1829.] 
but of these the account does not differ from 
Arundel’s, lately noticed by us, except that 
it supplies an omission of Mr. Arundel’s— 
the state of the church of Smyrna—which 
we shall, therefore, quote. The reader must 
take it mixed up with the author’s own ver- 
biage :— 
To Smyrna the message of St. John conveys at 
once a striking instance of the theory I am illus- 
trating, and a powerful lesson to those who would 
support the shrine of Omnipotence by the arm of 
impotency, and faney they can soothe the erring 
soul by the balm of persecution, and correct its 
delusions by the persuasions of intolerance. To 
this church is foretold the approach of tribula- 
tion, and poverty, and suffering, and imprison- 
ment : whilst the consequence of their endurance 
is to add permanency to their faith, and to reward 
their triumphs with the crown of immortality. 
Since the first establishment of Christianity at 
Smyrna, from the murder of Polycarp, down to 
the massacre of the Grecian Patriarch, and the 
persecutions of to-day, the history of Smyrna pre- 
sents but one continued tale of bloodshed and re- 
ligious barbarity; the sabre of the Ottoman 
promptly succeeding to the glaive of the Roman, 
in firm, but bootless attempts, to overthrow the 
faith of “the Nazarene ;” but centuries of op- 
pression have rolled oyer her in vain, and at this 
moment, with a Christian population of fourteen 
thousand inhabitants, Smyrna still exists, not only 
as the chief hold of Christianity in the East, but 
the head-quarters from whence the successors of 
the Apostles, in imitation of thei» exertions, are 
daily replanting in Asia thuse seeds of Chris- 
tianity which they were the first to disseminate, 
but which have long since perished during the 
winter of oppression and barbarism. 
This fact is the more remarkable, since Smyrna 
is the only community to which persecution has 
been foretold, though to others a political exist- 
ence has been promised. It would seem, however, 
that in their case, ease and tranquillity had pro- 
duced apathy and decay ; whilst, like the humble 
plant which rises most luxuriantly towards heaven 
the more closely it is pressed and trodden on, the 
eburch of Smyrna, in common with the persecuted 
tribes of every age and of every clime, has gained 
strength from each attack of its opposers, and 
triumphs to-day in its rising splendour, whilst the 
sun of its oppressors is quickly gliding from twi- 
light to oblividn. 
Nothing in these regions is more wanted 
than a distinct account of the actual state of 
each of the more celebrated islands. Mr. 
Domestic and Foreign. 
427 
Emerson furnishes very little, though visit- 
ing several of them—except in the case of 
Delos, which is now a desert, though that 
we do not learn from him. His description 
of the relics in this once-renowned spot is 
among the most valuable parts of the book. 
Gyarus—aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris, et 
carcere dignum—is now a complete waste. 
When at Paros, he endeavoured, he says, 
to collect some particulars from his com- 
panions, one of them an intelligent priest, 
about that quarter of the island in which 
the celebrated Arundelian marbles professed 
to have been found (the professors, it may 
be supposed, were the finders), but none of 
them had ever heard of the name. Did 
the author then inquire for the Arundelian 
marbles ? The ignorance, or non-intelli- 
gence of this priest seems to warrant Mr. 
Emerson in adopting the doubts that have 
been entertained of their authenticity—of 
which, the general terms he uses, with re- 
spect to them, shews manifestly he knows 
nothing. 
The author occasionally ventures upon a 
bit of criticism, especially to illustrate the 
scriptures. One particularly struck us— 
speaking of the cisterns, or reservoirs, or 
tanks, so common in the neighbourhood of 
towns in the east, he is reminded of the 
Samaritan woman and Jacob’s well. In 
the story two words are used, ppewp and xnyn, 
both translated well. The author insists, 
truly enough, perhaps, that the first is a 
tank ; and the latter a spring ; but what is 
his conclusion ? 
The import of the passage therefore is, that the 
woman of Samaria stood by the cistern of Jacob, 
and hesitated to give Jesus to drink of the stag- 
nant water collected within it, whilst he, had she 
known to ask it, could have given unto her to 
drink of the fresh fowntain that springeth up 
into endless life. 
“TI may be mistaken in this interpreta, 
tion’’—he modestly adds—“ but,” &¢.— 
Stamboul or Constantinople, it has been 
often pointed out, is a corruption of “ <g chy 
mony.” In like manner, Izmir, the Turkish 
name for Smyrna, is a corruption of “ cic rity 
Zupvay’?——Negropont, ‘cig ri Evgime? 
(which the Greeks pronounce Evripo), and 
Stanco is “ «ig ry Kow.”’ 
VARIETIES, SCIENTIFIC AND MISCELLANEOUS. 
Real Toadstones.—The discovery of toads 
in secondary rocks, is often announced in 
public journals. A very particular account 
was published in the newspapers, of one 
found at Lockport, United States, while 
they were cutting the Erie canal bed in the 
a lime rock. Professor Amos 
‘aton, of New York, collected all the facts in 
his power, and examined the rock from 
which it was taken. The evidence would 
have been sufficient to establish, he states, 
any ordinary fact. But there seemed to be 
so many ways for illiterate labourers to de- 
ceive themselves, that he took no further 
notice of the report. He has, however, since 
received an account of a large dark brown 
toad being found in a rock of mill-stone 
grit, near Whitesborough, “ which I can- 
not,”’ he says, ‘‘ hesitate to believe. While 
laying the cellar wall of the house of one of 
the representatives in the legislature of this 
state (New York) two respectable masons, 
312 
