midst of a desert;-and it is so old that none can tell its history. For thousands of years this city of the buried past has been the wonder and admiration of travellers; but who built it, or when it was built, will probably never be known.

4. Here are the ruins of what is called the Temple of the Sun, which was three hundred feet long, and one hundred

and sixty feet wide, enclosed by fifty-four splendid marble columns, each eighty feet in height. Only six of the columns are standing now. Near by are the ruins of the gorgeous Temple of Jupiter, and of still another temple, one thousand feet long and four hundred feet wide. How many more ruined temples and palaces there are here I know not; but I know that there is a miserable, sickly

Turkish village in the plain below, and that its squalid, ragged, and dirty, but proud, people know less of the lost city than we do.

5. I send you a sketch of a portion of the mouldings that are still in their place, though somewhat broken, over the portal of the Temple of the Sun, that you may see how elaborate and beautiful is the carving in stone that was done here long before even Europe had a history. "Asia was old in art," says Prof. Howard, even before Rome existed, and when our ancestors roamed as savages in the woods of Britain."

6. After tarrying a whole day amid these wonderful ruins, we started early the next morning, the 24th of July, and, after a hard day's journey of thirty-six miles, just as the glare of a burning day mellowed into twilight, from a mountain height we looked down upon an exceedingly fertile valley, filled with beautiful gardens and orchards, and beheld, quietly reposing there, the Moslem's earthly paradise "Damascus the Great"- "Damascus the Holy"! The view of the city, as we first saw it, with its thousand minarets reflecting the rays of the setting sun, has been likened, by an English traveller, to "a fleet sailing through a sea of verdure.”

7. Yet Damascus maintains strictly its Oriental character. In the interior of the city many of the streets are narrow, crooked, gloomy, and dirty, and the houses low; and in one quarter they are built of mud; yet these same wretchedlooking houses are often strikingly rich, and even gorgeous, within. There are no street-lamps; no wheeled vehicles of any kind are used; nor are there glass windows in any of the dwellings.

8. Damascus is, simply, an ō'asis in the desert. "For four thousand years," as Prof. Howard says, "its waters have not gone dry, nor has its fertility failed. That is why the city has existed so long, though it has often been wasted by the ravages of war. Abram spoke of Damascus

before he was called Abraham; and since that day Tyre, and Troy, and Sidon, and Nineveh, and Babylon, with all their glory, have passed away; empires have risen, prospered, and crumbled to ruin, but Damascus remains. Though Rome claims the name, Damascus is, by right, "The Eternal City."

9. Damascus is a great commercial city, as Dr. Edson informed us; and her commerce is carried on by means of caravans, of which the largest goes with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca; three, yearly, to Bagdad; and others go to Aleppo two or three times a month. I saw here, in one of the bazaars, Damascus blades for sale, just like the one we found in that old chest in the garret of Wilmot Hall!

10. There is a Christian quarter, as well as a Jewish and a Moham'medan quarter, in Damascus, as in most other Turkish cities; and the Christians are hated in Damascus as they are throughout all Turkey. No longer ago than 1860 a massacre of the Christians took place here; and for many years no Christian could walk the streets of the city without being insulted, called a "Christian dog," and, perhaps, beaten. There is a change now, and we had no trouble. Perhaps it was because a Turkish officer was sent with us from Bey'rout.

11. In a mosque at Damascus some of us witnessed, for the first time, the various positions assumed by the devout Moslem in going through his regular form of prayer; and I herewith send you a sketch of the same, as drawn by our artist. On entering the mosque the worshipper puts off his shoes, washes his hands and feet, spreads a rug, a mat, or his outer garment on the ground, to stand or kneel upon, and then begins the ceremony.

12. First, as in No. 1, he lifts his hands, and utters the words "Allah hu Akbar!" (God is great). Then he brings his hands down, as in No. 2, and recites some passages from the Koran. In No. 3 he recites some forms of praise; in

No. 4 he again exclaims, "God is great!"-then, dropping on his knees, and touching the ground three times with his

tinies

forehead, as in No. 5, he repeats short petitions and praises, and closes the course in the position No. 6. The followers of Mo-ham'med, or Ma'hom-ct, call their religion Islam, and themselves Moslems.

13. As we were to remain in Damascus six days, I have had abundant time, here, to finish this, my ninth letter, by the aid of Prof. Howard, and with some help from Dr. Edson also, who is always willing to answer my questions, and to give me all the information he can. A good road has recently been built from Bey'rout to Damascus, and a French diligence passes over the route daily, in good weather, a distance of about fifty miles. So I can send my letter direct to the steamer, whence it will be forwarded home. To-morrow we leave Damascus, also by caravan; and the next day we expect to reach the northern borders of "The Holy Land."a

a EXERCISE. Write narrative of events connected with the history of Damascus. See Gen xiv. 15; xv. 2;-2d Sam. viii. 5-6;-1st Chron. xviii. 3-6;--1st Kings xi. 23-25; xix. 15; xx. 34;-2d Kings v 12; viii. 7; x. 32; xii. 17-18; xiii. 3, 22; xiv. 23, 28; xvi. 9-13; -Isa. vii. 1-9;-Ezek. xxvii. 18;-Amos i. 3-5;-Jer. xlix. 23-27; -Acts ix. 1-11, 19, 25;-2d Cor. xi. 32-33.

CHAPTER XX.-REMINISCENCES.

1. How rapidly events crowd upon us in the narrative we are recording! From the bundle of selections of "Miscellaneous Readings" from Mr. Agnew's school, upon which we hoped to draw so largely, we have presented, in these pages, but one group, and now can scarcely find room for another; we desire to keep Ralph, and Phil, and Carl, and Bertie, and others of our young friends, and their changing fortunes, more closely in view; we have on hand extracts from the diary of our philosophic friend, Mr. Bardou, that we should like to put on record; then there is that neatly-wrapped package found in the old chest up in the garret of Wilmot Hall, all the papers in which have been read at our Saturday evening gatherings, but from which only one, of the half dozen, has been laid before our readers; while Freddy Jones's letters, that are looked forward to with so much interest, must find a place here, upon their reception.

2. On opening that Wilmot Hall package, which has lain so long on our table, we see that the paper next to the one given in Chapter VII. is marked, "Mr. Needleham's Story." We are interested in Mr. Needleham; for the "Introductory Paper" tells us that he was one of the fidgety, busy bodies, of the Old Men's Society,-full of small talk, and, though without much depth of learning, or extent of general information, a man of excellent common sense, and of great, but judicious, benevolence. Let us take up his story now.

Mr. Needleham's Story.

1. I was the son of a merchant who kept a thread-andneedle store in one of the principal business streets of our city. As my mother died when I was quite young, I was