elegant and accomplished creature was induced, by a long series of vicissitudes, to bury her emotions in the silent and melancholy cloister.-A convent at Bruges was the theatre of her immolation. When monasteries and nunneries were suppressed by an order of the French legislature, in company with her adopted sisters, she sought a refuge from the fury of the Revolution, in the paternal mansion of the GAGES, at Hengrave, in the county of Suffolk. During the peace, in the year 1801, her order returned to Bruges, and in that city she died. It is probable, my friend, that the history of this unfortunate lady may be one day given to the world. At present, it is sufficient to observe, that she has more than once confessed to a common friend of our own, that, for five and twenty years, she never indulged the passion of hope, in reference to any thing, connected with the world!→→ Secluded from all the natural sympathies of life, and knowing no greater enjoyment, than that of walking in the gardens of her convent, the principal part of her existence was lost in an uninterrupted course of involuntary prayer,-a victim to hopeless misery! Unpitied and unknown to all the world, except the few sisters of her convent, she was debarred from every earthly bliss; and the grave was the only resource, to which she looked for consolation and freedom :-There at length,

Far, far removed from every earthly ill,
Her woes are buried, and her bosom still.

CHAPTER VI.

Scenes, however beautiful, are rendered more so by the association of ruins. In England there are Druidic, Roman, Saxon, Danish, Norman and Gothic remains. In Scotland, Celtic; Roman; Pictish; Danish; and Gothic. In Ireland, Druidic and Scandinavian; with castles denoting the power and skill of Brian Boro, king of Munster. In France, antiquities are found so early as the period of Grecian manners at Marseilles. Others are of Roman origin: some denote the time of Childeric; and others indicate every intermediate age from the Carlovingian to the present. In Switzerland there are a few Roman remains; castles and monasteries; churches of the middle ages; and monuments, commemorating the struggles of liberty. In Germany there are a few Celtic specimens; many Roman vestiges; churches of the age of Charlemagne; and gothic castles in abundance. In Sweden are seen circles of judg ment, and erections of unhewn stone: in Denmark and Norway, Runic fragments: in Prussia, tumuli and a few Sclavonic idols. Russia, whether in Europe or Asia, has few antiquities except tumuli, and stone tombs, marked with rude sculptures.

The Netherlands contain erections of the middle. ages; and Hungary has military roads with castles, churches and monasteries. In Italy is traced every species of antiquity, from the time of Romulus and the Sabines, up to the present. In Portugal are seen

Roman monuments, and a few remains of the Moors. In Spain, tumuli, Carthaginian coins, Roman aqueducts and gold coins of the Visigoths; with mosques and other splendid monuments, marking the taste and learning of the Arabian dynasty.

If we turn our eyes to Greece and European Turkey, we shall see ruins and antiquities of almost every species ;-from the tumulus up to the temple. In Asiatic Turkey, antiquities are discovered, from the earth-heaps on the plains of Ilium to the columns of Heliopolis and the pillars of Palmyra. In Persia are the ruins of Persepolis; with edifices and carved caves, preceding the age of Mahomet. In the valley of Moses, in Arabia, are the ruins of Wadi-Moosa, lately discovered by Mr. Banks. They once constituted the city of Petra, the capital of Arabia Petræa, conquered by Trajan, and annexed to the province of Palestine. These consist of chambers, sepulchres, and colossal statues; an excavated amphitheatre, and a number of desolated palaces, and other edifices. But the ruins of Jerrasch are said to exceed in "magnitude and beauty" even those of Balbec and Palmyra: and the theatre, the palaces, the three superb temples, and the two marble amphitheatres, are described, as being equal to all that papal influence has spared of ancient Rome.

Hindostan has numerous antiquities: some illustrative of Mahometan genius; others of an age beyond research. Those of China are but imperfectly known. There are coins of ancient dynasties; towers commemorative of great events; triumphal arches; and a stupendous wall, extending up mountains, along vales,

1

and rivers to the length of one thousand five hundred miles.1

In Ceylon have been discovered gigantic ruins of pagodas; and works, indicating a degree of civilization far removed from the present. The excavations of Elephanta are monuments exceeding even the pyramids of Egypt. Of the remote grandeur of Java many remains exist in the architectural antiquities of that island. The ruins of Boro Bodo and Brambanan exhibit great beauty in their separate parts; and great symmetry in their relative proportions. They are admirably described and illustrated in Raffles' History of Java, and in the Batavian Literary and Philosophical Transactions.

II.

In Egypt, pyramids, lakes, ruins of cities, and fragments of temples, denote an age of very high antiquity; the histories of which are buried in the cemeteries of African and oriental genius.

Among the tombs of the kings of Egypt at Thebes, Belzoni discovered the most beautiful remains of all antiquity: a sarcophagus of alabaster, carved both within and without with figures and hieroglyphics. In a pyramid, which he had the skill and science to

The antiquity of this wall is a subject of reasonable doubt.-Some suppose it to be two thousand years old; others, from the silence of Marco Polo, not more than three hundred.

2 The north of Africa must once have been a miracle of human skill and industry. Count Camille Borgia, when living at Tunis under the protection of the Bey, took plans of no less than two hundred and fifty half ruined towns.

open, he found bones, which upon being examined by Sir Everard Home and other surgeons, proved to be those of a cow. This may, in some measure, serve to illustrate the design and origin of the pyramids.

When the traveller approaches those vast monuments of human labour, the imagination seems to burst, as it were, the bands of ages; and the mind appears as if it had lived a thousand years. When the French were at Thebes, the whole army stopped among the ruins, and clapt their hands with delight: and when Bonaparte was about to engage the Mamelukes, who were advancing with loud cries, superbly accoutred, he called out to his army, "Behold! Yonder are the pyramids; the most ancient of the works of men. From the summits of those monuments forty ages are now beholding us." The battle, which ensued, laid all Egypt at the feet of the French General!

III.

North American antiquities have been but little attended to. On the branches of the Ohio the traveller discovers monuments of former times, consisting of earth constructions of conical and pyramidal shapes. Tumulihave, also, occasionally been witnessed; military earthworks on the Huron in Kentucky, and other districts of the Western territory; and on the banks of a river ninety miles below Pittsburgh, works, too, have ⚫been found resembling, in some measure, the cairns and cromlecks of our Celtic ancestors. In respect to all these vestiges the voice of tradition is entirely silent.

1. Voyages dans la Haute Pensylvanie, vol. i. and iti.