ments around us that glorious panorama of historical associations which cluster there from the days of the lavish splendors of CONSTANTINE and the Roman Emperors, till the slumbers of their Greek successors were roused by that general Tocsin of Europe, the Crusades; and then its terrific sieges of ancient and medieval time, unto the hour when OTHMAN spread forth the blood-red banner of the Prophet and claimed this queen of cities as the heritage of the Faithful.

'Our author gives us an interresting description of Constantinople, and of its beauty, as we beheld it, in perfectly halcyon weather. He has conveyed, in a brief compass, an admirable outline of almost every thing there. The writer left him in that city, and his book concludes its pleasant story, by landing him in Alexandria.

For the Knickerbocker Magazine, N. Y. for March, 1850.

WARAGA, OR THE CHARMS OF THE NILE, BY WILLIAM FURNISS. New-York: Baker & Scribner, 36 Park Row, 1850. 12mo. pp. 456.

"Who is this that cometh up as a flood; whose waters are moved as the rivers?"

"Egypt riseth up like a flood." Jer. XLVI, 7, 8.

Ay, deeply do we regret that sundry new quarantines, and evil reports of the Lazzarettos, into which we should have been buried, whereof so much talk was had during our stay at Stamboul, prevented us from visiting Egypt, but as we turn over the pages of this charming volume, its life-like pictures almost banish those regrets; we are at once transported beneath the shadows of the Pyramids, the imagination feels again the awful presence of that mighty line of Pharaohs, whose beginning stretches upward far as the Deluge, and whose dynasty, though interrupted, has by the majestic energies of that modern Pharaoh Mehemet Ali, been in fact restored and continued; whose deeds the stilus of History has already engraved, and is now only pausing to record the completion of his plans by his successors.

Egypt! Great Mother of Science and of Art! What thinking mind has not dreamed of thee! From true-hearted children on their Mother's knee, listening with awe to the sacred story of the down trodden thousands of Israel "they who were in this, their land of bondage, 'hewers of wood and

drawers of water,'" of Moses their mighty Prophet, Priest and Lawgiver, of his entreating Pharaoh, to let his Nation, "the People of God" go free; of that Catalogue of wondrous miracles whereof the world had no parallel till the Sacred Advent, wrought by the hand of Moses before the Court, and over the broad land of Egypt; and of the Egyptian Magii, by their surpassing arts working similar miracles; of the hard hearted Pharaoh defying the visible power of God, and choked with avarice, refusing to let "His People" go; and how the thousands of Israel fled forth in the night, led by that mighty Pillar of fire; and how the Great King, with his hosts of Chariots and men of war, pursued after them, and sunk into the midst of the sea.

And the never-wearying Story of Joseph; his story could have been told by none other than Him who made and knew all the fountains of human feeling; and then the undying memory delights to recall our young imaginations pictures of the glory and splendor of the Palaces; the pomp of war, and the majestic Monuments of Egypt's Mighty Kings. The hosts of Israel had fled away into the Wilderness, their country of Goshen, though a pleasant land was deserted, yet the Glory of Egypt, and its Pharaohs had not departed; but continued to shine until the general gloom of the Mediæval darkness finally overshadowed the land and extinguished its splendors, and the Empire of Egypt whose foundations were laid in the beginning of time, and which had for vast successions of ages concentrated and spread forth all learning to all

lands, and all times, like a General Mother of them all, was subjugated into a dependant province of more warlike Conquerors, degraded to a mere pro-consulate, forgotten by the aspiring Gaul, for whom

"Westward the Star of Empire took its way"

till the Othman hordes of Asia, spread over its beautiful land and River, and ascended the vacant Throne of the Ptolemies.

Where in the wide world can Author or Traveller find a Country more interesting to visit or study? Has it been exhausted?

Bring together the vast Library of volumes, of learned disquisitions on this land, past and present: assemble the great Museum of Collections, and you will find that the half has not been told you; that the keen and persevering quest of Belzoni, Champollion, and their successors, have not yet deciphered the one half of its engraved story, and that the great purpose of its mighty monuments, like the vast ruins of its deserted cities, are still an unfathomed mystery. Their language has again spoken to living men, breaking the silent waste of ages, but we are yet in the vestibule and have not yet heard the breathings of this mighty oracle and monitor of all time.

The volume whose title heads this article has no pretensions to reveal the mysteries of this adytum of learning.

It is simply the composite of the daily records of an intelligent and tasteful mind wandering upon the Nile, and with the lights of good reading and quick and steady observation

recording the impressions of each one of Egypts mighty monuments: whilst a delightful vein of personal incident and adventure flows through all the descriptions. For a book of travel story, Eothen has been called the best; but we who have read both and seen much that both describe, candidly, both for use and entertainment, prefer Waraga. Parallels of comparison would not be of much avail here; as the best proof of our judgment can only be the discriminating perusal of the volume itself.

It is the record of a voyage up the Nile-of which we may well quote the Childe Harold.

"And thou exulting and abounding River,
"Making thy waves a blessing as they flow;
“Through banks whose beauty will endure for ever.
"Could man but leave thy bright creation so,
"Nor its fair promise from the surface mow
"With the sharp scythe of conflict: then to see

"Thy valley of sweet waters; were to know

"Earth paved like Heaven; and to seem such to me,
"Even now, what lacks thy stream that it should Lethe be.

We will select a few chance extracts:

"Thus occupied and amused, we ran on until towards evening. The sun was sinking to the west, the shadows thrown in front of the spectator-and all our passengers were on the look-out with their glasses-when suddenly the pilot cried out with a shout, "El kitab! El kitab !" The word was passed, and all sprang forward to see the Pyramids.

The Pyramids !-there they stood-the Pyramids of our early dreams--the wonders of our infancy. Triangular