13. In his last sickness, when near his end, and when he had just expressed his belief of his approaching dissolution, he exhibited submission to the divine will, and the hope of the Divine favour. "I have peace of mind," said he. "" It may arise from stupidity; but I think it is founded on a belief of the gospel." At the same time he disclaimed every idea of meriting salvation. "My hope," said he," is in the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ."

CHARACTER OF THE ITALIANS.

1. "THE Italians," says Semple, referring to the country between Leghorn and Naples, "are a singular mixture of eagerness and cunning, of mildness and violence, of superstition and irreligion. They are vehement in their gestures on trivial occasions; but, at the very time that they appear absorbed in the violence of passion, they are full of duplicity, and grow cool in a moment, if they see any advantage in doing so.

2. * They affect to speak with great mildness and appearance of regard, even to an absolute stranger, and yet suddenly break out into violent fits of passion. They will talk lightly of the church, and turn their priests into ridicule; but, after uttering an irreligious jest, a sacred awe seems to drive them to the altar, where they receive the sacrament from the very hand which they have ridiculed.

3. "No people that I have yet seen descend so low in order to excite compassion. If they gain their object by any means they are satisfied; and in order to effect this, they fawn upon strangers, in a manner which quickly becomes tedious, and even disgusting.

4. " They feel with greater accuracy than they reason; and are more apt to mislead themselves when they take time to deliberate than when they act from the impulse of the moment. The mildness of their climate inspires them with cheerfulness, and they give themselves up with ardour to every pleasure, even the most trifling; yet their looks are composed, and even grave, and their walk has nothing in it which indicates levity.

5. "In the observance of the matrimonial engagement, no people can be more lax; nor is there any country where

jealousy is so little known, nor indeed where it would be so very useless." A more favourable view is conveyed by the following sketches of Dr. Moore.

6. "In the external deportment, the Italians have a grave solemnity of manner which is sometimes thought to arise from a natural gloominess of disposition. Though, in the pulpit, or theatre, and even in common conversation, the Italians make use of a great deal of action; yet Italian vivacity is different from French; the former proceeds from sensibility, the latter from animal spirits.

7. "The inhabitants of this country have not the brisk look and elastic step which is universal in France; they move rather with a slow, composed pace; their spines, never having been forced into a straight line, retain the natural bend; and the people of the most finished fashion, as well as the neglected vulgar, seem to prefer the unconstrained attitude of the Antinous, and other antique sta tues, to the artificial graces of a French dancing master or the erect strut of a German soldier.

8 "I imagine I perceive a great resemblance between many of the living countenances I see daily, and the features of the ancient busts and statues; which leads me to believe that there are a greater number of the genuine descendants of the old Romans in Italy than is generally imagined. I am often struck with the fine character of countenance to be seen in the streets of Rome.

9. "I never saw features more expressive of reflection, sense, and genius; in the very lowest ranks there are countenances which announce minds fit for the highest and most important situations; we cannot help regretting that those to whom they belong have not received an education adequate to the natural abilities we are convinced they possess, and placed where these abilities could be brought into action.

10. "The present race of women of high rank are more distinguished by their ornaments than by their beauty. Among the citizens, however, and the lower classes, you frequently meet with the most beautiful countenances. I will give you a sketch of the general style of the most beautiful female heads in this country.

11. "A great profusion of dark hair, which seems to encroach upon the forehead, rendering it short and narrow; the nose generally either aquiline, or continued in a straight

line from the lower part of the brow; a full and short upper lip; the eyes are large, and of a sparkling black, and wonderfully expressive.

12. "The complexion, for the most part, is of a clear brown, sometimes fair, but very seldom florid, or of that bright fairness which is common in England and Saxony. The Italians are the greatest loungers in the world; and, while walking in the fields, or stretched in the shade, seem to enjoy the serenity and warmth of their climate with a degree of luxurious indulgence peculiar to themselves.

13. Without ever running into the daring excesses of the English, displaying the frisky vivacity of the French, or the invincible phlegm of the Germans, the Italian populace discover a species of sedate sensibility to every source of enjoyment, from which, perhaps, they derive a greater degree of happiness than any of the others.

15. ""

14. "The frequent processions and religious ceremonies, besides amusing and comforting them, serve to fill up their time, and prevent that ennui, and those immoral practices, which are apt to accompany poverty and idleness." In attendance on public worship," says Mr. Eustace, the Italians are universally regular; and, though such constant attendance may not be considered as a certain evidence of sincere faith, yet every reader of reflection will admit, that it is incompatible with either infidelity or indifference.

16. "These latter vices are indeed very rare in this country, and entirely confined to a few individuals of the higher class, and to some officers in the army."-Nor is the devotion of the Italians confined to public service. The churches are almost always open; persons of regular life and independent circumstances generally visit some one or other of them every day; and individuals, of all conditions, may be seen at all hours on their knees, humbly offering up their prayers to the throne of mercy.

17. "No country exhibits more splendid examples of public benevolence, or furnishes more affecting instances of private charity, than Italy; and whoever has visited and examined in detail the hospitals of Rome, Naples, Genoa, Venice, and Milan, will readily admit that Italy has the honourable advantage of surpassing all the kingdoms of Europe in the number and magnificence of her charitable foundations.

18. "In many of them the sick are attended, and the ignorant instructed, by persons who devote themselves voluntarily to that disgusting and laborious task, and perform it with a tenderness and a delicacy, which personal attachment, or the still more active and disinterested principle of Christian charity, is alone capable of inspiring.

19. "The Italian nobility have always distinguished themselves by cultivating and encouraging the arts and sciences. Many, or rather most of the Italian academies, were founded by gentlemen, and are still composed principally of members of that class. The Italian nobility has produced more authors, even in our own days, than the same class has ever yet done in any country.

20. " Moreover, a taste for the fine arts, sculpture, painting, architecture, music, is almost innate in the Italian gentry a taste scarcely separable from an acquaintance with the two great sources of information, antiquities and history. To accuse the Italians of cowardice, is to belie their whole history. Even in the late invasion, the peasantry themselves, in some parts of the Neapolitan, and particularly of the Roman State, made a bold, and generous, though ineffectual, resistance.

21. "Not courage, therefore, but the motives which call it forth, and the means which give it effect, that is, discipline, hope, interest, &c. are wanting to the Italians. In many of the great towns, due respect is not paid to the matrimonial contract, especially in Venice and Naples.

22. "The industry also of the Italian peasantry may be traced over every plain, and discovered on almost every mountain, from the Alps to the straits of Messina. They obey the call of nature in reposing during the sultry hours, when labour is dangerous and the heat is intolerable; but to compensate for this suspension, they begin their labours. with the dawn, and prolong them till the close of the evening, so that the Italian sleeps less and labours more in the twenty-four hours than the English peasant.

23. "The Italian is neither vindictive nor cruel; he is hasty and passionate. An unexpected insult, a hasty word, occasions a quarrel; both parties lose their temper; daggers are drawn, and a mortal blow is given: the whole transaction is so soon over, that the by-standers have scarce time to notice it, much less to prevent it.

24. "The deed is considered, not as the effect of deli

berate malice, but of an involuntary and irresistible impulse; and the perpetrator, generally repentant and horrorstruck at his own madness, is pitied, and allowed to fly to some forest or fastness. Yet the remedy is easy and obvious; a prohibition, under the severest penalty, to carry arms of any description.

25. "This remedy has been applied with full success by the French, while masters of the south; and by the Austrians, while in possession of the north of Italy. But actual murder and deliberate assassination are very uncommon among them; and even robberies are rarely met with at present.

Note. Leghorn, a strong and large city of Italy, in Tuscany, is situated on the Mediterranean, in 44° north latitude. Naples is in the south of Italy, east of the island of Sardinia, in 41° north latitude.-The straits of Messina divide Sicily from the south of Italy.

THE RIVER JORDAN.

1. THE Jordan, the celebrated river of Palestine, the only considerable one in the country, rises in Mount Hermon, passes through lakes Merom and Genesareth; then flowing almost due south, through an extensive plain, till passing to the east of Jericho, it flows into the Dead Sea. It is deep and very rapid, wider than the Tiber at Rome.

2. Its length is about 150 miles. The banks are steep, about fifteen feet high; so that it is difficult to bathe in it; which, however, curiosity or superstition impels almost every pilgrim to do; some vainly imagining that it cleanses from all sin.

3. "I had surveyed," says an eminent traveller, "the great rivers of America, with that pleasure which solitude and nature impart; I had visited the Tiber with enthusiasm, and sought with the same interest the Eurotas; but I cannot express what I felt at the sight of the Jordan.

4. "Not only did this river remind me of a renowned antiquity, and of the most celebrated names that the most exquisite poetry ever confided to the memory of man; but