or mortar, and of as few and unwrought stones as possible, and capable of holding one person. These little dwellings were their sacred cells, to which the people resorted for divination, or decision of controversy, or petition, but not their family habitations, for these were large palaces. Caves were winter habitations of the Britons, and residences or places of protection for the Celtic Highlanders. Fingal's Hall, an excavation, was occupied, at least during hunting seasons." EGYPTIAN ANtiquities. The spirit of criticism and analysis with which the antiquities of Egypt are now investigated, daily conducts to the same goal men of letters who follow the most different routes. Thus M. Champollion, jun. who applies with so much success to the investigation of the ancient writing of Egypt, and M. Lehonne, who endeavours to explain the Greek and Latin inscriptions found in that country, have both arrived at the same results; for the discovery of the phonetic hieroglyphics, which we owe to the former, has only confirmed, with regard to the date of productions of Egyptian art, the conclusions which the latter had drawn two years ago from the incriptions engraved on the façade of certain temples, and which M. Champollion discovers by the designs of the bas-reliefs of the great portico of Esné,that the Zodiac of that temple was carved under the reign of the Emperor Claudius. We are informed that M. Lahonne proves, from Greek inscriptions discovered in the temple of Esné, that the Zodiac sculptured on the ceiling of the pronaos of that edifice, was made in the reign of Antoninus. Now this Zodiac, as well as that of the great temple, begins with the sign of the Virgin, and the date of it had been also fixed at three thousand years before the Christian era. The temple itself, the erection of which was assigned to that remote period, is not anterior to the reign of Adrian. As for the planisphere of Denderah, we know that M. Champollion reads on it in phonetic hieroglyphics the word Autokrator, and assigns it to the reign of Nero. M. Lehonne had also proved, from Greek inscriptions, that the rectangular Zodiac of the pronaos must belong to the reign of Tiberius. It may therefore be considered, as a fact resulting from positive researches, that not one of the four famous Zodiacs discovered in Egypt is anterior to the dominion of the Romans in that country. The important facts connected with this question are laid down by M. Lebonne in a work which will appear in a few days, under the following title: "Researches into the History of Egypt during the domination of the Greeks and Romans; derived from Greek and Latin inscriptions, relative to the Chronology, the state of the Arts, the civil and religious [Jan. Usages of that country," 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 600, with fac-similes. We have the satisfaction of extracting the following interesting details from a letter of M. Caillaud, the Egyptian traveller, respecting the Antiquities of Ancient Nubia. "I am come from the Desert, where I have visited two places, in which there were numerous curiosities. M. Linant, a Frenchman, not having left the country of Senaar, saw them some days before I did. Near the village of Wetbeyt Naga are the ruins of two small temples; in the Desert, about eight leagues to the South-east, are the remains of seven other small temples. The valley which leads to these ruins, and the ruins themselves, are called Naga, and I have no doubt are the remains of the ancient city of Naka. Three of these temples are in tolerable preservation; one of them is highly interesting for the objects with which it is ornamented. The figures are in costumes very different from those seen in Egypt: the garments are like those which I have mentioned to you before as having seen in the pyramids. The second is larger than the first, with an avenue of sphynxes; the third consists of an isolated portico, highly curious, and of a less ancient construction. The architecture is a mixture of Greek and Egyptian, it having Corinthian capitals. The other temples are complete ruins. In the great valley of the Desert, about six hours' journey from the Nile, and eight hours' South-south-east from Chandy, there are other and more considerable ruins, which, I think, are the remains of a college from Meroe. They consist of eight little temples, all joined in a line by galleries and terraces. It is altogether an immense construction of numerous chambers, cells, courts, and galleries, surrounded with double enclosures. I am unable to give you here the slightest description of these ruins. The central temple communicates with the others by these galleries or terraces, 185 French feet long. Each temple has particular apartments, which stand in a line. In the eight temples are thirty-nine chambers or habitations, twenty-six courts, and twelve staircases. The ruins cover a space of 2500 feet. But in this so great extent of ruins, all is in small proportion as to size, both as it respects the monuments, and the stones employed in them. The stones are placed in courses of twenty-five centimêtres in height, and are frequently square in form. The largest temple is eleven metres in length. On the columns are figures in the Egyptian style and on some columns of the same portico there are channellings (flutings) as in Greek architecture. On the base of one of them are the remains of a Zodiac. could see the Twins and Sagittarius, and have taken a faithful copy of it." SELECT I 1823.] [ 71 ] SELECT POETRY. FRIENDSHIP. By Mr. STOCKDALE HARDY. FRIENDSHIP! why, what is a friend? One who soothes another's woe; The desert drear, Which once in beauty smil'd, When blest with those we lov❜d below! And ask assistance at thy feet? By one like thee, Thy social influence thou wilt spread; To scenes once blooming-now forlorn, Thou'lt scorn engagements to forsake, Which on thy altar once were sworn! THE SAILOR'S RETURN. METHINKS I hear the plashing oar, And murm'ring voices meet mine ear, Of seamen, as they near the shore, And by the beacon steer. A mind long sunk in memory's grave, Sweet freedom to the slave; Arrested in their silent course, By the Night-frost's resistless force, One thick white veil its verdure hides, What tho' the melancholy view This season has its social hours; 'Tis He, who, ever gracious found, Blandford. MASON CHAMBERLIN * Author of the "Path of Duty," &e. 72 LINES Select Poetry. Which his reluctant feet may cross no more, Oft to the hill where stands his much-lov'd home, Casts a reverted glance thro' gushing tears; So lov'd a part, that scarce I seem to live. [lie, With thee, in Death's cold slumber must it Till HE who clos'd, untimely, thy young being, Restore me to the world,-a world of woe! Untimely said my erring, impious tongue ? Alas! not length of days forms life mature; But Virtue, Innocence, and holy Truth. And these were thine; which, as the fragrant breath Of vernal flow'rs regales the ravish'd sense, Delighted all who knew thee. Wisdom, too, And piety, which hoary Age might shame, Adorn'd thy blossom'd Youth. And shall not these,! In brighter radiance, like a robe of light, Clothe my now-sainted Child, where ruthless Death [tears, No more can blight thy loveliness, nor For such bereav'd perfections, e'er be shed? Is the strong arm now shorten'd in its might, That bore thy spotless spirit to the skies? No; I again shall see thee lovelier far * See our Obituary, for Dec. 1822, p. 571. Inscription for his Monument Son of the Rev. Luke Booker, LL.D. who was accidentally drowned on the 9th day of December, A. D. 1822, in the 11th year of his age. His much beloved and lamented Body reposes near, while his pure Spirit rejoices in the presence of his Redeemer. May this plain memorial, recording his virtues and disastrous fate, prove a salutaryWARNING to incautious youth, to avoid the Dangers of that element, which deprived him of life, and overwhelmed his friends in sorrow! γι Πατής. [Jan. In form, but not in purity and truth. That arm the dead can quicken with new life, And raise the mourner from extremest woe To comfort and to peace.-I know that He Who died for sinners, lives, with head adorn'd By many crowns; and at the latter day Will stand upon the earth: when they who sleep Within the confines of the silent dead, Thee in his fond embrace-to part no more! LINES On the Death of EDWARD-LUKE Booker, who was accidentally drowned, in the 11th Year of his Age, at Eton College, Dec. 9, 1822. By an affectionate Brother. THERE is a tear of holy sorrow That's dropt upon the humblest grave; And there's a joy the heart can borrow When those it lov'd we try to save. There is a sigh, the bosom rending, When some fond spirit soars on high; And there's a soothing balm attending, To know that anxious friends were nigh. Ah! yes; the tear for those that languish In Death's last speechless agonies,— The sigh of grief,-the throb of anguish, Is sooth'd to watch the closing eyes. But, when away from friends that cherish'd - The ghastly monster mark'd his prey; When, while thy heart with glee was bounding, The soul was summon'd swift away Tho' short the pains, the pangs of dying, And quickly every struggle o'er,Tho' wrapt in smiles, thy spirit flying, Soar'd spotless to its blissful shore Yet, oh! the thought that, torn for ever From hearts that shar'd thy weal and woe, That lov'd thee, EDWARD! and which never Will let thy fond Remembrance go. Ah! who his bosom's grief can smother? Or who would check the hallow'd tear? Who lov'd thee as thou lov'dst him dear. T.W.B. HOPE. LINES 73 Addressed by a Daughter to her deceased WHAT tho' ten years are past and gone, Lives deep impress'd upon my mind, And mourn, to inward grief resign'd. I heedless rang'd from flower to flower, Composing by the hand of Time, THE CHARM. (From the Spanish.) WIND the shell, bind the spell; What is in it? Fond farewell! Wreath'd with drops from azure eyes, Twilight vows, and midnight sighs. Bind it on the Maiden's soul! Suns may set, and years may roll; Yet beneath that tender twine All the spirit shall be thine. Oceans may between you sweep; But the spell's as strong and deep: Anguish, distance, time are vain Death alone can loose the chain. GENT. MAG. Jamiary, 1823. PULCI. Gave promise of my youthful prime; And hopes of future joys above, This ever grateful heart to beat, WINTER. Z. By BERNARD BARTON, the Quaker Poet. THOU hast thy beauties; sterner ones, I own Than those of thy precursors; yet to thee Belong the charms of solemn majesty And naked grandeur. Awful is the tone Of thy tempestuous nights, when clouds are blown [sky; By hurrying winds across the troubled Pensive, when softer breezes faintly sigh Through leafless boughs, with ivy overgrown. Thou hast thy decorations too; although Thou art austere; thy studded mantle, gay With icy brilliants, which as proudly glow As erst Golconda's; and thy pure array Of regal ermine, when the drifted snow Envelopes nature; till her features seem Like pale, but lovely ones, seen when we dream. The Old Man's Triumph over Time. TIME has not thinn'd my flowing hair,” Nor laid, as yet, my temples bare : But he has played the barber's part, And powder'd me with wond'rous art. To show, no doubt, that 'tis his aim To pulverize this mortal frame. But let him know, that, on a day, God will reanimate this clay; And life unchangeable will give When Time himself shall cease to live. HISTORICAL [ 74 ] HISTORICAL CHRONICLE. SPAIN, &c. FOREIGN NEWS. CONGRESS OF VERONA. The Sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, lately assembled at Verona, have addressed to their Ministers at the several European Courts a most important Circular. This document commences with announcing that the Austrian troops are to be withdrawn from the territory of Sardinia by successive draughts, the last of which is to have evacuated that kingdom before the end of September 1823.—It also states that the Austrian army which now occupies Naples, is, in the shortest period possible, to be reduced by 17,000. In announcing these arrangements, the Sovereigns say, "They rejoice at being able to leave the security and tranquillity of the people to the Princes to whom Providence has intrusted them, and to deprive calumny of its last remaining pretext to disseminate doubts respecting the independence of the Italian Princes." The affairs of the Greeks are next alluded to, and the Princes lament that the "firebrand of rebellion has been thrown into the Ottoman Empire." They denounce the conduct of the Greeks as being "rash and culpable." The state of affairs in Spain is thus noted:"Spain now endures the fate which awaits all States that are so unfortunate as to seek what is good in a way in which it never can be found. It passes through the fateful circle of its revolution-a revolution which deluded or ill-disposed men would willingly have represented as a blessing, nay, as the triumph of an enlightened age. All Governments are witnesses of the zeal with which these men have endeavoured to persuade their contemporaries that this revolution was the necessary and wholesome fruit of the progress of civilization; and the means by which it has been effected and supported, the noblest essay of generous patriotism. If it could be the object of civilization to overthrow human society-if it were possible to suppose that the armed force, which has no other vocation than that of maintaining the internal and external peace of the State, might with impunity assume the supreme dominion over it the Spanish revolution might certainly pretend to the admiration of all ages, and the military insurrection in the island of Leon serve as a model for reformers. But truth has soon asserted her rights, and Spain, at the expense of her happiness and glory, has only furnished a new and melancholy example of the inevitable consequence of every transgression of the eternal laws of the moral [Jan, order of the world. The legitimate autho rity fettered, and changed into a forced instrument of the overthrow of all rights, and all legal privileges; all classes of the people hurried away by the stream of revolutionary movement; violence and oppression exercised under the forms of law; a whole kingdom given up a prey to disorders and convulsions of every kind; rich colonies, which justify their separation by the very same maxims on which the mother country has founded its public law, and which it would willingly, but in vain, condemn in another hemisphere; the last resources of the State consumed by civil war: this is the picture which the present state of Spain presents— such are the evils by which a generous people, deserving of a better fate, is visited— such, in fine, are the grounds of the just apprehensions which such an assemblage of elements of trouble and confusion must excite in the countries more nearly in contact with the Peninsula. If ever, in the bosom of civilization, a power arose hostilely alienated from the principles of preservation, from the principles in which the European Confederation reposes, such a power is Spain, in its present state of dissolution. "Could the Sovereigns have contemplated with indifference so many evils heaped upon one country, accompanied with so many dangers to the others? Depending, in this important affair, only on their own judgment and their own consciences, they have been obliged to ask themselves, whether they were longer allowed to remain calm spectators of an evil which every day threatens to become more terrible and dangerous, and even, by the presence of their representatives, to lend the false colouring of a tacit sanction to the measures of a faction which is ready to undertake everything for the maintenance of its destructive sway. The decision of the Monarchs could not be doubtful. The Legations have received orders to quit the Peninsula. "All Europe must at length acknowledge that the system pursued by the Monarchs is in the most perfect harmony with the well-understood interests of the people, as well as with the independence and strength of the Governments. They recognize no enemies but those who conspire against the legal authority of the one, and the simplicity of the others, to plunge both into one common abyss of destruction. The wishes of the Monarchs are directed to peace alone; but this peace, though fully established between the Powers, cannot diffuse its bless |