4810.] 
den, which commands a lovely prospect 
of the surrounding country. 
Thus you see the empire of the capri- 
clous goddess is rapidly extending, Whe- 
ther she will hereafter be able to main- 
tain her ground time only can prove. 
It is not impossible, but armong the many 
revolutions of this revolutionizing age, the 
passion for the refreshing ‘‘ fragrance of 
Alpine gales,” and the mild “ serenity 
of Italian skies,” may again return, and 
many of the present scenes of dissipa- 
tion and folly sink into their original in- 
signiticance,. 
Your's, &c. 
Errata. In Letter ist, page 366, column 
2d, line 26 from the bottom, for ‘* the county, 
read that county;” p. 367, c. 1st, line 15 
from the top, read ¢ that time is fast 3" ¢. 2d, 
1, 535, read ‘* and of almost ;””. p. 368, c. 1st, 
1.7, © for excellent, read exquisite 3” and c. 
49, “ for effects, read effect 3" c. 2d, 1.7, ** for 
Kingsroad, read Kingroad;” line 25, read 
S€ that distinguished elegance which bespeaks.” 
<i 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the tames of the East. 
s¢ An obsolete custom, or some: forgotten 
circumstance, will sometimes restore its true 
perspicuity and credit to a very intricate pas- 
sage.” Bisnop Lowru. 
CCOUNTS of countries very re- 
mete from those which are stated 
as connected with the earliest re- 
cords of the transactions of men, or 
which are in any other way connected 
with. the arts, civilization, strength, 
wealth, or splendour, of the great nations 
of antiquity, cannot fail to excite at- 
tention, though recorded at distant pe- 
riods of time. The condition of the 
arts; the improvements of different ina- 
nufactures ; and the establishment of 
staple departments of commerce; are re- 
garded as worthy of the more minute at- 
‘tentions of the philosophic economisé ; 
of him who views nothing, whether do- 
iestic or exotic, but as it either ulti- 
mately or directly aims at the extension 
of the efforts which conduce to humanity, 
or which add to that generalization of 
physical truth, upon which the basis 
of universal science, having necessarily 
for its object universal good, must rest. 
Buchanan’s velation of the manners of 
the ancient occupants of Scotland might 
possibly illustrate some of the records of 
Hesiod, Homer, or Herodotus, for be- 
tween these is a swmeness, (to at least a 
certain extent,) unconfined either to 
time, to circumstance, or place. The 
Montuty Mag, No. 198. 
On the Lamps of the East. 
507 
Greek warriors were, we are told, theme 
selves skilled in the art of healing; they 
practised it, and this sort of skill was 
even held as’a military accomplishment. 
Have we not been taught by historians, 
that in much more modern days; and 
in a similar state of civilization, genes 
‘rally speaking, the same object was to be 
beheld practised in the same (we must 
add) rude way. Of this the annals of 
the Highlanders will furnish us with 
abundant proof, 
We have, however, great reason to 
believe, notwithstanding this introduce 
tory view, that the improvements of the 
eastern and western world have been very 
unequal, considering the general inundae 
tion of science, which the artofnavigation, 
in consequence of the discovery and use 
of the mariner’s compass; the voyage of 
Gama to the Bast Indies; the sacking of 
Constantinople about the same period 3 
and the opening @ path to a new portiom 
of the globe, equal in extent to the 
whole then known world, presented in _ 
consequence of the luminous mind of the: 
persevering Columbus ; not to mention the 
most important a:t of printing, which 
had its birth about the same period. 
Whether ia the East, generally speak- 
ing, or among the representatives of the 
mighty nations of antiquity, wherever 
dispersed, and many of whom we ace 
knowledge as connected with the first 
subtleties of trade, still we do find, that 
the same order of people, even now, 
maintain the primitive prejudices of 
their ancestry; but here 1 must be uns 
derstood, as upon the whole, having in my 
eye, the habitudes of the oriental tribes. 
I purpose to elucidate my theme, by 
a few well-known facts, which shall be 
confined, however, to a particular set 
of objects; these objects, as they now 
stand, will be found to be very similar 
to what have been, either apparently or 
obscurely, hinted at, in the records of 
ancient days, whether from the sounder 
source of biblical authority, or from the 
contemporaneous accounts of profang 
writers. 
Easy, however, as our present come 
merce with the east might render my 
task, added to the authority of various 
travellers, were I to undertake a more 
full discnssion, I simply purpose, at 
present, to confine myself to: some one 
order’ of facts, purposing (should your 
pages be no better engaged) to trouble 
you, on a future occasion, with ada 
ditional arguments from equally authen- 
ug. 
