present himself before the father and great king of waters, the sea. The way up to it is cut out within the rock, not with stairs, but ascending by little and little that one may ride up with ease; it hath also holes cut to let in light and at the foot of this ascending place, a fair gate, with a Corpus du Guarde. Half way

up is a fair and spacious hall cut out of the same rock, with three windows very large upwards: the ascent is about the length of a lance and a half and at the top is a gate with another guard. The air above is wholesome and delectable; and they live there very long, and without sickness. There are no cities on the top, but palaces, standing by themselves, in number four and thirty, spacious, sumptuous, and beautiful, where the princes of the royal blood have their abode with their families. The soldiers that guard the place dwell in tents.

There are two temples, built before the reign of the Queen of Saba, one in honour of the sun, the other of the moon, the most magnificent in all Ethiopia, which by Candace, when she was converted to the Christian faith, were consecrated in the name of the Holy Ghost, and of the Crosse. At that time (they tell) Candace ascending with the eunuch (whose proper name was Indica) to baptize all of the royal blood, which were there kept, Zacharie the eldest of them, was in his baptism named Philip, in remembrance of Philip's converting the eunuch, which caused all the emperors to be called by that name, till John the Saint, who would be called John, because he was crowned on St. John's day : and while they were busy in that holy work of baptising the princes, a dove in fiery form came flying with beams of light, and lighted on the highest temple dedicated to the sun, whereupon it was afterwards consecrated to the Holy Ghost by St. Matthew the Apostle, when he preached in Ethiopia. These two temples were after that given to the monastical knights of the military order of Saint Anthony, by Philip the seventh, with two great and spacious convents built for them. I should lose both you and my self, if I should lead you into their sweet, flourishing, and fruitful gardens, whereof there are store in this plain, curiously made, and plentifully furnished with fruits both of Europe plants there, as pears, pippins, and such like; and of their own, as oranges, citrons, lemons, and the rest; cedars, palm-trees, with other trees, and variety of herbs and flowers, to satisfy the sight, taste, and scent. But I would entertain you, only with rarities, nowhere else to be found: and such is the cubayo tree, pleasant beyond all compari

son in taste, and whereunto for the virtue is imputed the health, and long life of the inhabitants; and the balm-tree, whereof there is great store here: and hence it is thought the Queen of Saba carried and gave to Solomon, who planted them in Judæa, from whence they were transplanted at Cairo long after. The plenty

of grains and corn there growing, the charms of birds alluring the ear with their warbling notes, and fixing the eyes on their colours, jointly agreeing in beauty, by their disagreeing variety, and other creatures that adorn this paradise, might make me glut you (as sweet meats usually do) with too much store. Let us therefore take view of some other things worthy our admiration in this admired hill, taking the Friar for our guide, whose credit I leave to your censure.

(From Purchas, His Pilgrimage.)

SIR THOMAS OVERBURY

[Sir Thomas Overbury (1581-1613) was the son of Nicholas Overbury, a squire in Gloucestershire. After three years at Queen's College, Oxford, where he took the degree of B. A., he travelled for some time on the Continent. His introduction to the Court was doubtless due to Carr, who was, till close upon Overbury's death, his most intimate and constant companion. In 1608 Overbury was knighted; in the following year he visited France and the Low Countries, and wrote his Observations Upon the State of the Seventeen Provinces. On his return he was regarded as the most accomplished of James's courtiers, and the wits and poets vied with each other in soliciting his patronage. Ben Jonson, with whom he quarrelled afterwards, ascribes in some complimentary verses the saving of wit and manners at Court to Overbury's presence. In 1613, as "oracle of direction to Carr, now Lord Rochester, Overbury strongly opposed his friend's marriage with the Countess of Essex, who had obtained a divorce with this purpose. The countess in revenge secured his imprisonment in the Tower, where, after five months of lingering suffering, he died of poison at the age of thirty-eight. In 1616 Rochester (then Somerset) and his wife were found guilty of the murder. Some contemporary records suggest that James I. was implicated. It is possible that the pride and insolence of bearing with which one contemporary, Weldon, charges Overbury, may have made him enemies at Court. But even this writer admits him to have been "a man of excellent parts." Overbury's works, published after his death, gained an immense popularity. His poem of The Wife, written, according to Overbury's father, "to induce Viscount Rochester to make a better choice than of the divorced

Countess," appeared in 1614. To the second edition in the same year were 'added many witty Characters and conceited News, written by himself and other learned gentlemen his friends." There are only twenty-one characters in this issue. By the ninth impression in 1616 the number had swelled to eighty. An excellent comparison of Theophrastus and his English followers-Hall, Overbury, and Earle—is to be found in Mr. Jebb's introduction to his edition of Theophrastus (Macm. 1870).]

SHORT sketches of character and manners form a feature of our 'seventeenth-century literature. Over two hundred "characters," or books of characters, are said to have been published between the years 1605 and 1700. Casaubon had published in 1592 a Latin translation of Theophrastus. But though the Greek author

is taken as a model in some of these works, the main causes of their prevalence are to be sought in the age itself. "There was," says Mr. Jebb, "in one particular, a rough analogy between the literature of that century in England and the Greek literature of the age of Theophrastus; both were marked by the reaction from creating to analysing, and in both ethical analysis was a favourite subject." Church and stage alike fostered a taste for these character sketches. Of these the earliest of any importanceHall's Characterisms of Virtues and Vices (1608), which have an avowedly didactic purpose-shows the tendency to ethical introspection which Puritanism brought with it. Overbury's Characters, which followed Hall's, take their cue rather from the comedy of the time; they are framed pretty much after the model of the descriptions of contemporary manners, that are occasionally to be found in such plays as Cynthia's Revels. Hall's Characters are illustrations for sermons; Overbury's, for the most part, echo the wit and gossip of court and tavern. Further, euphuism was a dialect specially adapted to personal criticism of this kind. But while it lent itself to this taste, it at the same time led off the writer from simple description into elaborate comment. Hall, though following in the main the manner of Theophrastus in giving characteristic anecdotes, is affected to some extent by the prevalent taste for conceit and antithesis. Overbury it reaches its height. As a rule, illustrations are sacrificed to make room for epithets; and even when he does illustrate traits by examples, they are given neither simply nor concretely enough to be effective. A comparison of one of Theophrastus' characters—say, The Shameless Man-with An Affectate Traveller, one of the best of Overbury's, will show how Overbury's wit is apt to spoil his humour. The following is an average specimen of his style, "A Dissembler is an essence needing a double definition, for he is not that he appears. Unto the eye he is pleasing, unto the ear not harsh, but unto the understanding intricate, and full of windings; he is the prima materia, and his intents give him form; he dyeth his means and his meaning into two colours; he baits craft with humility, and his countenance is the picture of the present disposition. He wins not by battery, but undermining, and his rack is smoothing. He allures, is not allured by his affections, for they are the brokers of his observation. He knows passion only by sufferance, and resisteth by obeying.

In

He makes his time an accountant to his memory, and