CELEBRATED RUINS. BY NICHOLAS MICHELL, AUTHOR OF "THE EVENTFUL EPOCH." Nɔ. I. THEBES. Egypt! thou land of ancient pomp and pride, Whose fame, a star, on earth's dark midnight shone ; The tall papyrus whispering to the wind With many a tale that charms, and thought that glows; The comet's course, and named each glittering star. As when the bark rode on in triumph there. Thebes, that still hears the Memnon's mystic tones, Obelisks to Heaven high lift their sculptured pride As wrapped in thought, or sunk in grief profound. So vast, sublime the view, we almost deem We rove, spell-bound, through some fantastic dream, E'en as we walk these fanes, and ruined ways, The mighty columns ranged in long array, The sculptures fresh as chiselled yesterday, The common tale is, that Cadmus introduced his sixteen letters into Greece from Phoenicia; but the learned and indefatigable Champollion and others have now pretty satisfactorily proved that in Egypt the Phonetic characters were first invented, and succeeded to hieroglyphics, or picture-writing. Cadmus, a Phœnician prince, is said to have visited Egypt for purposes of commerce; hence papyri, inscribed with the newly-invented character, having fallen into his hands, the error arose, on his settling in Greece, that to Phoenicia was to be ascribed the honour of the invention of letters. Typhon is the Principle of Evil in Egyptian mythology, answering to the Arimanes of Zoroaster, and the Eblins of less ancient Oriental fiction. We scarce can think two thousand years have flown, Here let me sit in Karnac's gorgeous hall, Slow rises Evening's moon; the silvery shower Sesostris is the warlike king, the Alexander of Egypt; he overran with his arms, states Diodorus, all the countries which lie between Egypt and further India. + Solomon, in the year before Christ 1014, married the daughter of the Egyptian King, and with that monarch contracted a friendly and close alliance. The Court of the 134 Pillars in the grand temple at Karnac, several of these pillars being fifty feet high, and of the enormous circumference of thirty-four feet. This hall, which forms but a portion of the main building, has, perhaps, no parallel in the whole world. The roof of the adytum, or secret chamber of the temple, is formed by three immense slabs of granite, on which are painted, on a blue ground several of the constellations. The colours are at this day surprisingly fresh. § The statue of Memnon, so famous for its vocal qualities, stands at a short distance from the Nile, opposite the temple at Luxor, but on the west side of the river. The rocky mountains of Gornoo, near Thebes, have been completely hollowed out to supply the ancient inhabitants with tombs. ANCIENT (IMAGINARY) LONDON. At LA Pika Duile He, or La Pika Dilê Hé (The Peak of the Black Head) stood at the end of Dover-street, where the upland falls naturally to the plain, for a long period after the Romans left Great Britain. that time the neighbourhood was forest land, and a broad sheet of water covered St. James's Park. Little ahead, floated at its ease, free and unincumbered of houses and inhabitants, the green and lovely island of Thorney. The whole of these extensive plains, from Hampstead Heath and all the near eminences, to the valley of the Thames, were full of rivulets and brooks of water; nor were there wanting large rivers, now done to death, to throw their beauty upon the country. Taking its rise from the same source, where the Storr and the Lee, the Gave and the Thame have theirs, a large river, rapid but not deep, whose name is now forgotten, had its origin. Early in its course forming the Bed of Ware, it flowed past the town of the same name, and, crossing the country westward, it passed the town of Edgware. It thence took its way across the fields lying between that town, and the hill upon which Harrow stands, and so to Bayswater, formed the water called the Serpentine, and, falling down in cascades to Knightsbridge, flowed thence through woods into the River Thames between Thorney Island and Chelsea. This river's name was "Ware." Besides there was an island, the Gor, or Gore, situated between the waterfalls of the Ware and the Countess Creek, and another between the Countess Creek and Hammersmith Creek. Opposite Thorney Island was Lamb's Heath (Lambeth). Across it, issuing from Brixton Wash, into which, from inland, entered the Effra, flowed a river called the Stean, or Stan. In its course it was the parent of a lake (Lambeth Marsh), and entered the Thames at Stangate Creek. Adjoining Lamb's Heath, which in extenso formed a part of them, were the Urz i Li (Horselydown) Wild Boar Plains. Here were lakes from which the parent stream had not been diverted. The names of Loman's Pond and Maze Pond are now to be found. Here was an upland, which still retains the name of hill (St. Margaret's-at-Hill), though whether hill, or cliff, or a bank by the river's side in Roman times, no record says. In time after the tower the Roman erected, which from its excellence was called the Wark, southwards began to be built a town called Southwark, and afterwards Bergen, or Berm on der Zee (Bermondsey). What was the state of the river? Has that undergone no change? No question, that the power and force of the water, its extent, as well as depth, were much greater. Not a river! Say an inland sea. as high as Chelsea and Battersea, whose names confirm it, it was a sea. Even Descending from that lovely vale, where in Caen Wood it takes its rise, the Fleet, a stream, like the Ware, rapid but not deep, swept along its channel in those plains, which lie at the base of the far-famed hills of Highgate and of Hampstead, so well to cockneys known, where many an idle hour is spent by many an idle man. Its course through woods, in parts scarce was seen, but yet was witness to a desperate battle, which to the neighbourhood still gives the name of Battle Bridge, for here did combat the brave Queen of the Iceni, surnamed Boadicea, or Bonduca (Bona Duca, Good Leader), whose husband, Prasutagus (King of the South Country), was once the ally of a power, with whom, for just cause, he was then at enmity. It thence skirted the edge of a lake, which covered Spa Fields, out of whose bosom rose one or more aytes. Then, with the aid of this lake, and the river of Wells, it formed what we now call Smithfield into an island; a pretty sweet green islet, though now how sadly changed. It then widened, and passed by lofty hills, which were the boundary of the Roman city, whose eminences in comparison with to-day were of an height unparalleled: there deep and profound lay the River Fleet, a port fully capable to contain all the navy of that ancient London. East and west on either side of the not forgotten Fleet was water in abundance. To the west were Mary's-bourn, Kilburn, and Twyburn, and water which made Primrose Hill an island, and Cranbourn falling down a natural ravine, and many a brook beside. To the east, besides the River of Wells, were two rivulets, which issued from the marshes of the Lee, which then made an island of Hackney. Their names were the Hoon, or Yonne, and the Peer. The first, passing through Worm Wood, skirted the city wall, and gave its name to Houndsditch. The other conferred a name upon the meadows through which it flowed, and, forming Peerly's Pool, passed like the Hoon into other waters. He who then beheld the country I have described, with all these waters, and these woods, and hills, a woodman, a shepherd, or fisherman, their sole inhabitant, or native Briton, hiding to conceal himself from conquering Roman-he who then beheld the little city by the river's side, but he would look, with wonder and surprise, at rivers gone, at woods cut down, at high hills levelled to an even way, with the great multitude that now we see, whose end and termination is not yet, but promises to increase from year to year, until the doom of this great city comes, even though that increase be a thousand-fold! A LETTER VERSIFIED. BY EDWARD KENEALY, LL.B. OH! that my heart were of clear crystal made, That fires my thoughts, and renders pure my mind. IMMATERIALITIES; OR, CAN SUCH THINGS BE? BY CHARLES HOOTON. (CONCLUDING CHAPTER.) Insufficiency of Philosophy-Spectre seen on a Highroad-The Cotton Mill Mystery-Appearance of a Phantom at Noon-day. To go about for proof absolute, either of the existence or of the nonexistence of apparitions, appears to me a vain and useless task. For, in either case, mere theory must enter very largely into the discussional part of the question; and theory never yet determined either the right or the wrong, the truth or the falsehood, of any great general proposition. A good theory is at best but a good plausibility; and, by a truly wise man, would never be relied upon as within itself conclusive. Necessarily, then, all attempts to explain what has been termed the "philosophy of apparitions," are futile; and the time exhausted upon them, only so much time wasted to everybody, both authors and readers, except in the opinions of those who falsely consider matters purely speculative, in the light of real knowledge. The basis is yet wanting, upon which to erect a reasonable and coherent system. Nor, indeed, is there any probability that such a basis as the one required will ever be supplied. It is simply a question of immaterialities; and essentially of iminaterialities to the satisfactory investigation of which our knowledge of the relations of matter, however remotely carried, can lend only feeble, if any, aid. Yet, from the want of a due perception of these truths, a vast amount of useless labour has at different times been expended, in the endeavour philosophically to decide that which must at last be inevitably considered beyond and above the power of philosophical decision. The error does not consist with philosophy itself, but in the misapplication of its principles to a question with which, in its very nature, they can have nothing to do. In our present state of knowledge--or rather, perhaps, of ignorancerelative to these mysterious matters, the simple record of facts, as far as relations of the kind in question can be ascertained to be such, forms the only safe course that can be adopted. By taking any other, we only involve ourselves in those insuperable difficulties, which beset every man who commences where he ought to conclude, and attempts to explain before he fully understands. To this source, indeed, may be traced the great majority of those gross "scientific" blunders, those groundless and whimsical notions, those deep mental entanglements, which, under one form or other, have in all ages involved and misled mankind. The true art of castle-building in the air, is the art of raising up theories, hypotheses, and elaborate speculations, devoid of a sufficiently compact foundation of facts. It is a description of amusement in which the human mind delights to indulge, and which, consequently, has occupied the various schools of philosophy from the earliest times. The sooner, however, such a practice is abandoned, the better will it be for the interest of true knowledge: since speculation is essentially deceptive, by seeming to advance us, when in reality it advances nothing; but rather retards that progress which might actually be made, were the pursuit and attainment of facts alone, in the first place, attended to. It is, then, by no means contemplated to burden these pages with useless suppositions and conjectures respecting causes and appearances, concerning which, in reality, we are totally in the dark; but rather to |