"The whole temple, its columns, ornaments, porticoes, and porches, are cut from and form a part of the solid rock; and this rock, at the foot of which the temple stands like a mere point, towers several hundred feet above its face, cut smooth to the very summit, and the top remaining wild and misshapen as nature made it. The whole area before the temple is perhaps an acre in extent, inclosed on all sides except at the narrow entrance, and an opening to the left of the temple, which leads into the area of the city by a pass through perpendicular rocks five or six hundred feet in height.

"It is not my design to enter into the details of the many monuments in this extraordinary city; but, to give a general idea of the character of all the excavations, I cannot do better than go within the temple. Ascending several broad steps, we entered under a colonnade of four Corinthian columns, about thirty-five feet high, into a large chamber of some fifty feet square and twenty-five feet high. The outside of the temple is richly ornamented, but the interior is perfectly plain, there being no ornament of any kind upon the walls or ceiling ; on each of the three sides is a small chamber for the reception of the dead; and on the back wall of the innermost chamber I saw the names of Messrs. Legh, Banks, Irby, and Mangles, the four English travelers who with so much difficulty had effected their entrance to the city, of Messieurs Laborde and Linant, and the two Englishmen and Italian of whom I have before spoken; and two or three others, which, from the character of the writing, I supposed to be the names of attendants upon some of these gentlemen. These were the only names recorded in the temple; and, besides Burckhardt, no other traveler had ever reached it. I was the first American who had ever been there. Many of my countrymen, probably, as was the case with me, have never known the existence of such a city; and, independently of all personal considera. tions, I confess that I felt what, I trust, was not an inexcusable pride, in writing upon the innermost wall of the temple the name of an American citizen; and under it, and flourishing on its own account in temples, and tombs, and all the most conspicuous places in Petrea, is the illustrious name of Paulo Nuozzo, dragoman,” Pp. 55, 56.

It will be seen by the above extract that Laborde visited this magnificent edifice. The following is a part of what he says respecting it: "This monument is sculptured out of an enormous and compact block of freestone, slightly tinged with oxyd of iron. Its preservation is due to the protection which adjacent rocks and upper vault afford it against the winds and rains. The statues and the bases of the columns alone exhibit signs of deterioration, caused by humidity, which corrodes the parts that are most in relief or are nearest to the earth. It is to this influence we are to attribute the fall of one of the columns, which was attached to the pediment; it would have drawn with it the whole monument if it had been built, and not hollowed out from the rock. Hence, only a void has been occasioned, which does not impair the general effect. The prostrate fragments were rather useful to us in their fallen state, inasmuch as they enabled us by the dimensions of the shaft and capital to ascertain the probable height of the column, which we could not otherwise have fixed with precision.

"On beholding so splendid a front, we expected that the interior would correspond to it in every respect; but we were disappointed.

Some steps lead to a chamber, the door of which is seen under the peristyle: although regularly chiseled and in good proportion, the walls are rough, the doors have no framework; the whole, in fact, seems to have been abandoned as soon as it was executed. There are two lateral chambers, one of which, to the left, is irregularly formed; the other presents two hollows, which appear to have been intended for two coffins, perhaps those of the founders of the monument, which were placed provisionally in this little rock, until the more magnificent receptacle which they had in their vanity intended for themselves should be completed."-Journey through Arabia Petræa, pp. 166–172. The author next describes the ruins of a vast theatre cut out of the rock:

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Leaving the temple and the open area on which it fronts, and fol lowing the stream, we entered another defile much broader than the first, on each side of which were ranges of tombs with sculptured doors and columns, and on the left, in the bosom of the mountain, hewn out of a solid rock, is a large theatre, circular in form, the pillars in front fallen, and containing thirty-three rows of seats, capable of containing more than three thousand persons. Above the corridor was a range of doors opening to the chambers in the rocks, the seats of the princes and wealthiest inhabitants of Petra, and not unlike a row of private boxes in a modern theatre.

"The whole theatre is at this day in such a state of preservation, that if the tenants of the tombs around could once more rise into life, they might take their old places on its seats, and listen to the declamation of their favorite player. To me the stillness of a ruined city is nowhere so impressive as when sitting on the steps of the theatre. once thronged with the gay and pleasure-seeking, but now given up to solitude and desolation. Day after day these seats had been filled, and the now silent rocks had echoed to the applauding shout of thousands; and little could an ancient Edomite imagine that a solitary stranger, from a then unknown world, would one day be wandering among the ruins of this proud and wonderful city, meditating upon the fate of a race that has for ages passed away. Where are ye, inhabit. ants of this desolate city? ye who once sat on the seats of this theatre, the young, the high-born, the beautiful, and the brave; who once rejoiced in your riches and power, and lived as if there was no grave? Where are ye now? Even the very tombs, whose open doors are stretching away in long ranges before the eyes of the wondering traveler, cannot reveal the mystery of your doom: your dry bones are gone; the robber has invaded your graves, and your very ashes have been swept away to make room for the wandering Arab of the desert. "But we need not stop at the days when a gay population were crowding to this theatre. In the earliest of recorded time, long before this theatre was built, and long before the tragic muse was known, a great city stood here :-when Esau, having sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, came to his portion among the mountains of Seir; and Edom, growing in power and strength, became presumptuous and haughty, until in her pride, when Israel prayed a passage through her country, Edom said unto Israel, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.'

"Amid all the terrible denunciations against the land of Idumea,

her cities, and the inhabitants thereof,' this proud city among the rocks, doubtless for its extraordinary sins, was always marked as a subject of extraordinary vengeance. I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah (the strong and fortified city) shall become a desolation, a reproach, and a waste, and a curse, and all the cities thereof shall be a perpetual waste. Lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rocks, that holdest the height of the hill; though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord,' Jer. xlix, 13, 15, 16. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing; and thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, and it shall be a habitation for dragons, and a court for owls,' Isa. xxxiv, 14, 15.

“I would that the skeptic could stand as I did among the ruins of this city among the rocks, and there open the sacred book and read the words of the inspired penman, written when this desolate place was one of the greatest cities of the world. I see the scoff arrested, his cheek pale, his lip quivering, and his heart quaking with fear, as the ruined city cries out to him in a voice loud and powerful as that of one risen from the dead; though he would not believe Moses and the prophets, he believes the handwriting of God himself in the desolation and eternal ruin around him." Pp. 56-58.

We might with great pleasure pursue our author farther, but our limits forbid. An American' spent but a short time in the ruins of the city, and in the country adjacent. After visiting Mount Hor, he pursued his way through Idumea, where no other traveler had been, to Jerusalem.

The book, the outlines of which we have but faintly exhibited, is among that numerous class which may be employed in confirming and illustrating the truth of the Holy Scriptures. The reader can but be profited by its perusal.

Eastford, Conn., Sept., 1839.

For the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review.

REVIEW OF COMBE ON HEALTH.

BY REV. DANIEL SMITH.

The Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of Health and the Improvement of Physical and Mental Education. By Andrew Combe, M. D., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. New-York, Harper and Brothers. 12mo., pp. 291.

Ir is but a few days since we were permitted to attend the "annual commencement" of one of our literary institutions. The graduating class was somewhat large, and the young gentlemen acquitted themselves with much credit. While listening to the addresses, many of which, for vigor and neatness of style and correctness of sentiment, would have done honor to persons of any age or profession, we could

but look upon them with pleasing anticipations. These young gentlemen were going out to act their part in society with minds disciplined to study and research, and a thorough foundation for improvement already laid, deeply imbued also, as they seemed to be, with the sentiment of responsibility to society for the exertion of an elevated moral influence.

Were we indulging in visions of fancy in looking upon their prospective career as bright with promise? If these are chimeras they are such as we love to indulge in. But amid our pleasing wanderings into the future, there was one fact which cast a shadow over our sunny landscape; we saw or think we saw abundant proof that the physical education of these young gentlemen had received less attention than that bestowed upon their mental training. There is no mistake in saying the contrast between the fathers occupying the platform and the graduating sons was striking, and quite against the latter. but a few exceptions their forms were not fully developed, and were too small and slender; the cheeks too sunken; the muscles wanted the graceful swell, and the skin freshness and color. If this should fall into the hands or meet the eye of any of the graduates who should be able to give the scene of our observations "a local habitation and a name," we address ourselves to them, and say again there is no mistake in this matter. You must lay aside your studies for a while, young gentlemen, and go into the hay field a few hours each day, or employ yourself in riding on horseback, holding the plough, angling along some of the dancing brooks where you spent your boyhood, or some other out-door open air occupation. Do not be alarmed at this advice; we are not of the school who "forestal and resist dyspepsia" by dealing out our bread by Troy weight. We use no grains or pennyweights preparatory to taking our beefsteak. We are not of the school of croakers who think the ancients were all giants, and look upon the moderns as all pigmies, and who perpetually inquire, "Why were the former times better than these?" Neither are these remarks made under the im. pression that the neglect of physical education is confined to the college in question, or indeed to colleges at all. It is an evil extending through our boarding schools, and to an alarming extent through the entire ranks of our studious youth and professional men, and even most of the families of our wealthy citizens. Its effects are seen in the pale visages, sunken eyes, and fleshless limbs, in the multitudes of dyspeptics and shivering valetudinarians that meet you at every corner. is indeed an alarming evil, laying aside from the field of active useful. ness scores of our best informed and most refined youths of both sexes, turning our families into hospitals, and threatening to transmit to coming generations feeble constitutions and hereditary pain and suf fering. Though the fact is so apparent and the evil so alarming as to have already elicited no inconsiderable share of interest, still little is done toward furnishing a remedy. Those who have good constitu. tions will not believe themselves in danger until they have thrown them away; and the invalids cannot submit to the slow process of

It

A gentleman present on the occasion alluded to, observed that having recently attended the commencement of one of our oldest institutions, he thought the comparison as to healthful appearance quite in favor of this.

recruiting their health by a regular system of exercise. Instead of following the prescriptions of nature they summon to their aid the whole host of pill venders and homopatheans, until the little of health which their sedentary habits had left is consumed by " Hygean pills," or some other "universal restorative."

Now the only method of avoiding this premature feebleness, and the only defence against the host of armed quacks, is an early and general diffusion of the primary principles of physiology. We must become acquainted with ourselves and act on the principle of prevention rather than cure. Our young people must study the laws of their physical natures, and learn better than to be daily transgressing them through the whole course of their educational career. To aid them in such an acquisition, and serve as a brief but comprehensive manual of health, the work whose title page stands at the head of this article is invaluable. It ought to find a place in every family, and be not only read but studied by every student. Were those who have charge of our seminaries of learning to make the contents of this little volume one of the first studies of those placed under their care, and insist on its instructions being put in practice, they might render them a greater service than to furnish them with the whole course of their instruction without fee or reward. The study moreover is one of the most instructive and delightful in the whole range of the sciences. Material nature with all its variety, beauty, and harmony, its wonderful and complicate machinery, does not furnish any thing so "fearfully and wonderfully made" as the body of man. What is geology with its strata and fossil remains, or geometry with its right angles and triangles, compared with the science of physiology? What science can give more clear, definite, and happy illustrations of the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator than are found here? And why should this be a study either entirely neglected or put into a corner among the minor objects of pursuit?

Well and truly has it been said that while "modern education conducts the student round the universe, bids him scale the heights of nature and drop his fathom line amid the deep soundings of her abyss, compassing the vast, and analyzing the minute, it never conducts him over the boundary of that world of living wonders which constitutes him man, and is at once the abode of his mind, the instrument of its action, and the subject of its sway. Why, we ask, shall every thing else be studied while the human frame is passed over as a noteless, forgotten thing-that master-piece of divine mechanism pronounced by its Author' wonderfully made' and curiously wrought-a temple fitted up by God and gloriously garnished for the residence of an immortal inhabitant bearing his own image, and a candidate for a building of God eternal in the heavens ?

But we return to our book. After a judicious preface and an introduction containing some appropriate and mournful facts in illustration of the evils of ignorance on so important a subject, our author proceeds to consider, first

The skin and its uses.

Under this head he thus proceeds :-"To understand the important purposes of the true skin, we must distinguish between its constituent parts, and consider it in virtue of each of them. First, as an exhalent VOL. XI.-Jan., 1840.

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