and fifty feet in length, and a hundred in breadth. This consisted of three parts, the porch, the sanctuary, and the holy of holies. Over the porch was a tower a hundred and twenty cubits high. The sanctuary, or nave of the temple, contained the altar of incense and the table of shew-bread; the holy of holies, a square of twenty cubits, contained the ark of the covenant, in which were the two tables of stone, on which were engraved the ten commandments.

4. This vast edifice, which employed one hundred and eighty thousand men for seven years in its construction, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzer, four hundred and twenty-four years after it was built. After the seventy years of captivity, the Jews returned and built a second temple; but inferior to the first in magnificence. This was destroyed when the city was taken by Titus, and the Jews ceased to be a nation.

1.

LIII. MOUNT SINAI.

T the extremity of the valley of Faran, in Arabia, is a range of mountains, called by the Arabians, Gibbel Mousa, the mountains of Moses. One eminence is called Tursina, and is supposed to be the Sinai of the ScripAbout seven miles from the foot of this mountain stands the convent of St. Catharine, an edifice of a hundred and twenty feet in length, and nearly square. The whole is of hewn stone.

ture.

2. In front stands a small building, in which is the only gate of the convent, which is always shut except when the bishop is present; at other times whatever is introduced, whether persons or provisions, is raised to the roof in a basket by a pulley. Yet the Arabs say the monks enter by a subterranean passage. Before the convent is a large garden.

3. No stranger is permitted to enter without permission of the bishop, who usually resides at Cairo. The monks are supported chiefly by alms, and their provisions, which are collected in Cairo, are often stolen on the way, by the Arabs. The Arabs also fire upon the convent from the neighbouring rocks, and often seize the monks when abroad, and make them pay for their ransom.

4. On the side of this hill is a huge stone, which the Arabs say, is that which Moses divided by his sword to procure water. In this vicinity there are many springs of good water.

Fifteen hundred paces above the convent, stands a chapel dedicated to the virgin Mary, and five hundred paces above this, two others situated on a plain. The whole mountain is ascended by fourteen hundred stone steps, and on the top is a Christian church and a Turkish mosque. From this spot there is a noble view of the valley of Riphidim and the Red Sea.

LIV. RUINS of PALMYRA.

1.IN plaqual distance between the Medi N the barren plains of Syria, south-east of Aleppo,

terranean and the Euphrates, are to be seen the stupendous ruins of the magnificent city of Palmyra. The city, it is conjectured, was the Tadmor of the wilderness, built, or more properly enlarged and fortified by Solomon. It stood at the point formed by the approach of two converging hills, which furnish two springs of water, without which the place would not be habitable.

2. It is probable that this city was built and supported by the profits of a lucrative trade, carried on by caravans between Syria and the Persian gulf. It rose to a state of unequalled splendour and wealth, as is evident from its ru

ins.

It was reduced under the power of the Romans by the emperor Trajan. It revolted under its prince Odenathus-but this prince being slain by his nephew, the sovereignty devolved on Zenobia, his wife, a woman of remarkable intrepidity, who withstood for a time the power of Rome. But Zenobia was at last conquered and taken prisoner, and a Roman garrison left in Palmyra. A second revolt provoked Aurelian to destroy the city; and in this catastrophe perished the elegant critic, Longinus.

3. As the traveller approaches these ruins, he is struck with astonishment at the number, size, and beauty of the white marble columns, some of them standing, others fallen or defaced, which form a range of twenty-six hundred yards. In one place he sees the walls of a ruined palace; in another, the peristyle of a temple, half destroyed; on one side a portico, a gallery or triumphal arch; on the other, a group of magnificent columns. On all sides he is surrounded with subverted shafts, some entire, others broken; the earth is strewed with vast stones half buried, with broken entablatures, damaged capitals, mutilated frizes, violated tombs, and altars defiled with dust.

4. But the spectator's curiosity will be arrested by the majestic remains of the Temple of the Sun. This noble edifice covered a square of two hundred and twenty yards. It was compassed with a stately wall, built with large square stones, and adorned with pilasters, within and without, to the number of sixty-two. Within the court are the remains of two rows of marble pillars, thirty-seven feet high, with capitals of exquisite workmanship. Of these, fifty-eight remain entire. This edifice stands in the direction of the meridian, and on the west is a magnificent entrance, on the -sides of which are vines and clusters of grapes, carved in the most masterly imitation of nature.

length, inclosed with t

5. North of this place is an obelisk, about fifty feet high, consisting of seven large stones, besides its capital. About a hundred paces from the obelisk, is a magnificent entry to a piazza, forty feet broad, and more than half a mile in rows of marble pillars, twenty-six feet high, and each xine feet in compass. Of these one hundred and twenty-nine remain, and by computation the whole number must have been five hundred and sixty. Such majestic ruins, in the midst of a desert, and inhabited only by a few miserable Arabs, whose huts are scattered among vast and splendid columns of marble, awaken in the mind, the most melancholy reflections upon the instability of all human greatness.

1.

LV. Of the PYRAMIDS in EGYPT.

BOUT twelve miles from Cairo, the metropolis. A of Egypt, and on the opposite or west side of the Nile, stands the pyramids, about ten miles from the scite of the ancient Memphis. The large ones are three in number, situated upon a ridge of rocky hills, on the border of the Lybian desert. This ridge rises from the plain of Egypt about one hundred feet.

2. The largest of these stupendous works is six hundred feet square at the base, and five hundred feet high, composed of soft calcareous stone, which also forms the hill where it stands. The whole area covered by this mass of stone is out eleven acres of ground. On the outside are steps by which a person may ascend, but not without danger, as the steps are much decayed, except on the south side. On the top is a level platform, sixteen feet square, where a person

may repose and enjoy one of the most extensive prospects

on earth.

3. Sixteen steps above the base there is an entrance into this pyramid, about three feet square; from which is a steep descent of ninety-two feet. Within are spacious galleries, halls and chambers, lined with Thebaic marble, or porphyry, in stones of a vast size. Within one of these apartments is a tomb of one entire piece of marble, hollowed and uncovered at the top, conjectured to have been the sepulchre of the founder. This tomb, like the pyramid, stands exactly north and south. At what time, by what prince, and for what purpose, this and the other pyramids were erected, are questions that are left to conjecture. The common idea is, that they were intended for the tombs of kings. At any rate, mankind agree that they durable monuments of the gre extreme folly, as well as the despotism of their founders, and of the miserable slavery of their subjects.

LVI. Of JOSEPH'S WELL in CAIRO.

1.ON the south side of Cairo, is a rocky hill, on

which stands a castle, within which is an extra

This

ordinary well, which supplies the castle with water. well is dug into a soft rock, to the depth of two hundred and seventy feet. A winding staircase is cut out of the same rock, about six feet wide, but separated from the well by a thickness of half a yard of the rock, to prevent persons from falling into the well or even looking in, except by small holes made to let in light.

2. The steps are broad and the descent easy; but persons descending are incommoded by dirt. At the depth of one hundred and fifty feet, is a large chamber or apartment, where oxen are employed to raise the water by means of wheels and machinery. The water being raised to this place, is carried to the top by other wheels, worked also by oxen. From this place the descent is more difficult, the stairs beang narrow, and not separated from the shaft of the well by a partition. The water raised from this well is distributed in pipes to different parts of the castle.

LVII. Extract from the ORATION of THOMAS DAWES, ESQ. Delivered at Boston, July 4, 1787.

HAT education is one of the deepest principles of independence, need not to be laboured in this assembly. In arbitrary governments, where the people neither make the laws nor choose those who legislate, the more ignorance the more peace.

2. But in a government where the people fill all the branches of the sovereignty, intelligence is the life of liberty. An American would resent his being denied the use of his musket; but he would deprive himself of a stronger safeguard, if he should want that learning which is necessary to a knowledge of his constitution.

3. It is easy to see that our agrarian law and the law of education, were calculated to make republicans,-to make men. Servitude could never long consist with the habits of such citizens. Enlightened minds and virtuous manners lead to the gates of glory. The sentiments of independence must have been connatural in the bosoms of Americans, and sooner or later, must have blazed out into public action.

4. Independence fits the seat of her residence for every noble enterprize of humanity and greatness. Her radiant smile lights up celestial ardour in poets and orators, who sound her praises through all ages; in legislators and philosophers, who fabricate wise and happy governments as dedications to her fame; in patriots and heroes, who shed their lives in sacrifice to her divinity.

5. At this idea does not our minds swell with the memory of those whose godlike virtues have founded her most magnificent temple in America? It is easy for us to maintain her doctrines, at this late day, when there is but one party on the subject,-an immense people. But what shall we bestow, what sacred pean shall we raise over the tombs of those who dared, in the face of unrivalled power, and within the reach of majesty, to blow the blast of freedom throughout a subject continent.

6. Nor did those brave countrymen of ours only express the emotions of glory; the nature of their principles inspir ed them with the power of practice; and they offered their bosoms to the shafts of battle, Bunker's awful mount is the capacious urn of their ashes: but the flaming bounds of the universe could not limit the flight of their minds.