Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear,
Whose bright succession decks the varied year;
Whatever sweets salute the northern sky
With vernal lives, that blossom but to die :
These, here disporting, own the kindred soil,
Nor ask luxuriance from the planter's toil;
While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand,
To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.
"But small the bliss that sense alone bestows,
And sensual bliss is all the nation knows.
In florid beauty groves and fields appear,
Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
Contrasted faults through all his manners reign:
Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain;
Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue;
And e'en in penance planning sins anew.
All evils here contaminate the mind,

That opulence departed leaves behind;

For wealth was theirs; not far removed the date,
When commerce proudly flourished through the state;
At her command the palace learned to rise,
Again the long-fallen column sought the skies;
The canvas glowed beyond e'en nature warm,
The pregnant quarry teemed with human form;
Till, more unsteady than the southern gale,
Commerce on other shores displayed her sail;
While nought remained of all that riches gave,
But towns unmanned and lords without a slave:
And late the nation found with fruitless skill
Its former strength was but plethoric ill.

"Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied
By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride;
From these the feeble heart and long-fall'n mind
An easy compensation seem to find.

Here may be seen, in bloodless pomp arrayed,
The pasteboard triumph and the cavalcade;
Processions formed for piety and love,

A mistress or a saint in every grove.

By sports like these are all their cares beguiled,
The sports of children satisfy the child;
Each nobler aim, repressed by long control,
Now sinks at last, or feebly mans the soul;
While low delights, succeeding fast behind,
In happier meanness occupy the mind:

As in those domes, where Cæsars once bore sway,
Defaced by time, and tott'ring in decay,
There in the ruin, heedless of the dead,
The shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed;
And, wond'ring man could want the larger pile,
Exults and owns his cottage with a smile."

GOLDSMITH

TURKEY IN EUROPE.

The countries included in European Turkey are Moldavia, Walachia, Bulgaria, Servia, and Bosnia, in the north; Romania, Macedonia, and Albania, in the middle; and Greece and the Greek islands in the south. The surface in the northern parts is mostly level or moderately uneven; in the middle and southern, mountainous.

The inhabitants are usually divided into two great classes, Turks and Greeks; the former are the ruling people; the latter are in a state of political oppression. About one third of the whole population are Mahometans; the rest Christians, mostly of the Greek church.

CONSTANTINOPLE.

See Plate, No. 59.

Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish empire, is finely situated on the west side of the Thracian Bosphorus, or strait of Constantinople, and on the north side of the sea of Marmora. It ranks as the third city in Europe in population, and contains about 500,000 inhabitants. It was called by the ancients Byzantium; the Turks now call it Stamboul, or Istamboul. It received the name of Canstantinople from Constantine, who transferred the seat of empire from Rome to this city in 328. It continued the seat of the eastern empire till 1453, when it was taken by the Turks, and from that time it has been the metropolis of their dominions.

The harbour is one of the finest in the world, both for security and convenience. It lies on the north side of the city, has an easy approach, both from the Archipelago and the Black Sea, and is capable of receiving above 1,200 ships. From the curve it describes, and from the rich cargoes wafted thither, it obtained, at a remote period, the name of the Golden Horn, which it still retains. Most of the ships seen in the harbour are from foreign countries, the Turks having few vessels.

Constantinople is celebrated for its beautiful as well as advantageous situation, being built on seven eminences, which seem at a distance to rise above each other in gradual succession, terminated by a fine green hill in the

back ground; the whole presenting to the approaching spectator a delightful prospect. The interior of the city, however, presents a striking contrast to its external beauty; the streets being in general narrow, gloomy, slanting, and dirty; the private houses low, and built of slight wood work or earth. The city resembles in form an unequal triangle, and is surrounded with walls, on the outside of which there are large suburbs, which are, for the most part, entirely open.

Some of the remarkable objects in this city are the Seraglio and the mosque of St. Sophia. The whole number of mosques is upwards of 200; the principal ones are ornamented with columns taken from the ruined temples of Greece. Among the antiquities, the ancient circus, or Hippodrome of the Greeks, called by the Turks Atmeidan, is remarkable. It is about 250 paces in length, and 150 in breadth, and is the scene of the public ceremonies and processions of the Turks. The Delphic Pillar, a brazen column about 12 feet in height, consisting of the bodies of three serpents twisted spirally together, is interesting from the circumstances of its history, as it once supported the golden tripod at Delphi. The name of Porte, sometimes applied to the Turkish court, is said to be taken from Porta Aurea, one of the gates of the city. The plague commonly visits Constantinople every year, and makes dreadful ravages.

St. Sophia. See Plate, No. 60.

St. Sophia was originally built by Constantine as a Christian church, and rebuilt by Justinian about the year 637, but after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, it was converted into a Mahometan mosque. It is said to be the first erected Christian church now existing. The rebuilding occupied eight years and five months; the expense has been estimated at £1,000,000. It is of quadrangular form; 269 feet in length, and 243 in breadth. The grand dome is 113 feet in diameter, and is built on arches, sustained by vast marble pillars; and there are four minarets.

The interior of the church, though many of the ornaments have been defaced by the Turks, still retains much of its ancient grandeur. The style in which it is con