was true of Seleucia, which succeeded it in importance as a city, and subsequently of Bagdad, the capital of the caliphs. It still was remote from human habitations, and in the midst of a wide waste of sands.* It was built on a beautiful oasis, and it was a convenient resting place for the weary caravan laden with the merchandise of the East. Solomon built it in his general purpose to secure that commerce, and it rose to be one of the most beautiful cities of the Oriental world. The name which Solomon gave to it was retained until it was conquered by Alexander, who changed its title to that of Palmyra-the city of palm trees. "This culti vated spot," says Gibbon, " rose on the barren desert like an island out of the ocean. The air was pure, and the soil, watered as it was by springs, was capable of high cultivation. A place of such singular advantages, situated between the Gulf of Persia and the Mediterranean, was soon frequented by the caravans which conveyed to the nations of Europe the rich productions of the East. It rose to an independent and opulent city, and connecting the Roman and Parthian monarchies by the mutual benefits of commerce, was suffered to observe an honorable neutrality, till at length, after the victories of Trajan, the little republic sunk into the bosom of Rome, and flourished more than a hundred and fifty years in the subordinate, though honorable rank of a colony. It was during that peaceful period that the Palmyrenians constructed those temples, palaces and porticoes of Grecian architecture, whose ruins, scattered over an extent of many miles, have excited so much the curiosity of travellers."+-The reader of history will at once remember that this city was the residence of the celebrated queen Zenobia, who so long resisted the arms of Aurelian, and who evinced so much skill in government and so much power in her armies, as for a long time to turn back the tide of war that was sweeping every thing before it. Here too, protected

* It was situated, according to Pliny, (Nat. Hist. v. 21,) five hundred and thirty-seven miles from Seleucia, and two hundred and three from the nearest coast of Syria. According to Dr. Robertson, however, the distance from Palmyra to the Euphrates was eighty-five miles, and from the Mediterranean was one hundred and seventeen. Disqui. on India, p. 22. Decline and Fall, I. 173.

SECOND SERIES, VOL. IV. NO. II.

6

by her, yet finally betrayed by her, Longinus lived, and was condemned by the fierce and unlettered conqueror Aurelian to death. Gibbon, I. 173, 174.

That the city so celebrated as Palmyra was the ancient Tadmor built by Solomon, there can be no doubt. The erection of such a city, so remote from Palestine, and for the purposes of commerce, is one of the most remarkable events in Jewish history, and is a striking illustration of the advantages which it was supposed would result from securing the commerce of the East. (2 Chron. viii. 4.) Major Rennel, in his work on the Comparative Geography of Western Asia,' has entered into an elaborate investigation in order to determine the geographical site of Palmyra. According to him, it is in N. Lat. 34° 24', and E. Long. 38° 20', being 90 geographical miles to the north of the Euphrates, and 109 iniles E. by N. from Baalbec. It is situated on a small oasis in the midst of a vast desert of sand, where there are no other than Arabian footsteps. The spot where Palmyra stands enjoys the advantage of a good supply of wholesome water. Its site is not however to be understood as quite open to the desert in every direction. To the north and north-west there are hills, through which a narrow valley about two miles in length leads to the city. On each side of this valley occur what seem to have been the sepulchres of the ancient inhabitants. They are marked by square towers, and are found to contain mummies like the tombs of Egypt. The site on which the city stands is slightly elevated above the surrounding desert for a compass of about ten miles; which the Arabs believe to coincide with the extent of the ancient city, as they find ancient remains wherever they dig for that purpose.

Palmyra had no natural advantages as a city except what it derived from commerce. It had no self-sustaining power. It was wholly dependent on the traffic that was carried on between Asia and Europe. Yet it was not merely a thoroughfare, or a resting place; it became an emporium-a city of merchants. The caravans of the East were undoubtedly directed to Tyre; and Hiram, the Prince of Tyre, might easily persuade Solomon of the advantage which would accrue to him if there were a fortified city on his frontier for the protection of his own kingdom, and for the safeguard of the caravans across the desert.-Palmyra soon became

a place of merchandise; and the merchants there became. the factors for the oriental trade. They probably bought of the caravans from India, and sold to the Romans, and under this trade it rose to be one of the most beautiful cities of the world. It is not needful to attempt further to specify its commerce. Producing nothing itself, its commerce partook wholly of that which has been already described, and it was enriched by that alone.-It is remarkable that it is so seldom referred to in the Scriptures. There are no denunciations of its pride and splendor, as of Petra, and Babylon and Tyre; no prediction of its certain and final overthrow, as there was of theirs.*

Damascus, too, rose in part by that same commerce, and though distinguished by its own manufactures above most of the cities of the East, no small part of its ancient opulence was derived from its situation, and from the fact that it shared in that vast merchandise that was borne across the deserts and plains of Western Asia to contribute to the luxury and splendor of Europe.

Another important city that has perhaps interested the reader of modern travels more than any other is Petra, or Sela. A general description of the site and present appearance of this celebrated city may be seen, by referring to the Biblical Repository, Vol. III. pp. 278–287, 422–431, and Vol. IX. 431-457. All that my purpose requires is, that I should consider its advantages as a place of commerce, and show that it owed its splendor and power to the fact that the commerce of the East at one time centered there. Petra was situated advantageously between Gazaat one time the mart of commerce, after the destruction of Tyre-on the west, the Persian Gulf on the east, and Palmyra on the north. Thus Pliny (vi. 28) says, Nabatæi oppidum incolunt Petram nomine in convalle, paulo minus II Mill. pass. amplitudinis circumdatum montibus inaccessis, amne interfluente; abest a Gaza oppido litoris nostri DC Mill. a sinu Persico CXXXV Mill. Huc convenit utrumque bivium, eorum qui Syria Palmyram petiere et eorum qui ab Gaza venerunt.† The situation of Petra as advantageous for

* For a description of Palmyra, see the Pictorial Bible on 2 Chron. 8.

See Reland's Palest. on the word Petra.

commerce, is thus described by Dr. Vincent. "Petra is the capital of Edom or Seir, the Idumea or Arabia Petræa of the Greeks, the Nabatea, considered by geographers, historians and poets, as the source of all the precious commodities of the East. The caravans, in all ages, from Minca in the interior of Arabia and from Gerrha on the Gulf of Persia, from Hadramant on the ocean, and some even from Sabea or Yemen, appear to have pointed to Petra as a common centre; and from Petra the trade seems to have again branched out in every direction to Egypt, Palestine and Syria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus and a variety of subordinate routes that all terminated on the Mediterranean. There is every proof that is requisite to show that the Tyrians and Sidonians were the first merchants who introduced the produce of India to all the nations which encircled the Mediterranean, so is there the strongest evidence to prove that the Tyrians obtained all their commodities from Arabia. But if Arabia was the centre of this commerce, Petra was the point to which all the Arabians traded from the three sides of their vast peninsula.'

In itself, Petra had no commercial advantages. It was remote from any seaport; it had no large river near; it had no internal resources. It was merely from its being a carrying-place, or a thoroughfare, that it derived all its importance. "When caravans came across Arabia from the Persian Gulf, it was at Edom or Idumea that they first touched on the civilized world. A depôt was thus naturally formed there of the commodities in which they traded. This traffic raised Idumea, and its capital, Petra, to a high pitch of wealth and importance."* As the commerce which centered in Petra, however, was substantially the same with that which was conveyed through Babylon and Palmyra, and which I have already described, it is not necessary to go farther into detail. It was India that made Petra what it was, and like Palmyra and Tyre it rose to splendor because the commerce of the East at one time centered there, and, like them, when that commerce received a new direction, it lost its importance and fell to rise no more.

[To be continued.]

* Commerce of the Ancients, Vol. XI. p. 263, as quoted by Keith, p. 140. † Encyc. Geog. I, p. 16.

ARTICLE V.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.

By the Rev. N. Porter, Jr., New Milford, Con.

IT is no mean heritage, to which we have been born, that we have the English language for our mother tongue. It may well be questioned, whether it is surpassed by any ancient or modern language, either in the measure of its capacities, or the readiness with which it adapts itself to uses the most varied. We freely acknowledge the almost endless copiousness of the wonderful Greek, and are entranced with the surprising perfection of its structure. We are excited by that vivifying energy which causes a German sentence to beat as with the pulsations of life, and are startled by those meaning whispers which it sends to our ears, as from the spirit-land. But when we turn and read with the eye, or chant with the voice, the poetry of our own Shakspeare and Milton, or mark the graceful ease and the majestic strength which run along the prose of Bacon, of Dryden, and of Burke, we are satisfied more than ever with our own language, and pause, before we yield to any other a higher place.

True, the English is our mother tongue-and we should not forget, as we judge of its sweetness and its power, that our infant lispings first labored to utter its words, and that by its measures, as warbled from a mother's voice, we were lulled to our childhood slumbers. Its familiar household words have become so identified with the realities which they describe, and the emotions which they awaken, that when clothed in a new language, we hardly know them as our own. On the other hand we may not forget, that its words have become so common to our ears by early and constant use, that we are insensible to much of the sweetness which is borne upon their sounds and the power which their combinations enfold ;-that he who in his maturer years, acquires a new language, sees in it a freshness