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external signs, I would measure the

space between

the region of the heart and the middle of the chest, and if I found it small and not expanded, it would denote a pusillanimous spirit.

"There are many strange things to be learned in this country; it is not from a licentious press that knowledge is to be derived, which crams the public stomach with crude matter; but from the celestial bodies which contain the elements of all learning. I have not read a book since childhood, for books file away the mind.

"The English people are infatuated about their erudition, their constitution, and their climate; the essence of the first is vanity-corruption, of the second and that of the third, fog. The English nation is too fat, its mind wants mortification; every one talks of morals, and the lips become so familiar with the name, that the heart forgets the virtue. Religious imposition has overrun this country as well as many others; God was obliged to withdraw the truth, when the world became so degraded as to be no longer fit for its purity.

"Some of the learned people here consider Judas in a better light than we Christians regard him,

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they pretend he was misrepresented, and look up to him as a prophet who is destined to appear again on earth.

"As to leaving this country, your advice is vain, I never will return to England. I am encompassed by perils; I am no stranger to them; I have suffered shipwreck off the coast of Cyprus; I have had the plague here; I have fallen from my horse near Acre, and been trampled on by him; I have encountered the robbers of the Desert, and when my servants quaked I have galloped in amongst them and forced them to be courteous; I have faced them;—and when a horde of plunderers was breaking in at my gate I sallied out amongst them, sword in hand, and after convincing them, had they even been inclined, that they could not hurt me, I fed them at my gate and they behaved like thankful beggars. Here am I destined to remain; that which is written in the great book who may alter? It is true I am surrounded by perils; it is true I am at war with the prince of the mountains and the Pacha of Acre; it is very true my enemies are capable of assassination; but if I do perish, my fall shall be a bloody one. I

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have plenty of arms, good Damascus blades, I use no guns, and while I have an arm to wield a hanjar, these barren rocks shall have a banquet of slaughter before "my face looks black" in the presence of my enemies, and two hundred years hence, the Bedouins of the Desert shall talk of the Sittee Inglis, how she sat her Arab steed, and fell like an Arab chief, when the star of her glory had set for ever!"

It is impossible to give an idea of her animation when she spoke on these subjects, and though I have given her language word for word, as I endeavoured to impress it on my memory at the time, still to understand its energy, one must have heard her, and one must have been accustomed to have heard people speaking of the influence of the stars (for it is the common topic of oriental conversation) to listen with gravity and even with interest to such observations as fell from her Ladyship. The only two persons whom she inquired after, and in whose health and happiness she appeared to be interested, were Lady G. En and Mr. B- -m. After remaining some days with her Ladyship, I took my

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leave, highly gratified with the society of a person whose originality, or eccentricity (if it deserves that name), is a far less prominent feature in her character, than her extensive information, her intrepidity of spirit, her courteous manners, and her unbounded benevolence.

I am, my dear Sir,

Your very obedient Servant,

R. R. M.

LETTER XXXVI.

TO DR. HAMILTON.

MY DEAR SIR,

Tyre, Sept. 20, 1827.

THE belief in magic is so general in Syria and in Egypt, that a traveller who has been long in these countries, becomes familiarised with the name, and at length begins to listen with curiosity to that which at first only excited his contempt. Such I confess was the case with me, I never doubted but that those who believed in it laboured under a delusion, but it surprised me not a little to find people of good education and even of sound intellect impressed with an idea that the occult sciences of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, were still cultivated by the descendants of both these people. I resolved to banish, as far as lay in my power, every preconceived opinion on the subject, and to converse with