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ancestors, were wont to consider as their constant and perpetual enemies; and the Turks, in many instances, have made a pleasing return to this truly noble conduct of the Maltese.

The author was present at several interviews of this interesting description, and was truly gratified to perceive the delightful sentiments and expressions of friendship and mutual benevolence, triumph over the fierce passions of revenge, animosity and rancour; which destroy all the sweet feelings of humanity, and make a man miserable and wretched in himself, his own tormentor, and a plague to others.

After being amply supplied, and much gratified by our visit to this beautiful and interesting island, we set sail to the eastward. I soon perceived by our course of sailing, that the present object of our voyage was still more remote, and that we were steering from the fertile regions of Italy, filled with superstition, for the once fertile shores of ancient Greece, now generally barren, and

enveloped in the thick darkness of Mahometan imposture and oppression, and immured in the multiplicity of absurd ceremonies and superstitions, which so generally mark the ritual of the Greek church, at the present day.

My mind is impressed with the distressing idea, and ready to plunge into the laby rinth of conjecture. Why is it so? Why are these interesting regions so deeply sunk in superstition and error? Scripture answers the question. I check my roving imagination, and rejoice in the anticipation, that the time is hastening, when the gospel of Jesus shall again visit these once highly favoured lands, its light dispel the darkness of the mind, cheer the heart, and make known a way of obtaining a blissful immortality to the soul.

M

CHAP. XII.

Pleasant Passage-Discover Candia, the Ancient Crete-Former State and Commerce -Causes of its Declension-Degeneracy of its Ancient Inhabitants-Visited by St. Paul, who planted the Gospel here-Modern History-Memorable Siege-Situation for Trade, and extraordinary Fertility— Gloomy contrast on its present Appearance -Rhodes-Its Situation-Extent-Antiquity-Siege Colossus-DeclensionFresent State.

IN about a week, with breezes generally favourable, land was announced, and soon discovered to be the eastern part of the island of Candia, the longest island in these seas.

This Crete of the ancients, was soon perceived by our sailing along its coasts, to be in a state of comparative barrenness, being very far short of its ancient prosperity; on a more minute inquiry, we found

it now in a state of abject servitude, and the soil in consequence, generally abandoned to sterility.

What a gloomy contrast to its ancient state of prosperity, when it could name its. hundred cities, and was governed by wise and equitable laws. Laws so admirably adapted for the public good, as to be adopted by those penetrating judges who inhab ited Sparta.

"These laws were originally formed by "Minos, (whom fable calls the son of Jupiter), who gained possession of this

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island, about the year of the world 2720), " and about 1284 years before Christ. He

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was a wise, gentle, and powerful prince; "and according to Strabo, the end which "he proposed in the establishment of these "laws, was to render his subjects happy,

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by promoting virtue. He banished idle"ness and luxury from his states, with

effeminancy and vicious pleasures, the "fruitful sources of all vice, and the ruin of "nations.

"The happiness Crete enjoyed under "the wise and equitable government of "Minos, did not expire with himself; the "laws he established subsisted in vigour, " even in Plato's time, nine hundred years "after; another proof Plato observes of "this legislator's wisdom, is the benefits "which accrued to Sparta, by the imita"tion of these laws. Sparta was a neigh"bouring country, and at that remote

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period the most celebrated state of an"cient Greece, except Athens.

"Lycurgus had regulated the govern"ment of Sparta, on the plan of that of "Crete; and it subsisted, generally, in a "uniform manner, for several ages, without "experiencing those vicissitudes and revo"lutions so common in the other states of "Greece*."

The principal defect in these laws, ap. pears to have been, that war was too much had in view; though Minos, himself, attempted to remedy this evil, by ordaining

Ancient History.

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