dance on public worship. The ladies generally make a point of going on the Sunday, that is the Friday night or Saturday morning, after they are married; and being thus introduced in their new capacity, once a year is considered as a sufficient compliance, on their part, with the ancient injunction to assemble themselves together in the house of prayer Like the votaries of some Christian establishments, the Jewesses trust more to the prayers of their priests than to their own."

THE SYNAGOGUES.

"The synagogues in Jerusalem are both poor and small, not owing to the poverty of their possessors, but to the prudential motives above-men

tioned."

THE JEWESSES.

"The Jewesses in Jerusalem speak in a decided and firm tone, unlike the hesitating and timid voice of the Arab and Turkish females; and claim the European privilege of differing from their husbands, and maintaining their own opinions. They are fair and good-looking: red and auburn hair are by no means uncommon in either of the sexes. I never saw any of them with veils; and was informed that it is the general practice of the Jewesses in Jerusalem to go with their faces uncovered; they are the only females there who do so. Generally speaking, I think they are disposed to be rather of a plethoric habit; and the admirers of size and softness in the fair sex, will find as regularly well-built fatties, with double mouldings in the neck and chin, among the fair daughters of Jerusalem, as among the fairer daughters of England. They seem particularly liable to eruptive diseases; and the want of children is as great a heart-break to them now as it was in the days of Sarah.

"In passing up to the synagogue, I was particularly struck with the mean and wretched appearance of the houses on both sides of the streets, as well as with the poverty of their inhabitants. Some of the old men and old women had more withered and hungry aspects than any of our race I ever saw, with the exception of the caverned dames at Gornou in Egyptian Thebes, who might have sat in a stony field as a picture of famine the year after the flood. The sight of a poor Jew in Jerusalem has in it something peculiarly affecting. The heart of this wonderful people, in whatever clime they roam, still turns to it as the city of their promised rest. They take pleasure in her ruins, and would lick the very dust for her sake. Jerusalem is the centre around which the exiled sons of Judah build, in airy dreams, the mansions of their future greatness. In whatever part of the world he may live, the heart's desire of a Jew, when gathered to his fathers, is to be buried in Jerusalem. Thither they return from Spain and Portugal, from Egypt and Barbary, and other countries among which they have been scattered; and when, after all their longings, and all their struggles up the steeps of life, we see them poor, and blind, and naked in the streets of their once happy Zion, he must have a cold heart that can remain untouched by their sufferings, without uttering a prayer that the light of a reconciled countenance would shine on the darkness of Judah, and the day-star of Bethlehem arise in their hearts."

JERUSALEM.

"The Jews are the best cicerones in Jerusalem, because they generally give the ancient names of places, which the guides and interpreters belonging to the different convents do not. They are not forward in presenting themselves, and must generally be sought for."

Of all the various pleasures of which the human mind is capable, the sensations caused by gloomy and melancholy thoughts are the most sensibly felt, and yet, at the same time, the least understood or defined. Not only can we fully enter into the feelings of mourning and dejected friends or companions,-not only can we readily believe that they find a real delight in brooding over their own misfortunes,—but we can ourselves participate in those feelings;—and while we are endeavouring to console them, we perceive that we ourselves are imperceptibly affected with the same tender and opposite, though unaccountably mixed, emotions of sorrow and delight. We see the almost heart-broken parent, bereaved of the only surviving hope of perpetuating the name of his family, or deploring the loss of the affectionate partner of all his hopes and all his fears, his joys and sorrows, his prosperity and adversity;—we see the son, whose whole care was wound up in the life of a doating mother, and who now appears inconsolable for her loss,―amidst all their fears, amidst all their pangs, still seeking the tomb, and weeping over the spot, beneath which are concealed the remains of those once so dear to them. And we are at no loss to conceive the motive for actions apparently so contrary to reason. The mind feels a secret satisfaction in the contemplation of its sufferings, and finds relief from the very quarter from which all its anguish springs.

It is to the deep melancholy which pervades it, that Tragedy owes that decided superiority over comic representations, which is acknowledged and felt by all. How is the heart moved, how are the passions excited, by the raving madness of a Lear, or the gloomy resolution of a Hamlet, when they would remain untouched by the finest specimens of Comedy!

In nature too, it throws a beauty upon the grandest objects, and heightens the effect of the most delightful prospects. Who does not feel the truth of that observation of the "poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest:"

"Suave mari magno turbantibus æquora vertis

E terrâ alterius sævum spectare dolorem."

For the sight is accompanied by awfully moving and sublime, because melancholy and pathetic, feelings.

IDEAS OF THE ANCIENTS.

THE Indian notion, that the world was supported by an elephant, which stood on the back of a tortoise, is surely paralleled in absurdity by that idea of some of the ancients, as noticed by Spence, in his POLYMETIS, that the heavens were supported by a brazen vault, while they attributed the noise of thunder to Jupiter's chariot and horses rattling along that arch; and they supposed he darted the thunder out of his hand from the clouds beneath that arch. They also imagined that the whole sea rested on an arched work, under which ample space were the habitations of the seagods and goddesses.

CAPTAIN PARRY'S SECOND ARCTIC VOYAGE.

FEW Voyages of Discovery have possessed so strong a claim upon British patronage, as those for finding a North-west passage from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean. This object has, from time to time, engaged the attention of our Government for nearly 300 years. The prosecution of the attempt has employed the talents, and exercised the powers, of several of our ablest seamen: and, with means of a very inadequate description, they have overcome many difficulties, and made discoveries, which have not only established the resolution of our circumnavigators, but have added to the credit and importance of their country. The passage-if there be one —is, doubtless, either within the limits of the British Dominions, or in their immediate vicinity; so that whether its discovery is effected, or the nonexistence of it proved, there must be a considerable advance made towards perfecting the geography of this part of our widely-extended empire. It is impossible, therefore, to pursue this object without reaping many important advantages.

The difficulties attending the attempt to find this passage by sailing through Lancaster Sound, having been clearly ascertained during Captain Parry's former Voyage, the Lords of the Admiralty determined to examine whether it could not be effected by passing through some one of the numerous inlets, scattered along the Western coast of Hudson's Bay. Could such a one be found-being far south of Lancaster Sound-it seemed highly probable that it would be situated in a climate where the effects of the winter might be of shorter duration, and consequently the navigation open for a much longer period. The discovery of Prince Regent's Inlet, in the preceding Voyage, held out á strong presumption that the sea extended itself behind the Western coast of Hudson's Bay, and at no very remote distance from it; and that the land, known to exist here, might be formed of one or more islands, between which the passage could be made. This coast had been so far examined by former navigators, as to preclude any expectation of finding it to the South of, or through, Wager Bay. Captain Parry was therefore instructed to commence his examination in Repulse Bay, and if unsuccessful there, to direct his course northwards, surveying the whole line of coast as he proceeded so strictly, as to ascertain the existence of a strait leading into the Polar Sea, or to put the ques tion completely at rest as far as related to that quarter.

The preparations with regard to the ships, their outfit, officers, crews, and instruments, were as complete as possible: the description of vessel best suited for this sort of service, and in these seas, had been ascertained by previous voyages. Experience had pointed out what had been before wanting, to protect the men from the inconveniences necessarily resulting from the extreme severity of the climate, in which it was likely they would have to spend one or more winters; and these were guarded against with a prudence, foresight, and ingenuity, highly creditable to the ability and humanity of those distinguished persons, under whose inspection and control the whole was conducted. The births were removed from the ship's sides, and the men took their rest in hammocks slung for the purpose. A Sylvester's stove was fitted up to distribute warm air through the various parts of each ship, and this was found to answer the purpose so effectually, that at the trifling expenditure of a bushel of coals in twenty-four hours,

the temperature of the internal parts of the vessels was maintained at about 60o of Fahrenheit, when that of the atmosphere was 30o below Zero. The breath no longer formed a sheet of ice on substances adjoining the sailors during their repose; but, amidst the rigours of an arctic winter, they slept in apartments warmer and more comfortable, than nine out of ten of their countrymen at home.

The officers were all men of science, and very respectable proficients in various branches of learning, not necessarily connected with their professional duties. And here occurs the only omission which can be said to have existed-the Expedition was not accompanied by a professed Naturalist, which we think it ought to have been. "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well :" this is an opinion which the Lords of the Admiralty evidently felt, and for which, in the case of this Expedition, they made every provision, with this single exception. The officers had various and important duties to attend to, which precluded their adequately performing this part of the service. They have indeed done much, and it raises our admiration of their ardour and industry to a very high pitch, when we observe how much they have done to supply this omission, without failing in attention to any of those objects more particularly connected with their respective appointments.

Every preparation being completed, the Fury and the Hecla, the ships appointed for this service, took their departure from the Nore on the 8th of May, 1821. To facilitate the object of their voyage, the Nautilus accompanied them as a store-ship, with orders to return as soon as she had transshipped the stores she carried for them, after their arrival at the ice. Passing through the Pentland Firth, and across the Atlantic, they reached the ice near the entrance of Hudson's Straits, on the 18th of June. Captain Parry immediately proceeded to clear the Nautilus of the stores intended for the ships under his command, but was not able to complete this operation until the 30th. On the following day the Nautilus commenced her voyage homewards, and the ships belonging to the Expedition pursued their course up Hudson's Straits.

It may seem remarkable that, when Captain Middleton was employed on a series of discoveries up these Straits, about the middle of the last century, the observations made and reported by him and his officers, after ocular demonstration, should have been disputed by persons at home, who had no evidence at all to guide them, but only arguments drawn from supposition and a fanciful hypothesis. Such, however, was the fact; and Captain Parry, having so great a trust devolved upon him, felt no small difficulty in determining how far he ought to depend upon information, boldly impugned at the time it was published, seeing that the safety of all under his command, as well as the final result of his labours, might be involved in his determination.

Whilst the Commander was agitated by such considerations, the Expedition was making its way up the Straits, from the north shore of which it was visited by a tribe of Esquimaux on the 21st of July. As these were the first of that race which they had seen since they entered on their present voyage, so they were by far the worst specimen of their race. Familiarized to European intercourse, they had largely imbibed the corruptions, without having acquired any of the advantages, of civilization. They were exceedingly clever in making a bargain, remarkably dexterous in thieving, and void of all shame when detected; whilst their habits were filthy and dis