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ART. II. Two Years' Residence in a Levantine Family. By Bayle St. John, Author of Adventures in the Libyan Desert,' &c. &c. London: Chapman and Hall.

1850.

THERE are various types of life on the shores of the Mediterranean, which, after the lapse of many thousand years, continues to lave some of the most interesting portions of our globe. Commerce, industry, empire, art, literature, and beauty, have consecrated those lands. Revolutions without number they have known-barbarism and civilization have visited them by turns-but nothing can ever deprive them of their hold on the imagination.

Among the populations which, by their singular character and customs, most strike the traveller in Western Asia, should undoubtedly be enumerated the Levantines. Christians in creed, but Muslims in manners, they unite many of the peculiarities of the East and the West. In the superstitions which accompany both religions, they firmly believe; while, yielding to the seductions of the climate, they may likewise, without the slightest exaggeration, be said to combine in themselves the vices of Europe and Asia.

Until now, however, we scarcely knew to what author to refer for an honest account of these people. Those travellers who lean towards the Muslims are apt, unconsciously perhaps, to depreciate the Levantines, while the fanatical antagonists of El Islam ridiculously exalt them as a pretext for vilifying their persecutors. Among neither of these classes could we hope to find either truth or justice. Prejudice is always a suspicious witness; and, in general, it may with truth be said, that they who have hitherto written on Egypt and Syria have suffered themselves to be swayed by their sympathies or antipathies.

Mr. Bayle St. John, in his Two Years' Residence in a Levantine Family,' has kept wide of the stumbling-block over which a majority of his predecessors have fallen. Possessing an amount of education which rarely falls to the lot of travellers, and having evidently been disciplined in philosophy, he was enabled to contemplate society from a loftier point of view, as well as to record his opinions and impressions in a style at once polished and picturesque. He had, moreover, no interests to serve but those of truth. He was neither a merchant nor a

missionary; neither a polemic nor polemic nor an antiquarian; neither a geologist nor an engineer. He was merely a gentleman, with a strong dash of politics. It must be obvious, therefore,

ST. JOHN'S RESIDENCE IN THE LEVANT.

that between him and the Levantines there could be no particular ground of quarrel. He was not there to thwart them in any of their speculations-did not stand in their way, or they in his-and had, in fact, no object but to observe their manners and customs himself.

Eschewing the quarter of Alexandria appropriated to the Franks, he pitched his tent among the native Christians—not precisely because he preferred them to the Muslims, but because among the latter it would be difficult to find a family which would receive a Frank into its bosom. Many of the Levantines themselves would have shrunk from him as a heretic; but Sitt Madoula, the widow of an Italian physician, had, at all events, profited so far by her connexion with one European, as to be able to tolerate the company of another. Her son Iskender had made still further advances in the track of civilization; and was rather proud than otherwise-as well he might be-of associating with a Frank from the far West, who had come to Egypt expressly for the purpose of studying the character of its inhabitants, and reporting on the subject to Europe.

Still it was only by slow degrees, and as he gained more and more familiarity with the language, that Mr. St. John really found himself at home among the Levantines; and no doubt there still continue many traits in their character, manners, and customs, down to which even his assiduous and protracted scrutiny did not enable him to descend. However, his volume is one of the most charming and instructive we have ever read on any portion of the Levant. To the careless observer his sprightliness and vivacity may, at first sight, conceal his philosophy; but a greater familiarity with the volume will, unquestionably, show that, beneath the surface of an easy and gossiping narrative, there lies a mine of good sense and profound observation. What we are most pleased with is, the absence of bigotry. Whatever religion or sect the writer has to speak of, he does so without bitterness or injustice; thinking it no part of his duty, as a traveller, unfairly to disparage or exalt any sect or party.

When a writer's philosophy is not contained in formal dissertation, but lies scattered through his pages like a vein of gold running through a mountain-now appearing and glittering on the surface, and now descending and hiding itself in its depths-it would be a weary task to give the reader a correct idea of it. We shall, therefore, not make the attempt. The book is small and cheap, and in all respects calculated to become popular; so that the instruction it contains may be said to be We shall undertake the more within the reach of every one. agreeable task of skimming along its surface, and selecting some c 2

few of its lively passages, which cannot fail to fascinate all who peruse it. These extracts will suffice to show that, if the traveller who moves over a vast extent of country can sometimes astonish by the grandeur of his pictures-by grouping and presenting in one view an immense assemblage of objects-by delineating mighty deserts, or pursuing the course of vast and fertilizing rivers the man who stations himself on one spot, notices minute peculiarities, sketches personal characters, and develops the unambitious features of domestic life, likewise possesses advantages entirely his own. The one awakens those powerful emotions which await on greatness and sublimity; the other touches those softer and more delicate feelings which belong to the domain of the heart and the affections. The former passes over the earth like a mere intelligence, sympathizing with nothing, but observing and delineating all things; the latter enters into his subject like a man from whom nothing human is alien. We like both; but, as a general rule, what belongs to manners and character is more permanently interesting than that which derives its fascination from external nature and the elements, or from men contemplated in vast masses.

The reader will remember what Sterne says of a certain class of men who will travel from Dan to Beersheba and find all barren. The aridity is in their own minds. What they are in search of is something with which to inflate their own consequence, or amuse or flatter the consequential classes of readers; and as nature does not abound with this sort of material, they really must be at a loss to find anything worthy of their notice. Not ranging at all in this category, Mr. Bayle St. John no sooner found himself on the northern skirt of Africa, than he began to rove with the Arabs and observe their peculiarities. F One of the first things which strikes everybody could not, of course, escape him: we mean that propensity to vituperation, abuse, and rage, which the lower orders of Arabs so pertinaciously indulge in. The French, Italians, and other continental nations possess so rich a vocabulary of abuse that Englishmen generally find themselves stricken with amazement at the fertility of their genius; but it is nothing after all to the copia verborum of the Arabs. Had Sterne, when about to write his chapter of curses, consulted any old woman of Alexandria, she would unquestionably have enabled him to enlarge it greatly. We here in Europe, when inclined to indulge in the luxury of malediction, are generally content with the present generation; but an Oriental, when he undertakes this agreeable duty, will go back to the flood, and curse you up all your progenitors to the very moment of the commination. It was with no little surprise that Mr. St. John first witnessed the exhibition of this Oriental

Hegel, that God is simply identical with the process of thought and reason in human consciousness, and has no other existence than in its perpetual development!

While we freely admit that speculation has run wild among our neighbours, we are far from joining the hue-and-cry against Germany and everything German, in which some have of late indulged, from sheer unacquaintance with the object of their alarm. They seem to have reasoned thus:-Some things from Germany are bad; therefore all are bad. To forswear, as many well-meaning persons are inclined to do, everything German, without discrimination, is about as reasonable as to forswear all history. We doubt not that the increased study of German literature in this country, and of English literature in Germany, will be mutually beneficial to the philosophy and the denominational theology of both countries; for it will bring to the test of a foreign tribunal, national or sectional systems and modes of thinking, which, at home, are like objects that are too near to the eye to be most advantageously examined.

Mr. Blakey is evidently a hearty believer in the truths of our holy religion; and his concern for the interests of morality and Christianity always deserves our respect. In a prime matter of philosophy, however, we cannot speak of him as holding doctrine quite to our mind. His heterodoxy here is, truly, on a most vital point-no other than the entire nature and character of Logic. From the time of Aristotle, at least, logic has been presupposed in all the branches of science (vide Met. iv. 3); it has been considered as lying tacitly at their basis, if not formally and openly. The first great master of reasoning laid down, more than two thousand years ago, the principle that we either learn the general from the individual and particular, or the individual and particular from the general. The first mode of procedure is inductive reasoning; the latter deductive, as found in the ordinary syllogism. It is true, no doubt, that Aristotle's was not a mere formal logic, like that of Kant, and many since his time. It did not content itself with merely analyzing the forms and functions of thought; it extended itself to the real, and sought the exemplification of the forms of thought in the investigation of the varied modes of being to which these forms correspond. But in so doing, Aristotle departed from the true scope of logic, and diverged into another branch of philosophy, namely, metaphysics. The more modern views of logic have tended, with propriety, to limit it to the formal science; but both Aristotle and his remotest followers have agreed in regarding it as embracing within its range all the subjects on which we can reason, or, in other words, as applicable to them all; it has always been the science of proof in general. Not so our author. He asserts that logic is con

Mr. St. John's pictures of Alexandrian life fully bear out our views on this subject. He observes, that

Among the most characteristic sights to be seen in Alexandria, is what is called a fantasia, or procession for a marriage or circumcision, often united in one. The poor children about to be admitted within the pale of Islamism are handsomely drest, generally as girls, and are carried on horseback; each is bound to hold a white handkerchief over its mouth; women with cakes strung on sticks walk beside them, and give them when they ask. In very hot weather an umbrella is held over their heads. The horses are borrowed, of course, and are often richly caparisoned. Two huge drums and a few fifes precede, and at the head of all there is generally sham-fighting with staves; some of the combatants indulge in a sort of symbolical dance, now kneeling, now stooping, and making all sorts of gestures and grimaces. Any one who chooses takes the stick in turn. A man carrying a flag, or else a long reed, is generally near the head of the procession, and sometimes a buffoon with a long thin beard rides about on a donkey.

'I went in the afternoon to see a splendid affair of the kind. An immense crowd accompanied the buffoons and the stickmen, who, on this occasion, were followed by a band of singers. After them came four or five camels with brilliant housings, and bearing the children devoted to circumcision; then some led horses; and then an awning of handsome striped muslin supported on four poles, and carried by whoever chose to offer his services. Under this, the poor little bride, completely enveloped, head, face, and all, in a piece of yellow crape, slowly shuffled along; whenever those who were amusing themselves ahead thought proper to make a move, she could not see her way, and two or three portly dames, who half enveloped her in their black silk mantles, acted as guides. A wild kind of merriment formed the chief characteristic of the scene. The women uttered the zugharit, or shrill cry of joy; boys were fighting who should carry the awning; others were cuffing each other, biting, kicking, and pinching; a few men employed to keep order enhanced the confusion by rushing here and there, and striking at random. Some attendants, with handsome cups and zorfs, or platters, offered coffee to all who chose to partake; others scattered perfume; others burned incense in little censers. The lookers-on seemed highly amused, and it was difficult to pass in the streets. Such a procession often lasts the whole day.'-P. 19.

As might be expected, the Arabs, like all other Orientals, are fond of the night, which, in the East, is inexpressibly beautiful. When they have to traverse the desert they select the night, the caravans, extending in long files, stretch themselves out, and appear interminable in the moonlight. The night also is a favourite time for little family feasts for parties of dancing girls, for visits to tombs, for a stroll in the palm groves, or for witnessing the humours of a fair. Mr. Bayle St. John falling naturally into the ways of the people, soon contracted their taste