give, just as I received it, since it may give the reader some idea of the present Greeks, shew their propensity for the marvellous, and the facility with which, from a few given circumstances, they can make out a wonderful story.

This building they call Goetria the Incantada, and affirm it to have been the work of magic art. On being asked when, and on what occasion, thisextraordinary fact was performed, they answered, "the fact was undoubted; every body knew that their great king, Alexander, conquered Persia; when he was preparing to invade that empire, he solicited the assistance of a king of Thrace, who accordingly united his forces to those of his Macedonían neighbour, attending in person, with his family, at the court of Alexander, where they were royally entertained, and lodged in a sumptuous pałace, near his own, communicating with it by means of a magnificent gallery, of which these columns are the remains. The Thracian queen, a lady of transcendant beauty, accompanied her husband on this visit. Alexander, young, and unaccustomed to control his passions, ardent in the pursuits of love as of glory, dazzled with such excess of charms, determined to violate the rights of hospitality and seduce the queen of Thrace. He contrived, by means of this gallery, to pay her frequent visits, though not so privily as to escape the notice of her husband, who, having verified

his suspicions, resolved to take a dreadful revenge on the deluder. He had, in his train, a skilful necro. mancer from Pontus, who, discovering by his art the instant that Alexander was to pass to the queen's apartment, scattered his spells and charms throughout this gallery; they were of such marvellous power, that whoever should, at a certain hour, attempt to pass, would inevitably be converted into stone. Aristotle, a conjuror, attached to Alexander, and of skill greatly superior to the man of Pontus, discovered his danger time enough to prevent it: by his advice and entreaties, Alexander was prevailed on to forbear for once his intended visit. The impatient queen, tired with expectation, sent one of her confidential servants to see if her lover was com ing, and she herself soon followed. At this instant, the king, supposing the magic had worked all its effect, issued forth, attended by his conjuror, to feast his eyes with a sight of the revenge he had taken; when, strange to relate, both companies, those with the king, as well as those with the queen, were instantly changed to stone, and remain to this hour a monument of vengeance ona jealous husband and an unfaithful wife."

The architecture of this building is very indifferent in point of taste, and is probably much. posterior to the other specimens described in this work.

MISCELLANEOUS

the Instability of the Greek and Roman Republics; from Whita. ker's real Origin of Government.

CHEN rose republics. The first that made its appearance in e world was at Athens. The en genius of Attica, wanting to / an experiment upon the univerI polity of man, to substitute a eature of its own reason for the brication of God's wisdom, and violate the primogenial law of ature in favour of a fantastical eory; took advantage of the death a self-devoted monarch, and, in pretended fear of never having good a monarch again, most unatefully deprived his family of the own, by venturing upon the bold novation of erecting a republic. hey thus inverted the pyramid of 3vernment, made it to stand upon s point, and reared its base in le air. The example, however, 'as afterwards followed by all the tates of Greece. They all gave ree scope to their fancies, in moelling their governments. They ut them to this form, they carved hem to that. But they still reduced hem nearer and nearer to an infficient simplicity of power. They hen considered them as more or ess perfect in their republican naCure. Yet they could find none hat would give them the promised

happiness. They were wretched under all. The grand principle of all, in supposing the power of government to be originally in the people, in believing the subjects to be virtually the sovereigns, in affirming the servants to be vitally the masters; propositions surely, however familiar to our ears at present, calculated only for the meridian of St. Luke's Hospital; this precluded all possibility of settlement; changes succeeded to changes, all was distraction, confusion, and misery. Having thrown their little world of society off from that central pin of authority, upon which it had been founded by God himself, they could never find a rest for it again. The divine equipoise had been rashly destroyed by the hand of man, and man felt his folly in his sufferings. The imputed power of the people was like the water of the ocean, now breaking through all its bounds as the balance of the globe was gone, and now sweeping in an irresistible deluge over the land. Yet, with something like the infatuation of the Jews in receiving their false Messiahs, they still welcomed every pretender to the cause of liberty, still hailed every factious man as a friend, and attached themselves to every reformer as a deliverer. These "declared," says Plutarch himself at a particular pe

riod of their Sicilian history, "that the end of their coming was to introduce liberty, and depose monarchs; but they did so tyrannize themselves, that the reign of the tyrants seemed a golden age, compared with the rule of these deliverers; which made the Sicilians to esteem

those more happy who had expired in slavery, than they who survived to see such a freedom." Nay, their feelings had been so severely wounded by this popular kind of tyranny, that when Timoleon had recovered their capital from its oppressions, he found the market-place rankly overgrown with grass, horses actually feeding upon it, and the groom lying upon the ground to attend them, that he therefore invited the emigrants to come back, and reinhabit their desolated city; that few however came, so much," adds the historian in a strain remarkably apposite to modern times, "did they dread and abhor the very name of those communities, and municipalities, and tribunals, which had produced the greatest part of their tyrants."

66

The power which had created the first revolution in Rome, was perpetually called upon to create others. Consuls, dictators, plebeian tribunes, military tribunes, or decemvirs, were successively and interchangeably appointed. The scale of power in the state under all, was continually sinking towards the people, till it touched the very ground at last. It sunk, therefore, loaded more and more with misery to them. They became the dupes of ambitious men, enlisted as partizans in their pursuits, and engaged as champions in their contests; were embarrassed with seditions, scourged with rebellions, and racked with

revolutions. At the last of these revolutions, Lucan describes one of the personages in his poetical history bursting out with all the agony of feeling for his wretched country; and exclaiming with envy at the happiness of the most absolute mo. narchies on the earth.

Felices Arabes, Medique Eoaque tellus, Quam sub perpetuis tenuerunt Fata tyrannis!

Geography considered in a political Point of View; from Mercier's Fragments.

HOEVER admits

WHO

an original

in the universe, whoever rejects the words fatality and chance, and surveys with an attentive eye the empires of ancient and modern times, will perceive an order of de. marcation upon the surface of our globe, and will not fail to recognize the hand that traced the limits and erected the ramparts. He will behold nations mutually contending till they are confined within the geographical circle drawn by nature; in that enclosure they enjoy the repose which was denied them when they overleaped the bounds.

When in the height of metaphysics, we feel something that resists, that repels us forcibly, that defeats us in spite of our efforts, it is a decisive mark that we go beyond our limits, and strain to surpass our na. tural capacity: it is a secret admonition which reminds us of our frailty, and corrects a presumptuous weakness. But, in the material world, when an evident principle enlightens reason at the commencement of its researches, it is a certain token that the mind possesses a fund! of resources which will enable it to draw

draw infallible conclusions. Let us first be natural philosophers: I have thought I could discern on the globe a decided intention of nature to separate states without too much disjoining them, to delineate geome. trically the form of empires, and to domiciliate kingdoms; I have thought I could perceive that the globe was so configured, as that navigation would one day be the tie to bind together the human race. -These ideas will no doubt please those who, struck with the harmonious immensity, believe, that the government of the universe presides majestically and necessarily over all other governments. We need only use our eyes, perhaps, to be convinced of these new truths: an attentive survey of geographical charts determines, in some measure, the positive extent of states; for the mountains, the rivers, and the lakes, are the unquestionable boundaries and guardians which kind nature has placed for the preservation and tranquillity of human associations.

But if the order of nature have visibly separated empires, it has on another hand decreed, that they shall have a mutual commerce of knowledge; its design in this respect is not concealed. When I hold in my hand a fragment of loadstone, and reflect that this stone, which appears in no way remarkable, informs us constantly of the direction of the north, and renders possible and easy the navigation of the most unknown seas, I have about me a convincing proof that nature in tended a social life for man. All these indications of design seem, therefore, to evince that her views tend simply to unite men, and make them share in common the good things disseminated over the globe. VOL, XXXVII.

Whenever, for the preservation of the whole, a great crisis of nature occasions the disruption of a small portion of the globe, you suddenly perceive seas arise where islands were swallowed up. Never has a gulf, never has a large gap, invincibly separated the different parts of the globe; on the contrary, the soft girdle of the waters every where invites man, every where presents to him roads more dangerous than difficult, and which his courage and genius have surmounted. The celebrated English navigator, who discovered the inhabited islands in the Pacific Ocean, sailed from the Thames, passed the Antipodes of London, and performed the circuit of the earth. Lastly, since it has latterly been discovered, by a never-erring experience, that winds, which blow constantly during a certain season of the year, waft our ships to India, and that contrary winds, prevailing during another season, convey them back again to our ports it is impossible not te recognize certain admirable guides, calculated to approximate and unite the most remote nations, If man has learned to construct a vessel, a bridge upon the ocean, if this frail machine nevertheless braves the angry elements; it is because the primary intention of nature was

that men of all climates should not be strangers to each other: A dark cloud conceals from us the nations which inhabit the northern extremity of America; but a slight convulsion of the globe may suddenly form a sea, to conduct our vessels among these new nations; and, in a similar way, although the interior parts of Africa be nearly as much unknown as the centre of the earth, it requires only a happy occurrence [*I]

to