commemorate the appearance of the tutelary hero in the Battle of Marathon-is in almost perfect preservation, and, next to the Acropolis, is the most conspicuous object in Athens. Near here we come upon ancient tombs only recently excavated, and read on monumental stores the story of ancient heroes; we stand upon the Sacred Way leading

to Eleusis; then turning into Hermes Street, we mingle with the gay crowd clad in the costumes of Greek, Albanian, Islandor, Suliote, and nondescript, until we come to the large open space surrounded by handsome hotels and the palace of the King. But we are only on the threshold of the glories of Athens. Bending our footsteps southward from the palace, there rise before us the gigantic pillars of the Temple of Zeus Olympius, sixteen stately columns of dazzling white marble of Pentelicus standing out against

the sky-the solitary but magnificent remains of the finest building in Greece. Then we turn towards the Acropolis-the massive natural citadel, buttressed with great stays and bastions and crowned with glorious remains; and as we ascend the winding road leading to it we pause to enter the Theatre of Dionysus, and sit down on one of the marble seats which rise tier upon tier on the hill-side, and view the same stage which saw the production of the plays of Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and all the great masterpieces of the Attic drama. We shall behold, too, the same scenery at the back of the stage which met the gaze of the old play-going Athenians: the slopes of Hymettus, the Valley of the Ilissus, and the shining Saronic Gulf.

The Acropolis still remains the glory of Athens. There, beautiful in ruin, stands the Parthenon, "a deathless poem;" there the Erechtheium, there the ruined Propylæa, and there the Temple of the Wingless Victory. From the Acropolis it is but a stone's-throw to Mars Hill, and we can ascend it by the very steps that Socrates trod as he went to face the dread tribunal, and by which St. Paul ascended when he went to declare the ignorantly worshipped "Unknown God." There will be much to do and see in Athens, for we must visit the Pnyx, and stand at the bema, or rostrum, where Demosthenes and Pericles stood; visit the Odeum of Herodes Atticus, the Temple of the Winds, and the Stadium; ascend Lycabettus, drive to Eleusis and Marathon, and drink as deeply as may be into the spirit of the times when Athens was the head and heart of the world.

To many persons Constantinople will not be one whit less interesting than Athens. Attractions are there for every one. Stamboul, the old city, is full of mosques and bazaars, Galata is the business part of the place, and Pera is the modern and fashionable part, abounding in shops, hotels, cafés, and mansions. As we sail up the Bosphorus, we shall have opportunity to examine the sumptuous palaces of the Sultan and other handsome buildings on the European and Asiatic shores, at which we touch alternately half a dozen times in the hour; while the Seraglio, occupying the site of ancient Byzantium; the Treasury, flashing its splendours of jewels and precious stones; the Armoury; the Museum of Janissaries, and numberless other attractions, will afford interesting amusement.

Others will take a keener pleasure in studying the manners and customs of the people, their ignorance and superstition, the oppressive measures by which they are and have been governed, the absence of home-life, the baneful influences of a false religion, the strange vagaries of Howling and Dancing Dervishes, and other rites, ceremonies, fasts, and feasts of Islamism.

We think, however, that the majority of our readers will find the greatest interest in studying those monuments which stand out as great historical memorials, especially the Mosque of St. Sophia, with its wonderful columns from Baalbec and Ephesus, Egypt and Athens, and every heathen temple renowned in antiquity-a building so magnificent as to draw from Justinian the exclamation: "Thank God, I have been able to outdo Solomon!"--a temple worthy of the oratory of Chrysostom, the Golden-mouthed, and of the origin of Greek Christianity

"When first the Faith was led in triumph home

Like some high bride with banner and bright sign,
And melody and flowers."

Many mosques, tombs, and ruined monuments serve as connecting links to the history of the Great City of the East, and none more so than the brave old walls, the Seven Hills and Towers, and the Great Gates, from all of which we shall try to wrest some curious scraps of information.

It will be a relief to us to leave the din and bustle of cities of pleasure, and turn towards

-those holy fields

Over whose acres walked those Blessed feet

Which, [eighteen] hundred years ago, were nailed

For our advantage on the bitter Cross."

Every spot within and around Jerusalem is holy ground. The Tower of Hippicus; Mount Zion; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, around which cluster a thousand associations and traditions of the Greek, Latin, Syrian, Coptic, Armenian, and other Churches; the Via Dolorosa and its stations of the Cross; the Temple on Mount Moriah, with its wonderful legends and strange memorials, Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan; the Jews' Wailing-place and its mournful gatherings; the leper village; the Conaculum ; the tomb of David: these and a hundred other sacred sites will demand and receive careful examination. We shall also visit underground Jerusalem, entering the excavations made by Captains Wilson, Warren, and others, and, passing through the opening by the Damascus Gate, wander in those mammoth quarries from whence the masonry of the Holy Temple was brought. Then going out of the city by St. Stephen's Gate, we shall descend the steep hill-side, cross the Kedron, pause under the grand old gnarled olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, and ascending the Mount of Olives, reverently stand on the spot where, in all probability, Jesus stood as "He beheld the city and wept over it." And then we shall reach Bethany, and point out the views which constantly met the eye of the Master, whose resting-place from the strife of tongues was here in the house of "Martha and Mary and Lazarus." Yonder we can see the great wall of Moab; there stretches the wilderness of Judæa; there are the sacred spots in the "hill country; "there are the glistening waters of that "great and melancholy marvel," the Dead Sea; and there the green line running through the plain, marking the course of the Jordan.

From Jerusalem we may make a pleasant excursion to Bethlehem, surrounded still with terraces on which the vine and the fig-tree flourish, and bright with its fields of growing corn and smiling green pastures. There we shall meet with David and Naomi, Ruth and Boaz, and stand beside that spot kissed by the reverent lips of ten thousand times ten thousand pilgrims, where an inscription in the pavement records : "Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est." There is probably no shrine in the world more sacred than this, and although, amid the gifts which have been lavished here ever since the Wise Men of the East offered theirs, we may find some which are not to our taste, we shall nevertheless be in sympathy with many of the objects of interest that will be pointed out to us. Next to the spot where tradition affirms, with great show of truth, that our Lord was born, we shall find most interest in the Chapel of

JERUSALEM AND SILOAM, FROM THE HILL OF EVIL COUNSEL.

St. Jerome, where, without doubt, that holy man prayed, dreamed, fasted, and studied for thirty years, and composed the famous translation of the Scriptures which is still the "Biblia Vulgata " of the Latin Church.

Damascus! one of the oldest cities in the world, if not the oldest; flourishing before the Pyramids were laid or Jerusalem was built or Israel was a nation-at war with Jews, Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, and Arabs; the place in which St. Paul tarried, and from which Mohammed turned away, saying,

"Only one Paradise is allowed to man, and I must not make mine in this world"— Damascus, with its thousand streams from Abana and Pharpar, considered by Naaman to be "better than all the waters of Israel," beside which grow fruits and flowers in such magnificent abundance that it is "mass upon mass of dark delicious foliage rolling like waves among garden tracts of brilliant emerald green, while here and there the clustering blossoms of the orange or the nectarine lie like foam upon the verdant sea "-Damascus, with its diversified architecture, its Oriental luxuries, its delicious odours, its lingering memories of Arabian Nights' Entertainments; its bewildering bazaars, its gorgeous costumes, and, in contrast to these, its strangely cruel persecutions, its wild fanaticism, its deadly plagues, its leper hospitals. Surely we shall find here material to weave into interesting narrative, and not less so when from here we strike out into one or the other of the great caravan routes, and join the pilgrimage to Mecca, tarrying on the way to visit Bagdad.

In India the laziest gleaner might find a harvest of information. Making our head

quarters in Calcutta, we shall watch the crowd of gay equipages being driven round the Course which a hundred years ago was, as Lord Macaulay tells us, a "jungle, abandoned to water-fowl and alligators," or join the players on the Midân, the glory of Calcutta, where cricket, polo, lawn tennis, and racquets are played with an energy which belies the statement so often heard that the climate is enervating to such a degree that no Englishman can comfortably live in it. In the burning Ghât we shall witness the sorrowful rites of cremation; through the mazes of the native bazaar we shall elbow our way, and, as time permits, talk with the people and learn the habits of Europeans and natives; visit Ballygunge, the pleasant suburb; the Botanical Gardens, with the magnificent banyantree making a little forest in itself; while Barrackpore, "the Indian Windsor," and the

Government House in the city will supply plenty of scaffolding on which to build an account of many strange and startling episodes of British rule in India.

As it is only a two days' journey now by rail from Calcutta to Delhi, we may take a trip up the country, noting on the way the indigo plantations, the rice fields, the wonders of the sacred Ganges, and the more wonderful religious ceremonies in the Ghâts at Benares and the Golden Temple sacred to Siva. Benares, the Holy City of

the Hindoos, the city of a thousand shrines, the Mecca or Jerusalem of the worshippers of