form, encrusted with encaustic tiles of gorgeous colors, and surmounted by a graceful dome. From its area the ground slopes away to the encircling ramparts in gentle undulations. of green turf, diversified with marble arcades, gilded cupolas, fountains and prayer-niches, all interspersed with venerable cypresses, olives and palms. At the southern end is a large group of stately buildings, including the Mosque-el-Aksa, once the Church of the Virgin, and round the sides of the platform are cloisters, here and there covered with domes, and surmounted by tall minarets. The quiet seclusion of this sanctuary, the rich green of its grass and foliage, the dazzling whiteness of its pavements and fountains, the brilliant tints of the central mosque, and, above all, its sacred associations, make it one of the most charming and interesting spots on earth.

4. Just behind Moriah the Tyropean Valley was distinctly marked by a deeply-shaded belt, running from north to south through the city. Beyond it rose Zion, higher and longer than Moriah; in front, a confused mass of terraced roofs, tier above tier; farther back were seen the white buildings of the Armenian convent, like an immense factory; more to the right the new English church; and in the background, crowning the hill, the massive square keep of the castle of David. The southern section of Zion is now outside the city wall, and there a high minaret and cupola mark the tomb of David. From it the hill sinks into the valley of Hinnom in steep terraced slopes, covered with vineyards, olives and corn-fields. As I looked, a moving object in one of the fields riveted my attention. "Haste, give me the glass," I said. I turned it upon the spot. Yes, I was right; a plow and yoke of oxen were there at work. Jeremiah's prophecy was fulfilled before my eyes: "Zion shall be plowed like a field."

5. Along the farther side of Zion runs the deep glen of Hinnom, which, turning eastward, sweeps round the southern end of the hill and joins the Kidron at En-Rogel. These two ravines form the great physical boundaries and barriers of Jerusalem they completely cut it off from the surrounding table-land; and they isolate the hills on which it stands, and

those other hills, too, or hill-tops, which, as the Psalmist tells us, "are round about Jerusalem." These natural barriers also served to confine the city within regular and definite limits, to prevent it from sending forth straggling suburbs and offshoots, as most other cities do; hence it was said, "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together."

6. A high battlemented wall encompasses the modern city. It runs for half a mile along the brow of the Kidron valley, facing Olivet, then turns at right angles and zigzags across Moriah, the Tyropean and Zion to the brow of Hinnom. The whole circuit is two miles and a half. The city was always fortified, and the walls and towers formed its most prominent features. Hence the language of the exulting Psalmist: "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof, mark ye well her bulwarks." Jerusalem has no suburbs. There is no shading off of the city into the country-long streets radiating from a centre, then straggling houses, and villas, and gardens, such as we are accustomed to in English towns. The moment you pass the gates of Jerusalem you are in the country-a country open, bare, without a single house, and almost desolate. Not a green spot is visible, and not a tree, save here and there a little clump of gnarled dusky olives.

7. Rounded hill-tops, and long reaches of plain, strewn with heaps of gray limestone, extend from the walls far away to the north and south. There is no grandeur, beauty or richness in the scenery. It is bleak and featureless. Hence the sad disappointment felt by most travelers on approaching Jerusalem from the west and north. They can only see the serried line of gray Saracenic walls extending across a section of a bleak, rocky plateau. But when I stood that morning on the brow of Olivet, and looked down on the city, crowning those battlemented heights, encircled by those deep and dark ravines, I involuntarily exclaimed, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the city of the great King!" And as I gazed, the red rays of the rising sun shed a halo round the top of the castle of David; then they tipped with gold each tapering minaret, and gilt each dome of mosque

and church; and at length bathed in one flood of ruddy light the terraced roofs of the city, and the grass and foliage, the cupolas, pavements and colossal walls of the Harem. No human being could be disappointed who first saw Jerusalem from Olivet. J. L. PORTER.

SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Ascend: L. ascen'do; fr. aad, to, and scan'do, scan'sum, to climb; h., a-scension, con-de-scend, de-scend, scan, transcend (tran=trans, beyond), etc. . . . Centre or Center: Gr. ken'tròn, a point; fr. kěn'tein, to pierce; h., centri-fugal (v. REFUGE), centri-petal (v. APPETITE), con-centrate, con-centre, ec-centric (out of the centre, Gr. ek, out of), etc. ... Compact: L. compac'tus, joined together; com= con, together, and pan'go, pac'tum, to fasten, to drive in; h., im-pact, to drive close. . . . Contribute: L. contrib'uo; fr. con and trib'uo, tribu'tum, to assign, to grant; h., at-tribute (at=ad), dis-tribute (to give separately), retribution, tributary, tribute, etc. . . . Cupola, L. cu'pa, a tub; h., cup, etc.

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Cyclo-pe'an, huge; in the Greek myth the Kuklops were a race of huge misshapen giants. . . . Definite: L. defini'tus; fr. defin'io, I bound off; de, from, fi'nis, a boundary, an end; h., af-finity (af = ad), con-fine, define, final, fine (the noun), finish, finite, in-de-finite, in-finite, re-fine, superfine, etc. Encrustic: L. encausticus, fr. the Gr. en, in, kai'ein, to burn. Exult: L. exul'to; fr. exsil'io, I leap out; fr. ex, out, sal'io, sal'tum, to leap, to sally; h., assail, assault, de-sultory, in-sull (lit., to leap on), re-silient (leaping back), result, salient (leaping, h., projecting), sally, etc. Factory: L. factor, a maker; fr. fa'cio, actum, to make: v. FACT. . . . Familiar: L. famil'ia, a family; fr. fam'ulus, a servant. . . . Holy: A. S. hôl, sound, safe. Isolate: L. in'sula, an island; h., insular, insulate, isle, pen-insula (pæ'ne, almost), etc.... Marble: L. mar'mor: Gr. marmărĕ'Ŏs, glistening. . . . Octagon: Gr. Ŏktagō'nos, eight-cornered; fr. Ŏk'tō, eight, and gō'nia, a corner; h., dia'gonal (di'a, through), hex-agon (hex, six), pentagon (pèn'tě, five), poly-gon (põl'lūs, many), etc. . . . Plateau (pla-to): F.: Gr. plat'ūs, flat, h., plat, plate, etc. . . . Precipitous: L. præ'ceps, præcip'itis, headlong; fr. præ, before, and cap'ut, cap'itis, the head; h., capital, capitulate (lit., to draw up the heads or chapters of an agreement), captain, chapter, de-capitate, oc-ciput (the back part of the head), pre-cipitate, re-capitulation, etc. . . . Project: L. projicio, projec'tum, to throw before: v. EJECT. . . . Prophet: Gr. prophe'tēs; fr. pro, for, pha'nai, to speak; h., one who speaks for a god or spirit; one inspired. Rectangular: L. rec'tus, right, an'gulus, angle. . Suburban: L. suburba'nus, situated near the city; fr. sub, under, urbs, a city; h., sub-urb, urbane, urbanity. . . . Topography : Gr. tõp'òs, a place, graph'ein, to describe; h. (fr. tõp'òs), topic, topical, Utopia (an imaginary place; ou, not), etc. . . . Undulate: L. un'do, unda'tum, to rise in waves; un'dula, a little wave; un'da, a wave; h., ab-ound, ab-undant, in-undate, red-ound (red· re, back), red-undant, super-ab-ound, undulatory, etc. Unique: L. u'nicus, one and no more; fr. unus, one; h., un-animous (an'imus, mind), uni-form, union, unison, unit, unitarian, unite, uni-verse (v. VERSE), etc.

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III. CHARACTERISTICS OF SHAKSPEARE.

Lord Bacon, author of the No'vum Or'ganum Scientia'rum (new organ of the sciences), was born in England in 1561; died 1626. Novalis (no-vā'lis), born 1772, was a celebrated German writer.

1. SHAKSPEARE, we may say, embodies for us the outer life of our Europe as developed in the Middle Ages, its chivalries, courtesies, humors, ambitions; what a practical way of thinking, acting, looking at the world men then had! Just when that chivalric way of life had reached its last finish, and was on the point of breaking down into slow or soft dissolution, as we now see it everywhere, this sovereign poet, with his seeing eye, with his perennial singing voice, was sent to take note of it, to give long-enduring record of it.

2. Of this Shakspeare of ours, perhaps the opinion one sometimes hears a little idolatrously expressed is, in fact, the right one; I think the best judgment, not of this country only, but of Europe at large, is slowly pointing to the conclusion that Shakspeare is the chief of all poets hitherto, the greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has left record of himself in the way of literature. On the whole, I know not such a power of vision, such a faculty of thought, if we take all the characters of it, in any other man. Such a calmness of depth, placid joyous strength, all things imaged in that great soul of his so true and clear, as in a tranquil unfathomable sea!

3. It has been said that in the constructing of Shakspeare's dramas there is, apart from all other "faculties," as they are called, an understanding manifested equal to that in Bacon's Novum Organum. That is true; and it is not a truth that strikes every one. It would become more apparent if we tried, any of us for himself, how, out of Shakspeare's dramatic materials, we could fashion such a result! The built house seems all so fit every way as it should be, as if it came there by its own law and the nature of things-we forget the rude disorderly quarry it was shaped from. The very perfection. of the house, as if Nature herself had made it, hides the builder's merit.