allen into utter decay; except that the firstmentioned city remains a port of commercial consequence. But Ephesus is a mere heap of -uins; Pergamos has a population of 1500 Greeks, among 13,000 Turks; Sardis, once he splendid capital of Lydia, is a few mud uts; Thyatira (now Ak-hissar) has only one niserable Greek church; Laodicea (now Eskinissar) is a Turkish village, near masses and scattered fragments of ancient architecture and sculpture; and Philadelphia (now Allah Sher) has been shaken into dust by wars and earthquake. Of some of these, without tracing his route, we shall, at once, give the author's striking and mournful accounts. Ephesus." What would have been the asConishment and grief of the beloved apostle and Timothy, if they could have foreseen that a time would come when there would be in Ephesus neither angel, nor church, nor city! when the great city would become 'heaps, a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness; a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby! Once it had an idolatrous temple celebrated for its magnificence as one of the wonders of the world, and the mountains of Corissus and Prion re-echoed the shouts of ten thousand tongues,' Great is Diana of the Ephesians! Once it had Christian temples almost rivalling the pagan in splendour, wherein the image that fell from Jupiter lay prostrate before the cross, and as many tongues moved by the Holy Ghost made public avowal that Great is the Lord Jesus!' Once it had a bishop, the angel of the church, Timothy, and the beloved disciple St. John; and tradition reports that it was honoured with the last days of both these great men, and of the mother of our Lord. Some centuries passed on, and the altars of Jesus were again thrown down to make way for the delusions of Mahomet; the cross is removed from the dome of the church, and the crescent glitters in its stead; while within, the keblé is substituted for the altar. A few years more, and all may be silence in the mosque and in the church! A few unintelligible heaps of stones, with some mud cottages untenanted, are all the remains of the great city of the Ephesians! The busy hum of a mighty population is silent in death! Thy riches and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy caulkers, and the occupiers, of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, are fallen.' Even the sea has retired from the scene of desolation; and a pestilential morass, covered with mud and rushes, has succeeded to the waters which brought up the ships laden with merchandise from every country. * I was at Ephesus in January, 1824; the desolation was then complete; a Turk whose shed we occupied, his Arab servant, and a single Greek, composed the entire population; some Turcomans excepted, whose black tents were pitched among the fore entering the town was of an unpromising aspect, rocky and bare of trees, and in the winter must be very desolate, from the greater part of the low ground being covered with water. As we passed, however, under the arches of a bridge, and thence through a burial ground, the view improved much, from the abundance of cypresses, poplars, and other trees. On entering the town, now nearly dark, I was struck by some enormously high masses of walls on the left, strongly contrasted with the diminutive houses beneath and around them. I heard, subsequently, that they are the remains of the church of the Agios Theologos, or St. John.-Thursday, September 21, I accompanied a Greek priest to his church, the only church at present in Pergamos; it lies on the ascent of the castle-hill, and is a poor shed covered with earth. Though the sun was blazing in full splendour on all the scene without, this poor church was so dark within, that even with the aid of a glimmering lamp, I could not distinctly see the figures on the screen. On one side of it another priest kept a little school of thirty scholars. I gave him a Testament. The contrast between the magnificent remains of the church of St. John which lay beneath, and this its poor representative, is as striking as between the poverty of the present state of religion among the modern Greeks, and the rich abundance of gospel light which once shone within the walls of the Agios Theologos. "For a small bacshish (he adds, after other details) I was permitted to go into the bath, in which stands the celebrated vase. I had despaired of seeing it, as the bath was occupied by females during the morning, and subsequently by men: the evening, I was told, was the only time in which it could be shown. But a little money will sometimes open the doors of any bath; and I was actually admitted while a number of females were reclining on the marble benches around the vase. exaggerated accounts were given by the keepMost er of the bath of the sums offered by English milordi for this vase; one was said to have offered forty thousand piastres, and another to fill it with sequins. * * sus, and Cyrus, and Alexander, and covering "Sardis.-Identified with the names of Croand tens of thousands of men of war ;-great the plain with her thousands of inhabitants, earthquakes, and restored to its importance by even in the days of Augustus ;-ruined by the munificence of Tiberius;-Christian Sardis, offering her hymns of thanksgiving for deliverance from pagan persecution, in the magnifidis, again fallen under the yoke of a false relicent temples of the Virgin and Apostle ;-Sargion, but still retaining her numerous popula tion, and powerful defence, only five hundred years ago;-what is Sardis now? Her foundations are fallen; her walls are thrown down! "Of the temple of Cybele only two pillars remain at present; the Turks have recently destroyed the rest, for the sake of the lead connecting the blocks. It is impossible to behold these magnificent columns, of which the capital,' says Mr. Cockerell, appeared to me to surpass any specimen of the Ionic I had seen, in perfection of design and execution,' without being inexpressibly affected. Colonel Leake believes these remains to be antecedent to the capture of Sardis by Cyrus, and yet the columns are as perfect as if erected yesterday! The object of greatest interest to the Christian traveller are the ruins of two churches; one at the back of the mill, said to be the church of the Panagia, and another in front of it, called the church of St. John. Of the former there are considerable remains, and it is almost wholly constructed with magnificent fragments of earlier edifices; it must be this to which Colonel Leake alludes, as being perhaps the only one of the Seven Churches of which there are any distinguishable remains; but there are also some remains of the church of Pergamos. Of the other, there are several stone piers, having fragments of brick arches above them, and standing east and west. When Smith wrote, a Christian church, having at the entrance several curious pillars, was appropriated to the service of the mosque. * "Previous to quitting Sardis, I was deeply affected by an instance of bad principle in one of the two Christians at Sardis. I was anxious to send a letter to Smyrna, and requested this man simply to forward it by one of the numerous caravans which are almost hourly passing before the mill door, and, as an inducement offered to give him a Greek Testament. I had made the same man a present last December. He flatly and surlily refused to do it; while a Turk, who accidentally came in at the moment, voluntarily offered to convey it, and he was as good as his word."* It is but justice to observe, that on many occasions our author, though naturally partial to the Greeks, is obliged, by his regard for truth, to show the superiority of the Turkish character. Thus, at the outset, he says:"We left Smyrna at half-past three in the af ternoon of Tuesday, March 28, 1826: our party consisting of Memet, a janizary of the English consulate; Melchon or Milcon, an Armenian, the proprietor of the horses, dressed as a Turk; Mustapha, a surigee; and Nicola, a Greek servant of Mr. Hartley (a church missionary who accompanied the author). We had agreed to pay nine piastres a-day for each horse, and paid a sum in advance, stated by Milcon to be sufficient, with the stipulation that we were not to be called upon to pay the balance till our return to Smyrna; a stipulation he took care to break repeatedly upon the road. In addition to a very strong firman, for which I am indebted to the most kind application of Lord Strangford, about two years ago, and which embraced the whole of Asia Minor even to Cæsarea, we had no less reason than Dr. Smith to praise the governor of Smyrna, not now a We pass over Thyatira as a popul and Laodicea as offering nothing of nary contrast, beyond heaps of prost deur; and conclude these exampl portion of the description of the 1 Seven Churches. Philadelphia.-"We arrived at A the ancient Philadelphia, at a quar eleven, entering the town, through the old wall, but which, being buil stones, did not appear to be much ancient, than the last days of the lowe tended route from Smyrna to his p Isbarta; and his principal officers w obliging in giving me letters of in for Philadelphia, Ignighioul, &c." at the Hermus. "The ferry-boat wa ed; no alternative remained but to river, or return to Smyrna witho Thyatira. It was very broad, and lo formidable. While we were hesitat Turkish lad of eighteen came up t unsolicited, offered to be our guide companied us to the brink of the riv way below, and pointed out the ford The surigee plunged in, but befo reached a quarter of the way across, terrified and returned. The young stantly mounted one of the horses, a before us. It was providentially no or rapid as to throw the horses off t though' very broad, and we reached site bank in safety, though sufficio We offered some money to our guid earned it so well, but, with a generos formed a most striking contrast to th of the Christian at Sardis, he positive to take a para!" At Demish, a v circumstance occurred which proved Turks are much better informed, a every thing connected with their own and history, than we are usually d allow. A splendidly dressed Turk the khan, to whom the others paid respect, that I fancied he was the place, and probably he was so. He anxious to tell me that he had a ve ancient coin, and that he had sent a fetch it. In a short time it came, a to be a coin of one of the Saracen having on one side a Cufic inscrip asked me if I knew what it was. that it was a coin of no value; that were Cufic, Eski Arab; that I could them, and that very few people cou felt quite sure nobody in Demish c them. The Turk said, I will show you are mistaken, and immediately p coin into the hand of an old whit imaun, directed him to read it. The having put on his spectacles in due rubbed off the dirt, letter after lette finger, began to read; and to my ast read every word to the perfect satis every body around him. I only rem date, 1262 or 1267, and the word Mele long remember my dessert at Demis appetite of a gourmand. A splendi he passage through the streets was filthy inson, quære Sadjakla? see Lempriere) the furhe extreme, though the view of the place as thest point of the route eastward and beyond we approached it was extremely beautiful, and Isbarta, is curious; though we cannot but think well entitled to the appellation of the fair it deformed by such canting as occurs in the ity.' I had a letter for the Motslem from Su- annexed. eiman Aga, the grand customer of Smyrna; Memet carried it to him; and returned speedily with a very different expression of countenance rom his sombre looks, while fasting at Ignig. ioul. The Motslem not only sent his cashier nstantly to supply us with all the money we night need, but requested us to go to the Greek bishop's palace, who had his orders to odge and entertain us in the best manner posible. We walked through the town and up o the hill on which formerly stood the Acropolis; the houses were mean in the extreme, and we saw nothing on the hill but some valls, evidently of much more modern date han either the times of the Roman or even he lower empire. On an adjoining hill, sepa-ated from the first by a deep fosse or a narrow ravine, were similar fragments of walls, but we observed a few rows of large square stones just appearing above the surface of the ground. The view from these elevated situations was magnificent in the extreme; highly cultivated gardens and vineyards lay at the back and sides of the town, and before it one of the most extensive and richest plains in Asia. The Turkish name, Allah Sher, the city of God,' reminded me of the psalmist: beautiful for situation is mount Zion,' &c. There is an affecting resemblance in the present condition of both these once highly favoured cities of God; the glory of the temple is departed from both; and though the candlestick has never been removed from Philadelphia, yet it emits but a glimmering light, for it has long ceased to be trimmed with the pure oil of the sanctuary. We returned through a different part of the town, and though objects of much curiosity, were treated with civility, confirming Chandler's observation, that the Philadelphians are a civil people.' It was extremely pleasing to see a number of turtle-doves on the roofs of the houses; they were well associated with the name of Philadelphia. The storks retain possession still of the walls of the city, as well as the roofs of many of the houses." Considering the foregoing to be the most interesting separate extracts which Mr. Arundell's volume affords, we shall not dwell long on other parts of his narrative. One of his greatest geographical achievements appears to be the having determined and explored the site of Apameia, once Celæne, the capital of Phrygia; which is undoubtedly at Deenare, (the Dinglar of Pococke,) near the source of the Meander. To this source Mr. Arundell also penetrated on his second journey, by way of Tripolis. The account of Sagalassus,* (Agla "At a quarter past ten, having crossed the stream for the eighteenth time, we were among mountains covered to the base with snow. Our road lay up the steep side of a lofty mountain; the snow gave a smooth surface to the whole, except where some craggy rocks, elevated a little above the snow, proved that the ground beneath was extremely rugged and full of pits. The ascent was difficult and perilous in the extreme; my horse fell repeatedly, and the baggage horses almost at every step. Long before we were half way up, I gave up all hope of being able to get the baggage horses to the top, and it was not without great labour, our poor horses falling and trembling as they plunged up to the shoulder at every step, that we reached the summit ourselves. Having rested a short time, I left my horse, and walked back again to look after the bag. gage. The party had just reached half way; most of the baggage having fallen or been taken from the horses, lay scattered about in all directions, half buried in the snow; and the men were completely exhausted. Notwithstanding it was the ramazan, I ventured to offer some rakee to the surigee and mustapha, which they thankfully accepted, and its effect was to stimulate them to fresh and great exertions; and ultimately, by the mercy of God, we were all safe at the summit. A more perilous day I never recollect to have passed. The ground was ornamented profusely on the top of the hill with a beautiful species of crocus: I dug up several roots in commemoration of His protecting and guiding hand to which we owed so much. The fatigue we had undergone made rakee quite as medicinal to us as to our attendants; and being sufficiently re-invigorated, we began to descend the mountain at half past twelve o'clock. On this side, having a southern aspect, the snow providentially did not lie, but the road was narrow, winding, stony, and perpendicular. We at last arrived at the bottom, about one o'clock." The digging up of crocus roots in honour of the Almighty, sounds to us very like fanatical profanation; and there are several other passages of the same kind in these pages, which might as well have been spared.-Aglason, or rather a mountain near it, is fertile in coins, medais, and inscriptions: of these, the author has brought several away; but the spot seems to invite a far longer abode, and more complete investigation from the antiquary. Of "all we saw," observes Mr. A. " the theatre most strongly attracted our attention, being in a state of preservation superior even to those of Laodicea and Hierapolis; I could almost fancy the crowds of ancient days rushing in at the different portals, and impatiently taking their places. The seats, forty in number, were was covered with snow, as well as a large heap of stones, close to the proscenium. Among those covered, we saw a good deal of architectural ornament of excellent execution, but neither bas-relief nor inscription. We had no means of ascertaining the external diameter; but the interior must be about ninety feet, as the pulpitum of the proscenium was above eighty-six. In the pulpitum was a centre door fifteen feet high and nine wide, and two smaller doors on either side, of which the nearest was eleven feet high and nine wide, but the most remote, near the ends of the cavea, only five including one of the door-posts. The distance between the pulpitum and the scene was eighteen feet. From the doors of the pulpitum were four steps to descend into the orchestra. The dramatis person were a solitary fox and a covey of red-legged partridges." Before adding a very few brief quotations, illustrative of existing manners and circumstances, we will trace the outline of the routes, which extended to about 200 miles, as the crow flies, from Smyrna, but were both laborious and difficult in their circuitous run. The first was across the Tmolus mountain, by Metropolis, to Ephesus; thence to Inekbazar, and up the course of the Meander by Akchay, and Nosli, to Sairikeuy (Caroura). Here Hierapolis, near the river Lycus, Laodicea, Denizli, Khonas, &c. were visited; and the traveller next proceeded by Chardak and the north of lake Anava to Deenare. The second route skirted the south of the Tmolus mountain, by Baindir, Demish, Kelles, and Debrent, to Tripolis. From Tripolis to Ishekti N.E.; thence S.E. by Omai and Deenare to Isbarta and Sagalassusthe return by a Salt Lake; and lastly, striking up to the north by Sardis (near the Hermus), Thyatira, Pergamos, round to Smyrna. The most northern line appears, according to the plan, to run nearly parallel to the most southern on the Mæander, at the distance of about eighty miles. We now conclude with the promised miscellanies. A whimsical Alarm.-After leaving Isbarta, "we retired to rest at an early hour, and in no long time I was awoke out of a sound sleep by a voice exclaiming, What is this? what is it-I have hold of a man's hand, a man's hand, really a man's hand! I was alarmed; for our apartment having no fastening to the door, it was not an impossible thing that, among the multitude of characters in the khan, some thief had crept in. The alarm was quickly given; but it was almost as quickly discovered that it was the alarmist's own hand, which he had grasped so firmly in the other as to occasion a stoppage of the circulation. Some Armenians, who slept in an adjoining apartment separated only by a very thin partition were sadly alarmed; and we heard one of them saying his prayers for a full hour afterwards with uncommon earnestness." Anecdote. A most extraordinary instance of the pertinacity with which a Greek adheres to his religion, occurred only five days ago at Denizli. A man was accused of adultery with a Turkish woman; the alternative, in such is either character, refused to abjure Christ, two thousand strokes of the bastin after lingering for three days in a state of suffering, died; and will hen held in high regard by the Greek ch martyr." Bread.--" During a residence of i and a half in Asia Minor, I have ne such delicious bread as at Kirgagal amusing to observe the varied kinds of bread which a traveller meets wit a journey as short as mine. The co and frangoli (the latter is a long roll, met with generally only as you appré in four or five days of Smyrna. Furt interior, you have large pancakes: brown paper, which are eaten either or several doubled together. At Bou bread was of a more singular form. thicker than a good English pancak stead of being circular, about a yard four inches wide." Animals. The neighbourhood of abounds with jackals; wild boars a merous; and about two years since was killed between that village an Lions have, I believe, never been hea Sedikeuy; but a lion was seen a few on the road to Nymphæum, by I. Between Sedikeuy and Ephesus, v frequently inet with. The lynx has been seen in the mountains of Sedil an enormous tiger, represented by th as high as a mule, is at the presen committing dreadful ravages among and dogs of the shepherds. Its abod summit of a very lofty rock, about south-east of the village. On the mountain of Tartalee, the ancient two species of bears, a large and sma one reddish-brown, and the other not unfrequently seen. Since the written, the supposed tiger which mitted such ravages has been killed, a to be a leopard of enormous size. down on the flock of an old sheph having no arms, depended for his sa old dog and her three young ones years old. The mother commence tack, but the leopard placed her c tween his forelegs; a young dog wa the same way; but a second fixed h the eye and lip of the beast, and kep mined a hold, that the others were and after a fierce contest, succeeded the leopard." Hurl'd with tremendous hand the fleecy storm, But smiling o'er the pallid plain, Mild, modest emblem of Hope's fragile form; Springs from its frozen shroud in Beauty's h! first to blossom in life's vernal day, And first, to promise Heav'n's reviving ray, orsake me not, sweet Hope, when strength shall fail, And Death's last storm the trembling heart But plant thy root in that firm ground NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. - A PRACTICAL SKETCH OF THE CHARACTER OF DAVID, the Monarch of Israel, founded on 2 Samuel xv. 30. Addressed to Youth. By Robert Newstead. Holdsworth. 1s. THE young are particularly attracted by the history of David, his early life as a shepherd -his valour-his various persecutions-his friendship-his poetry-and his character as a king. The variety of incidents in his life afford much scope for instructive remark, of which Mr. Newstead has availed himself, and has presented many most important instructions to the young, which we recommend to their attention. The following is a specimen of the work 4. "We proceed to contemplate the humility of David. Though here again we are reminded of the same thing adverted to, when speaking of his general piety; there is the less occasion to dwell at much length on this, as a particular feature of his character, because it mingles itself with all we have to consider, and may well be compared to the fruitful soil, out of which all his other excellent graces sprang. But it was so striking on the occasion last mentioned, that it must be briefly adverted to here. For, not to mention his having been anointed king over Israel at the express command of God by the holy prophet Samuel,-his having been girded with the armour of the reigning king, and having the prospect of becoming the king's son-in-law. might reasonablu kan. cumstance of the sentiment of the triumphal song of the Israelitish women who came out "to meet king Saul with tabrets and with instruments of music," and who answered one another, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and DAVID HIS TEN THOUSANDS," (1 Sam. xviii. 6, &c.) appears never to have been forgiven by Saul, and undoubtedly contributed much to all the future train of evils which David suffered from him; but, although so flattering to the pride of David, it never appears to have elevated him improperly, nor to have induced any unbecoming haste in aspiring to the crown, the thing which Saul so much feared; it seems not to have fostered the least ambitious view in David, but rather the contrary. He appears, so far from eagerly pursuing that object which is so generally attractive, to have most willingly declined it, till the very period when Divine Providence had made his path so clear, and his duty so obvious, that it would have been sin in him to have declined it any longer. He ever speaks of himself in language the most humble, on all occasions, which in so young a man, and one so highly favoured, can be attributed to nothing but divine grace. He was a striking example of the truth of the saying, that honour and fame, though they fly from those who too assiduously pursue them, ever pursue those who retire in humility from their approach. We know HIM who hath said, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted:" and let us ever remember, that where there is no true humility, there is no true religion." pp. 26-28. THE CHILD'S COMMENTATOR ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES; made plain and familiar to meet the infant capacity, and illustrating many portions in a manner interesting and instructive. By Ingram Cobbin, A. M. Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis. Price 2d. In Monthly Numbers. specting this work :THE author thus expresses his views re "He hopes that the methods he has adopted will lead children to love and read the Bible: by explaining certain portions of it in a plain and simple way, and yet incorporating much become familiar with many of those customs, that is instructive and interesting, they will which, being Oriental, are quite strange and unintelligible, not only to children, but also to many adults; and, by short and pointed remarks, they will learn to see what improvement may be made of the sacred pages, so as not to read them as a mere story. "It must be obvious, that only select porWork; and these will be commented upon in tions of Scripture can be included in this little short paragraphs, to render their perusal more easy. The order of the books will be pursued; and it is intended not to exceed forty-eight |