ments upon? Do they not often rely on the ipse dixit of the na tives for information, who are fond of exaggerating their own coun→ try's opulence and greatness, or who have had no opportunity of making comparisons? Allowing them to visit those places themselves, do they judge of the extent of a town or a city by the ground it stands upon, by its population, by its resources, or by its consumption of the necessaries of life? All those things ought to be taken into consideration; either of which, taken abstractedly, may only lead to vague or illusive conjectures. For instance, there are certain periods, particularly in Eastern countries, when their towns or cities experience an uncommon influx of people, on commercial or religious occasions; might not this be the time at which the traveller makes his observation, or which the native chuses to expatiate upon, in order to enhance the boast of the greatness and opulence of his nation, or excite the admiration of those with whom he is concerned, perhaps, for mercenary or political purposes? How do we acquire a knowledge of their resources?-a knowledge not easily acquired, but by long residence, and a perfect acquaintance with the trade and commerce, modes, customs, and habits of such governments. With regard to the apparent magnitude of cities, a superficial observer is easily liable to be deceived. Many of the houses in Africa and Asia consist only of ground floors, with open verandals, or long colonnades, with flat roofs, for the conveniency of the owners, who sit and walk thereon, to enjoy the fresh air. Others are equally low, built of slight materials, and formed like bells. The extent of ground on which they stand, therefore, affords no criterion by which we can judge of the magnitude of those places, where land is comparatively of small value, and the buildings are necessarily calculated to occupy a very considerable space. Take ten thousand of those houses, and pile one half of them one upon another, there will then appear but five thousand; form them into four stories, and you will have but two thousand five hundred; proceed, then, to five, six, or even seven stories, and their number will diminish in proportion, till they dwindle to a very small amount. Now this is actually the case with London, and most of the cities of Europe. By way of proving my position, I will suppose every upper story of all the edifices in London removed, and the whole disposed in houses of two stories each, what a prodigious extention of boundary would such a measure cause? I thought to have concluded here, but I can scarcely do so with a good grace, till I have briefly related what I have heard, or read, concerning the foreign cities which have been brought into comparison with our metropolis, and to which I have alluded. Pekin, the capital of the vast empire of China, is composed of two parts; one called the old, or Chinese city, the other the new, or Tartar city. The principal streets are perfectly straight, about three miles in length, and a hundred and twenty feet in breadth, well furnished with shops. The houses are very indifferently built, and have a ground floor only: though the gates of the city, which are nine in number, are well arched, and support buildings nine stories high, the lowest of which is occupied by the soldiers when they leave guard; for all the great streets are guarded by soldiers, who patrole by day as well as night, armed with sabres, and carrying whips in their hands, to chastise all who excite disturbances or quarrels, and that without respect to persons. The two cities are computed to contain two millions of inhabitants, and are said to be eighteen miles in circumference. The temples and towers are almost innumerable, and the palace of the emperor is covered with beautiful shining yellow tiles, presenting to the astonished beholder a prodigious assemblage of vast buildings, extensive courts, and magnificent gardens; the wall around which forms a circuit of four English miles. Tombuctau, in Africa, situated in Negroland, near the banks of the Niger, is mentioned, I think, in the proceedings of the African association, as a most opulent, flourishing, and even luxuriant city, subject to an active and severe police, and attracting the merchants and traders of the most distant states of that vast continent. Their current coin is shells and small bits of gold. The houses are nevertheless low, and built in the form of bells, the walls of hurdles, plaistered with clay, and roofed with reeds. The principal edifices of which it has to boast, are a magnificent mosque, and the royal palace, built of hewn stone, peculiar to the country, after the designs of a Moorish architect, who had been banished from Grenada. Hither the caravans come from Tripoli, Barbary, and other places, with various kinds of European merchandize, which are exchanged for slaves, gold dust, ivory, and other commodities. On all public occasions the king rides upon an elephant, having for his body guard three thousand horsemen, D-VOL. I.* armed with bows and poisoned arrows. The various accounts respecting its extent are by no means satisfactory. Jeddo, in Japan, is nine miles in length, and six in breadth, but the generality of the houses have only a ground floor, and the rooms are divided by folding screens, by which they can contract or extend them at pleasure. The royal palace is in the centre of the city, and is defended by walls, ditches, and towers: the great hall of audience is supported by massy pillars of solid gold, and three of the towers, where the emperor resides, are nine stories high, and covered with sheets of pure gold. The empress and the concubines have separate palaces, as have likewise all the vassal princes, with extensive gardens, and stabling for two thousand horses. The inhabitants have been calculated at a million. SERIES OF SELECT POEMS BY LADIES. W. No. XXII. ELIZABETH GRYMESTON, THE daughter of Martin Barney, or Bernye, Esq. of Gunston, in the county of Norfolk, married Christopher, the youngest son of Thomas Grimston, Esq. of Grimston, in the county of York,* by whom she had issue nine children; to the youngest and only survivor of whom, she affectionately inscribed the following little pious and moral publications. "Miscelanea. Meditations. Memoratives. By Elizabeth Grymeston. Non est rectum, quod à Deo non est directum. London, printed by Melch, Bradwood for Felix Norton, 1604.” 4to. These miscellanies consist of prose and verse, to which "the contents" are thus prefixed 1. A short line how to level your life. 2. A mortified man's melancholy. 3. A pathetical speech in the person of Dives, in the torments of hell. 4. Who lives most honestly, will die most willingly. 5. A sinner's glass. See Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, iii. 266. 6. The union of mercy and justice. 7. No greater cross than to live without a cross. 8. Not fear to die, is the effect of an evil life. 9. That affliction is the coat of a true christian. 10. A theme to think on. 11. Morning meditation, with sixteen sobs of a sorrowful spirit. 12. A Madrigal. 13. Evening meditation. 14. Memoratives. As this lady is here introducea from having written poetry, a few stanzas shall be added from her "Evening meditation," which comprises seven odes in imitation of the penitential psalms, in seven several kinds of verse. Miserere mei Deus. Have mercy, O good God! on me, O let thy mercies manifold Foul, filthy, loathsome, ugly sin, Hath so defiled me; With streams of pity wash me clean, But since thou pardon promisest Shew now thy mercies unto me, O when my ears receive the sound From my misdeeds retire thy sight, First wipe away my spots impure, If thou sin-offerings hadst desired, How gladly those, for all my ills, But thou accep'st, in sacrifice, Still may'st thou thence receive, O Lord, That sovereign sacrifice, From altar of all faithful hearts, Devoutly where it lies. The most valuable portion of the volume is that entitled * Memoratives;" but an extract from these may furnish matter for another short communication. S. K. EXTRACTS FROM MILTON RELATING TO MUSIC. LETTER III. In the first book of Paradise Lost, a curious and I think an ori ginal simile occurs. Milton describes the infernal spirits as digging gold from the side of one of the mountains in hell. To the different spirits different employments are assigned. One is bu sied in digging, another in melting the precious metal; “A third as soon had form'd within the ground A various mould, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook; To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes." Par. Lost, B. I. ver. 705. et seq. This simile is as just as it is new. The pipes of an organ are disposed at different heights and distances in the various parts of the instrument; they are all supplied by strange and intricate conveyance from the sound-board, which is placed nearly over the ke |