illuminating the margin of the mist which lay with well-defined cloud-like outlines on the surface of the foaming river. Countless insects poured their red phosphoric light on the herb-covered ground, which glowed with living fire as if the starry canopy of heaven had sunk down upon the turf. Climbing Bignonias, fragrant Vanillas, and yellow-flowering Banisterias, adorned the entrance of the cave; and the summits of the palms rustled above the graves.

Thus perish the generations of men! Thus do the name and the traces of nations disappear! Yet, when each blossom of man's intellect withers, -when in the storms of time the memorials of his art moulder and decay, -an ever-new life springs from the bosom of the earth; maternal nature unfolds unceasingly her germs, her flowers, and her fruits; regardless though man with his passions and his crimes treads under foot her ripening harvest.*-Humboldt's "Aspects of Nature."

* And is this all that the poet-philosopher can find to say? Can he whisper no cheering note, suggest no topic of consolation? Are the ravages of death indeed final? Do the generations of men disappear as the insect-races of a day? Not even the gleamings of home, which, like the Boreal Aurora darting across the deep azure of the Polar nocturnal sky, at times faintly illuminated the minds of men like Cyrus, and Socrates, and Cicero, illustrate the prospects of the modern philosopher. The darkness is unrelieved and entire. We have long admired Beattie's beautiful "Hermit;" but we have always, too, been willing to regard the bewildered and desponding Philosopher whom he describes rather as a poetic conception, than a representing a living reality. But even Beattie could not imagine a mind contented with its darkness. In the language of Humboldt we do not even hear the plaintive accents:

"But when shall Spring visit the mouldering urn?

66

O when shall day dawn on the night of the grave?" The German philosopher seems satisfied with the material brilliancy of the solar light, and to derive consolation, when contemplating the mortality of man, from the prospect of perpetual succession of germs, and flowers, and fruits afforded by maternal Nature." No wonder that the Continent is so unsettled, and that her bands of speculative politicians show such recklessness of human life, when the text of the philosophical lecture room is, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die!"

The royal Psalmist, not only poet and philosopher, but believer also, could descant in melancholy strains on human mortality: "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." This is melancholy, but it is not gloomy; for it is thus introduced: "For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." And as the musician strikes plaintive notes from his lyre to render the cheerful ones which succeed more animating, so does the Psalmist first sing of the mortality of man, that he may triumph the more g'oriously in the mercy of God: "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him." And what that everlasting mercy is he elsewhere sings: "I have set the Lord always before me. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.'

Robert Hall's "Discourse on the Modern Infidelity may always be read usefully, as a piece of conclusive argumentation, set forth with equal elegance and power; but if these sentences of Humboldt are specimens of the teaching of Continental philosophy, we shall begin to recommend its circulation as a necessary antidote. -EDITS.

CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE VENETIANS, A.D. 1204.

(Concluded from page 50.)

THE Crusaders soon obtained possession of Constantinople, drove the usurper from the throne, and reinstated the preceding Emperor, the government being actually carried on by his son, Alexis. He and his deliverers, however, did not long remain on good terms, and when the year 1204 commenced, they had become declared enemies to each other. The citizens, too, were divided among themselves. Alexis and his father fled, and another Emperor was chosen. He, finding himself unable to resist the Latins, departed for Thrace with as much of the imperial treasure as he could carry with him, and another occupant was called to the imperial throne. But he called it his own for only one night. The Crusaders attacked the city at day-break, April 12th, 1204. Murtzuphli, who was then the Emperor, defended it till night fall; but as some of the principal towers were then in the possession of the assailants, he saved himself by flight. Some of the nobles invited Prince Theodore Lascaris to place himself at their head. With the eloquence natural to the Greeks he harangued the soldiers; but they despaired of being able to save the city, and, before day had dawned on his reign, Lascaris had left Constantinople.

PART II. THE CAPTURE.-The conquerors were now drawn up in martial array before the city, ready to devour their prey. At day-break they saw approaching to them long files of the inhabitants, preceded by Priests bearing crosses and relics. These suppliants prostrated themselves before the chiefs of the army, praying that their lives might be spared. Their prayer was easily granted. The soldiers, after a year of privations and misery, thirsted not for their blood, but for their wealth. From that time masters of the city of Constantine, now first yielding itself to a conqueror, the troops were conducted into the different quarters by their leaders, and the principal posts were seized. The Marquis of Montferrat, as chief commander, took possession of the imperial palace, where he found a crowd of the most illustrious captives. But the city itself was a prey to the greediness and licence of the soldiers, who were soon scattered throughout all places. The storehouses of trade and commerce, palaces, churches, were ransacked and pillaged without regard to either places or persons. Those historians who have most carefully avoided exaggeration, allow that several thousands became the victims of this irruption of a victorious soldiery, spreading themselves every where in search of booty. Neither the orders of the Generals, nor threats of excommunication issued by the Bishops against all who should violate the sanctity of churches, not even some instances of military discipline, could repress the savage eagerness of the troops, before their thirsty avarice was satiated. After pillaging some private dwelling, they would endeavour by threats, and even tortures, to compel the owners to confess where they had concealed any of their property; and often, a first confession, instead of satisfying the rapacity which seemed insatiable, became the pretext for new inflictions. All that could be done by the leaders on behalf of the wretched citizens was to leave the gates open, that by abandoning their possessions they might at least save themselves from personal outrage, and behold only from a distance the conflagrations which destroyed their former habitations. They wandered into the surrounding country, some with their weeping families, others alone, ignorant of the

fate of their friends. The rich clothed themselves in borrowed apparel, that the signs of poverty might secure their personal safety. Many Senators-and the Patriarch himself was among them-sought on the banks of the current some little bark that might convey them to the opposite shore; and so hasty had been their flight, or so pressing their fears, that most of them were only imperfectly clothed.

Amidst these deplorable scenes the work of pillage went on, often presenting a strange mixture of the grotesque and ludicrous with the tragic and revolting. These soldiers of the Cross, who had engaged in the enterprise, some in expiation of their former sins, others in the anticipation of future merits, discovered the impotence of superstition as a restraint on their criminal passions in the presence of objects which called forth their scarcely slumbering violence. The shrines and tabernacles of departed saints were violated, tombs and sepulchres were forced open, the sacred vessels were profaned, and all that religion regards as venerable was wantonly scattered about. They tore down the silver balustrades of the church of St. Sophia; and, to carry off their spoil, horses and beasts of burden were stabled for a time in the sanctuary. Religion itself was invoked by some in committing acts which religion condemns and abhors. The Greeks were schismatics, and fanaticism saw no impiety in the defilement of their temples. Their very worship was grossly insulted. In the Patriarch's chair an abandoned female was placed; and the pilgrims, intoxicated with the wine which they drank from the vessels employed in the most sacred office of both the Roman and Greek Church, danced about the altar to the songs of this daughter of Belial.

While the troops were abandoning themselves to these excesses, another class of the Crusaders engaged with equal avidity in another kind of pillage. But here an Ecclesiastical Historian (Fleury) shall speak: “Martin, an Abbé of Paris in the diocess of Baste, came, while the work of plunder was proceeding, to a church that was held in great veneration. From every quarter large sums of money had been brought there for security, together with many precious relics from neighbouring churches and monasteries. Many persons having entered this church to seize what they might find there, the Abbé Martin went in to a more secret part of it, hoping to meet there with the objects for which he was seeking. He soon discovered an old man of venerable appearance, with a long white beard, and at once addressed him in a menacing tone: Accursed old man, show me the most precious relics of which thou hast charge. Bring me to them, or thou art a dead man.' The Greek Priest, terrified by the manner in which he spoke, though he did not exactly understand him, began to speak to him in broken French, and endeavoured to soften him. Martin, who was not as angry as he chose to appear, soon made him comprehend what he desired. The Greek, having considered a little, and seeing that he was a religious man," (un religieux, a monk, or person in holy orders,) thought it would be better to confide the relics to him than to abandon them to merely secular persons, whose bloody hands would only profane them, and opened for him a chest bound with iron, into which the Abbé eagerly plunged both hands, and filled the skirts of his gown, which he tucked up for the purpose, with what he judged to be the most valuable. These relics were, some of the blood of our Lord, some pieces of the wood of the true cross, some bones of John the Baptist, an arm of St. James, and a great number of others. Galon de Sarton, Canon of St. Martin of Péquigny, at the beginning of the pillage, found the head of St. Christophilus, the head of St.

Eleutherius, and some other relics. Walking by an old palace, half ruined, he saw a window stuffed up with hay and straw, and suspected that some relics were hidden there. In fact, he found two vessels, one containing the finger, the other the arm, of St. George; but, fearing to be detected, he put them aside till the next day, when, searching farther, he found two silver basins in cases, and carried them all away. He learned from the inscriptions on them that he was in possession of the head of St. George, and that of St. John the Baptist, besides what he had found the day before. For convenience and safety of transportation, Galon broke the large silver basins, and sold them, and afterwards embarked and bore the relics to the cathedral of Amiens."*

Amidst all these circumstances of the sack of Constantinople, these horrors, these orgies, these excesses of avarice, some traits characterised the gross devotion of the Occidentals, and many attested their disdainful ignorance. The Greeks were a people corrupted and degraded; but they were far superior to the Latins in all things relating to the culture of literature and the arts. This was seen only too plainly in the manner in which the conquerors profaned the monuments which adorned the ancient Byzantium. They rambled about the city decorated with all the luxury and splendour of the East, and bearing about with them writing-cases and quills in derision of the despised science of the conquered.-Histoire de la République de Venise, liv. iv., chap. 33, 34.

* Count Daru has taken this extract from the "Histoire du Christianisme," by the Abbé Fleury, lib. 76, chap. iii. Perhaps he thought that his readers might impute his strong descriptions to the prejudices of the modern French philosophy, and a wish to show that the "soldiers of the Cross" could act in 1204 as the Parisian Revolutionists acted nearly six centuries subsequently; and therefore supported his own narrative by joining to it a portion of the History of the pious but often credulous Fleury. He might have quoted more to the same effect. Thus, in the preceding chapter, the Abbé says,-" During the pillage of the city were committed all the disorders which commonly follow from the fury and avarice which are let loose on these occasions. The churches were not spared: holy images were trodden under foot, relics were thrown into unclean places, the body and blood of our Saviour were cast abroad on the earth, and the sacred vessels were employed in profane uses." We add, from the same author, a few more of the same articles :-"The Doge of Venice obtained the portion of the true cross, set in gold, that Constantine was said to have had borne before him when he went to battle; also a small bottle of the miraculous blood of our Lord, an arm of St. George, and part of the head of St. John the Baptist. There were also found the bodies of St. Agatha, and St. Lucia. Two burgesses of Venice carried there the body of the Prophet St. Simeon. The Cardinal Peter of Capua had for his share the body of the Apostle St. Andrew. Baldwin, Count of Flanders, sent to Philip Augustus, King of France, many relics taken from the holy chapel of the great palace of Constantinople; as, a piece of the wood of the true cross, a foot long; hairs of Jesus Christ when an infant; some of the linen in which He was wrapped up in the manger; a spine from the crown of thorns; part of His purple vestment; and a rib and tooth of the Apostle St. Philip, &c., &c."

We quote not for the purpose of ridiculing these superstitions. The subject is far too serious. It shows us, not merely the utter powerlessness of such a gorgeous and childish devotional externalism as a restraint upon evil, but its blinding and corrupting tendency. In fact, in corrupting it is as strong, as in restraining it is weak. This is the lesson to be learned from the whole narrative. The sack of Constantinople, with all its horrors and absurdities, was perpetrated by the "soldiers, of the Cross!" The character of the expedition was religious and sacred! They who were engaged in it were the obedient servants of the only true Church! Let history be well studied, and there will need no other arguments against Romanism. -EDITS.

REV. JOHN WESLEY TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
WILLIAM PITT.

(COMMUNICATED BY THOMAS MARRIOTT, ESQ.)

Bath, Sept. 6th, 1784. SIR,-Your former goodness shown to Mr. Ellison* emboldens me to take the liberty of recommending to your notice an old friend, Lieutenant Webb.t

On my mentioning formerly some of his services to Lord North, his Lordship was pleased to order him a hundred a year. But as it has since been reduced, it is hardly a maintenance for himself and his family. If you would be so good as to remember him in this or any other way, I should esteem it a particular favour.

Will you excuse me, Sir, for going out of my province by hinting a few things which have been long upon my mind? If those hints do not deserve any further notice, they may be forgiven and forgotten.

New taxes must undoubtedly be imposed; but may not more money be produced by the old ones? For instance :

1. When the land-tax is 4s. in the pound, I know some towns which pay regularly seven or five pence. Nay, I know one town where they pay one penny in the pound. Is there no help for this?

2. As to the window-tax: I know a gentleman who has near a hundred windows in his house, and he told me he paid for twenty.

3. The same gentleman told me,-" We have above one hundred menservants in this town, but not above ten are paid for."

4. I firmly believe that, in Cornwall alone, the King is defrauded of half a million yearly in Customs. What does this amount to in all Great Britain? Surely not so little as five millions.

5. Servants of Distillers inform me, that their masters do not pay for a fortieth part of what they distil. And this duty last year (if I am rightly informed) amounted only to £20,000. But have not the spirits distilled this year cost 20,000 lives of His Majesty's liege subjects? Is not then the blood of these men vilely bartered for £20,000?—not to say anything of the enormous wickedness which has been occasioned thereby; and not to suppose that these poor wretches have any souls! But (to consider money alone) is the King a gainer, or an immense loser? To say nothing of many millions of quarters of corn destroyed, which, if exported, would have added more than £20,000 to the Revenue-be it considered, "Dead men pay no taxes." So that by the death of 20,000 persons yearly, (and this computation is far under the mark,) the Revenue loses far more than it gains. But I may urge another consideration to you. You are a man. You have not lost human feelings. You do not love to drink human blood. You are a son of Lord Chatham. Nay, if I mistake not, you are a Christian! Dare you then sustain a sinking nation? Is the God whom you serve able to deliver from ten thousand enemies? I believe He is. Nay, and you believe it. O may you fear nothing but displeasing Him!

May I add a word on another head? How would your benevolent heart rejoice, if a stop could be put to that scandal of the English nation, suicide!

* An officer in the Customs or Excise. See "Wesley Family," 2d edit., vol. ii., p. 273.

+ Commonly called Captain Webb.

See Wesley's Works, 3d edit., vol. xi., p. 55. VOL. VI.-FOURTH SERIES.

M