"He let his hook wanton gently over the smooth mirror of the waters, less, it should seem, for the sake of fishing than in the listless play of thought. There was not, perhaps, even a worm upon it." -FOUQUE. ONE eve with rod and line, and baited hook, A lonely fisher strolled the water's edge, To lure the grayling from his shallow brook, Or pike from shadowy pool and slimy sedge; Across the glassy riv'let bent acrook, Two rude cascades fell o'er a rough hewn ledge; Forth from his pouch a meal the fisher The Tale contained in the following lines was related to the Writer many years ago, by the then Dean of Ripon. SOME fifty years ago or more A packet left our English shore, To sail across the Irish seas; But when she now had cleared the coast, Dangers to meet at duty's call, took, THE POST BAG. OUR CORRESPONDENT'S NOTES OF A TOUR IN THE EAST, 1849-50. THEBES. On the 6th of January I took a guide to myself, and rode alone to El Karnak. Leaving the boat, I passed through the village of Luxor, and proceeded by the ancient street, the Dromos of Sphinxes, towards that mightiest ruin of the earth. I passed the Temple of Luxor, but put off visiting it till later. I was all anxiety to see Karnak. Between Luxor and Karnak the road is flat and dusty, nor was there anything striking in the approach until the fragments of Sphinxes assumed some shape, those nearer Karnak being rather less mutilated than the rest. The great southern Gate-way of the Temple is visible almost from the time of leaving Luxor, but it seemed to increase disproportionately to our approach, and, all at once, to assume a gigantic size. It is one of four gates, formerly approaches to the Temple from the four points of the compass, and each one terminating an avenue of Sphinxes. These four Dromoi, -or avenues of Sphinxes, were probably four of the principal streets of Thebes, with houses, and, perhaps, bazaars, on either side of the way. Karnak is a vast and confused pile of ruins. In first approaching it from the Luxor side, and after passing the great gate-way, I entered a building containing several rooms in perfect preservation. A richly sculptured doorway conducted into a vestibule opening into four apartments. Of these, two were of larger dimensions than the others, and the interior walls of the entire structure were embossed with exquisite bas-reliefs in a very superior style. They really would not have been out of place on the walls of a London Club, and for finish, were equal to any modern drawing-room. Such was the impression they created in my mind. In the decorations of these chambers as well as in the tombs of the kings, I was especially struck with a certain drawing-room air totally different from the impressions conveyed by Greek and Roman monuments, and even possessing a look more familiarly modern than Pompeii itself. As if, in the circle of time, the remote past were joined on to the present and thus there were no new thing under the sun." 66 This is almost literally true with regard to Art, the expression of the beautiful, and Morals,—the natural laws of man's nature,-although false as respects science and faith, which have been allowed to range into new worlds, and to penetrate fresh mysteries. The body and the soul of man are the same now as when Phidias sculptured and Socrates moralized; but we have improved upon the inventions of Archimedes and are allowed to penetrate beyond the dark Polytheism of Phile and El Karnak. Thus when we are told that we have not improved upon the ancients, it is to be presumed that reference is made to art rather than to science, and to morals rather than to faith. I entered the great Temple of EI Karnak, by its western entrance, whence an avenue of Sphinxes conducted to the river, and thence, westwards, to the defile of the Kings' Tombs. The western entrance is between the two towers of the Propylon, or portico, square, massive structures, built of vast blocks of stone,-far more bulky It re and ponderous, (but as far less lofty and graceful) than the two western towers of Lincoln Minster. Within the door-way is a vast court of which the colonnades are too much choked up with rubbish to recall their original effect. Thence I passed into the great hall, the nave of the Temple of El Karnak. This magnificent interior, with its forest of columns, disappointed me at first sight. It is wanting in grand effect. There is no coup d'œil, no vast prospect as in our cathedrals, but a labyrinth of cumbrous columns, intersecting the view in all directions. minded me of a Palm-grove, but for the less graceful proportions of the shafts. I went about trying to discover the particular idea of beauty which its architect had intended to convey, and, at length, perceived some long and beautiful vistas, with intervening lights and shadows, like the glades of a forest. As the notion of the Mosque is simplicity, so the idea of the Egyptian Temple was intricacy and mystery. The Church, in its architecture, as in its doctrine, combines the verities of each into a perfect whole inspired by a sublimity scarcely conceivable to fallen man. The great hall has only a range of six columns, from east to west, while from north to south, its range of columns extends to twenty-two; thus its width greatly exceeds its length. The twelve central columns are considerably higher than the remainder, and the pillars on either side of the central colonnade support windows, formerly glazed, by which the whole interior was illuminated. At the present day, the roof is entirely destroyed, and the light, no doubt once thrown with artistic effect among the intricate vistas of the Pronaos, or fore-court, now glares upon the pillars and bleaches the fading frescoes of Amunra and Osiris. The great hall measures 170 feet by 329, and is supported by a central avenue of 12 gigantic columns 66 feet high and 122 smaller columns about 42 feet in height. Passing from the great hall, I proceeded towards the sanctuary, which is constructed of red granite. Among the ruined chambers at the back of the sanctuary, is a small apartment containing some basreliefs of great beauty of finish, representing Osiris, Isis, and the King. Close to the sanctuary are some polygonal columns of the time of Osirtasen I., who reigned B.C. 1740, that is, before Joseph's arrival in Egypt. The grand hall was not built till the reign of Osirei I., B.C. 1385. Among the mass of ruins to the east of the great hall, are the graceful granite Obelisks of the time of Thothmes I., B.C. 1532. The roofed corridors of the palace of Thothmes III. partially remain, but satisfactorily to describe so vast and intricate a mass of ruins as those of El Karnak were utterly impossible, seeing that even to a person on the spot their size and variety are most perplexing, and for some time, hopelessly bewildering. On the 7th of January, I started early to inspect the Temple of Luxor, a ruin, surrounded and almost embedded in modern Arab habitations, whose mud walls conceal a great portion of the old structure. As I was coming out of the village of Luxor, a man, mounted on horse-back, galloped past me, and disappeared down a narrow street. Presently there seemed to be a great commotion, and I was informed that the fugitive had, within a few minutes of the time I saw him, murdered a woman, through jealousy, her parents not being willing to give her to him in marriage. He had knocked her on the head and galloped off on horse back, the woman's relations following him pretty closely. I believe he was soon caught, and would, I was told, be sent Keneh, where, with less delay than on a certain Circuit at home, he would be tried and hanged with more of equity than law. Two of my friends, who accompanied me to the summit of the Temple of Luxor, amused themselves with shooting tame pigeons. English travellers, in Egypt, are most unscrupulous in this respect, but my friends satisfied their consciences by distributing baksheesh to the supposed proprietors, within the courts of whose houses the pigeons fell, and who brought them forth without delay when they beheld the piastres and paras which awaited them. months afterwards, when I saw Baalbec, I regretted Thebes, and the Hall of El Karnak. During a pigeon-shooting expedition, in the evening, I obtained a most lovely view of Luxor, with a foreground of Palm and Mimosa, and the Nile flowing at our feet, while in the far back-ground were the Rocks of Koorneh and the King's Tombs. This view was from the opposite side of the town to that on which our boats were stationed. I was unhappy at being allowed so slight a view of Thebes, and hoped for a longer delay in returning. We left the Temple of Erment too, (an ancient suburb of Thebes), for future inspection ;that uncertain future to which one can never trust! On the 9th of January, we remained within view of the Theban mountains, but reached Esneh at sunset. It had been the hottest day we had yet felt, and glorious was the view of the Palm-girt town, with the sun setting behind the groves to its right,-where they enshroud Mehemet Ali's principal cotton factory. The buildings of the town, which had looked well at a distance, turned out to be much dilapidated. The most remarkable In order to gain access to the ancient staircase which leads to the top of the Pylon, or gate, of Luxor, we passed through a Mosque and its adjoining day-school, where several children were being taught to read and write. They wrote with ink, using reed pens, and metal plates for slates. The writing seemed very good. After making trial of one of their reed pens and slates, I found that their instructor, the Imawn, could not or would not, prevent the whole school clamour-object was the fragment of a stone ing for baksheesh. The view from the summit of the Pylon gave me a good idea of the position of the ancient streets and especially of the avenue of sphinxes to Karnak. I spent another morning at Karnak, and remained long in the great hall. I suppose there is no ruin in the world so extensive as Karnak, and yet, how infinitely more suited to my prejudices of the beautiful, are the baths of Caracalla, or the Colisseum, or Paestum, or Tintern, Such were my thoughts that day, and yet these Egyptian monuments grow upon the imagination, and, quay of Ptolemaic or Roman date. "A prating barber came to trim king Archelaus, and said to him, 'How will you please to have me cut your hair?' Said the king, 'silently.' Though a man has nothing to do but to hear and answer, yet a boundless tongue is a strange unbridled beast to be worried with; and the misery is, that those who speak much, seldom speak well."Feltham. MESSAGES FOR THE CHILDREN. RAMBLES ON THE SEA-SHORE. O trace in Nature's most minute design "To-day," said Miss Sydney, may be said to perform the office of the skeleton in the higher orders of animals, by giving form and protection to the entire fabric. The common sponge which is so useful in various ways, belongs mostly to the warm zones of the sea, those we find on our own shores are of a much harder and more horny nature, less tough too, for you will find by attempting to separate a piece that it is easily done. The finest kind of sponge in use, comes to us from Constantinople, the common coarse sort is brought from the coasts of Barbary. The qualifications of a good diver for this useful commodity, are held in almost as high estimation as those of a pearl diver, and great numbers of people are employed in the gathering and preparation of sponges. "At the island of Nicaria, in the Mediterranean, for instance, sponge diving forms the chief employment of the population. The sea is at all times extremely clear, and the experienced divers are capable of distinguishing from the surface, the points to which the sponge is attached below, when an unpractised eye could but dimly discern the bottom. Each boat is furnished with a large stone attached to a rope, and this the diver seizes in his hand, on plunging head foremost from the stern. He does this in order to increase the velocity of his descent, thus economising his stock of breath, as well as to facilitate his ascent, when exhausted at the bottom, for he can then be quickly hauled up by his companions. Few men can remain longer than about two minutes below, and as the process of detaching the sponge is very tedious, three, |