them, are done away: the cat that had been transformed into a fine lady, on seeing a mouse, forgetting the decorum required by her new form, sprung from the table where she was sitting to seize on her prey. "Vizio di natura dura fino alla sepoltura," the vice that is born with us, or is become natural to us, accompanies us to the grave. A rich miser being at the point of death, his confessor placed before him a large silver crucifix, and was about to begin an exhortation, when the usurer, fixing his eyes on the crucifix, said, "I cannot, Sir, lend you much upon this." "

Optimum Obsonium para Senectuti.

Make ample provision for old age. "Chi in prima non pensa, in ultimo sospira," who does not think before, sighs after; therefore, "Make hay while the sun shines." "Lay up against a rainy day," and "Take care to feather your nest while young," for "Non semper erit æstas," it will not be always summer; and it is as disgraceful for young persons to neglect the means of improving their fortunes, as it is for the aged to be over solicitous about increasing theirs. Diogenes being asked what he considered as the most wretched state of man, answered "an indigent old age." This seems to have been said with too little consideration. Poverty is generally and not undeservedly esteemed an evil, and the averting it affords the most powerful incentive to action, but the pressure of it must be much less felt in age, than in the vigour of life. Among the ancients, indeed, age was itself esteemed an evil, as it incapacitates from making those excursions, and following those pleasures which contribute so much to the felicity of the early part of our lives. But if with the capacity for enjoying, we lose the propensity or desire for having them, it should rather be considered as a blessing. By losing them we attain a state of calm and quiet, rarely experienced by the young, neither would it indeed be suitable to them, the passions and desires being the gales which put them in motion, and lead them to signalize themselves. Without them they would become torpid, and would do nothing useful to themselves, nor to the public. Action there. fore is the element of the young, as quiet and retirement is of the aged. If life has been passed innocently, and the aged have not to reproach themselves with having deserted their duty, or with the commission of any crime for which they ought to blush, the reflection on their past conduct, and on such acts of beneficence and kindness as they may have performed, or of any thing done by which the community may eventually be benefited, will abundantly compensate for what time has taken from them. The aged will also have learned among other things, if it should happen to be their lot, to bear poverty with composure. If little should now remain to them, their wants will also be equally few. The plainest and simplest diet, clothes, and apartments, may very well serve them, and are, perhaps, the best suited to their state. The old man, therefore, if his poverty is not the effect of vice, or folly, will soon accommodate himself to his situation. But if he has been himself the author of his degrada tion, he will regret and pine, not so much at the loss of that affluence which he no longer wants, as at the vices or follies which occasioned

the

the loss of them. Old and infirm people should continue to exert themselves in all matters regarding their persons, as much and as long as they can, and they generally may do this, nearly to the period of the extinction of their lives, if they early and resolutely resist that languor, which feebleness is apt to induce. While they shew this species of independance, they will retain the respect of those who are about them. A total imbecility and incapacity to perform the common offices of life is the most miserable state to which human nature can be reduced.'

Massiliam naviges.

You are going the way of the Massilians, may be said to inconsiderate spendthrifts, who are dissipating what had been acquired for them, either by good fortune or the industry and frugality of their ancestors. The Massilians, once a brave and independent people, having by their commerce acquired great affluence, became so debauched, extravagant, and effeminate, as to fall an easy prey to the neighbouring states.'

Some articles might have been wholly omitted; those, for instance, which allude to false natural history, and which, if allegorically just, propagate erroneous opinions: such are Aquila Senecta, vol. i. p. 205., and Testudinis Carnes, p. 229. Oculus dexter, vol. ii. p.16.; Serpens, p. 78.; and several others. We think, also, that something more might have been done, in the several argumentations attached, towards appretiating critically the practical value and moral soundness of the maxims here promulgated. For want of this philosophic spirit, the dissertations are more often illustrative than instructive; so that it is yet more a book of eloquence than of wisdom. We are persuaded, however, that it will contribute to mend both the style and the character of its readers; and we exhort the venerable author to undertake an additional volume: ore is still left in the mine which he has been exploring, that well deserves to be smelted for general currency.

ART. VIII.

Letters from the Levant; containing Views of the State of Society, Manners, Opinions, and Commerce, in Greece; and several of the principal Islands of the Archipelago. Inscribed to the Prince Koslovsky. By John Galt. 8vo. pp. 386. 10s. 6d. Boards. Cadell and Davies. 1813.

A LMOST as expeditious in writing as in travelling, Mr. Galt sends forth his volumes with a rapidity which completely outstrips the regular progress of our critical labours. The diversity of his compositions, too, is scarcely less amusing than the promptitude of their appearance; since he flies from prose to poetry, and from travels to biography, without any of those cautious procrastinations which literary sages have been in the

M 4

habit

habit of recommending since the days of Horace. The present volume is a kind of sequel to a larger work published under the title of "Voyages and Travels in 1809, 1810, and 1811," of which we made a report in our number for August 1813, vol. lxxi.: but it is right to mention, en passant, that the travels last described were first performed. As to the letters containing the present narrative, Mr. Galt assures his readers that they were really written at the different places whence they are dated, and have undergone no alteration, except in the suppression of a few local and personal allusions of no interest but to the author and the friend to whom the epistles were addressed. The time comprized in the present tour is about five months, viz. from January to June 1810; and Mr. G.'s course comprehended successively Malta, Valona in Albania, Zante, Corinth, Argos, Tripolizza, Megara, Athens; the islands of Idra, Zea, and Scio, the cities of Smyrna, Scalanuova, and Ephesus; concluding with the islands of Samos and Myconi.

The same liveliness of sentiment and style, which marked the author's former volume, appears in this, with regard both to matters of antiquity and the character of the clerical body in the present day. Mr. Galt appears to think that he cannot recur too often to our exaggerated impressions concerning the exploits of the Grecian republics; or to what he chuses to consider as a misplaced veneration for our own universities, and the members of our church who are educated within their walls. With reference to these topics, however, it is unneces sary for us to make any farther remark, than that the author can hardly claim the character of a competent judge either as to seminaries which he has but transiently visited, or concerning the history of a nation with whose language he is very slightly acquainted. We shall accordingly take leave of this part of the subject with the general notice and warning just now given, and shall confine our attention to those local descriptions which Mr. G.'s activity enabled him to give in considerable variety:

• Valona is a wretched place. It may probably contain four or five thousand souls; but, from some accidental cause, it exhibited the appearance of a more considerable population. A number of Albanians, inhabitants of the adjacent country, were in the streets, seated round the doors of the gunsmiths' shops, and a sort of warlike bustle was every where visible.

I was much pleased with the frank and military air of the Albanians. Their form is more athletic, and their stature is more commanding, than I expected to find in the people of these latitudes, having formed an erroneous opinion from the slender and loquacious Sicilians.

. Their

Their dress, also, is very handsome and becoming. It consists of a loose cloak or toga, made of shaggy woollen cloth; an embroidered waistcoat, commonly of velvet: and they wear their shirt-tails on the outside of their drawers, somewhat in the style of a philabeg. Instead of stockings, they make use of gaiters, neatly ornamented. Few of them wear turbans, but cover the top of the head with a little red cap, decorated with a tassel, which, half worn on some of them, reminded me of the nipple of a highlander's bonnet. They had all sashes, and a leathern belt, in which were stuck two large pistols, a sword, &c. The belts were fastened with silver clasps, considerably broader than a dollar; and many wore ornaments, resembling symbals, at their knees and ancles. At their right side hung a small embroidered bag, in which they carried their tobacco; and I think, without a single exception, each had a long Turkish pipe in his hand, or at his mouth. One of them had on his vest a double row of nondescripts, which I believe must be called buttons: they were, however, as large as lemons, of the same shape, and made of silver wire neatly interwoven.'

Zante, 8th Feb. The appearance of the interior of this island from the fortress above the city is uncommonly beautiful; a large fertile valley, richly cultivated and studded with neat lodges and villages embosomed in olive plantations, presents a prospect rarely to be excelled. The produce of the country consists of wine, currants, cotton, a little silk and grain, but not enough of the latter to support the inhabitants for more than two months. The vicinity, however, of the Morea, renders it still a very cheap residence, for a superabundance of every species of provisions generally prevails in that country.

It is the custom of the peasants of Zante to go over to the Morea in harvest-time to assist in reaping the corn. One year with another about five thousand persons annually migrate, and, being paid in grain for their work, return, it is supposed, with not less than fifty thousand bushels.

The population is estimated at forty thousand; and from the great number of very old people, I imagine the air must be in ge neral salubrious. Ninety and even a whole century of years is a common age in Zante. My landlady is above a hundred and four, and still retains all her faculties in venerable preservation. Every day she is early and constantly at her distaff, and it is only in her limbs that she feels the effects of old age.

• Like all the adjacent countries, Zante is greatly subject to earth, quakes; but they seldom do much damage, although several of the buildings in the town exhibit marks of their violence.

The city of Zante, which is supposed to contain about seventeen thousand inhabitants, is for its extent entitled to the epithet of handsome. The principal street is pretty well built, and many of the houses have arched piazzas, which in this climate cannot but prove a great convenience during the rains of winter and the heats of summer. With respect both to appearance and to the condition of the inhabitants, it may be described as a substantial place in which comfort is more studied than elegance. It has no public amusements if you ex

cept

cept billiard-tables. The churches are not in any respect remarkable. The clergy, being of the Greek persuasion, are of course neither so numerous, so arrogant, nor so opulent as those of the Roman catholic Countries. They are here under a proper degree of subordination to the civil power.'

The air and appearance of these islanders is greatly superior to those of the Sicilians. They have a cheerful confidence in their looks, which to me is always agreeable. In their persons they are stouter, and in their complexions much fairer than the Maltese. The women are more like those of our own country in the cast of their features than any I have seen since leaving home.-To the praise of being industrious they are well intitled. Every female appears to be employed either in spinning with the distaff, knitting, or weaving; and I have nowhere observed those chattering groupes of idle loungers with night-caps so often met with in Sicily.'

From Zante, Mr. G. proceeded to Patrass, where he found nothing remarkable except the fertility of the surrounding country. He had here, however, an useful lesson with regard to the caution with which statements of mercantile transactions should be received by travellers; the cargoes of corn, wool, oil, and silk, shipped annually from Patrass, and said to amount to twenty or more, proving on inquiry to be as many boat-loads. Proceeding along the gulph of Corinth, he had a view of the country which formed the antient Achaian territory, and which he found to present a mountainous aspect, diversified occasionally with cultivated fields and a few

hamlets:

The existing city of Corinth has a mean and ruinous appearance. A few columns of a temple, and two or three masses of mason-work, are the only visible relics of its antient grandeur. The population cannot, I think, exceed three or four thousand souls. The mansion of the Governor is a very respectable edifice, situated on a delightful eminence, which commands a noble prospect of the gulph and isthmus, with Parnassus, and other mountains of Romalia.

After leaving Corinth, the road to Argos proceeds along the breast of the hills, parallel to the sea, for about a couple of miles, when it turns into the interior. It is tolerably good for horses, but the valley through which it lies is very dreary. Indeed it was not till we had almost approached the half-way stage to this place that I saw any cultivated soil, or land that could be cultivated.'

The city of Argos is airy and cheerful, though the houses are little better than sheds. The streets are wide, and the inhabitants appear to be cleanly and well-dressed. The population is probably about four thousand souls, of whom by far the greatest number are Christians; indeed, except among the soldiers attached to the office of the Governor, there is scarcely a Turk in the town, and I under. stand that even many of the soldiers are Albanian Christians.

The most remarkable object that I observed in Argos was a large building belonging to the Post, and which, considering the

tendency