church was; what the ceremonies, ornaments, vestures, and liturgy were at the time when the Church of our Lord was formally established by the Emperor Constantine: for the numerous well-meaning authors who have written on the restoration of our older churches, appear to me to be completely in the dark. GOTHIC 18 NOT CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE-IT IS ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHITECTURE: THE VESTURES OF ENGLISH ECCLESIASTICS ARE NOT RESTORATIONS OF EARLY SIMPLICITY-THEY ARE MODERN INVENTIONS, (oh sacrilegious Curzon!) TAKEN FROM GERMAN COLLEGIATE DRESSES WHICH HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION." p. 96 and note. At pp. 249 seq., we have a description of the monastery and church of Barlaam in Albania:

It "stands on the summit of an isolated rock, on a flat, or nearly flat, space, of perhaps an acre and a half, of which about one-half is occupied by the church and a smaller chapel, the refectory, the kitchen, the tower of the windlass, where you are pulled up, and a number of separate buildings containing offices and the habitations of the monks, of whom there were at this time only fourteen. These various structures surround one tolerably large, irregularly-shaped court, the chief part of which is paved; and there are several other small open spaces. All Greek monasteries are built in this irregular way, and the confused mass of disjointed edifices is usually encircled by a high bare wall; but here there is none, as its position effectually prevents the approach of an enemy. The place wears an aspect of poverty and neglect; its best days have long gone by; for here, as every where else, the spirit of asceticism is on the wanc.

"The church has a porch before the door, vápons, supported by marble columns, the interior wall of which, on each side of the door, is painted with representations of the Last Judgment. These pictures of the torments of the wicked are always placed outside the body of the church, as typical of the unhappy state of those who are out of its pale; they are never seen within. The interior of this curious old church, which is dedicated to All Saints, has depicted upon its walls on all sides, portraits of a great many holy personages, in the stiff, conventional, early style. It has four columns within, which support the dome; and the altar or holy table, aya τpañɛša, is separated from the nave by a wooden screen, called the iconastasis, in which are paintings of the Blessed Virgin, the Redeemer, and many Saints. These pictures are kissed by all who enter the church. This part of the church is the sanctuary, and is called in Romaic, ayto, Bŋuo, or nuo. It is typical of the holy of holies of the Temple, and the veil is represented by the curtain which divides it from the rest of the church. Every thing is symbolical in the Eastern church. The four columns which support the dome, represent the four Evangelists; and the dome itself is the symbol of heaven, to which access has been given to mankind by the glad tidings of the Gospels which they wrote. Part of the mosaic with which the whole interior of the dome was formerly covered in the cathedral of St. Sofia at Constantinople, is to be seen in the four angles below the dome, where the winged figures of the four evangelists still remain.

"To us Protestants one of the most interesting circumstances connected with

• Italics and small capitals our own. We do not wish our Puseyite friends to miss so fine a passage. A "small cheap book" indeed! for the élite of the world!

these Eastern churches is, that the altar is not called the altar, but the holy table, as with us, and that the Communion is given before it in both kinds."

"The Turks have a touching custom when the plague rages very greatly, and a thousand corpses are carried out daily from Stamboul through the Adrianople gate to the great groves of cypress which rise over the burial-grounds beyond the walls. At times of terror and grief, such as these, the Sheikh Ul Islam causes all the little children to be assembled on a beautiful green hill, called the Oc Maidan-the Place of Arrows-and there they bow down upon the ground, and raise their innocent voices in supplication to the Father of mercy, and implore his compassion on the afflicted city." pp. 287, 8.

We give one or two descriptions of the MSS. obtained by Mr. Curzon on Mount Athos:

"One was a 4to. of the four Gospels bound in faded red velvet with silver clasps. This book they affirmed to be a royal present to the monastery; it was of the eleventh or twelfth century, and was peculiar from the text being accompanied by a voluminous commentary on the margin, and several pages of calendars, prefaces, &c., at the beginning. The headings of the Gospels were written in large plain letters of gold. In the libraries of forty Greek monasteries, I have only met with one other copy of the Gospels with a commentary. Another was an immense quarto Evangelistarium, sixteen inches square, bound in faded green or blue velvet, and said to be in the autograph of the Emperor Alexius Comnenus. The text throughout on each page was written in the form of a cross. Two of the pages are in purple ink, powdered with gold, and these, there is every reason to believe, are in the handwriting of the imperial scribe himself; for the Byzantine sovereigns affected to write only in purple. The titles of this superb volume are written in gold, covering the whole page. Altogether, although not in uncial letters, it was among the finest Greek MSS. that I had ever seen-perhaps next to the uncial, the finest to be met with anywhere. pp. 354, 5.

"The Servian and Bulgarian MSS. amounted to about two hundred and fifty: of these, three were remarkable; the first was a MS. of the four Gospels, a thick quarto, and the uncial letters in which it was written were three-fourths of an inch in height; it was imperfect at the end. The second was also a copy of the Gospels, a folio, in uncial letters, with fine illuminations at the beginning of each Gospel, and a large and curious portrait of a patriarch at the end; all the stops in this volume were dots of gold; several words also were written in gold. It was a noble manuscript. The third was likewise a folio of the Gospels in the ancient Bulgarian language, and like the other two, in the uncial letters. This MS. was quite full of illuminations from beginning to end. I had seen no book like it anywhere in the Levant." pp. 366, 7.

III. Courage in a Good Cause; or, The Lawful and Courageous Use of the Sword. A Sermon preached near Shippensburgh, in Cumberland county, on the 31st of August, 1775, to a large audience, in which were under arms, several companies of Col. Montgomery's Battalion; and published at their request. By the Rev. Robert Cooper, A. M. Jehovah-nissi, i. e. The Lord my Banner. Exodus, xvii. 15. Lancaster Printed by Francis Bailey, 1775. pp. 30.

The above is a copy of the title-page of a noble relic of the Revolution, which we obtained through the late venerable Dr. Cathcart. It will be observed that it was