1804. | 
Anon his beams avenging fate declare 
To guilty ftates and fcatter anxious fear ; 
And pierce the tyrant’s iron-heart with dread, 
That Heaven prepares to whelm Wis blood- 
ftain’d head. 
How rapid, fee! he fweeps the heavenly 
_ plain, 
Behind him caft the blue difaftrous flame. 
From the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
feds) 
Now from the floods of light emerg’d he 
flies, 
And wide around illumes the nightly fkies : 
Unwearied, haftening to purfue again 
His dreary flight through midnight’s chill do- 
main. wes 
Lancafter. D. 
Extraéts from the Port-folio of a Man of Letters. 
A THEOLOGICAL DIFFICULTY. 
N one of the Jefuit Miffionary Letters, 
entitled, ** Lettres Edifiantes & Cu- 
rieufes,” an obfervation is made of the 
grofs ignorance of the papas or priefts of 
the Greek church, of which the following 
ftory is given as an inftance: ‘* A country 
papa coming to Salonica, put this queftion 
to a papa of that city: ‘ Is it true that 
Chrift is God? I think I have frequently 
heard this afferted ; but, on the other 
hand, they fay he is a man. How can 
thefe two things be made to agree? If he 
is God, how can he be a man; and if he 
is a man, how can he be God ?? The city 
papa thereupon gave a leffon in the cate- 
chifm to his village brother, who readily 
acquiefced in every thing.” The writer 
goes on to obferve, that it was not necef- 
fary to be a great theologian to refolve 
this queftion. 
JEWISH RECRUITS. 
In the fame letter is the following ftory : 
«< The Pals of Rondine in the diftri&t of 
Salonica is infamous for the robberies and 
murders committed init, which have given 
it the name of theValley of Robbers. When 
Sultan Amurathwas engaged inthe fiege of 
Bagdat, having occafion for recruits, he 
fent an order for all the Jews in Salonica, 
of age to bear arms, to joinbim. Armed 
at all points, they left the city, to the 
number of feven or eight thoufand, in or- 
der to go to Conftantinople, and thence 
into Afia. They marched proudly in or- 
der of battle ; but hearing of the robbers 
at the Pafs of Rondine, they made a halr, 
and called a council of war. In this, it 
was determined, by a plurality of voices, 
that it would be proper to fend to Saloni- 
ca and requeft an efcort of janiffaries to 
proteét them againft the banditti. The 
Bafhaw, a man of fenfe, perceiving that 
there could be little dependance upon fuch 
troops, fent them their difmiffion, and 
ordered them. to return to their refpective 
homes. 
TRANSPARENT DRESS OF THE LADIES. 
We are informed by ancient writers, that 
the dreffes worn -by the Lacedemonian 
maidens were fo made as to he highly in- 
decent, and not to anfwer a principal end 
of cloathing; and it is probable that the 
Jewish ladies, defcribed by Iiaiah (chap, 
iii.) might wear dreffes of a timilar fafhion, 
veftments of the cobsweb kind, a fort of 
no-coverings, which would not hinder 
the wearers from appearing almoft naked ; 
fuch as Menander calls OraDacves XITwvIOVs 
a tranfparent veft, and mentions as the 
drefs of a courtezan ; and fuch as Varro 
ftyles vitreas vefies, glaffy vefiments ; and 
Horace, from the ifland of Coos where the 
{tuff was made, denominates Coan, lib. we 
fat. 2. line 101%. 
es Cois tibi pane videre of 
Ui nudam.” ; 
«© Through the Coan velit 
You almoft fee her naked.’™ ‘ 
This Coan ftuff was probably a kind of 
very thin filk or gauze. So Lady M. W. 
Montagu,* deicribing her Turkith drefs, 
fays, her /mock was of fine white filk 
gauze, clofed at the neck with a diamond 
button, but the /bape and colour of the 
bofom was very well to be diltinguifhed 
through it. 
Dr. Shaw informs us, (Travels, p. 241.) 
that *¢ in the Levant, mirrors form a part 
of female drefs ; for that the Moorifh wo- 
men in Barbary are fo fond of their orna- 
ments, and particularly of their /vokimg- 
glaffes, which they hang upon their breafts, 
that they will not lay them afide, even 
when after the drudgery of the day they 
are obliged to go two or three miles 
with a pitcher or a goat’s fkin to fetch 
water.” And it is certain, trom Exodus 
38, 8. that the Ifraelitiin women uicd to 
carry their mirrors, made of polifh d brafs, 
with them, even to their moft {folemn 
places of worfhip; but it is by no means 
* Letters, vol. 2. 8v0. p. 133-4. 
4C 2 equally 
