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PROVERB:-Bear and forbear.

A phrase frequently used by Epictetus. This sage is said to have been an example of what he taught. He was in early life a slave at Rome in the reign of Nero. His wicked master Epaphroditus used to divert himself with striking the poor boy's legs with a stick, and the only reply he made was, that if he gave him such heavy blows he would break the bone; which happening accordingly, Epictetus mearly said, “Did not I tell you you would break my leg ?" When he afterwards obtained his liberty, and became an eminent philosopher, an iron lamp by which he studied was stolen;-"I shall deceive the thief," said he, if he should come again, as he will only find an earthen one. This memorable earthen lamp was sold after his death, for 3000 drachms, -£75 of English money.

The Mexicans have learnt, from experience, the necessity of undergoing trouble. They say to their children at the birth,-"Thou art come into the world, child, to endure; suffer, therefore, and be silent." But what a perfect pattern of forbearance have Christians in their Lord and Master, who says, Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not again.

Where bees are, there s honey.

Where there are industrious persons, there is wealth; the goods of fortune, generally speaking, are only to be obtained by labour and industry, for the hand of the diligent maketh rich. (Prov. x. 4.) this, says Ray, we see verified in our neighbours, the Hollanders.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

(from the Literary Gazette.)

LINES

On falling in with a wreck at Sea water-logged and abandoned by its crew, in Lat. 37° 3' N. Long. 16° 40′ E. Greenwich off the coast of Sicily.

Aug. 23. 1841. WAIF of the wide waters! floating the ocean, Far in the distance a speck on the waveCalm is around thee, in deaden'd emotion Washing the wounds that it came not to save.

Bare are thy tall masts, still pointing to heavenThou hadst no appeal but to sea and to skyTempest-tost, rudderless, water-logged, riven,

The sea-bird is wounded and there it must lie.

Where is the crew that once gallantly sail'd thee The pilot who stood to the last at thy helm? Slain at their posts when the thunder-burst hail'd thee,

Or swept from the decks that the waters o'er

whelm.

Thy boats parted from thee, thy broken hull nameless,

Thy "papers" destroyed, and thy cargo all

drown'd

The passing ships rob thee, and hold themselves, blameless,

Then again thou art left to the billows around.

Float idly on, then, till no more they can rend thee,

The hopes of thy owner, the lives of thy crew All gone-does it matter what fortunes attend thee,

Or the breeze or the blast that may hurry thee through?

Life, like the waters, has waifs on its ocean, Where fortune, and hope, ay, and rudder is lost;

Abandoned by all, e'en by woman's devotion Then man is the waif and the wreck tempesttost:

Then man is the wreck, and floats on unheeding; The robbers, they spoil all that's left for their prey;

His good name departed, and dark passions leading

Mid quicksands and shoals till there's naught to betray.

And well might he stand on the rent timbers

mocking

The dull waste around him or hurrying past. The strength of the tempest in wild fury rocking His home of despair as it rides to the blast. But, O from on high his good angel has spoken He mounts not thy wreck, all his pride is o'erthrown;

There's peace for the heart that lies wounded and broken

On, on, then, thou waif of the waters alone! RICHARD JOHNS.

Sold at No. 97 Strada Forni.

No. 113.

Saturday, 6th. November 1841.

CONQUEST OF RHODES,

by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. We shall not here enter into a dissertation upon the value of the Military Orders, those denominated the Templars and the Hospitallers, (the latter the Order of Malta,) and so celebrated during the development and spread of the Mussulmam power. One observation, however we will make-that so much good and and so much evil sprang out of these warlike institutions, that, in the then peculiar state of the world, it is now impossible to decide which predominated. This is in fact, the whole question of the Crusades, which the ablest and most profound scholars have not been able to agree upon, some have been found the warm advocates of the Crusades, others their severe censurers. But it is our duty to remark, as friends of religion and liberty, that the singular constitution of the Military Orders, above-mentioned, was unfavourable both to just notions of religion as well as civil liberty. For what was the genius of these Orders? It was, to decide every thing by the sword. It is true that they had a code of military duty and honour, but its sense was dependent upon the arbitrary interpretation of the Grandmaster, and the dominant political views of his Court. Besides, there was danger of these Orders primarily established for the defence of Christians against the Mussulmans, becoming too great for the well-being of the Christian States, which they were sworn to protect, and assuming a military sovereignty over Christendom-a thing which had it happened would have been the greatest calamity that the world ever experienced. Indeed, there is some reason to believe, that the cruel, politic Philip of France foresaw the dangerous tendency of these Orders,

Price 1d.

and determined on their annihilation-and with respect to the Templars he was perfectly and terribly successful.

After this brief remark, we shall pass on to the conquest of the beautiful and fertile island of Rhodes by the Order of St. John, (the Order of Malta,) first giving a geographical and historical sketch of the island.

"Rhodes, though it now holds so insignificant a place in the estimation of the world, was, in ancient times, one of the most celebrated of the States of Greece, unrivalled for its wealth, its commerce, and its maritime power. It is about 120 miles in circumference, and divided from the continent of Asia Minor by a channel 20 miles broad: The climate is delicious,—the summer being free from intense heat, and the winter mild and humid. The soil is singularly fertile and produces fruits in abundance 'wild roses hang about the base of the rocks, beds of flowering myrrh perfume the air, and tufts of laurel-roses adorn the banks of the rivulets with their gaudy flowers.'

"Rhodes was among the last of the Grecian States that yielded to the Roman arms and it was not till the reign of Vespasian, that it submitted to be governed in the manner of a Roman province. From that period the island is no more mentioned with distinction in history, till the Knights of St. John made their descent upon it. Its inhabitants after their complete subjugation to the Roman yoke, lost those arts which had rendered their ancestors so renowned; and the proud armies which it had sent forth in the days of its independence and glory, dwindled down, in the course of time, to a few piratical galleys, the property chiefly of the Saracen merchants, whom native governors had admitted to the rights of naturalization.

After the expulsion of the Latins from the Holy Land, which occupation of it by

[graphic]

Part of Fortifications of the Knights of St John in Rhodes.

them had been marked by bloody battles, deeds of valour and devotion, on both the part of Mussulmans and Christians, and a long train of disasters inseparable from war, the Knights Hospitallers retreated to the isle of Cyprus. Here they found their situation very uncomfortable, and determined to make a last attempt to recover the Holy City Jerusalem, but this ended in nothing.

The Knights then turned their attention to the conquest of Rhodes. During his short sojourn on the coast of Lycia in Asia Minor, the Grand-master, Fulk de Villaret publicly proclaimed the object of the expedition. This done, he again put to sea, and ran down directly on Rhodes, where he landed his troops, provisions, military engines, with little opposition. But, though the native Greeks and Saracens were surprised, the conquest of the island was bought very dearly, for it was not till years had elapsed, of tremendous fighting, that the island was taken by the Knights.

It happened that the Greek Emperor Andronicus had but a nominal sovereignty in the island, the government being in the hands of the rebellious native Greeks and cretain Saracen auxiliaries. But the enterprise of the Knights immediately excited the fears and jealousies of the Court of Byzantium,and succours were dispatched forthwith to cooperate with its native defenders against the Knightly invaders, wihch measure greatly protracted the war. The succours arved, after a constant succession of skirmishes had greatly thinned the ranks of the Knight and Crusaders, nevertheless Fulk de Villaret determined upon the conquest of the Island, and in spite of the Greek reinforcement, he boldly invested the strongly forttified City of Rhodes, the capital city. He was nobly supported by his Knights, who though they saw themselves nearly deserted by all the secular Crusaders, refused abandon their lines, and turned the siege intoablockade.

In this situation the Knights were encompassed by a combined Greek and Saracen force and reduced to the last extremity, but the Grandmaster having procured fresh supplies from Europe, resolved to conquer

or leave his corpse on the field. He sallied out of his entrenchments, and offered his enemies battle, which they readily accepted. A long and sanguinary conflict followed, in which both armies fought with extraordinary desperation; the one for life and honour, the other for all that the heart of the patriot values-the land which gave him birth. The Grandmaster beheld the bravest of his knights hewn down before his eyes, but victory ultimately declared for his banner, and the Saracens totally routed, threw themselves into their galleys, and carried to the Lycian shore, and the islands of the Archipelago, the first news of their defeat. Availing himself of the panic which this event occasioned among the troops that garrisoned the city, the Grandmaster stormed the outworks, and amidst a shower of darts and other destructive missiles, his knights gained the breach, and, on the 15th of August, 1310, planted the standard of the Order of St. John triumphantly and permanently on the walls.

Of the details of this famous battle little is known, the Hospitallers could wield the battle-brand better than the pen; what is known is, that the conquest cost the lives of many valiant knights, and that four years elapsed before the island and its dependencies were finally won.

Of its strict justice the less that is said the better. It had, indeed, the support of the Church, and was regarded by Christian princes of those times as an event honourable to the Hospitallers, but in reality it was nothing more than a piratical enterprise, and rested solely for its justification on the very dubious ground of the native Rhodians having entered into an alliance with the Turks, and sheltered their Corsairs in the Ports of the island: But, alas! in these, as in later days, men were wont to engage in war, no matter what, so long as it promised spoils and victory.

NO HEAVEN WITHOUT CHRIST.-A man may go to heaven without health, without wealth, without honour, without learning, without friends; but he can never get to heaven without Christ.

DELUSIONS.

The

When the atmosphere is pure and bright, free from clouds above, and exhalations below, surrounding objects are clearly dicernible; their true form is described to the eye, their proper distance, fairly esti mated, and their size and position accurately decided on. But when the heavens are dim, and the air laden with heavy vapours, all is reversed. Things appear in a false position and not as they really are. tops of the loftiest mountains are wrapped in a cloudy, impenetrable veil, while the lower yet distant hills are brought unnaturally close to our sight, and in that untrue proximity appear to possess a vastness and distinctness wholly illusive, the result alone of the false medium through which they are viewed. And so, alas! it is in the moral as in the physical world. When the soul on the wings of heavenly contemplation takes an excursive flight in the bright atmosphere of truth, looking abroad on those objects worthy of its observation, it dwells with peculiar delight on those lofty eminences where Religion, Philosophy, Science, and all that is truly valuable have their unchanging and unchangeable place, and measures with a correct eye, those meaner elevations, which the worldly multitude are striving with such toilsome and unceasing assiduity to gain. But when the 'minds eye' is withdrawn from that glorious altitude, when the soul with drooping wing drops downward, each moment becoming more "of the earth earthy," then the thick coming clouds of error roll together darkly, and the heavy fogs of evil habits, and the blinding mist of sinful inclinations, all conspire against us with an oftimes too fatal power, and then the everlasting hills that ere while stood so brightly and beautifully revealed in the golden light of Heaven, wax fainter and fainter to the diseased vision, and at last are lost altogether in the gloom that has settled 'black as Erebus' on our spirits. In such an hour as this, it is, that the really insignificant things of earth, wealth, rank, fame and power, appear in the darkened mental horizon, with an exaggerated and unreal great

ness; and while contemplating them thus with fascinated gaze, which we but faintly struggle to withdraw, we lose all recollection of our own identity with the one, who but a little while ago, saw these delusive objects in their real forms in the bright illumination of Truth and Reality.

FEWNESS OF CHRIST'S DISCIPLES.

How comes it that the number of the disciples of Jesus is so small? That the clamours of those

who sent him to calvary, so soon followed the hosannas of those who strewed his road with palms on his entry into Jerusalem? That scarcely one hundred and twenty of his disiples were assembled in the upper chamber, in expectation of the descent of the Holy Ghost? It is because the true disciples of Jesus are not those who are satisfied brated him, who, externally, or to a certain point with admiring him, with praising him, who celefollow him. His true disciples are those who listen to him internally and everywhere; who observe his precepts, who deny themselves, who take his cross on them, and follow him everywhere.-BOSSUET.

PRAYER.

PRAYER is not a smooth expression, or a well contrived form of words; not the product of a ready memory, or of a rich invention exerting itself in the performance. These may draw a neat picture of it, but still life is wanting. The motion of the heart God-wards, holy and devine affection, makes prayer real, and lively, and acceptable to the living God, to whom it is presented; the pouring out of the heart to him who made it, and therefore hears it, and understands what it speaks, and how it is moved and affected in calling on him. petition, that prevails with a king, but the moving It is not the gilded paper and good writing of a sense of it. And to that King who discerns the heart, heart-sense is the sense of all, and that which he only regards: he listens to hear what that speaks, and all is nothing where that is silent. All other excellence in prayer, is but the outside and fashion of it, this is the life of it.-Leighton.

Seek true peace, not upon earth, but in heaven not in men, nor in other things created, but in God alone.-Th. Kempis.

The MALTA PENNY MAGAZINE is published and sent to Subscribers, in Valetta, every Saturday, Subscriptions at Is. per quarter received at No. 97. Str. Forni.

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