mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh, seen of angels,' at this very place,—was the engrossing theme of our conversation, or rather the overpowering theme of our meditation, as we drew near to the village. It stands upon an eminence, surrounded by small valleys or depressions, devoted to the culture of the olive and vine; and has a massive and imposing appearance at a little distance. When we entered it, we found its principal street filled with a most healthy. looking population of old and young persons, many of whom gave us a cordial welcome as we passed along. The ecclesiastical buildings crown its eastern slopes, a small platform intervening between them and the village. We went to the Franciscan convent, to seek accom modation. The superior of the monks said he was afraid to admit us, as quarantine had been lately re-established at Jeruselem. "We have performed quarantine," we said to him in Latin, "for we have been exactly forty days in the great wilderness." He smiled, and opened the low gate, by which we made our entrance. Comfortable apartments were provided for us, and we felt thankful for all the mercies of the day.'-Vol. i. pp. 389, 390. The Greek convent forms the south-eastern part of the buildings. We much enjoyed the view of the country from its roof, and we spent a considerable time in surveying the interesting panorama. The general character of the district of Bethlehem is well hit off by Quaresmius. "Regio Bethlehemitica abundat campis, vineis, collibus, vallibus, olivetis, ficubus; vinoque praesertim, et frumento stabilita est." The territories of the tribe of Judah, through most of which we have now past, taking them as a whole, are more fitted for pasture and the culture of the tree, than raising grain; and this is in entire accordance with the delineation of them by the dying Jacob, who, with the eye of a seer, saw Judah binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; washing his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes, and with his eyes red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. The village of Bethlehem, as I have already mentioned, stands upon a height, from which there is a pretty steep slope on both the north and southern sides, particularly the former, to two Wádís or gorges which form its boundaries. On the flanks of these Wádís are the principal gardens, vineyards, and plantations of olives and figs. They unite a little to the east of the town, and form what is called the Wádí et-Taámarah, from the village of Beit Taámr in the neighbourhood. The village of Bethlehem itself slopes a little to the east. The nearly level plain of no great length, in which the monks say the annunciation of the birth of Christ took place, lies to the east of the town. It is beyond the rocky shelvings on which Bethlehem stands, and when we saw it, it was sown, like several fields in the neighbourhood, with barley. A nunnery, said to have been built by St. Paula, formerly stood on it, but it is now de stroyed. It was, doubtless, in some field in this neighbourhood that Ruth followed the reapers of her uncle Boaz. The neighbouring village of Beit Sáhúr is said to be that in which the shepherds lived. It is now inhabited principally, or solely, by Christians. The view in this direction eastward is very extensive. It comprehends the mountains of Ammon and Moab, beyond the Dead Sea and the Jordan. The monks pointed out to us, as they said, the position of Kerak, or KIR-MOAB, which, they told us, is now, as it has long been, the seat of the see of Petra, lying nearly directly south-east. The ridge east of the Dead Sea, appeared to have much the same general altitude, though one or two higher elevations were here and there discernible. Of the deep basin of the Dead Sea we had a good view; and we even thought that we saw the surface of the waters, till, on using our telescope, we found that we had been labouring under an ocular illusion, arising from their exhalations, and the consequent haziness of the atmosphere. The country intervening between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea is nearly entirely desert, and its cretaceous strata and debris had much the appearance of what we had witnessed in the great wilderness. Jebel el-Fareidís, or the Frank Mountain, which we had before noticed on the way from Hebron, lying to the south-east of us, according to the compass, at the distance of an hour and a quarter, was a conspicuous height. It is much in the form of a truncated cone; and rises about three or four hundred feet from its base.'-Vol. i. pp. 394, 395. We shall not detain our readers with any account of the Greek or Latin convents at Bethlehem, nor of the church, or the alleged cave of the Nativity. Suffice it to say, that some portions of this church, and of its decorated cave, may be traced as far back as the time of Helena, the mother of Constantine,-but that they point to the exact spot of the nativity, no intelligent man supposes. Of course the superstitions connected with this place are abundant. In this respect the Greeks and Latins have here vied with each other in their powers of invention, for under this roof they hold a divided sway, their ministers officiating alternately at the same altars. The walk from Bethlehem to Jerusalem may be accomplished easily in two hours. Less than half-a-mile distant from the present village is the cistern which bears the name of the Well of David' the well intended when David exclaimed, in the hearing of his men of war at Adullum, 'Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is at the gate!' The Philistines were then in possession of Bethlehem, but the loyalty and courage of the followers of the Hebrew king sufficed to gratify his wishes in that particular. We see no reason to doubt the identity of the modern cistern with the ancient well. At a short distance from the Well of David is the supposed tomb of Rachel. The sacred history says-"They journeyed 'from Bethel, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath —and Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.' (Gen. xxxv. 16-20.) The 'pillar' of Rachel was known in the time of Moses (ibid. 20) and mention is made of it by Jerome, and the Bordeaux Pilgrim, in the fourth century, and by subsequent authorities. Mohammedans and Christians agree in their supposed identification of the spot, nor do we see any reason to question their opinion in the matter. It is a small building, covered by a dome-a mound, in the grave form, within, marks the space where the ashes of Rachel-of 'our mother Rachel,' as the Jews call her, are supposed to rest. From the tomb of Rachel to the convent of Elias there is a gentle ascent, the summit of which gives the traveller along this road his first view of Jerusalem. 'As we were advancing to its summit, we began to call to remem brance some of the beautiful allusions of Holy Writ to the "city of the great King," the type of the spouse of Christ, "the joy of the whole earth," and which for many ages was "full of stirs, a tumultuous city, a joyous city," and which in its glorious towers and palaces and bulwarks, was unto God himself "Gilead and the head of Lebanon." In a moment JERUSALEM was before our view! We stood still in solemn silence, and again went forward, and stood still and gazed. Our feelings were so overpowering, that we could neither understand them nor give them expression. "I am strangely disappointed," at last said my companion; "yet there is something in the scene strangely affecting." In the language of Scripture,-partly applied by accom modation, and partly used, as by the inspired writers, as descriptive of the present desolations of the wondrous city, the only suitable response could be given,-"How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! how is she become as a widow!" "From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed." "All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God." "O Jerusalem, Jeru salem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." "Yes," replied my friend, "Jerusalem was the most highly favoured, and the most guilty; and it is now the most signally punished city on the face of the globe." Ages have passed away since its glorious temple and palaces, and towers and residences, were overthrown; and it is not now that we have to expect to find in it anything approaching to its former magnificence. The beauty of its situation is all that we can hope to discern; and that beauty of situation,-in the eminence and slopes of the plat form on which it stands, and in its natural defences on two of its sides, still remains-Vol. i. pp. 402, 403. 'As we advanced, our view of Mount Zion greatly improved; and its steep slopes to the south reminded us of its impregnableness in the days of old. A good part of it was literally "ploughed as a field." The valley of Hinnom, associated so much with darkness, impurity, and blood, appeared like a deep and yawning gorge, with the facings of its nearly bare rocks on each side much cut and broken. It is now called Wádí Jehennam, or the Valley of Hell. In connexion with this name, we thought of the passage of Jeremiah, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter," though it is not strictly applicable to its present designation. We passed along the western side of this ravine, keeping the great aqueduct from Solomon's pools, the Birket es-Sultán, or the Lower pool of Gihon, to the right, till we crossed the valley opposite the citadel, having the "Tower of David," or Hippicus, as one of its most prominent objects. When about to enter the Báb el-Khalil, or the gate of Hebron, known also by the name of the Yáfa or Joppa Gate, we were taken by the Turkish soldiers on guard to the tents of the officers superintending the quarantine establishment. When we had told them of our long journey through the desert, and when I had presented to them a special letter of introduction which the Governor in Council of Bombay had kindly given to me instead of a passport, they informed us that the quarantine regulations would to a great extent be dispensed with in our case. We were to be allowed to enter the city, under the care of a guidiáno, who should attend us for a couple of days, and give us at the same time liberty to move about as we pleased, without our touching any of the people in the streets-a condition which, owing to the commencement of the influx of pilgrims, we could not observe, and on which our attendant did not insist. 'We entered the gate, and our feet stood within Jerusalem! Never did we pass through a town with such interest as on this occasion.'Vol. i. pp. 403, 404. 6 Dr. Wilson's description of the modern city is so mixed up with antiquarian discussion, as not to admit of extract or abridgment: nor can we at present command space in which to give any account of his travels through those Lands of the Bible' which lie northward of Jerusalem. We should have been glad, also, to have made our readers acquainted with the substance of the matter presented at the close of the second volume, under the head of General Researches'-relating to the condition of the Christians, Jews, Samaritans, and Mussulmans, over Syria. To this last portion of Dr. Wilson's work, we may find occasion to return, but in the meanwhile, beg to commend his publication to the attention of our readers, as one of great general interest, and as a valuable contribution to the stores of our Biblical literature. There is a carelessness, and an occasional faultiness in the style, which we felt disposed at first to notice, but the substantial worth of these volumes has disarmed us of our purpose in that respect. 490 ART. IX. Bells and Pomegranates. By ROBERT Browning. ROBERT BROWNING has conquered for himself a high rank amongst contemporary poets, and there are few persons, we presume, who pretend to an acquaintance with the literature of the day, to whom his name has an unfamiliar sound. If they have not read his poems, they have heard them praised; the chances are, that among their acquaintance, two or three are warm admirers; and in no scanty number of families may one hear energetic protests against the affectation' of the title which it has pleased him to adopt as a collective name for the effusions of the last five years. Bells and Pomegranates!' exclaims the testy objurgator, 'what 'stuff! What is the sense of such an affected title? Whereupon some admirer replies: Bells and Pomegranates, sir, is a Rab'binical symbol, used by Mr. Browning to indicate an alternation of music with discoursing, sound with sense, poetry with thought' The testy old gentleman refuses to accept such an explanation, and closes the discussion by observing Rabbinical, indeed! we want English, not Hebrew, sir!' Such an objection, such a discussion proves at least that Robert Browning has a place apart from and above the herd of implacable verse-writers, ambitious of demonstrating that poetry is a drugambitious of proving the truth of Göthe's sarcasm 'Wer treibt die Dichtkunst aus der Welt? Die Poeten!" The objection proves that he has his place in our literature; other wise, no one would trouble himself with a mere title. Accord ingly, we think our duty as critics is calmly to consider his claims to renown; for whatever may be the opinion formed of his poetical powers, the very fact that such powers have in our day raised a man into reputation in a department where, since the giants who lately trod the stage have passed into silence, so few names have been heard above the crowd-this fact, we say, has a significance in it, which the future historian of literature will have to ponder on. There is one distinction we would wish clearly to establish be fore proceeding further. Horace declares that a poet is born, not made. In some sense, this is not true. A poet must be made as well as born: he must live in a certain condition of circumstances; either his epoch must be favourable to the musical expression of great convictions, or his own education must be favourable to the acquisition and practice of his art. All this looks very much like a truism, we are aware; but it is not our fault if obvious consi derations have been so long overlooked that we are forced to recur |