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distant sea-line and obscuring the stars; and the ocean put on a gloomy aspect. Millions of living things, which had ascended from the caverns of the deep, or been engendered from the stagnation and heat, played in snaky antics on its surface. No sailor was now pacing the deck on his accustomed watch. The want of motion in the ship, and her powerless sails hanging in festoons amid the diminishing starlight, added to the solitary feeling which, in spite of my apathy, I experienced. I thought myself cut off from mankind for ever, and that my ship, beyond where winds ever blew, would lie and rot upon the corrupting sea. I forgot the melancholy fate of my crew at this moment, and thought, with comparative unconcern, that the time must soon come when the last draught of water being finished, "I too must die." Then, half slumbering, a thousand strange images would come before my sight; the countenance of my late mate, or some one of the crew, was frequently among them, distorted, and fitted upon uncouth bodies. I felt feverish and unwell on awaking. One moment I fancied I saw a vessel pass the ship under full sail and with a stiff breeze, and then a second, while no ruffle appeared on the ocean near mine, and I hailed them in vain. Now I heard the tramp of feet upon the deck, and the whisper of voices, as of persons walking near me, whom I uselessly challenged; this was followed by the usual obdurate silence. I felt no fear; for nature had no visitation for mortal man more appalling than I had already encountered: and to the ultimate of evils with social man, as I have before observed, I was insensible-for what weight could social ideas of good or evil have with me at such a moment?

The morning of the eleventh day of my suffering I went down into the cabin, to take some refreshment to Robson. Though at intervals in the full possession of his senses, the shortest rational conversation exhausted him; while talking in his in10 ATHENEUM, VOL. 9, 2d series.

coherent fits did not produce the same debilitating effect. "Where is the mate?" he wildly asked me; "Why am I in your cabin, captain?

Have they flung Waring overboard yet?" I contented myself with giving him general answers, which appeared to satisfy him. I feared to tell him we were the only survivors; for the truth, had he chanced to comprehend it in its full force, might have been fatal. On returning upon the deck, I observed that clouds were slowly forming, while the air became doubly oppressive and sultry. The intensity of the sun's rays was exchanged for a closer and even more suffocating heat, that indicated an alteration of some kind in the atmosphere. Hope suddenly awoke in my bosom again: a breeze might spring up, and I might get free from my horrible captivity. I took an observation, and found that I was clear of the rocks and shoals of the Bahamas, towards which I feared a current might have insensibly borne me; all I could do, therefore, in case the wind blew, was to hang out a signal of distress, and try to keep the sea until I fell in with some friendly vessel.

I inmediately took measures for navigating the ship by myself. I fastened a rope to secure the helm in any position I might find needful, so that I might venture to leave it a few moments when occasion required. I went aloft, and cut away the topsails which I could not reef, and reduced the canvass all over the ship as much as possible, leaving only one or two of the lower sails set: for if it blew fresh, I could not have taken them in, and the ship might perish; while by doing this, I had some chance of keeping her alive.

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brig moved, just at noon on the eleventh day after our becalmment commenced, I became almost mad with delight. It was like a resurrection from the dead; it was the beginning of a new existence with me. Fearful as my state then was in reality, it appeared a heaven to that which I had been in. The hope of deliverance aroused me to new energies. I felt hungry, and ate voraciously; for till that moment I had scarcely eaten enough to sustain life. The chance of once more mingling with my fellow meu filled my imagination, and braced every fibre of my frame, almost to breaking. The ship's motion perceptibly increased; the ripple under her bow at length became audible; she felt additional impulse, moved yet faster; and at length cut through the water at the

rate of four or five knots an hour. This was fast enough for her safety, though not for my impatience. I steered her large before the wind for some time, and then kept her as near as possible in the track of vessels bound for Europe, certain that, carrying so little sail, I must be speedily overtaken by some ship that could render me assistance. Nor was I disappointed in my expectation. After steering two days with a moderate breeze, during which time I never left the helm, a large West Indiaman came up with me, and gave me every necessary aid. By this means I was enabled to reach Halifax, and finally the river Mersey, about five weeks later than the time I had formerly calculated for my voyage.

THE TURKS.

THE HE Turks have a manly and prepossessing demeanour; being generally of a good stature, and remarkably well formed in their limbs. The men shave their heads, but wear long beards, and are extremely proud of their mustaches, which are usually turned downwards, and which give the other features of the face a cast of peculiar pensiveness. They wear turbans, sometimes white, of an enormous size on their heads, and never remove them but when they go to repose. Their breeches, or drawers, are united with their stockings, and they have slippers, which they never put off but when they enter a mosque, or the house of a great man. Large shirts are worn, and over them is a vest tied with a sash; the outer garment being a sort of loose gown. Every man, in whatever station he is, carries a dagger in his sash. The women's attire much resembles that of the other sex, only they have a cap on their heads, something like a bishop's mitre, instead of a turban. Their hair is beautiful and long,

mostly black, but their faces, which are remarkably handsome, are so covered when they walk out, that nothing is to be seen but their eyes. The ladies of the sultan's haram are lovely virgins, either captives taken during war, or presents from the governors of provinces. They are never allowed to stir abroad except when the grand signior removes ; and then they are put into close chariots, signals being made at certain distances that no man may approach the road through which the ladies pass, on pain of death. There are a great number of female slaves in the sultan's haram, whose task it is to wait on the ladies, who have, besides, a black eunuch for their superintendant.

There are three colleges in Turkey where the children of distinguished men are educated and fitted for state employments. The children are first approved by the grand signior before they are allowed to enter these seminaries; and none dare come into his majesty's presence who are not handsome and well-made..

Silence is first taught them, and a becoming behaviour to their superiors; then they are instructed in the Mahometan faith, the Turkish and Persian languages, and afterwards in the Arabic. At the age of twentyone they are taught all manner of manly exercises, and above all, the use of arms. As they advance to proficiency in these, and other useful arts, and as government places become vacant, they are preferred; but it is to be observed, that they generally attain the age of forty be fore they are thought capable of being entrusted with important state affairs.

Those who hold any office under the grand signior are called his slaves; the term slave, in Turkey, signifying the most honourable title a subject can bear. The grand signior is commonly supposed among his own people, to be something more than human; for he is not bound by any laws except that of professing and maintaining the Mahometan religion. A stranger desiring to be admitted into his majesty's presence, is first examined by proper persons, and his arms taken from him; he is then ushered before the royal personage between two strong supporters, but is not even then permitted to approach near enough to kiss the sultan's foot.* This custom, which is observed by every sultan, originated in the following manner : -Amurath I. having obtained a great victory over the Christians, was on the field of battle with his officers viewing the dead, when a wounded Christian soldier, rising from among the slain, came staggering towards him, The king, supposing the man intended to beg for his life, ordered the guards to make way for him; but drawing near, he drew a dagger from under his coat, and plunged it into the heart of the great king, who instantly died. In Turkey, no man marries a deformed wife for the sake of a fortune, as with us; beauty and good sense,

to their credit be it spoken, are the only inducements to matrimony among the Turks. But they are an indolent people, and åre much averse to improving their country by commerce, planting, or building; appearing to take delight in letting their property run to ruin. Alexandria, Tyre, and Sidon, which once commanded the navigation and trade of the whole world, are at present in the Turkish possession, but are only very inconsiderable places. Indeed, observes a judicious author, it is well for us that the Turks are such an indolent people, for their situation and vast extent of empire, would enable them to monopolize the trade of the world if they attended to it. They appear to posses very little genius or inclination for the improvement of arts and sciences, although they live in countries which were once in the possession of the classic Greeks; but seem to prefer a slothful mode of life to an active one, continually sauntering away their time, either among women, or in taking coffee and smoking. Being men of great taciturnity, they very seldom disturb a stranger with questions; and a person may live in their country a dozen years, without having twenty words addressed to him, except on important business. They seldom travel, and have very little wish to be informed of the state of their own, or any other country; when a minister of state is turned out of his place, or strangled, (which is a frequent custom,) they coldly observe that there will be a new one, without inquiring into the reason of the disgrace of the former. The doctrine of predestination prevails, and they therefore think it wicked to endeavour to avoid their fate; frequently entering houses where they know the plague is raging.

All religions are tolerated in Turkey, though none are encouraged but the Mahometan faith. The Christians have churches, which the

The ceremony of kissing the foot, as well as the hand, of a sovereign, is yet observed in the east.

Turks not unfrequently convert into mosques for their own use; nor will they suffer any new churches, or temples, to be built, without extorting an exorbitant fine from the poor Christians. The high-priest of the Mahometan religion is called the mufti; he is invested with

great power, and his seal is necessary to the passing of all acts of state. But any individual, who pleases to take the habit, may be a priest, and may leave the office when he is weary of it; for there is nothing like ordination among them.

BOOKS AND BOOKWORMS.

BOOKS were anciently made of

plates of copper and lead, the bark of trees, bricks, stones, and wood. Josephus speaks of two columns, the one of stone, the other of brick, on which the children of Seth wrote their inventions and astronomical discoveries. Porphyry mentions some pillars, preserved in Crete, on which the ceremonies observed by the Corybantes in their sacrifices were recorded. The leaves of the palm-tree were used, and the finest and thinnest part of the bark of such trees as the lime, the ash, the maple, and the elm; from hence comes the word liber, which signifies the inner bark of the trees; and as these barks are rolled up, in order to be removed with greater ease, these rolls were called volumen, a volume, a name afterwards given to the like rolls of paper or parchment. By degrees wax, then leather, were in troduced, especially the skins of goats and sheep, of which at length parchment was prepared; also linen, then silk, horn, and lastly paper. The rolls or volumes of the ancients were composed of several sheets, fastened to each other, rolled upon a stick, and were sometimes fifty feet in length, and about a yard and a half wide. At first the letters were only divided into lines, then into separate words, which, by degrees, were noted with accents, and distributed by points and stops into periods, paragraphs, chapters, and other divisions. In some countries, as among the orientals, the lines began. from the right and ran to the left; in others, as in northern and western

nations, from the left to the right; others, as the Grecians, followed both directions alternately, going in the one and returning in the other. In the Chinese books, the lines run from top to bottom. Again, the page in some is entire and uniform; in others, divided into columus; in others, distinguished into text and notes, either marginal or at the bottom; usually it is furnished with signatures and catch-words, also with a register to discover whether the book be complete. The Mahometans place the name of God at the beginning of all their books. The word book is derived from the Saxon boc, which comes from the northern buech, of buechans, a beech, or service-tree on the bark of which our ancestors used to write. A very large estate was given for one on Cosmography by king Alfred. About the year 1400, they were sold from £10 to £30 a piece. The first printed one was the Vulgate edition of the Bible, 1462; the second edition was Cicero de officiis, 1466. Leo I. ordered 200,000 to be burnt at Constantinople. In the suppressed monasteries of France, in 1790, there were found 4,194,412 volumes; nearly one-half were on theology. The end of the book, now denoted by finis, was anciently marked with a, called coronis, and the whole frequently washed with an oil drawn from cedar, or citron chips strewed between the leaves, to preserve it from rotting.

Thus far books; now for the bookworms. Anthony Magliabecchi, the notorious bookworm, was born

who approached him; and if he did not wish for their company, he would not admit them. He spent some hours in each day at the palace library; but is said never in his life

ac

at Florence in 1633; his passion for reading induced him to employ every moment of his time in improving his mind. By means of an astonishing memory and incessant application, he became more conversant to have gone farther from Florence with literary history than any man than to Pratz, whither he once of his time, and was appointed libra- companied Cardinal Norris to see a rian to the grand duke of Tuscany. manuscript. He died at the age of He has been called a living library. 81, in the year 1714. In the preHe was a man of a most forbidding sent age we have bookworms, who and savage aspect, and exeeedingly wander from one bookstall to anothnegligent of his person. He refused er, and there devour their daily store to be waited upon, and rarely took of knowledge. Others will linger at off his clothes to go to bed. His the tempting window filled with the dinner was commonly three hard "twopenny," and read all the open eggs, with a draught of water. He pages; then pass on to another of had a small window in his door, the same description, and thus enjoy through which he could see all those literature by the way of Cheapside.

THE LOVE OF COUNTRY.

TH
HE love of fame has been called
"the universal passion"-as just
ly may the love of country be styled
the universal sentiment. The latter
is, indeed, more deserving of an epi-
thet implying ubiquity than the other,
for there is no region where humanity
can exist, that it is not found to flour-
ish--no soil so barren, or sky so in-
clement, where this vigorous feeling
is stunted in the human breast; nor
is there any state of society, however
barbarous or obscure, where it does
not operate like an imperishable in-
stinct. It even appears to grow more
intense in proportion as a country
labours under natural disadvantages;
but the reason is, that where physical
circumstances make it difficult for
man to sustain his existence, the dan-
gers, the toil, and the incessant acti-
vity of rude enterprise, which occupy
and support life, produce hardihood
of mind and body, which give to all
the natural affections a more decisive
energy than they can have, where
greater opportunities of repose and
luxurious enjoyment soften down the
human character, more or less, from
the excellence of its wildly elastic
tones, and impress upon it the traits
of languor and enervation. Thus,

we find, that in the boisterous and inclement regions of the north, where the savage procures a precarious livelihood by braving the dangers of the ocean, beset with shoals and whirlpools, in a frail skiff, or tracks his prey by the light of the moon, over a howling wilderness of snow-there the patriot passion, as it has been called, binds the heart of the native fondly to rocks and eternal barrenness, making nature, in her most terrible circumstances, appear to his eye, when present, but still more to his memory, when far away, desirable and lovely.

So strong and unsubduable is this sentiment, that the Lapland savage, if placed in the midst of security and enjoyment in the most blooming portion of the temperate zone, would turn from the pleasures that surrounded him, and sicken with desire for the solitudes, the storms, the dreary nights, and perilous adventures which rise upon his mind with the charmed and mournful recollections of his country. Hence it is, that the inhabitants of mountain regions are much more sensibly affected by any circumstance which reminds them of their native land, when sojourning in a

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