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on this account alone, would be reverently endeared. From its quarries were hewn the massive blocks of stone which rose on Mori'ah without sound of axe or hammer; and many a giant tree had been felled by the Tyrian woodman in its forests to yield the precious wood so largely employed in the building. In the luxurious days of the later kings the mansions of the noble and the wealthy in Jerusalem were embellished with this costly wood-" ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion."

The height of this tree made it a symbol of pride; its stateliness and far-spreading branches, of extended empire: "The Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; no tree in the garden of God was like unto him for beauty." With a deeper meaning, as an emblem of the spiritual progress of the believer, the psalmist says: "The righteous shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon."

The mountain region of Lebanon is a world in itself, peopled by ancient races, whose religious feuds have often carried 'devastation through its fairest valleys. The northern part of the range is occupied mainly by a Christian population, the Ma'ronites; the southern by the Drus'es, a brave, high-spirited people, whose religion is a mystery, and seems to be a kind of Moham'medanism, tinctured with the wild fanaticism of the

East.

Situated on a lovely bay at the base of Lebanon is Bei'rout, suggesting to us what Tyre may have been like, in the days of its glory. The coast is dotted with villages, and the number of them scattered about the mountain is amazing. On approaching it from the sea, one is struck by the groups of white dwellings that gleam among the vineyards on its lower slopes, and higher up speckle the dark pine-groves,--'multitudes of little hamlets clinging to its sides, or hanging like swallows' nests from its rocky eaves. Everywhere, as one makes his way through the storm-gashed ravines of the mountain, where cataracts leap and torrents twist and foam, each sudden turn of the road brings into view new villages, dropped about here and there in green retreats, and 'slumbering in their orchards and mulberry groves like nooks of Paradise shut out from the world.

From the highest point, which perhaps one has gained on a journey from Damascus and Baalbec to the Cedar Forest, the prospect is one of 'surpassing grandeur. All at once the mountains sink and fall away to a giddy depth beneath—a maze of furrowed ridges, surging, like the waves of a frozen sea, through

a veil of warm blue vapour; old castles and convents perched on islanded heights; villages everywhere clustering on the terraced steeps; at your feet the venerable Cedar Wood 'dwindled to a thicket of shrubs; and away in the distance the hazy gleam of the Mediterranean waters. One is reminded of the paradise

of that gorgeous dream of Coleridge :

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'There were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Infolding sunny spots of greenery."

It is not for the multitude of its cedars that Lebanon is now

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renowned; but the spot where stand the last surviving relics of the forests that once clothed its sides will always be a haunt of pilgrimage. The wood contains about three hundred cedars, of which fifty trees, twisted by the storms and scarred by the tempests of centuries, may challenge special admiration. On a mound in the centre stands the patriarch of the grove, nine feet in diameter, spreading his ponderous arms, each a tree in itself, over the heads of the many generations that have grown up below.

Nowhere, perhaps, is the wonderful union of mountain

grandeur with beauty of site and richness of 'culture better seen than near the Christian village of Ehden, described in glowing terms by all who have visited it. It stands on the brink of a gorge nearly two thousand feet in depth, its houses of hewn stone scattered under the shade of walnut trees, every slope and terrace waving with cornfields and vineyards, and groves of mulberry and poplar. The chime of bells, so seldom heard in the East, awakens a peculiar 'emotion when ringing the hour of prayer in these Christian villages.

Stability, fragrance, fruitfulness, types of the highest graces that beautify and exalt the life of man, dwell in pure and endless companionship beneath the cedars of Lebanon.

associations, connections. | fanat'icism, religious fren

bur'nished, pol'ished.

colos'sal, huge.

cul'ture, cultivation.

devasta'tion, ru'in.

dwin'dled, reduced'.

embel'lished, ornament'ed
em'blem, to'ken.
emo'tion, feel'ing.

fragrance, aroma.
fruit'fulness, produc'tive-

[zy.

ness.

impres'sive, affect'ing.
includes', embra'ces.
lus'trous, bright.
luxurious, voluptuous.
magnificent, grand.

'Damas'cus, the ancient capital of Syria, and probably the oldest city in the world. It has belonged successively to all the great conquering nations of the globe, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Sara

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J. D. BURNS. multitudes, crowds. remind'ed, put in mind. slum'bering, sleep'ing. stability, steadfastness. surpass ing, excessive. surviv'ing, remaining tinc'tured, tinged. unrivalled, peer'less. wil'derness, des'ert.

2 An tioch, formerly the capital of all Syria, and at one time the third city in the Roman Empire for wealth and refinement. It is situated on the river Orontes, 20 miles from its mouth. It has many times been nearly destroyed by earthquakes, and now its population is under 10,000.

Baal'bec, an ancient city of Syria, in the valley between Lebanon and AntiLebanon. It was also called Helio-polis, both names having the same meaning,City of the Sun. The origin of the city has been ascribed to Solomon. Among the ruins of its temples, there are found single blocks of stone over 60 feet long. One of these is 69 feet long, 17 broad, and 14 feet thick.

'Stone'henge. (See lesson on Cairo and the Pyramids, p. 140, Note 3.)

The Jewish leader.-Moses, who led the Israelites through the wilderness, but was not allowed to cross the Jordan with them. (See Deuteronomy, iii. 25, 26.)

Ma'ronites; so called from their founder, Maron, who lived in the fifth cen. tury. They were reconciled to the Church of Rome in the twelfth century, and are still subject to it, but they hold their service in Syriac. They number about 200,000.

Drus'es, Arabs, who came from the eastern confines of Syria, and settled in

sacred great numbers of them. The Turks and the French interfered, and the Druses surrendered in January 1861, giving up their leaders.

The Cedar Forest, on the western slope of Lebanon, 25 miles inland from Botrys. Eh'den, about five miles north-west of the Cedar Forest.

Lebanon within the last nine hundred years. It is said that they were originally Egyptians, and that the sect was founded by one of the followers of Hâkim, an Egyptian prophet, who was expelled from Egypt for his heretical belief in Hâkim. They now number 100,000. In 1860 the Druses attacked the Maronites, and masQUESTIONS.-What relics of the old oriental world lie in the shadow of Lebanon? What is the highest peak of Anti-Lebanon? and its height? Why would Lebanon be reverently endeared to the Jewish people? Of what was the cedar tree the symbol? Who dwell in the northern and the southern parts of the Lebanon region respectively? By what is one struck on approaching Lebanon from the sea? How many trees does the Cedar Forest now contain? Describe the patriarch of the grove. Where is the village of Ehden situated? For what is it remarkable?

MIDNIGHT ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.
A SOLILOQUY.

'Tis now the dead of night, and half the world
Is with a lonely, solemn darkness hung;
Yet I-so coy a dame is Sleep to me-

With all the weary courtship of

My care-tired thoughts, can't win her to my bed,

Though even the stars do wink, as 'twere with overwatching.

I'll forth and walk a while.-The air's 'refreshing,

And the ripe harvest of the new-mown hay

Gives it a sweet and wholesome odour.

How awful is this gloom! And hark! from camp to camp
The hum of either army stilly sounds,1

That the fixed sentinels almost receive

The secret whispers of each other's watch......

Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighings,

'Piercing the Night's dull ear.-And from the tents,

The armourers accomplishing the knights,

With clink of hammers closing rivets up,

Give dreadful note of preparation; while some,
Like sacrifices, by their fires of watch

Sit patiently, and 'inly ruminate

The morning's danger.-By yon heaven, my stern
Impatience chides this tardy-gaited Night,
Which, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
So tediously away. I'll to my couch,

And once more try to sleep her into morning.

care-tired, care'-worn. in'ly, in'wardly. neigh'ings, horse'-cries.

piercing, pen'etrating.
refresh'ing, reviv'ing.
rivets, met'al pins.

'Stilly sounds-sounds in and because of the stillness.-That, in the next line, means so that.

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ru'minate, brood over. te'diously, tire'somely. whole'some, health'ful.

2 Accomplishing, making completely ready; the literal meaning of the word, from Lat. ad, to; complere, to fill up.

GREAT OCEAN ROUTES.

To be read before a Map of the World.

SOUTHAMPTON, which is the station of most of the great ocean mails, is a quaint old English sea-port at the head of Southampton Water in Hants. Two passages lead from Southampton Water to the English Channel-the Solent and the Spithead ; and between them lies the Isle of Wight. A northern branch of the Spithead is Portsmouth Harbour, the principal station of the English Navy.

The great ocean routes which have their starting-point at Southampton are-the Mediterranean, the West Indian, the Cape, East Indian, Australian, and China routes.

The principal vessels that follow the Mediterranean route are those in connection with the overland route* to India. But by this route also 'communication is kept up with the whole of the Mediterranean coasts, and an extensive trade-chiefly in corn-is carried on between the Black Sea and the principal British ports.

The Cape and East Indian mail steamer, on leaving Southampton, makes direct for St. Vincent, one of the Cape Verd Islands, where there is a commodious harbour, a free port, and a coaling station. These islands are situated 320 miles west of Cape Verd, on the coast of Africa. They form a Portuguese possession. Cotton cloth and salt are their most valuable exports.

The next station on the Cape route is Ascension Island, 1800 miles south-east of St. Vincent. This small island, which is 8 miles long, by 6 broad at its western end, has belonged to England since 1815. At George Town, on its north-western coast, there is a fort with military quarters, surrounded by a few detached residences; and opposite the town there is an open roadstead. It is a convenient victualling station for the African squadron of the English Navy.

Eight hundred miles south-east of Ascension, the steamer reaches the interesting island of St. Helena, the scene of the 'captivity and death of Napoleon Buonaparte. The chief settlement in the island is James Town, on the north-western shore. The interior is an elevated table-land, 1500 feet above the sealevel. Near the centre of this 'plateau is Longwood, the residence of Napoleon from 1815 till 1821. He was buried on the

* See lesson on The Overland Route, p 128.

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