poraries. Though obviously of a temperament of mind rather exposed to error from an excess, than from any deficiency of warmth in his social affections, he makes no sort of parade of fine feelings and overflowing sentiment. And though it is quite beyond question that his attainments in geology, and in botanical and mineralogical science, are very considerable, yet he never forgets that the bulk of his readers, those for whose instruction he writes, are neither mineralogists, nor botanists, nor geologists. The information on these branches of natural history which he collected in the course of his journey, he has, accordingly, compressed into a space comparatively narrow; wisely resisting the temptation of inserting in his book philosophical essays, at once wearisome from their length to those who are ignorant of the subject, and from their necessary brevity, unsatisfactory to those who are conversant with it. Moreover, although Dr. Clarke possesses an almost unequalled power of conveying to his readers, without the aid of painting, a conception of the scenes he visits, scarcely less lively than that which painting itself could furnish; yet is he contented to leave undescribed all the wonders of art, and all the enchanting natural scenery, which he passed in his route, except where others had left unnoticed what it is really material to the subject he treats of to describe. He possesses, in a word, one excellence inseparably connected, we believe, with qualities still more valuable than even mere intellectual superiority-we mean a total absence of ostentation in the display of very rare and valuable accomplishments. In addition to what we formerly said of the general character of Dr. Clarke's composition, it may now be added, that his style is eminently adapted to the easy kind of narrative in which a sensible man naturally writes the history of his own travels. It is simple, versatile, and copious-occasionally, indeed, bearing an unpleasant resemblance to the manner of Gibbon, and, in its more laboured passages, somewhat overwrought and turgid.

As compared with his former volume, it is not improbable that the majority of readers will esteem the present a little uninteresting. For one man who will study a quarto volume of travels through the Troad, the Greek Islands, and the Holy Land, you shall probably find a hundred who will peruse with delight the new, lively, and unexpected detail given by Dr. Clarke of the habits and manners of the Russians and Cossacks. We all love to contemplate animated pictures, whether accurate or inaccurate, of the character of our own species: but it is a very small number, comparatively, who

are much concerned to know whether the site of Ilium was on the banks of the Hellespont, or in the vicinity of Alexandria Troas. It cannot be denied, too, that there is a degree of heaviness about the volume now before us, which, not even that rich colouring with which the descriptive powers of the author have adorned it is at all times sufficient to relieve. The truth is, that there is a tedium almost unavoidably resulting from the want of unity in the subject of his work. The narratives of a traveller must, after all, depend for their interest upon very much the same principles as those to which the charm of all other narratives is owing; among which, some, perhaps, of the most certain and copious sources of pleasure, will be found to consist in strong sympathy with the personal fortunes of the narrator, or hero of the tale-in rapid and lively transitions-in full, minute, and highly finished representations of the scenes or characters about which the narrative may be conversant-or, finally, in a succession of images opposed to each other in marked and striking contrast. In the former volume of this work, the two last-mentioned requisites of interesting narrative were to be found in sufficient abundance. Nothing which curiosity could have required, was wanting to the completion of the portraits of the Russian and the Cossack; nor could any contrast have been imagined to the stupid inanimate brutality of the one, more perfect or amusing than the erect deportment and courteous liberality of the other. In the travels of our author through Greece and the Holy Land, we confess we very much desiderate these animated pictures of life and manners. With a dignified and not ungraceful reserve, Dr. Clarke has usually avoided any mention of his own personal adventures: and the circumstances of his journey, in which his literary pursuits seem continually to have been impeded by the more pressing avocations of his mercantile and military associates, have prevented his exhibiting, in this volume, any of those complete and entire views of the state and condition of the different countries he visited, which we noticed in our former numbers as the characteristic excellence of his composition. Except, however, the inevitable inferiority of interest which the difference of subject produces, we do not know that this volume is in any respect inferior to the last. We are rather, we think, inclined to prefer it. Dr. Clarke is a man of an active, inquisitive, and ardent mind-more than usually gifted with such knowledge as is acquired by solitary studyand not ill acquainted with mankind; but somewhat deficient, we apprehend, in candour and caution in his judgments on his fellow creatures, and not very eminently distinguished (to

use a term often very grossly misused) by a philosophical mind. To such an understanding, subjects affording large scope for the investigation of disputed facts, antiquarian, historical, or literary, (and such are the inquiries connected with the present journey of our author,) appear better adapted than those more comprehensive speculations as to the general character and future destiny of nations which occupy so considerable a part of his former volume. All the subjects, moreover, to the elucidation of which his labours are here directed, possess even yet a never failing, and almost unequalled charm. Nothing can be indifferent to us which throws any new light over the institutions, the habits, or the arts of that wonderful people who inhabited the celebrated regions which were once the seat of Grecian empire. The history of Greece forms the most extraordinary, and, at the same time, the most authentic record in the annals of mankind, of the influence of taste, liberty and science upon human character. The lapse of eventful intervening ages has not yet made it possible to cast even a passing glance at the story of that extraordinary people without astonishment. The unequalled energy with which they encountered difficulties apparently insuperable-the vast extent of their military resources-the spirit and gayety of the national temper their undoubted superiority to the whole human race, as well in the lighter graces as in the higher efforts of genius-in a word, that intellectual superiority to which they owed their unnatural political elevation, not only secured to the monuments of the empire and of the sciences of Greece the reverence even of their conquerors, but, through all succeeding ages, have commanded the admiration and directed the inquiries of mankind.

In the latter ages of the Roman empire, when the ravages of the barbarians had ultimately swept away all the Grecian schools of rhetoric and science, which the extinction even of Roman liberty had not destroyed; all that remained of literature and knowledge in Greece appears to have been transferred to the capital of the Eastern empire, and to the still flourishing cities of the lesser Asia. In the days of her last emperor, the city of Constantine, though often desolated by the ignorant rapacity of her sovereigns, still preserved entire many of the most splendid ornaments with which the everactive spirit of the Grecian artists, degenerated though they were from the taste of their forefathers, had embellished that metropolis of the East. Of the ravages of the Turks more seems to have been said than is consistent either with probability or with historical tradition. The conquest of Constan

tinople by Mahomet II. was not the result of the mere ambi, tion of extending his empire, or even, as the Christian histo rians of the siege would have us believe, of a merciless zeal for the religion of the Prophet. The inconsiderable tribe who in a few years had emerged from an obscure district on the banks of the Oxus, and extended their empire from the Dnieper to the cataracts of the Nile, were still insecure in their conquests from the threatened hostility of the European states, between whose powers a union for the support of their Christian brethren in the East had often been projected. In the acquisition of Constantinople, Mahomet II. obtained at once a seat of empire, and an effectual barrier against the combined efforts of all the princes of Europe. The operation of the same motives which caused the capture of the city, preserved it, when acquired, from destruction. So congenial to the common tastes and character of mankind are those luxuries, which, under an endless variety of forms, always indicate and accompany the increase of wealth, that, in the few years which had elapsed from the origin of their power to the capture of the metropolis of the East, the Turks had wholly lost sight of the pursuits and habits of their nomade forefathers. With most of the tastes, and not a few of the more elegant arts of more opulent and long settled communities, they had become intimately acquainted; and, after the first violence of the assault, anxiously exerted themselves to preserve, not only the more immediately serviceable abodes of the former inhabitants of Constantinople, but most, also, of the more splendid edifices which it owed to the opulence or piety of its monarchs. The mosques and minarets, consecrated to the worship and religious services of the Mahomedan faith, were constructed from the magnificent piles which the former sovereigns of the Eastern empire had dedicated to the culture of a purer faith the sumptuous baths which the emperors had accumulated, with an ostentatious but well-judged liberality, for the accommodation of their subjects, were studiously preserved and laboriously embellished; and the Hippodrome, under its new appellation of Atmeidan, still continued to be devoted to the purposes of its original formation.

The present narrative commences with Dr. Clarke's residence at Constantinople. In confirmation of the accounts of all former travellers, he states, that the remains of many of the buildings, and much of the costume and general appearance of the ancient city, is still distinctly visible. On this subject the following passage is at once accurate and comprehensive.

"After the imagination has been dazzled with pompous and glaring descriptions of palaces and baths, porticos and temples, groves, circusses and gardens, the plain matter of fact may prove that in the obscure and dirty lanes of Constantinople, its small and unglazed shops, the style of architecture observed in the dwellings, the long covered walks, now serving as bazars, the loose flowing habits with long sleeves, worn by the natives; even in the practice of concealing the features of the women, and, above all, in the remarkable ceremonies and observances of the public baths; we behold those customs and appearances which characterized the cities of the Greeks. Such, at least, as far as inanimate objects are concerned, is the picture presented by the interesting ruins of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiæ." P. 3.

In the conduct of a topic already so amply discussed as that of the antiquities and other memorabilia of this remarkable city," on which," says Dr. Clarke, "the volumes which have been written would alone be sufficient to constitute a library," our author has, we think, entitled himself to great praise, both for what he has done, and for what he has omitted to do. He has told much that is at once both curious and original, and has, with a few exceptions, passed over every thing which former travellers have communicated. In excepting from this general commendation, the very singular account of Dr. Clarke's adventures in the interior of the seraglio, we almost feel ourselves guilty of some ingratitude. A man who, for the amusement of his readers, has engaged in an exploit of such imminent hazard as that of penetrating into the Charem of the Grand Sultan, may, perhaps, think himself hardly used, in having to encounter reproaches from those for whose entertainment he has risked his existence. Thinking, however, very highly of the value of the life of such a man as Dr. Clarke, and being, we fear, more indifferent than we ought to be, as to the accommodations and domestic recreations of the Sultan, we confess the knowledge furnished on these points seem to us very much too dearly purchased. The voluptuous and fanciful descriptions which other writers had given of these scenes of royal repose, and the mysterious secrecy in which they had been concealed from human observation, had excited a kind of morbid curiosity respecting them. In the plain and consistent account of Dr. Clarke, our readers will find some disappointment, perhaps, and some amusement, but nothing very marvellous or surprising -nothing very incredible or very enviable. The Sultan appears to live much as it might have been suspected that a Sultan would-in great splendour and great meanness-in a crowd of eunuchs, bostanghis, and women-among delicious