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African in austerity of discipline. It was the boundary of Europe; and Providence put into its hands the discovery of the New World. After having enacted a history more volcanic than that of any other nation in Europe, it is now working itself out in a series of imbecile eruptions, which merely ravage its own declivities. At present there seems no future in store for Spain. Who, in these days, has not thought of the possibility of a great Christian league against Rome, the pressure of which should induce her to abandon the ground taken up at Trent; and thus, to say the least, may union be possible? But it is the merest, thinnest dream. In Denmark the apostolical succession is wanting to the episcopacy; and that is the unearthly cement of a Church. In America, ecclesiastical feeling is a plant of too recent growth to be made available for any such great purpose; we must wait in that quarter for a multiplication of bishops, and then a monarchy; and it will take half a century or more to bring that proud invalid, the American republic, to a monarchy, however inevitable it may be. In the far east, Rome has got somewhat of a firm hold on many of the better Christian bodies. In the Greek Church, except, of course, the Russian branch of it, and Russia is well nigh all-powerful in the Vatican, there is too much decrepitude, and too much well-founded distrust, for any external movements, even though the pale of Christendom has been recently thrust out again on her behalf. And lastly, in England, where

the apostolic lamps are still burning over our Altars, and where the Angels have not deserted shrines which men leave unfrequented, and where, if we have not fragrant incense and flowing robes, we have spiritual meat and white garments;-in England there is the beam in our own eye to be pulled out before we venture on the mote that is in our neighbor's eye. Our foreign sympathies, so far as we need any, must rest mainly with the Latin Church; and we must make and find, cruelly though our sympathies are intercepted in that direction, such communion with her as we rightfully can, without incurring the horrible woes denounced on those by whom offences come to weak brethren. Shall the Apostle go his lifelong fasting rather than offend one weak Christian, and shall we array a multitude of Christians against men holier and wiser than ourselves, merely to satisfy an impatient craving, a disobedient restlessness, or a beautiful regret? The uppermost petition in all good men's prayers now should be, that God would vouchsafe to grant again external communion to His Church, and give us peace amongst ourselves. O, for peace, for peace! yet, truth first, and peace after truth.

Living among Greek Churches and Greek priests, who would not strive to be hopeful for her, from whom chiefly we have received our great creed? If it be that a blessing comes, the young Greek kingdom will share the dew which falls upon the old Greek Church.

We bade farewell to Athens, bathed in the Phalerum, and embarked at Piræus for Constantinople. In the morning we were at the island of Syra, a barren rock, which has risen to importance from its being a convenient point of intersection for the four great streams of Levantine bustle, the lines from Trieste, Malta, Constantinople, and Alexandria, converging here. The town is of considerable size, and of more respectable appearance than Athens. There are one or two church steeples, and bells to be heard; a sight and sound most refreshing after a sejour in continental Greece. The upper town, which is separate, is entirely inhabited by Latin Christians.

After spending two days at Syra we embarked for Smyrna. From the deck of the steamer, as she lay in the harbor, we could see on our right hand the island of Tenos; in the middle, the sacred Delos, and on the left the high land of Naxos, while leagues of unbreezy ocean were stretching away towards Asia.

The evening passed very pleasantly among the Cyclades. Soon after leaving the harbor of Syra, we had a view of Paros to the right, and Andros to the left, and passed Great and Little Delos, two bare rocks which at a distance look like mere headlands of Mycone. When we were off the cape of the island of Tenos, we saw Nicaria to our right, and at one end of it a conical mountain, which was in SaAnd then the veil of night came down upon the Ægean. About an hour and a half after sunrise

mos.

we passed the town of Scio, upon the island of the same name, the ancient Chios. It disputes with Zante the title of "flower of the Levant;" but the east shore, which we coasted, presented no signs of greenness or fertility. Here we met some part of the Turkish fleet going down to Candia, to crush the rebellion there. They had a dashing breeze, and it was really a fine sight to see those huge Turkish men-of-war moving so majestically upon the water; but we mourned over the probable scenes of atrocious barbarity which would follow their success. Four rebellions at once, in Candia, Albania, the vicinity of Mount Athos, and Bulgaria, besides troubles on the Persian frontier, are omens of the coming downfall of the huge infidel empire. Such an event will throw European diplomacy into confusion, the knot of which war must sooner or later cut. Yet Christians can scarcely have divided opinions on the subject.

Opposite the rocky shore of Scio was the mainland of Asia, the sacred continent, the site of Eden and the Lord's Tomb. We did not behold it unmoved, especially as it now seemed a forbidden land to us. For what we had heard at Syra of the plague in Syria and Egypt rendered a pilgrimage to the Holy Land out of the question; but we did not think so at the time. We still dreamed on of the Jordan and Jerusalem.

The part of Asia which we first saw was that projection of the coast bounded on the south by Cape

Blanco, and on the north by Cape Karabooroon, coming forward into the sea between the Gulfs of Scala Nuova and Smyrna. The coast was much greener than that of any of the islands which we had seen, and there were several pretty glens running down to the shore, laying open every here and there very lovely views. These were the haunted glens of

old Ionia.

The wind gave us some trouble here; but at length we laid Mitylene to our left, and turned round the promontory into the Gulf of Smyrna. The coasting of the gulf, which is thirty-six miles long, is said to be very beautiful; yet we were disappointed in it. But the entry into the bay in which Smyrna stands is very splendid indeed, though not equalling Genoa or Corfu. The mountain on the right of Smyrna is very striking, and luxuriantly green.

Smyrna itself, with its twenty-two mosques and six cemeteries, has not so oriental an appearance as might have been expected; but it is a very striking place. It is built on the side of a low mountain called Pagus, whose top is occupied by a ruined castle built by one of the Byzantine emperors in the thirteenth century; and the environs of the city look like an assemblage of beautiful groves and shady gardens. The streets, in the Jewish and Turkish quarters especially, are narrow and filthy; but abounding in picturesque. The interior of the city is delightfully oriental; and the mosque quadrangles, the street corners, turns in the bazaar, gay

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