XXII.

To visit towns, castles, abbeys, and fragments of antiquity, without connecting with them their history, is, as we have before observed, not only to lose a part, but the best part, of the pleasure, that may be ́ derived from visiting them.

When Da Rosa journied into Asia, he derived much enjoyment from analogous associations: not only at Jerusalem but at Antioch. This city perished under the vengeance of Chosroes, king of Persia, in the reign of Justinian. Of all the cities of Western Asia, this, with the exception of Constantinople, was the most rich, populous and beautiful. The conqueror, however, spared neither sex, nor age:- all were either killed, or converted into slaves. He set fire to the city, and totally destroyed it; and it has also been twice destroyed by earthquakes.

At Hameden, the ancient Ecbatana, he reflected on the policy of Dejoces, king of the Medes. There, too, he sighed at the fate of Parmenio, that friend of a king; and that general, of whom it was said, that Parmenio had gained many victories without Alexander; but that Alexander had never gained one without Parmenio. From the fate of Parmenio he reverted to the death of Hephæstion, whose body was bathed with the tears of Alexander.

Is the accomplished traveller standing among the pillars of Palmyra? He beholds Zenobia, flying on a dromedary, and leaving her city and her counsellor, Longinus, to the mercy of the enemy. Then he beholds her adding to the glory of Aurelian; who, drawn by four stags, yoked in a car, once belonging to the

king of the Goths, and followed by his victorious legions, bearing palms and laurel branches, entered the city of Rome in triumph. While Zenobia, clad in rich garments, decked with jewels, and bound with chains of gold, inspired with awe the hearts of all beholders. Beautiful in her countenance, and majestic in her deportment, she commanded an universal admiration; not only as a woman and a queen, but as a queen, only to be conquered by the first general of the age, in which she lived.

XXIII.

At Samarcand, in Usbeck Tartary, he remembers that, in the time of Jenghiz Khan, thirty thousand men, women, and children, were made captives; and thirty thousand put to the sword. While at Delhi even the massacres at Prague and Ismael shrink into comparative insignificance, in the remembrance, that, on the conquest of that city by Tamerlane, he ordered a general massacre of the Hindoostanees; and that in consequence one hundred thousand men, women, aud children, were murdered by the sword, in the short space of one hour!

At Bergamo (Pergamus) he remembers, that to gain possession of it, Aquilius was obliged to poison its fountains:—that a library, consisting of two hundred thousand volumes, once existed there; and that parchment was there first invented; while in those walls were born Apollodorus, the preceptor of Augustus ; and Galen, the friend of Marcus Aurelius ;-next to Hippocrates, the greatest physician, that ever adorned the annals of medical science.

Nor can the traveller stand upon the point at Constantinople, commanding the Euxine on one side, and the Marmora on the other, standing on Europe, and yet beholding the vast continent of Asia, without a mental review of the reigns from Constantine to the time, when Mahomet conveyed eighty gallies over land, -a space of eight miles,-by means of mechanical engines; and thence to the final assault on that imperial city. The attack commenced at three in the morning of the 29th of May (A.D. 1453), and after a dreadful struggle on both sides, terminated in the Turks making themselves masters of the city.The Emperor was slain, towards the close of the assault; and the ferocious conqueror giving the city to plunder, the whole became an arena, washed with the blood of its inhabitants. Three days this almost unexampled scene continued! On the fourth, Mahomet commanded it to cease; and on the fifth made his triumphal entrance into a city of profaned churches and empty houses; and established, upon the ruins of the eastern part of the Roman empire, the dynasty of the Turks: one thousand one hundred and twenty-three years after its establishment by Constantine, and two thousand two hundred and six from the foundation of Rome.

Are we standing on one of the points, commanding the Dardanelles? With the poem of Musæus full in our recollection-we see the light on the opposite shore; we behold Leander struggling ineffectually with the waves; and we see Hero descending from the height, and throwing herself into the sea.

XXIV.

Does the moralist touch at the small island of Scio? He recollects the assertion of Strabo, that the crime of adultery was unknown in that island for seven hundred years: while, during a period of six hundred years, there was only one divorce in the city of Rome: and that for barrenness. Stands he on the Isthmus of Corito, parting two of the most beautiful seas in the universe? he sees the remains of a city, next to Athens and Lacedemon, once the most powerful in Greece.'-Choosing to overlook its luxury, he pauses on the sentiments of its better days, when the inhabitants were accustomed to say,-" Our fathers have ascended to fame, through rugged, steep, and untroddened paths: let their example be ever present to us; and let us not lose by wealth and indolence, what labour and poverty, with so much difficulty, attained."

Then, perhaps, he turns his eye towards Sparta; and reverting to the western islands of Greece, beholds Ulysses and Penelope. The father of Penelope loved her with such affection, that he importuned Ulysses, on the day of his marriage with her, to remain in Lacedemon so urgently, that Ulysses told Penelope she might do as she pleased; embark for Ithaca with him, or remain in Lacedemon with her father.-How did the emblem of modesty signify her wish? She gave her hand to Ulysses; blushed in silence; and covered her face with her veil.

Corinth,

At Sparta, too, he meditates on the constitution, established by Lycurgus; in which the three branches were first established for the purpose of preserving the balance of power: which, forming so great an analogy with the great political institution of our own country, present the first rudiments of the British Constitution.

XXV.

Are we leaning under an olive tree growing on the plains of Pharsalos? We behold Pompey, retiring from the field of battle, arrive at the camp, enter his tent, and seat himself in all the agony of silent despair. He is told, that Cæsar is about to attack his camp. "What?-my camp too?" He lays aside his emblems of dignity; steals out of the Decuman gate; flies through the valley of Tempe, where he stoops to drink out of the Peneus; and takes the road to Larissa. While Cæsar, entering his camp, beholds it adorned with rich carpets and hangings; tables spread as for a feast; sideboards covered with gold and silver vessels; and flowers scattered on the couches: all which the army of Pompey had prepared, in order to do honour to the victory, they thought themselves sure to obtain. Fortune, however, directed a melancholy reverse: and Rome was destined to lose her liberties, with the loss of twenty-five thousand men, twenty-four thousand prisoners, eight eagles, and one hundred and eighty ensigns. While that of the con queror sustained a loss of only two hundred men and thirty centurions. Such were the fatal consequences