and in imitation of, the altars of Bacchus, Hercules, and Semiramis. Returning south by Bactra and Aornos, he passed the eastern limit of the Persian Empire at the river Cophes, a tributary of the Indus. On the banks of the latter, and of its numerous tributaries, Alexander met with a spirited but ineffectual resistance from PORUS. At last, being arrested in his progress by the unwillingness of his troops to go farther from home, he was compelled to abandon his purpose of marching eastward till he should reach the ocean. Turning to the right, therefore, he dropt down the Indus; and from its mouth directed his retrograde course by Pattăla, along the coast of Gedrosia, a country bounded to the south by the Erythrean Sea; and passing through Pasargadae and Persepolis, arrived once more at Babylon, where he died, in the year of Rome 431, and 323 years before the Christian era. 108 VII. SYRIA. THE tract of land which forms the eastern boundary of the Mediterranean, lying between the 31st and 37th degree of north Latitude, was, in classical times, called SYRIA (Eupta), and comprehended PHOENICIA, PALAESTINA, and JUDAEA;-that is, from Mons Amānus and Sinus Issicus to the confines of Egypt, a distance of 500 miles in length; in breadth, various, according as it is more or less encroached upon by the Arabian Desert. The physical characteristic of this country is an almost continuous chain of MOUNTAINS stretching from north to south in a direction parallel to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and nowhere far distant from it. Though it assumes different local appellations, the chain may be called by the general name of Inbănus (the Lebanon of Scripture), and the highest part of the range is where it diverges into two branches, Libănus and Antilibanus. To that point, the Hermon of Holy Writ, and the high ground adjoining may be traced the sources of the three principal, and indeed only, RIVERS of Syria, the Orontes, whose course is to the north, and the Leontes and Jordanes, which flow southward. 1. The Orontes in the latter part of its course makes a bend to the west, and passes through a wide and level valley between Mons Pierius on the north, which is the termination of Amānus, and Mons Casius on the south, which may be regarded as the commencement of the Libănus chain. Twenty miles from its mouth, and on its left bank, stood the famous city of Antiocheia, long the capital of Syria; and in its immediate vicinity was "that sweet grove Of Daphne, by Orontes," (Par. Lost. IV. 272), which at last became proverbial for luxury and voluptuousness.1 At the mouth was Meliboea, an island noted for its traffic in Tyrian purple." 2. The Leontes, rising at the point of divergence of Libănus and Antilibanus, flows south through a widening basin, enclosed between these two ranges, which, from its physical aspect, the Greeks called Kon (i. e. cava) Lupta, which figures in our maps as Coelesyria―an appellation corresponding in name and nature to the application of the Scottish word 'how,' (Anglicé, 'hollow'), as when we speak of 'the How o' the Mearns.' 3. Jordānes, the Jordan, springing from Mt Hermon, flows almost due south, forming in its course successively, 1. the Lake Samachonitis; 2. the Lake Tiberias, known in the New Testament as 1 Hence Juvenal, stigmatizing the vices of Rome, says, Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes.-III. 62. And Propertius speaks of the delight Orontea crinem perfundere myrrhâ.—1. 2. 4. 2 Virgil (Aen. v. 250) mentions chlamydem auratam quam plurima circum Purpura Maeandro duplici Meliboea cucurrit. > This lake is named by no ancient author but Josephus. It is supposed to be the "waters of Merom" of Scripture. 4 'the Sea of Galilee,' or 'Gennesareth;' and 3. the Lacus Asphaltītes or Dead Sea, a bituminous lake without issue, in which the Jordan is lost. The banks of this lake are the lowest inhabited land known, the surface of the water having been lately ascertained to be 1312 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. About half way between the head of the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, on the brook Kedron, stood Hierosolyma, JERUSALEM, the metropolis of Palestine. On the Syrian side of the Euphrates, where it forms the north-east boundary, were Samosata, b. pl. of Lucian; and Thapscăus, where there was a ford of the river, by which Cyrus led his army to Cunaxa, and which Darius crossed on his way to Issus, and Alexander in pursuit of him after the battle. Having dwelt thus far on the Mountains and Rivers of Syria, we now resume our journey along the coast, proceeding southward from the mouth of the Orontes, in Lat. 36°. In our way to the mouth of the Leontes, we enter PHOENICIA, and passing the small but once populous and prosperous island, Arădus, in Lat. 34°, we arrive at the point Where smooth Adonis from his native rock Of Thammuz yearly wounded.-Milt. Par. Lost, 1. 450. Then passing Berītus (Beirūt),—a Roman colony in the reign of Augustus, a great School of Jurisprudence in the 4th and 5th centuries of the Christian - * Nec Jordanes pelago accipitur; sed unum atque alterum lacum integer perfluit; tertio retinetur.-TACIT. HIST. v. c. 6. era, and the locality to which is assigned the legendary combat of St George and the Dragon, we find ourselves, as we approach the mouth of the Leontes, in SIDON, and soon after crossing it, in TYROS, both of which cities are in PHOENICIA. They were the earliest, most enterprising, and wealthiest of all ancient states.5 Nearly on the same parallel of latitude as 5 The local name of Tyre appears to have been Sor or Sar, hence the Latin epithet Sarranus, a synonym for Tyrius, as in Virgil— Ut gemmâ bibat et Sarrano dormiat auro.-GEORG. II. 506. The modern name as given in ordinary maps is Sour. I am tempted to throw into a Note, as connected with the history of Tyre and Sidon, a few remarks on a passage in Milton's Comus, which, I suspect, is more frequently read than fully understood. The two brothers being enveloped 'in double night of darkness and of shades,' one of them prays thus : gentle taper! Though a rush-candle from the wicker-hole Of some clay habitation, visit us With thy long-levelled rule of streaming light, Or Tyrian Cynosure ! It may assist the reader who is puzzled with the somewhat recondite allusions in the two last lines, if I subjoin and expound a couplet of Ovid, which, I have no doubt, was present to the mind of Milton (for Ovid was a great favourite of Milton's) when he penned the passage. Ovid, in speaking of the ignorance of the early Romans in every art but that of war, asks— Quis tunc aut Hyadas aut Pleiadas Atlantēas Sidoniis, Helicen Graia carina notet?-FAST. III. 105. It is with the latter couplet only we have to do, which may be thus paraphrased :-Who in those early times when they thought of nothing but war, had observed that there are two constellations now called the Greater and Lesser Bear,-but the latter of which was first called Cynosūra (xvvos vga), probably from the curve in |