give, juft as I received it, fince it may give the reader fome idea of the prefent Greeks, thew their propenfity for the marvelous, and the facility with which, from a few given circumftances, they can make out a wonderful fiory.

This building they call Goetria the Incantada, and affirm it to have been the work of magic art. On being asked when, and on what occafion, this extraordinary fact was performed, they answered, "the fact was undoubted; every body knew that their great king, Alexander, conquered Perfia; when he was preparing to invade that empire, he folicited the affiftance of a king of Thrace, who accordingly united his forces to thofe of his Macedonian neighbour, attending in perfon, with his family, at the court of Alexander, where they were royally entertained, and lodged in a fumptuous palace, near his own, communicating with it by means of a magnificent gallery, of which these columns are the remains. The Thracian queen, a lady of tranfcendant beauty, accompanied her husband on this vifit. Alexander, young, and unaccustomed to controul his paffions, ardent in the pursuits of love as of glory, dazzled with such excefs of charms, determined to violate the rights of hofpitality and feduce the queen of Thrace. He contrived, by means of this gallery, to pay her frequent visits, though not fo privily as to escape the notice of her husband, who, having verified

his fufpicions, refolved to take a dreadful revenge on the deluder. He had, in his train, a fkilful necromancer from Pontus, who, discover. ing by his art the instant that Alexander was to pafs to the queen's apartment, scattered his fpells and charms throughout this gallery; they were of fuch marvelous power, that whoever should, at a certain hour, attempt to pass, would inevitably be converted into stone. Ariftotle, a conjuror, attached to Alexander, and of fkill greatly fuperior to the man of Pontus, difcovered his dan ger time enough to prevent it: by his advice and entreaties, Alexan der was prevailed on to forbear for once his intended vifit. The impatient queen, tired with expectation, fent one of her confidential fervants to fee if her lover was com ing, and the herself foon followed. At this inftant, the king, fuppofing the magic had worked all its effect, iffued forth, attended by his conjuror, to feaft his eyes with a fight of the revenge he had taken; when, ftrange to relate, both companies, thofe with the king, as well as those with the queen, were inftantly changed to ftone, and remain to this hour, a monument of vengeance on a jealous husband and an unfaithful wife."

The architecture of this building is very indifferent in point of tafte, and is probably much pofterior to the other fpecimens defcribed in this work.

8

- MISCELLANEOUS

On the Instability of the Greek and Roman Republics; from Whitaker's real Origin of Government.

HEN rofe republics. The first

the world was at Athens. The keen genius of Attica, wanting to try an experiment upon the univerfal polity of man, to fubftitute a creature of its own reafon for the fabrication of God's wildom, and to violate the primcgenial law of nature in favour of a fantaftical theory; took advantage of the death of a felf-devoted monarch, and, in a pretended fear of never having fo good a monarch again, moft ungratefully deprived his family of the crown, by venturing upon the bold innovation of erecting a republic. They thus inverted the pyramid of government, made it to ftand upon its point, and reared its bafe in the air.

The example however, was afterwards followed, by all the states of Greece. They all gave free fcope to their fancies, in modelling their governments. They cut them to this form, they carved them to that. But they ftill reduced them nearer and nearer, to an inefficient fimplicity of power. They then confidered them, as mote or less perfect in their republican nature. Yet they could find none, that would give them the promited

happinefs. They were wretched under all. The grand principle of all, in fuppofing the power of government to be originally in the people, in believing the subjects to

ing the fervants to be vitally the mafters; propofitions furely, however familiar to our ears at prefent, calculated only for the meridian of St. Luke's Holpital; this precluded all poffibility of fettlement, changes fucceeded to changes, all was dif traction, confufion, and mifery. Having thrown their little world of fociety off from that central pin of authority, upon which it had been founded by God himfelf, they could never find a reft for it again. The divine equipoife had been raly deftroyed by the hand of man, and man felt his folly in his fufferings. The imputed power of the people was like the water of the ocean, now breaking through all its bounds as the balance of the globe was gone, and now fweeping in an irrefiftible deluge over the land. Yet, with fomething like the infatuation of the Jews in receiving their falfe Meffiahs, they still wel comed every pretender to the cause of liberty, ftill hailed every factious man as a friend, and attached themfelves to every reformer as a deliverer. Thele declared," fays Plutarch himfelf at a particular pe

riod of their Sicilian history, "that the end of their coming was to introduce liberty, and depofe momarchs; but they did fo tyrannize themselves, that the reign of the tyrants feemed a golden age, compared with the rule of thefe deli verers; which made the Sicilians to esteem those more happy who had expired in flavery, than they who furvived to fee fuch a freedom." Nay, their feelings had been fo feverely wounded by this popular kind of tyranny, that when Timoleon had recovered their capital from its oppreffions, he found the market-place rankly overgrown with grafs, horfes actually feeding upon it, and the groom lying upon the ground to attend them, that he therefore invited the emigrants to come back, and reinhabit their defolated city; that few however came, "fo much," adds the hiftorian in a ftrain remarkably appofite to modern times, "did they dread and abhor the very name of thofe communities, and municipalities, and tribunals, which had produced the greateft part of their tyrants.

The power which had created the first revolution, in Rome, was perpetually called upon to create others. Confuls, dictators, plebeian tribunes, military tribunes, or decemvirs were fucceffively and interchangeably appointed. The fcale of power in the state under all, was continually finking towards the people, till it touched the very ground at laft. It funk therefore loaded more and more with mifery to them, They became the dupes of ambitious men, enlifted as partizans in their purfuits, and engaged as champions in their contefts; were embarraffed with feditions, fcourged with rebellions, and racked with

Geography confidered in a political Point of View; from Mercier's Fragments.

WHOEVER admits an original

plan in the univerfe, whoever rejects the words fatality and chance; and furveys with an attentive eye the empires of ancient and modern times, will perceive an order of de marcation upon the furface of our globe, and will not fail to recognize the hand that traced the limits and erected the ramparts. He will behold nations mutually contending till they are confined within the geographical circle drawn by nature; in that enclosure they enjoy the repole which was denied them when they overleaped the bounds.

When in the height of metaphy fics, we feel fomething that refifts, that repels us forcibly, that defeats us in fpite of our efforts, it is a decifive mark that we go beyond our limits, and ftrain to furpafs our na tural capacity: it is a fecret admonition which reminds us of our frailty, and corrects a prefumptuous weakness. But, in the material world, when an evident principle enlightens reafon at the commencement of its researches, it is a certain token that the mind poffeffes a fend of refources which will enable it to

draw