212 
were no more: eighteen months elapsed 
before the yawning graves were closed, 
and the consul returned to his post. 
The following is the letter he sent 
to his brother in Patras, soon after his 
arrival in Arta:— 
“ The pestilence is at an end: the 
remains of the people have returned to 
the town. The scourge has exhausted 
its strength with its venom, but during 
its course it has exhibited every capri- 
cious but horrible character of its ma- 
lignity. To say nothing of the disor- 
ders in the head and stomach, and of 
the fever which usually characterize 
the plague, the concomitant signs of 
the malady were not less various than 
destructive. Not one of those who 
died were more than forty-eight hours 
ill. Some, tortured by insatiable thirst, 
died before the appearance of the boils. 
Others had the breast and even the 
whole body covered with an eruption 
resembling currants. In some cases, 
large carbuncles after suppuration, 
threw off sloughs of such thickness as 
to discover the ribs and bones. Of 
those who had boils on the joints not 
one recovered. Persons of a weak 
constitution expired so exhausted that 
their bodies rapidly decayed, as if 
struck by lightning. Others died in 
paroxysms of convulsions and mad- 
ness. A small number retained their 
reason to the last ; but the greater num- 
ber, delirious and furious, would get 
on the tops of the houses and utter the 
most horrible screams. Often while 
in conversation together, persons were 
seized by giddiness; the eyes became 
inflamed ; the voice became loud; and 
they hastened to throw themselves into 
the wells or the river to quench the 
fire that devoured them. A general 
derangement of mind seemed to pre- 
vail among those even who were not 
affected by the distemper. My ser- 
vants, terrified by beholding several 
persons perish in my house, and eveu 
-in my bed-chamber which was broken 
into, affirmed that they heard a veice 
which warned them to escape for their 
lives. 
Since the cessation of the scourge 
the Greeks fancy they see on a neigh- 
bouring hill, a decrepid old woman, 
calling ont again, again. The clergy 
themselves assure me they ebserved 
flames breaking out of the graves of 
the infected. The whole people seem 
in some measure to be deranged.” 
News from Parnassus..No. XVI. _ 
[April 1, 
NEWS FROM PARNASSUS. 
No. XVI. 
HE Martyr of Antioch, a dramatic 
poem. lately published, by the Rev. 
H. H. MIuMAN, Professor ef Poetry in 
the university of Oxford, if not endow- 
ed with the striking energies of that 
school of poetry, to which our empirical 
Laureate has ascribed a sefanie charac- 
ter, yet displays a degree of power and 
dignity, which always ensures him re- 
spect, and sometimes deserves admira- 
tion. His taste, on the other hand, is too 
pure, and his elevation of mind too great 
to allow him to fall into the babbling 
prolixity and contemptible puerilities 
of the Bards of the Lakes, whilst he is 
by no means deficient in that simplicity 
and tenderness of sentimeut, to which 
those writers advance such exclusive 
pretensions. The materials of poetry 
are, indeed, so mixed up in him, and 
have received such assiduons and well- 
directed cultivation, that his works 
present, in our opinion, as many beau- 
ties, combined with as few faults, as 
are to be found in any of our authors. 
Without ranking him in the very first 
class, he will undoubtedly attain and 
secure a high station amongst the most 
pleasing and unexceptionable of our 
poets. 
In his selection of subjects, Mr. Mil- 
man is most likely in some measure 
influenced by his profession; and to 
this, to a certain extent, there is no ob- 
jection. The “ Martyr of Antioch” 
partakes more of this spirit than his 
last work, the ‘ Fall of Jerusalem ;”’ 
and rather more, we are inclined to 
say, than is requisite for a prodnetion 
of general interest. We do not wish 
to see Mr. Milman confine himself, like 
Mrs. Hannah More, to the inditing of 
Sacred Dramas. His profession cannot 
demand from him this sacrifice. We 
proceed, at once, to the martyrdom of 
St. Margaret. 
The daughter of a heathen priest, 
(in the drama called Callias,) beloved 
by Olybius, the Roman Prefect of the 
East, Margaret suffered death in the 
persecution of the Christians at Antioch, 
in the reign of the Emperor Probus. 
The poem opens with a sacrifice to 
Apollo, introduced by a hymn. to that 
deity, which is somewhat teo long. 
Margarita alone is expected to complete 
the ceremony. She is the priestess of 
the god, and herself little Jess than a 
goddess, in the beautiful description of 
the poet. 
Macer. 
