as I afterwards found, a great harbour for fleas, which were very numerous. In each room there were long deewans for the siesta, and mirrors, in the French style, in the compartments of the wall. Our party was waited on at table by two Arabs and a French major-domo, who carved each dish, as required, in the French manner, and the Arabs handed it round. Our dragoman stood behind his master's chair, and only assisted on an emergency. The composure of the Arab is very pleasing. His elastic gait enables him to move quickly, and there is a native dignity in his manner, especially to a female, which throws the fussiness of the French waiter into the shade. These Arabs also took charge of our bedrooms, making the beds and cleaning the floors, as indeed the waiters in the south of France also do. and the mountains in the centre terminate in scathed peaks, which reminded me of Arran, only they are on a much grander scale. The coast seems barren in the extreme; not a patch of vegetation to be seen. Before us, on the morning of the 12th, lay the little island of Maratimo, which lies off the coast of Sicily, and, passing between it and Sicily, we saw on the latter the sunny vineyard slopes and white mansions of Marsala. About noon, the following day, we anchored before the town of Valetta, in the harbour for outbound vessels; but the heat was so oppressive, that I did not venture to land, and contented myself with sailing in one of the gaily painted Maltese barks, with its snowy awning, to the Banshee steamer, which lay in the harbour, waiting the mail and passengers for Alexandria. As soon as I was on board the Banshee, I was attracted by a party of Easterns, who, we were told, After dining, we drove out, proceeding all round the were going the pilgrimage to Mecca. The leader of the town, while our dragoman pointed out each remarkable party- -a Hadji-was a fine specimen of manhood. He was object. I was rather disappointed with the so-called Cleotall, robust, finely formed, his features were strongly patra's Needle, after seeing the obelisk of Luxor, at Paris; marked, his eyes dark, and his countenance expressive of still, it is beautiful and wonderful, with its mystic histories benignity and the repose of strength. His dress was truly and world-old carvings, and I felt that, but for the heat, magnificent. He wore a very ample white turban; a blue I should have spent many an hour beside it, musing on tunic, embroidered with yellow and red, the sleeves of which the past. Pompey's Pillar stands on a height near a native were slashed to the elbow, and lined with red, while muslin burying-ground, and as I had often seen plates of the column, under-sleeves covered the arm to the wrist. Round his but never clearly understood the nature of an Egyptian waist he wore a crimson sash or scarf of great amplitude, cemetery before, I was more attracted by the latter than which, from repeated coils, formed a prominence on which the former. The graves are marked by a half cylinder of he rested his arms, while he looked around on the other stone or plaster resting on its flat side, and at each end passengers with the serenest dignity. His trousers were there is a little turret or chimney, sometimes decorated nankeen, very full, and reaching to the knee, the legs being with a caetus, which, I am told, the Mahommedans regard bare, and on the feet yellow slippers, which were duly as the symbol of eternity. The aspect of this resting place thrown off during devotions. While I looked at him, he of the dead is dreary in the extreme. The dry, arid chaspread his mat and began prayers, kneeling, and bending racter of the ground, and the absence of anything green, the body so as to touch the ground with his forehead. So save the few meagre acacias that skirt the carriage-way, soon as he finished, the others came forward, one by one, give it an aspect totally distinct from anything we see and performed the same ceremony. Their dress was equally further north, and lends new force to the expression in the picturesque, though not so rich. Some wore the turban, old book, 'one who dwelt among the tombs.' If it be corsome the tarboush, or Greek cap, embroidered. The dress rect that Pompey's Pillar is the only remaining column of a of two was a white woollen envelope, such as that of Arabs propyleum, this is emphatically a burying-place. On the which I had before seen in Paris; while the others wore a pillar, some Goth has painted in great red letters the name coarse striped woollen cloak, with a sort of hood that could of George Butter; and not only is the pedestal thus debe drawn over the head at pleasure. They seemed loving faced, but on the shaft near the capital the same red paint and kind to each other, but, though generally serene, there has been busy, but not quite so successful. The groups was a fiery expression in the eye which convinced one that of people riding, running, sitting, praying, strike a trathese sons of the desert, though calm and tranquil now, velier more the first day, perhaps, than afterwards, but I could become hot and impetuous, if roused to anger. felt that, when the natives stared at us as we passed, they only paid us back in our own coin; though the people of Alexandria certainly are great starers, especially the Greeks, who really are imperturbable, and are looked upon as the rudest part of the community. Indeed the Greek face here is mean and sinister in the extreme, and helped to dispel some little remains of a girlish delusion regarding Heraclidæon blood.' As we passed the Rosetta gates, we saw the Turkish soldiers, in rows of about fifty, performing their devotions at sunset, each one with his shoes behind him; the long rows of shoes seen from the side presenting rather a strange spectacle to European eyes. Returning to the hotel, we were a little shocked at the over-familiarity of the cockroaches, which walked about our drawing-room and bedrooms; and, addressing one who had been for some time in Alexandria, I asked if these creatures were so common here. 'Yes,' was the reply; 'yes, they are very common. You have all the plagues of Egypt here still-mosquitoes, fleas, flies, locusts, with a slight sprinkling of centipedes.' At this I laughed heartily; but, as Romeo says, 'they laugh at scars who never felt a wound,' and I certainly was in anything but a laughing mood next morning. Let no one living in temperate regions deceive himself by imagining that he can enjoy the Auberge Italienne of Alexander Dumas. A night in Alexandria will furnish him with many experi ences, and, among the rest, with a keener appreciation of this clever author's powers of description. Speaking of the mosquito, he says:- Il est à nos cousins du nord ce que la vipère est à la couleuvre. Malheureusment, au lieu de fuir l'homme, et de se cacher dans les endroits deserts comme celle-ci, il a le gout de la civilisation; la societé The speed of the Banshee was much greater than that of the Medina-her average being twelve knots an hour, her maximum fifteen. On the 16th, at half-past eleven, we came in sight of the coast of Africa, and about two in the afternoon anchored before Alexandria. A succession of windmills extend all along the flat, sandy coast towards the west, while on the other side is the pasha's palace, skirted by a range of low, square, mud cabins, which, on a closer inspection, proved to be a native Egyptian settlement. Numbers of native boats surrounded our ship, manned with swartby, half-naked Arabs eager for employ ment, one of which was selected for our party, and we were at length landed on the shores of Africa, among turbaned men, veiled women, camels, donkeys, and bizarrerie of every description. Our drive to the hotel was exciting and full of interest, everything around was so new and strange. The apartments selected for us were spacious and pleasant, the front windows looking out upon the great Place or square, the back looking into the okella or courtyard of the hotel; so that we had, as it were, a glimpse of both out-door and in-door life. The largest room was above forty feet long, and very lofty, the upper end being thrown into windows, which were shaded, as all the windows were, by green jalousies, the lower division of which could be raised by an iron rod, so as to admit the air. The beds, which were iron, with two mattresses, one cotton, the other stuffed with dried millet stalks, with a space left open, in order that the hand might be put in to toss up the millet, were very hard, after the pleasant spring-beds of Paris; and the bedsteads were all hung with bobinet curtains to exclude the mosquitoes. Before each bed was a rug, which proved, le rejouit; la lumière l'attire; vous avez beau tout fermer, il entre par les trous, par les fentes, par les crevasses.' Inexperienced, unsuspecting, unable to believe that a foe so insignificant could prove so formidable, I was perhaps not sufficiently careful in tucking in my mosquito curtains; but certainly I did suffer for my carelessness. I slept none, and rose with my face, neck, arms, hands, legs, and feet covered with bites. The fleas, too, had been by no means slack; so that, between fleas and mosquitoes, my skin presented the appearance of one suffering from small-pox; and the irritation increasing as the day advanced, I found that, between heat and uneasiness, living in thirty-one degrees of latitude was to prove quite a trial of my philosophy. Breakfast is simply coffee and rolls, and is on the table at seven A.M. Each one helps himself, and does not wait till all are seated. While we were at breakfast, beautiful bouquets of flowers were brought to us by the dragoman, composed of roses, jessamines, oleanders, &c. In the afternoon we drove along the banks of the canal of the Nile, which is the principal carriage drive. I saw for the first time the sakia, or water-wheel, by means of which the ground is irrigated. The wheel is turned by two oxen, which are blindfolded, and pace lazily side by side in a circle; and the water as it rises flows into a trench, dug for the purpose of conveying it to a distance. This apparatus is to be seen in every direction, which shows that there is abundance of water very near the surface, yet there is no getting a plentiful supply at the hotel. It is brought into the city in goat-skins, two being a camel's load. One of the first sights I saw when I got up was the water-camel standing in the okella, waiting till its skins should be emptied. By the banks of the canal there are some fine houses, whose gardens look gay in the distance, but, on a closer inspection, the trees and shrubs are so covered with dust, and even the vines, which hang in long festoons from the vine trellis, are so destitute of freshness, owing to the fine particles of sand with which leaf and tendril are alike dusted, that one has no pleasure in them. One phenomenon I could not help remarking-the immense number of shells which attach themselves to the trunks of the trees, and the stems of the taller shrubs. Upon some of the joints of the oleander stems there were portions as large as my two hands, entirely covered with helix, or snail-shell. It was not our tree species (helix nemorosa), but whiter, and had an umbilicus. The vine trellis (which I had often remarked among the hieroglyphics copied from the Egyptian temples) is the most pleasant part of an Eastern garden, as one is embowered among the broad leaves of the vine, and thereby sheltered from the scorching rays of the sun, which are truly oppressive. One family which we visited live all the year round, during the day, under a huge mulberry-tree, round whose umbrageous boughs clematis has twined in every direction, and flung down draperies of leaves and flowers, impervious to the rays of the sun. Under this tree stands a great family table, surrounded by chairs and deewans, and here visiters are received, state business is transacted (for the lady is a great diplomatist, and friend of Seyd Pasha's), here the children play-in short, the whole of the ceremonies, trifling and important, of eastern life, are daily performed beneath the shade of this great mulberry-tree, the house being used simply as a place for cooking, dressing, and rest. All along the banks of the canal before this lady's house, lay barges of different Borts, belonging to visiters from Cairo, who leave that town during the hot season, and, coming to Alexandria, sleep in these barges, and spend the day with this lady, or others of their friends in the city. More to the west are numerous pavilions, to which numbers of Greeks and other Levantines resort after business hours, the opposite side of the way being crowded by their mules, and donkeys, and beautiful Arab steeds, each one having its appropriate seis. One can scarcely conceive a more motley group than these seises. Arab, Egyptian, Nubian, Abyssinian, Copt-all hues of brown-every variety of costume and colour. The turban, which is sometimes white, sometimes scarlet, sometimes chequered; the scarlet tarboush with its purple tassel; the donkey boy's little white cap and blue blouse; the white floating blouse of the seis, or the striped satin vest, and the rich shawl bound round the loins, while from under the ample trousers appeared the long, naked, agile leg, with its crimson or yellow slipper, all formed a picture so striking, so peculiar to my untravelled eye, that I felt as if repaid for my sufferings of the night by this scene alone. The donkey boy is precisely the Moorish beggar-boy of Murillo alive; elastic in frame, his flesh firmly knit, his eye dark and expressive, but often expressive of a sadness which seemed unnatural to so young a face. This little boy is seen during the sun's most scorching hours, running after a donkey, on which sits some burly Levantine, and, if the Levantine should choose to ride thirty miles, the boy must run after him, whipping the donkey from behind, and be ready to take charge of it, should the hirer wish to visit a hotel or pavilion by the way. Donkeys, mules, and horses are in fine condition, and finely caparisoned. The first have bells round the neck, which tinkle in harmony with the pit pat of their nimble feet, and showy saddles placed very far back from the head-the lady's saddle having a sort of framework or easy-chair character behind. The mules and horses have usually rich saddlecloths with gay fringes round the breast, and, when led by their Arab seises, form pictures that Landseer would delight to paint. The faces of these men, though not always handsome, are massive, the absence of regularity of features being made up by the pleasing expression of the whole. I loved to watch them greet each other, or greet our Ibrahim, as he sat on the coach-box. Their mode of salutation is different from ours. They kiss the hand several times, touching the forehead and breast in a most animated manner. One of our party who knew Arabic favoured us with occasional translations of their greetings. The dress of the women is by no means so showy as that of the men, though equally peculiar. The native Egyptian woman wears a blue woollen smock reaching down to the ankle, with a hyke or plaid of cotton thrown over the head. Over the face she wears a stripe of gauze or crape about a quarter of a yard in breadth, and three quarters in length, in which are spaces left for the eyes. From the forehead down to the point of the nose she suspends a number of coins or amulets, for the purpose of keeping off the evil eye; and on her arms are great bracelets of different sorts, sometimes brass rings, sometimes various coloured beads. Her ear-rings, too, are enormous, of the same material with her bracelets. She carries everything on the head but her child, which she carries on the shoulder. If the child be old enough to shift for itself, it sits astride on the mother's shoulder, holding on by her head; if too young to do so, it is seated on the shoulder, with its feet resting on the mother's breast, she grasping them with the left hand, while with the right she holds the infant by the right arm, resting her own arm on the head. She has a circlet of cotton which she places on the head, and on this she poises great baskets of fruit, meat, bread, &c., also her pitcher of water, which she carries without any support from the hand. I hope my female friends will not take it amiss if I say a word or two on the superior form of the Egyptian woman, owing to the absence of stays. Nothing can be more graceful than the perfectly erect, perfectly proportioned figures of both young and old. Such a thing as curvature of spine is never seen among them, nor any of that protuberance of shoulder which is so common in our drawing-rooms, and on our streets. Even the erect, elastic forms of the men, I have no doubt, are due to the absence of stays in the women. The better classes wear a large, white envelope, with a white veil, very full printed trousers, and yellow morocco boots. This woman we frequently see on a donkey, upon which she sits astride, with her knees almost up to her chin, and often with her young child placed before her. The highest class-chiefly Levantines-wear a large silk cloak, which shrouds them completely, with a white cotton veil. Mingling with all these varieties of costume, is seen the Greek, with his scarlet tarboush and its silken tassel; his richly embroidered jacket and showy vest, and his ample white trousers, reaching only a little past the knee, in order that the fanciful gaiter and adorned shoe may be seen to advantage. Numerous vessels passed up and down the canal with their lateen sails; some spread, some tied up, all picturesque. Some were piled with merchandise, the motley crew sitting in groups on the packages, others heaped with coarse grain, half-mast high, the yellow mass dotted with scarlet and white turbans. The sun set as we returned from our drive, and, as we looked westward along the canal, with its fore-shortened, picturesque vessels and their long shadows, and saw the Egyptian hamlet with its millet hedge and acacias reflected in the waters; and behind, Lake Mareotis with its white sands against the golden and purple after-glow of the horizon; all formed a picture eminently beautiful, a picture in the style of Charles Deane, with sharply defined shadows, and brilliant contrasts of light and shade, but with this addition, that it had an atmosphere that one could feel to be eastern in its character; not one single cooling ray, no reflection from moist rocks, no deep brown mould, but glowing masses, undisturbed for long seasons by zephyr or shower, slumbering beneath a canopy of purple and gold. On the following day we drove through the town to the late pasha's palace, which is close by the sea. The gate way is very imposing, and the beautiful syenite pillars (evidently of a much older date than the other portions of the edifice) are richly sculptured and polished. Numbers of Turkish soldiers were being drilled, as we passed along, some of them raw boys of sixteen or eighteen, scarcely able to bear the musket. Indeed, there is every appearance of preparations for hostilities wherever we go. The palace is a great, heavy edifice, built on the slope to wards the sea, with baths, gardens, and a low range of houses, formerly used as the harem, in the vicinity; but there is no beauty, no freshness, even the baths which we entered are hot and unwholesome, and the sea water that finds entrance by the grating looks anything but inviting. Passing through the streets where the bazaars are held, we were again fascinated by the imposing variety of costume. A mosque was dismissing, too, and the moonshee, with his floating robes, mingled among the crowd. The only unbecoming dress is that of the soldier, which is white fustian made into jacket and trousers, so that, were it not for the tarboush, the dress of the Turkish soldier would be precisely that of our mechanic. As through suffocating heat, irritation from mosquito bites, and the prevalence of fleas, I sleep almost none, I have had opportunities of making observations, not exclusively astronomical, during the watches of the night; and may here relate my experiences of the night side of Alexandria. From ten till twelve, the ear is assailed with barking, howling, yelling of dogs, with a large intermixture of caterwauling; from twelve till two, with serenading of all sorts, harmonious and otherwise, with a spice of the cats and dogs between hands; from two till four, cock-crowing incessant-not an interval of rest to the ear, but crow, crow, crow-shrill, harsh, far, near, young, old, unabated crowing; from four till six, donkeys braying, camels lowing, men shouting and cursing, a very Babel of sounds, that it is impossible to convey by any language. As some compensation, however, the stars are truly magnificent, and the Milky Way much more brilliant than it is with us. By six all the world is up. The young Egyptian girl is in the okella with her flock of milk goats, and the Nubian maids are waddling down the stairs, and along the passages, to get milk for the morning coffee; and the Levantine lady, with her long hair hanging down her shoulders, is weaving it into plaits; or, this piece of the toilet finished, is leaning over the balcony, with her kerchief tied round her head, and her cup of black coffee in her hand; or, maybe she is away to matins, with her great silk cloak wrapped around her, and on her feet her bright yellow boots; and in the centre of this great courtyard is a trough of mortar (for they add some apartments to a house at the corner of the okella), and three young, graceful Egyptian women carry this mortar on their heads up to the third flat, bringing rubbish as they return, and never touch the burden with the hand till they do so to take it down. On the morning of the 19th, we went to the baths, which is a wooden erection run out into the sea, and divided into apartments, each one of which has a flight of steps descending into the water, and ropes for the bathers to float by. All these apartments have access to a central portion which is uncovered, the passages to the other divisions leading round it. When we entered, we found this filled with women, most of them having pumpkins tied round their waist, and splashing and screaming in a manner that quite appalled me. I was relieved, however, when I understood that we could be quite private if we wished; and, undressing, we floated for some time in the waters of the Mediterranean, and got cooled. The pleasant sensation lasted only a short time, however, as the coating of sea-water on the skin prevented free perspiration, and increased the heat in the long run. We saw some beautiful eastern women in these baths, and ascertained that the dress beneath the black envelope is very rich and magnificent, with a superabundant display of costly jewels. The British consul dined with us to day, and we went after dinner to the gardens of Seyd Pasha, the heir-apparent. These gardens are very superb, abounding in gorgeous plants of every description, with absolute groves of crimson and white oleanders. The walks are laid with dif ferent-coloured pebbles, grouped into the forms of spears, shields, arrows, &c., so closely wedged in that they make a hard pavement, the dark and light polished surfaces contrasting beautifully. In the centre of the grounds, stands the pasha's kiosk or summer palace, the outside of which is by no means imposing, Ascending by rugged and broken steps, a sliding door admits you to a large hall, at each side of which are guard-rooms, lighted from the sides, with cushions and tapestried chairs, which are very rich and elegant; another sliding door admits you to the pleasure-room, a large, square apartment, with enormous looking-glasses at top and bottom, while a sliding window, composed of two large plates of glass set in mahogany frames, formed the one side, and sliding glass doors the other. At top and bottom are deewans of Gobelin tapestry, with a dozen chairs on each side to correspond, and in each corner a marble pillar, the base and capital of which is white, the shaft brown. From the roof is suspended a gorgeous chandelier of dull and bright silver, in perfect keeping with the apartment and its furniture. I do not know that I have seen anything so rich and chaste as this apartment and its furniture. While we stood admiring, the consul told us that he had seen in this room about £5000 worth of pipes-the pipes of some of the wealthy Turks being worth several hundred pounds. Opposite to this was the billiard-room, with no furniture but the billiard-table, and on the walls scales for gambling. The bedroom was unique. The bed was composed of six damask waddings, which were laid on the floor, in the centre of the room, with one fine linen sheet thrown over them, and three pillows also of damask. It was no longer than our beds, but about twice as broad, and alongside of it was a cushion, on which lay the pasha's slippers, handsomely embroidered. Mirrors, deewans, washing apparatus, &c., were all in keeping. Across the hall from this room was the bath, composed of white marble, and lighted from the roof, by stained glass. The temperature of these baths can be raised to any height. As we sat in the garden, under a great mulberry-tree, surrounded by oleanders, olives, lemon, and citron trees, the pasha's favourite wife saw us from the windows of the harem, and sent us her respects, with an invitation to the harem for the ladies of the party. She was a Georgian slave; and is, we are told, extremely beautiful. It was after sunset ere we left the grounds, and, as we approached the city, the stars shone out and the crescent moon. Mosque, minaret, and palmtree looked more beautiful under their light, and a cool, if not a cooling breath greeted us at some of the turnings by the way, reminding us of homes far away. When our carriage stopped before the hotel, night had gathered in, and Jupiter shone clear above the flagstaff that marked the house of the French consul; and the Milky Way shone bright, and the great stars; and the turbaned seis was seen gliding along the street with his flaring torch; and you were made aware of the vicinity of the donkey only by its tinkling bells; in short, each sight and sound warned me of the approach of the hour when the mosquito is doubly greedy, from its having sported all day in the sun, and a darkness far worse than the darkness of the sky falls over my heart-the prospect of a night of sleeplessness and suffering. wife, I was so unwell, and so disfigured with mosquito bites, that I was unable to avail myself of the invitation. Our friends, I may say, however, were very much pleased, and found her beautiful and superior-looking, though her beauty, as far as I could learn, was of the sensuous order. She sat on a low ottoman, smoking, and her slaves brought pipes for my friends also, which, of course, they declined. She sang eastern songs to them; they also sang to her. They asked her if she was happy. She replied through her interpreter, I should be so. I have everything I could wish but him,' meaning Seyd Pasha, who seldom visits her. Indeed she had been thrown into a state of emotion by their visit; for, when she heard the wheels of the carriage, she thought it was the pasha, whom she half expected. Alas, what a limited state of existence! Even the primitive stuff must be totally different! Could an Elizabeth Barrett or a Margaret Fuller have been so hemmed in, so enslaved by circumstances? Be this as it may, blessed be that great gospel which first elevated woman to her true place, the equal and the gentler companion of man, and that, too, on the only legitimate foun That which strikes one most while driving in and around Alexandria is the accumulations of debris on all sides. All round there are undulating eminences, entirely composed of fragments of brick, pantile, &c.; and, in places where the carriage-way has been cut through these undulations, you can see the regular strata of this debris, now a layer of brick, now a layer of pantile. In general, these undulations are barren in the extreme, presenting an arid, scorched surface that is distressing to the eye; but, on those lying contiguous to the sea, the ice-plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum) grows very abundantly, look-dation-equality of soul. ing from the carriage quite like our thistle in a state of decay. Growing along with it is a species of silene, with white flowers tinged with pink, but altogether devoid of the freshness of our silene, being covered with fine sand and dust; yet we must prize these plants, as it seems to me they prove the food of the Alexandrian goat, from the numbers of flocks of these animals which we find on these sea-girt eminences. 6 MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN. I REMEMBER when I was a child.' This was the reply of a kind-hearted teacher, when asked how he could endure so patiently the trials to which he was daily subjected, and it was a grateful reply. Those who forget they have been children, are not fit to have the care of the young. Men are perplexed themselves with the cares of business, and are often a source of trial to others. Are they who have judgments to avoid straits, and to overcome excited feelings, to be exonerated on account of the peculiar besetments that lie in their way, while their children, who are miniature men, with miniature trials and miniature judgments to overcome them, enacting the same scenes in miniature, are to be blamed and punished? I have often thought, and I think wisely too, as the sages of our generation were inflicting penance upon the young for the elevations of childish gaiety, or the little misdeeds of what is We left the carriage one evening, and went down upon the sands. The appearance of the side of the eminence lying towards the sea indicated a subsidence of the land, portions being detached from the heights, and thereby leaving exposed to view hollows which must have been ancient cisterns, or something of that sort. All along the beach we picked up fragments of porphyries, syenites, granites, and marbles, cut and polished, though worn by the action of the water; evidently the debris of tesselated pavements and mosaics of ancient Alexandria. We lifted several shells, but most of them were very much worn. One perfect pecten (Pecten varius) we found, how-called 'natural depravity,' that, if these champions of the ever, of a rich pink in colour, and were fortunate enough to secure a living specimen of the oceanic snail (Tanthina globosa) with its wondrous float of air cells. Reynell Coates, M.D., is correct when he asserts that there is no attachment between the float and the animal, other than that arising from the nice adaptation and adjustment of proximate surfaces. I examined this vesicular apparatus closely, while the creature was quite active, as I lifted it off the crest of the wave but a moment before, and owned the correctness of Cuvier's description, 'semblable à une balle d'écume.' During the examination, the creature emitted so much of the violet-coloured liquid, that it left a large stain on the palm of my hand. As far as one may judge by the buildings that are now in progress, Alexandria is on the increase, yet it never can be a pleasant locality. Indeed, seeing it at the present day, one can scarcely conceive it ever to have been the renowned seat of learning and royalty of which we read so much. Yet we are told that Mahomed Ali did much for its improvement, and even Abbas Pasha, though not often in Alexandria, seems active and enterprising. It is said that he fears living in this city, as it is prophesied that he is to die in it; and he only comes occasionally from his palace in the desert to keep his emissaries at their duty. We saw Seyd Pasha one evening in one of the marble pavilions by the canal. He is a great burly fellow, dressed in the costume of a Turkish officer-a blue surtout, sash, and tarboush. On the opposite side of the way was his statecarriage, open, double-seated, with six horses. Each horse had a scarlet saddle-cloth; a postilion dressed in scarlet and gold took charge of each pair of horses, and a tall coachman sat on the coach-box, also dressed in a scarlet coat, a much better-looking man than his master. I regret that I can not give an account of the interior of the harem, as, on the day that was fixed for us to visit the pasha's favourite rod and rule should be subjected to a wise and wholesome discipline, they would be able to set an example that would itself be effectual and happy in moulding the dispositions of children and pupils. Love is the ruling principle in all matters of discipline, and the only one that will secure perfect obedience. If we are loved, we are feared, if not, we are hated and despised, and neither old nor young will be ruled by us, except so far as we have the advantage of physical force. Would we respect, or love, or obey a government that for all our little deviations poured upon us a tide of invective, or in the punishment of crime sought only to harass us in revenge by physical torture? If not, how can we expect children, who, according to their capacities, are equally sensitive with us, to repay the kicks and cuffs, the sour looks and angry words with which they are so often greeted, with affectionate and implicit obedience? It is not in humanity to do it. They may at times avoid evil, for fear of the punishment that will certainly follow exposure, but oftener will it lead them to plot their mischief in conclave, and to steal upon their little crimes with the cunning and skill of an adroit offender. From a long experience with children, and a somewhat intimate acquaintance with childish habits and dispositions, I am convinced that the use of the rod and other vexatious or mortifying punishments are, to say the least, a necessary evil, brought upon us by the neglect of early discipline. The child at birth becomes a pupil in the school of human nature, and it does not graduate till the day of its death. From the first hour of its existence, it becomes a learner, and remains a learner through its infancy, its childhood, its manhood. It cannot at first solve a problem, nor understand a precept, but it is, nevertheless, a complete imitator of example. It cannot comprehend the motives, but it does read and treasure up for future good or evil the actions and dispositions of its attendants; and the power gained over it in this early stage of existence must be the rule of discipline in all future life. It is early susceptible of emotion. It appreciates a kindness, and will as soon repulse a frown. It forms early attachments for those who pet it, and has the same capacity for revenge in its little spirit upon those who treat it with neglect and abuse. Infancy is justly termed the age of impressions.' These impressions are immortal. Think of it as you will, and censure nature as you please for the moral defects of your child, its little heart is a mirror that faithfully images your own character and disposition. If you are rebellious, cruel, revengeful, these traits will make fearful havoc with the dispositions of your child. If you are kind, dutiful, affectionate, these will be the impressions it will receive and reflect by your constant intercourse with it. I have seen children that have been scolded and whipped till their sensibilities were brutalised, and their affections for parents were like those of a slave to his master. I have seen them loved, respected, and confided in, and taught to believe and to feel sensibly that every little deviation from the path of right was a severe infliction upon all who loved them, and they became kind and obedient. I have seen them looked upon with scorn and contempt, with sneer and ridicule, and they became disheartened and sad, and their dispositions gradually moulded into hatred and revenge. I have seen them smiled upon and treated with tenderness and affection, even in infancy, and they reciprocated that smile and those kind attentions. Children are left too much to the care of governors and teachers. Wealth, pride, indolence, and inattentionnothing, save death or marked incapacity, should ever take them from their parents, and put them in pupilage to others. Parents cannot love their children unless they care for them. Others may care for them, sport with them, sympathise in their sorrows-love them tenderly even-but the tie of consanguinity that would sacrifice all ease, comfort, health, life, for their good does not bind them to their hearts. THE OLD VIRTUOSI OF FRANCE. FOURTH NOTICE. IN the following Conversation of the Virtuosi, the proposed theme was- Whether or not a general of an army should endanger his person?' Different opinions, it will be seen, were expressed. The use of immense quantities of artillery having made a modern battle almost a game of chess, it is now generally admitted that a commanderin-chief ought not to expose his person, and indeed cannot, without failing in his duty to the army under his charge. The historians of Napoleon dwell admiringly on the fact, that, after having once thoroughly surveyed the ground, or learned its features from sure authority, he cared not for positively and personally seeing all that passed on a day of combat, but heard reports and issued orders while occupying some central spot, or even tent, with a perfect assurance of being able to manage all rightly. The very same line of conduct was habitually pursued by Julius Cæsar, we are told, though the great Roman never scrupled to appear personally in the thick of the fight, when summoned thither by any important emergency. Bonaparte acted similarly, it will be remembered, at the critical engagements of Lodi and Arcola. The Duke of Wellington, though his courage was as much of iron mould as his calmness, exposed himself to no unnecessary risks on his hundred fields. The first of the Virtuosi thus spoke on the question propounded:- That the value which men put upon valour, which is nothing else but a contempt of dangers, shows that those who would partake most of honour must also have the greatest share in the danger. According to the proverb, None triumphs without fighting;' and if we take the opinion of soldiers, who are the best judges in this case, they never so willingly resign themselves to any leader, as to him that freely ventures his life with them; it being no less incompatible for a general to advance himself, and get credit and reputation in arms, without endangering his person, than for a pilot to sail well upon the sea without incurring the hazard of shipwreck. So that we may say of war, what is commonly said of the sea, He that fears danger must not go to it. The civilians have the same meaning when they commit the charge of guardianships to those that are most qualified to succeed, and there can be no honour without a charge; whence the words are promiscuously used in our language. Moreover, as no sermon is more eloquent than the exemplary life of the preacher; so no military oration is so persuasive, or so well received by an army, as the example of its general, when they see him strike the first blow; as, on the contrary, if he testifies any fear, every one taking his actions for a rule, and conforming thereunto, will do the same; he will not be obeyed but with regret, and through a servile fear of punishment, not out of a gallant sense of honour, because he that is most honoured in the army is most remote from blows; at least, the other leaders and officers will do as much, and all the soldiers in imitation of them. In brief, we need but consider, how not only the Marcelli, the Camilli, the Scipios, Hannibal, and many other generals of armies, but Alexander, Cæsar, and in our time Henry the Great, and the King of Sweden, all sovereigu princes, were sufficiently venturous of their persons; and that it was not by not tak ing part in dangers that they triumphed over their ene mies. The second said-That to know how to command well, and how to execute well, are two several talents, and depend upon several abilities; they who are born to command, being unfit to execute; and, on the contrary, they who are proper to obey being incapable of commanding. Wherefore the head of an army, who gives orders and commands, must cause them to be executed by others. So the judge pronounces the sentence, and appoints serjeants to put it in execution; the physician commands his patient, who obeys his prescriptions; the pilot, the officers of the ship, but himself steers not. But that which should most restrain a general from acting in person is, that he cannot in this occurrence preserve the prudence which is absolutely necessary to him. For the heat of courage, heightened by that of the charge and the encounter, being wholly contrary to the coldness of prudence, which is inconsistent with the violent motions caused by the ardour of fury commonly attending valour, renders him precipitate, inconstant, and incapable for the time to deliberate of fit means, to choose them, and cause them to be executed. Moreover, the general, being the chieftain of the army, ought to resemble the head; which derives sense and motion to the parts, yet stirs not for their defence, but, on the contrary, employs them for its own. So the prime captain ought to sway and manage the body of his army by his counsels and orders; but not put his own person in danger, because upon his safety depends that of all the rest, who, being destitute of a chieftain, remain like a body without a head, and an unprofitable trunk. Therefore generals of armies are com pared to the heads of cypress-trees; which being once lopped off, the stem never thrives afterwards. The third (speaker) said-The highest point of judg ment is to distinguish appearance from truth, and in all professions it is very dangerous, though in appearance more honourable, to be carried to extremes, but especially in war, where there is not room for many mistakes. The general who exposes his life cannot be excused from ambition or imprudence; from the former, if he does it without necessity; from the latter, if, for want of having rightly ordered his affairs, he sees himself reduced to that point. Whereas, as in artificial engines the piece which gives motion to the rest is immoveable, so the general who gives order to the main of the army ought to have the like influence upon it: as the heart in the middle of the body, and the brain in the middle of the head, to transmit life and spirits to the whole body, and to be liable |