! S23.] Literary and Philosophical Intelligence. 



159 



iosophy," the " Independent," the 

 *' Christian Instructor," &c. This work 

 will comi)rise illustrations of the om- 

 nipotence and grandeur of Deity, 

 and of His wise arrangements in the 

 systemof nature, and of the connexion 

 of the sciences of natural history, 

 g'cography, geology, astronomy, natu- 

 ral philosopjiy, chemistry, history, and 

 the inventions of human genius, with 

 the great objects of religion and of 

 Divine Revelation. 



A spacious mansion in Tenterdcn- 

 strect, Hanover-square, has been en- 

 gaged for the lioyal Academy of 

 Music. Rossini is engaged by the 

 committee; and the subscription al- 

 ready amounts to 50,000/. 



Sir Thomas Lawrknce purposes 

 exhibiting, in the ensuing spring, a 

 selection of his choicest works, at the 

 Gallery (late West's) in Pall Mall. 

 The paintings will include the eele- 

 Ijrated portrait of the King, which Sir 

 T'honias has just finished ; and the por- 

 traits of the foreign sovereigns and 

 statesmen, which he painted during 

 his late visit to the Continent. 



A public subscription lias been 

 opened and liberally supported in 

 England to relieve the sufferers by the 

 late destructive earthquake in Syria. 

 In our Number published January 1, 

 Ave gave a narrative of the details, and 

 ■we now extract the following from the 

 address of the London Committee : — 

 In the year 1755 Lisbon was deslroyed, 

 and thousands of iniraan beings perished in 

 an earthquake, the effects of which were 

 fp|l in many parts of England. Tliese 

 ert'ects, and the little distance of Lisbon 

 from England, excited a very great degree 

 of sympathy with the sutt'erers. Benevo- 

 Icnre soon exerted it'-elf, and important 

 supplies were sent in an abundance which 

 rliaracterized and was highly honourable 

 to British feelings. A vci-y short period 

 lias elapsed since a smart shock of earth- 

 <piake alarmed many of the inhabitants of 

 Scotland ; but, since the devastation in La 

 Guyra, — where 10,000 persons were en- 

 gulphed in an instant, — no accounts have 

 reached England of an earthquake so sud- 

 den, — so freqiu-nlly repeated, and long 

 continued, — nor of such destruction to hu- 

 man life and comfort, — as those which, 

 without any warning circumstances, began 

 in Syria on the 13th of August, iB'srS. 

 This has made the ancient city of Antioch 

 — a name where Christians had first their 

 honourable denomination,— a heap of rub- 

 4)i»li and ruin^. In the city aM<l i-urround- 

 ing country ?0,00() humun heini;s, at the 

 least compiilalion. found an instant death, 

 and who, with a like number, not slain, 



but maimed, mutilated, and reduced to 

 agonizinsr pains, formed about one-fifth of 

 the population of the desolated districts. 

 Those who, — to use the eloquent words ot 

 the British consul, John Barker, esq. in 

 his communication from near the ruins of 

 Antioch, — "Those v.'hom it has [jleascd 

 God to place in happier regions of the 

 globe,' can scarcely realize the idea of the 

 desolation and misery which are the effects 

 of a widely spie.ui convulsion of the earth. 

 There is something really striking in the 

 expression of the Consul, stating, that 

 when the return of day permitted a recog- 

 nition of persons, " the survivors rushed 

 into one another's arms, tiirough very joy 

 of continued existence." This Joy was 

 quickly followed hy most pungent woe. 

 Habitation, — friends, — parents, — children, 

 — husbands, — wives, — lost! The earth 

 trembling under the feet of those who 

 were spared, continually, from the i3th of 

 August to the &th of October— a dismal 

 period of fifty-six days and nights, — kept 

 alarm and anxiety ahve, — and every mo- 

 ment when the earth shook they might 

 fear would be thtir last. But many more 

 were wounded, ami full of agony, with 

 broken bones and diseased bodies. These 

 must have been vvitliont medical aid. The 

 dying had little consolation, except the 

 prospect of quitting this woeful scene ; and 

 the survivors had full employ by the inter- 

 ment of the dead. To add to tliese dis- 

 tresses, the wretched Syrians had heard 

 that the cholera morbus had manifested 

 itself at no great distance from them ! We 

 can hardly figure to ourselves the whole 

 weight of misery and affliction which .Syria 

 must have presented to the eye of the 

 British Consul. — Another account, from 

 an Englishman resident several years at 

 Aleppo, and under date 23d of August, 

 states, that the city of Aleppo, built en- 

 tirely of stone, and the third city of the 

 Ottoman empire, in point of size and popu- 

 lation, was, in the space of a few seconds, 

 overturned to its foundations. The writer, 

 after giving an account of his almost mira- 

 culous escape from the hou.-e in which he 

 lived, under circumstances of extreme 

 danger, during which he commended his 

 soul to God, proceeds to state, that having 

 passed, amidst the falling walls of narrow 

 streets, and over the bodies of the dead and 

 dying, to the gate of the city which was 

 nearest, he witnessed, as he passed along, 

 the most dreadful and heart-rending scenes, 

 — men and women clinging to the ruins of 

 their habitations, holding up their children 

 in their trembling arms, — while his cars 

 were assailed by the piercing cries of the 

 half-buried people, of diftercnt nations, 

 imploring mercy from God in their own 

 lan'j;i;age. On reaching the gate, amid.st 

 impending danger, to his areat mortifica- 

 tion he found it shut, and a vast multitude, 

 who like lumself had fled lliillicr, com- 

 pletely 



