child, or occasions of the like nature, the company is rarely or never received into one of the chambers. The court is the usual place of their reception, which is strewed accordingly with mats and carpets, for their more commodious entertainment; and as this is called il woost, or the middle of the house, literally answering to the tò pérov of St. Luke v. 19. it is probable that the place where our Saviour and the Apostles were frequently accustomed to give their instructions, might have been in the like situation; i. e. in the area or quadrangle of one of these houses. In the summer season, and upon all occasions, when a large company is to be received, this court is commonly sheltered from the heat or inclemency of the weather, by a velum,† umbrella, or veil; which being expanded upon ropes from one side of the parapet wall to the other, may be folded or unfolded at pleasure. The Psalmist seems to allude either to the tents of the Bedoweens, or to some covering of this kind, in the beautiful expression of spreading out the heavens. like a veil or curtain.

"If it may be presumed that our Saviour, at the healing of the paralytic, was preaching in a house of this fashion, we may, by attending only to the structure of it, give no small light to one circumstance of that history, which has lately given great offence to some unbelievers. For it may be observed, with relation to the words of Saint Mark, ἀπεστέγασαν τὴν στέ- γην ὅπου ἦν, καὶ ἐξορύξαντες, that as στέγη (no less perhaps than tatlilo. the correspondent word in the Syriac version) will denote, with propriety enough, any kind of covering, the veil which I have mentioned, as well as a roof or ceiling properly so called; so, for the same reason, aroOTEYEV may signify the undoing or the removal only of such covering. Εξορύξαντες, which we render breaking up, is omitted in the Cambridge Manuscript, and not regarded in the Syriac and some other versions: the

This is the same with the Arab. which is interpreted, Velum, aut quid simile, quod obtenditur atrio domus, seu cavædio. Vid. Gol. in voce. Psal. civ. 2. The same expression we have in the prophet Isaiah, xl. 22.

translators perhaps either not rightly comprehending the meaning of it, or finding the context clear without it. In St. Jerom's translation, the correspondent word is palefacientes, as if opútavtes was further explanatory of anestéуasav; the same in the Persian version is expressed by quatuor angulis lectuli totidem funibus annexis; as if opúšxvtes related either to the letting down of the bed, or preparatory thereto, to the making holes in it for the cords to pass through. According to this explication, therefore, the context may run thus: When they could not come to Jesus for the press, they got upon the roof of the house, and drew back the veil where he was; or they laid open and uncovered that part of it especially which was spread over the place (Tоu v) where he was sitting, and having removed, and plucked away, (according to St. Jerom) whatever might incommode them in their intended good office, or having tied (according to the Persian version) the four corners of the bed or bed-stead with cords, where the sick of the palsy lay, they let it down before Jesus."

"The court is surrounded with a cloister; as the cava ædium of the Romans was with a peristylium or colonnade: over which, when the house has one or more stories, (and I have seen them with two or three) there is a gallery erected, of the same dimentions with the cloister, having a ballustrade, or else a piece of carved or latticed work going round about it, to prevent people from falling from it into the court. From the cloisters and galleries, we are conducted into large spacious chambers, of the same length with the court, but seldom or never communicating with one another. One of them frequently serves a whole family; paticularly when a father indulges his married children to live with him; or when several persons join in the rent of the same house. From whence it is, that the cities of these countries, which are generally much inferior in bigness to those of Europe, yet are so exceedingly populous, that great numbers of the inhabitants are swept away by the plague, or any other contagious distemper.'

MARMORICE.

A description of Marmorice Bay was published in No. 114 of the Malta Penny Magazine, in which was stated "that there areno remains of the ancient Physcus." This appears to be doubtful, and we subjoin with pleasure the following communication with which we have been favoured from a gentleman who was in the English fleet when anchored last year at Marmorice.

"To say that there are no remains of the Ancient Physcus is to betray an ignorance of the locality. There are many incontestable indications of its site on the western side of the first bay. Landing just inside the first cape, you see a mole or pier running north and south, built without cement, of stones about six feet long, which had been rudely squared. I did not measure its length, but I should suppose it to be two hundred feet long, fifty broad, and even now 20 high. Here without doubt was the harbour of Physcus. Under the protection of this pier a hundred vessels would safely ride at anchor. On the hill which you ascend towards the south from the pier, are conspicuous limestone rocks singularly split and triturated by the weather, upon which are placed two upright stones about seven feet high, of a coffin shaped form. These reminded me of

the remains near Casal Crendi in Malta and

the Druidical remains in England. Along the beach going from the pier northward, are plainly to be seen foundations and debris of houses; and about a mile and a half in the same direction a bold headland juts out into the bay. This headland from its height and situation has been chosen to be the Acropolis of a city. The south side is nearly perpendicular, and was of course inaccessible; but on the north side there are no less than three distinct walls which entirely enclose the assailable point of the fortress. At the very top of the fortress are very well preserved remains of a Theatre, which has evedently been built at a period subsequent to the adjacent wall. The wall must be refered to a ruder age. Immediately below, on the western side are pedestals of the pillars

of a Temple. The other antiquities of the bay are to be found on the island which lies between the inner and outer harbor and on the hill which surmounts the eastern cape on which Admiral Stopford placed his flag and signal station. In both instances they consist of massive walls composed of large, and sometimes shapeless stones, uncemented, and whose intention was the fortification of the eminences they surround. The whole of these remains must be referred to a remote age. The Theatre will oblige us to look back as far as the Grecian age, the ruder style and more Cyclopean character of some of the walls will nesessarily take us to a still more remote period."

FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

Tell us, ye men who are so jealous of right and of honour, who take sudden fire gination of another's contempt, or another's at every insult, and suffer the slightest imaunfairness, to chase from your bosom every feeling of complacency; ye men, whom every fancied affront puts into such a turbulence of emotion, and in whom every fancied infringement stirs up the quick, and the resentful appetite for justice, how will you stand the rigorous application of that test by which the forgiven of God are ness is in them, and by which it will be ascertained, even that the spirit of forgivepronounced, whether you are, indeed, the children of the Highest, and perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect?-CHALMERS.

DIVINE Providence tempers his blessings to secure their better effect. He keeps our joys and our fears on an even balance, that we may neither presume nor despair. By such compositions God is pleased to make both our crosses more tolerable, and our enjoyments more wholesome and safe.-WOGAN.

The MALTA PENNY MAGAZINE is published and sent to subscribers, in Valletta, every Saturday. Subscriptions at 1s. per quarter received at No. 97 Str. Forni.

tians in every direction, on Palmsunday of that year he summoned all the Prelates and the Barons of France, to consult with them about the best means for relieving the faithful inhabitants of the Holy land; upon which a general exhortation to prayers and other religious acts, was ordered to be preached through all France, with a view to the relief of the oppressed Christians in Palestine. But the king, not satisfied with the result of this assemblage, and being troubled with the painful truth that his first Crusade brought more shame than honour upon his crown, without producing any advantage to Christianity, again took up the banner of the Cross, and though in the beginning he was not warmly assisted by his people, he at last succeeded by the general preaching of the Cross, in gradually awakening the extinguished fire for a war against the infidels. Many of his better counsellors prophesied in this new useless war the ruin of the king and his country, and Seneschal Tonville, the faithful assistant in the first Crusade was so opposed to it, that he charged those with a great crime who advised the king, who could do so much good at home, to enter upon a foreign war, which, even if crowned with the best success, could give little benefit either to the king or to the country.

The spring of the year 1270 was appointed for the embarkation of the pilgrim warriors; but they congregated so slowly, that their departure could not take place before July. After a stormy and dangerous voyage they entered the bay of Cagliari, where they found an unexpected cold reception. Here it was determined to weaken the Sultan of Egypt by first conquering Tunis, which was considered an easy task, since the King of the Saracens shewed signs of readiness to accept baptism. But in this the credulous king was deceived. On the arrival of the fleet in the bay of Tunis the pilgrims succeeded without much difficulty in taking possession of the site upon which Carthage once stood, but were soon informed that, the king of Tunis would murder all Christians in his dominions, if the French dared to advance upon his town.

Instead of a sudden attack upon the unprepared Saracens, Louis still expecting the king of Tunis would come to ask for baptism, left them sufficient time to prepare for a formidable defence. The Pilgrims began to suffer not only from the continual attacks of the enemy, and want of healthy food, but were also laid up by fever and other diseases, the consequence of climate. and the hot season of the year. The king himself fell sick from dysentery which ended his life on the 25th. of August 1270 in his fifty sixth year.

The same day, the king's brother Charles with his Crusaders from Sicily, arrived in the bay of Tunis to assist in the war against the Saracens, and the silence observed in return to his usual salutations, prepared him for the painful news which awaited him, instead of an expected hearty reception.

The sickly state of the whole army of the Crusaders increased daily, and the number of deaths became so great, that the corpses could no more be interred, but were thrown into the entrenchments of the camps. Thus reduced, the Saracens ventured an attack upon the Crusaders, but were so defeated that they offered terms of peace, which was accepted with considerable advantage to the Christians, who were thereby permitted to build churches on the territory of Tunis and to observe the rituals of their religion.

TIME.

Time's an hand's-breadth; 'tis a tale; 'Tis a vessel under sail : 'Tis an eagle in its way, Darting down upon its prey; 'Tis an arrow in its flight, Mocking the pursuing sight; 'Tis a short-liv'd fading flower; 'Tis a rainbow on a shower; 'Tis a momentary ray, Smiling in a winter's day; "Tis a torrent's rapid stream; 'Tis a shadow; 'tis a dream; 'Tis the closing watch of night, Dying at the rising light; 'Tis a bubble; 'tis a span: Be prepar'd to die, O man. FRANCIS.