into ruin the republics of antiquity. It needs we can escape those terrific calamities, which not the ken of a "prophet or the son of a have desolated many of the fairest portions prophet," to predict with mathematical pre- of the world, and that is, the predominance cision the future and utter extermination of of moral principle among the people. It our happy land, unless a redeeming influence was moral principle that pervaded the breasts is abroad to arrest the march of the destroyer. and ruled the conduct of the founders of our A prosperity unbounded and unparalleled; liberty, and to this were they indebted for a surprising increase of population, and terri- their brilliant exploits and glorious success. tory, and power; the incessant clashing of The common infirmities of our nature appearmultifarious opposing interests; sectional ed to be purged away from these extraordijealousies, and political rivalries; these are nary men; the love of self was absorbed in all combined to obscure the lustre of public their more passionate love of country; the virtue, and to extinguish the effulgent glories minor impulses of feeling retired abashed, of our Union. We are fast forgetting in the and truth, wisdom, humanity, and justice, overweening pride of national might and pre-eminently controlled their hearts and character, that once these powerful States governed their councils. Neither ancient were compelled to energize for their very nor modern days can furnish a set of men name and existence. We gaze with emo- who will bear a comparison with these detions of inexpressible rapture at the advance- voted Spirits. History is ransacked in vain ment of Columbia towards the zenith of to find a parallel. Pore over its pages from dignity and greatness, and the memory of cover to cover: They are crimsoned with the humble outset of her political being is blood, and awfully polluted and disfigured obliterated from the mind. We glance an with the marks of every species of guilt and eye athwart the wide expanse of our valleys crime. The scattered rays of light which and mountains; we behold the hardy oaks here and there beam forth, are like the faint of a century falling before the axe of the glimmerings of a taper in a world of midPioneer in our western forests, and the deep night darkness. Nothing in the character shades of that vast wilderness fast merging of man can be found, in all his extended anin the brilliant light of civilization and im- nals, in his best and his worst estate, so much provement; cities and villages springing into exempt from the natural frailty and imperlife as by magic; every medium to honour fection of human nature, as the immaculate and authority and wealth thronged with integrity, the guiltless purpose, and the unalimpetuous aspirants; the sails of our com-loyed patriotism of the Fathers of the Revomercial enterprise unfurled in every clime, lution. Let but these feelings influence their and courting every breeze. We view all these, we are delighted and entranced at the sight, and we are not disposed to remember that instability is inscribed on every thing But it is not merely as an abstract truth terrestrial, and that the fabric of our govern- of universal application, that we have urged ment, majestic and symmetrical as it is, is the imperative necessity of moral principle subject to the same laws of durability or among the people. There exists a high and decay which are wisely ordained and admin- peculiar reason for its existence among us. istered for all nations by the Providence of The massive pillars of our social compact God. How necessary is it, then, that we are deeply imbedded in the moral sense of should ever keep alive the recollection, amidst our countrymen. The basis of our republiour rapid growth and consequent prosperity, can institutions was laid and the superstructhat this may be the very instrumentality ture was reared by sentiment, virtuous, employed to work out our destruction-how enlightened sentiment, and by the same indispensable that we should frequently efficient means they must be supported or compare the manhood with the infancy of they will crumble into ruins. And the our beloved country, its early struggles with encouragement presented us to labor for the its final triumphs and its present elevated dissemination of such sentiments is abundant stand, that we may thus be the better prepa- indeed. There can exist not a shadow of red to guard against danger and to maintain the lofty eminence we now occupy.

There is one method, and only one, by which, with all our unbounded prosperity,

posterity, and then, from age to age shall our course be surely and swiftly onward in the path of peace and honour and prosperity.

doubt that the frame-work,-the bone and sinew and muscle-of our body politic is as near an approximation to the workmanship of a perfect artist as our lapsed nature will

permit. It is not composed of materials pose this happy republic. As that grand which will "perish in the using," nor will it and indefinable law of nature, the law of ever yield to the corrosive tooth of decay. gravitation, retains in their orbits the countNo external power, however mighty, could less worlds which revolve in the immensity avail to overturn the edifice, nor could any of space, and binds them together in majes internal weakness suffice to cause it to col- tic harmony of movement, so the great and lapse and fall. Enemies without and within universal law of sympathy and a common may bring every conceivable instrument of interest may, till the world grows old and destruction to bear against it, but their most dies, run through and connect these States vigorous exertions will prove utterly abortive. into one mighty body, enlightening, cheerIn order to disunion and all its attendant ing, and invigorating the whole. and consequent horrors, the public mind The suggestions we have advanced, nemust become debased, and public morals cessarily refer us back to the position with must become extinct. An inordinate attach- which we started in the outset, that our ment to self must predominate over a gener- existence as a nation depends on an illumious and manly spirit of concession, and mere party feeling and interest must gain an ascendancy over an expanded affection for the Union.

66

nated, exalted, purified public sentiment. The religion of Him, who expired on Calvary, with its severe exactions, its heavenly doctrines, and its sublime morality, There is one characteristic peculiar to our is the corner-stone of our political edifice. form of government, which bespeaks, with With this we are secure, whatever else may emphasis, its perpetuity, if only the public betide us--without it we are in constant and conscience is sufficiently sensitive, and that imminent peril, whatever else we may is, its eminent adaptation to promote the possess. Wealth and fame are nothing; highest good of its various subjects. A just science and literature are the merest baubles; and impartial administration would commu- intelligence, as widely diffused as the air of nicate peace and happiness alike to all. There heaven, is nothing; a happy form of govis no vital centre, "the heart of hearts," ernment is nothing; a soil rich and fertile the fountain of being and prosperity, slightly as is that which spreads out its broad bosom connected with remote extremities, to which to an Italian sky; a firmament as pure and scarcely reaches the genial current of metro- serene as is that which kisses the waves of politan favor. Each State is a sovereignty the Adriatic; an atmosphere redolent with within itself, with powers reserved amply the spicy fragrance of Arabia Felix; these sufficient to manage its own concerns. The are nothing and vanity," for the preservafederal union is a treaty between different tion of republican institutions, unless the States, separately independent, in which is glorious doctrines of the gospel attune the drawn as plainly as with a "pencil of heart and mind of man to the practice of light," the line of limit between functions those public virtues which the Bible alone delegated and retained. The general gov- can teach. Neither the walls, or towers of ernment is thus relieved from the oppres- mighty Babylon, or the imperial city-nor sive cares of state legislation, and from a the wealth of Cræsus-nor the morals of multiplicity of local matters, which would Socrates or Seneca-nor the beauty and distract its attention and perplex its coun- verdure of Parnassus-nor the sparkling cils. waters of Castalia; neither science, letters, philosophy, poetry nor eloquence, could preserve the republics of antiquity from one and the same downward current to the gulf of degradation and ruin. And the reason is perfectly obvious. The scriptures, with their conservative influences, were not there. The religion of the contemned Nazarene was not there, to impart to public and private morality its proper support, to confine it to its proper standard, to restrain its versatili ties, and to give to honor and truth and virtue, a "local habitation and a name." The nations of olden time were all corrupt

The great and striking beauty of this system is, that it attaches to every member of the confederacy an equal value and importance. Though they may be leagues asunder, and mountains and rivers may intervene between them, yet, they can, they must, participate alike in the blessings and privileges of the Union. Indeed, if the number of the States should be increased to any conceivable extent, there exists no plausible reason why they might not as readily and easily be united under one administration, as are those which now com

SELECT MISCELLANY.

PALESTINE.*

na, and the connection of its natural products and the manners and customs of the inhabi

ITS GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE: RELATIVE POSITION: tants with the details incidentally mentioned

MOUNT LEBANON: MOUNT HERMON: MOUNT

TABOR: SEA OF GENESERETH:
DEAD SEA: ETC.

BY JAMES S. BUCKINGHAM.

You have been invited here to listen to some details in regard to the present condition of the land of Palestine. Your presence, in response to that invitation, is in itself sufficient evidence of your estimate of the importance of the general subject with which I propose to occupy your attention: so that it will be needless for me to consume any portion of this lecture by general remarks on that head.

in the sacred writings, all combine to give to Palestine an interest essentially its own. Add to this, the vicissitudes which have marked its past condition; its successive possession by the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Saracens, the Crusaders, and finally by the Turks, give to this country a romantic charm which associates it with whatever is impressive in the past history of the

world.

The country has often been described by those whose desire and design was, to raise doubts as to the authenticity of the Scriptures. The writers, especially, of the French school of infidelity have endeavored There are, indeed, few countries on the to produce the impression, that what is faface of the earth, which possess a greater miliarly denominated the Holy Land is a amount or variety of interest for any intellipetty, contemptible, insignificant strip of gent mind. It is an error, however, to sup- country, barren and mean, destitute alike of pose that this interest arises exclusively from beauty and of all natural advantages; a base the relation of that country to the events and worthless territory, unworthy of the recorded in Scripture. Its historical inter- Deity to select, and of a nation calling themest, apart from this, is in itself sufficient to selves the chosen people of God to accept at command your attention: since it was one his hands. If such be the fact, undoubtedof the earliest civilized of any known por- ly it ought to shake our confidence in the tion of our globe, and is a land of whose truth and accuracy of the Bible; for nothing, condition, up to a high antiquity, more au- certainly, can be more opposite to the repthentic records have been preserved than of resentations which are there given. Moses any other. Besides the Scriptural notices speaks of the country before it was posof it, its peculiar character is alluded to by sessed by the Israelites, in the most glowthe poets and historians, especially those of ing terms; and after they had entered and Rome. Its geography, too, is scarce less taken possession, it was denominated "the peculiar than its history. Its central posi- glory of all lands." Moses, however, tion in relation to other countries, its varie- never himself entered it, having merely ty of surface, its peculiar natural phenome-been indulged with a distant view from the top of Mount Pisgah. What was known None of our readers can have forgotten the very to and recorded by him respecting its deinteresting description and account of the "Land of Egypt,” which was published in the second volume of tails, must have been received, if true, from the HESPERIAN. The paper here given is from the revelation alone. Examine the passage in same course of Lectures, as reported for the New-York Deuteronomy which records his description Observer. Mr. BUCKINGHAM was recently at NewOrleans, delighting the citizens of the Southern empo- of it, in his parting address to the people rium with his lively sketches of the Oriental World; he had led out of Egypt, and who now and we have heard that he contemplates visiting Cin- stood upon its borders, and you will find it cinnati the present summer, to afford its inhabitants like entertainment. He will doubtless be warmly as true and just a picture as ever was taken welcomed in his arrival, and have the pleasure of lec- by a painter. He had often denounced the turing to large and intelligent audiences.-ED. HESPEjudgments of Heaven upon the stiff-necked

RIAN.

7

and rebellious multitude over whom he advantages. Itself at the head of the great had been placed as a leader; yet, while highway of nations, it had free communicaon the one hand he rebuked and threat- tion from the marts of Tyre and Sidon quite ened them, he held up, on the other, the to the Pillars of Hercules. On the right most cheering and animating promises of there was, first, Asia Minor, for fertility the the prosperity and abundance in reserve for very garden of the world, the seat of many them when they should enter the long very interesting Greek colonies, among expected land assigned them by heaven. which were situated the well known "sev"The land," says he, "whither thou goest en churches" of the Apocalypse; a land in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, still lovely, though comparatively in ruins, whence ye came out, where thou sowedst but then populous and abounding in all its thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot, as a prosperity. Then came the Isles of Greece, garden of herbs; but the land whither ye inhabited by the most brilliant and intellecgo to possess it, is a land of hills and val- tual people of antiquity; and the adjacent leys, and drinketh water of the rain of countries of Greece Proper and the Morea, heaven; a land which the Lord thy God with their rich and celebrated cities of careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God Athens, Corinth and the rest. Then the are always upon it, from the beginning of Adriatic Gulf gave access to the coast of the year even unto the end of the year. The Italy, while on the farther side sat Rome, Lord thy God bringeth thee unto a good the mistress of the world. Beyond, were land, a land of brooks of water, of foun- Gaul and Iberia, at whose southern extremtains and depths that spring out of valleys ity the Pillars of Hercules opened their and hills; a land of wheat and barley and gates to an unknown wilderness of waters. vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a All these countries lay stretched out in unland of oil olive and honey; a land wherein broken succession, teeming with all the thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; power, wealth and luxury of the west, and thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land affording all the inducements and promising whose stones are iron, and out of whose all the rewards which could be presented to hills thou mayest dig brass." A descrip- commercial enterprise. On the left hand, tion as characteristic, as if it had been writ- again, lay in the first place that Egypt, the ten by one who had spent his days in Pales- mother of countries, with its mighty Nile, tine. That you may be the better able to spreading fertility through that long valley, judge of this, I will now touch on some of which its inundations had covered with those advantages which justified the Jewish wealth, and overspread with the monulawgiver, or rather the Spirit of Inspiration ments of human industry; supporting withby whose influence he spoke, in holding in these narrow bounds a population of twenlanguage like this to those whose own ex- ty millions; and so advanced in arts and perience was soon to put its accuracy to the knowledge, that it was deemed a sufficient eulogy on Moses to say that he was skilled And first, let us consider for a moment, in all the learning of the Egyptians. Next the relative position of the Holy Land. We beyond it, lay Cyrene, a region filled with shall at once see that its location, at the head Greek colonies, as brilliant as the mother of the Mediterranean sea, gave it the advan- country on the opposite side of the Meditertage of direct and ready communication ranean. Then came Carthage, Rome's with the richest and most powerful coun- great rival, who beat the Romans on their tries both of the western and eastern hem- own element. Beyond followed Mauriisphere. This was an element of great tania, stretching to the gates of the great importance, both in its political and commercial condition. For let the natural products of a country be as great or as valuable as they may, if it enjoys no opportunities of commerce, it never can be either rich or powerful; but if it be not only fertile and populous, but upon the open highway of commerce, there are absolutely no bounds to the riches it may acquire, if its industry be well applied. Palestine had all these

test.

ocean. To name these countries is sufficient to remind all who hear, that they were among the most celebrated of the western world.

Looking toward the East, we see, in the first place Mesopotamia, or Ur of the Chaldees, an ancient land, in which was the seat of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, with its leading cities, Nineveh and Babylon. Nineveh was yet larger than Babylon,