fact that he does assign it to them cannot be denied, on any fair principle of interpretation. It must be regarded as a significant symptom of the deterioration of the doctrinal views of the church in the second century, of which views here, as elsewhere, he is unquestionably only giving a fair representation.

On this and other topics of interest we would fain dilate, but want of space compels us to close. We trust we have said enough to excite such an interest in the minds of some, at least, as will not be satisfied without a close perusal of the work itself, in which, if their pleasure should equal ours, they will be well rewarded. We trust that, in the case of those who are unacquainted with Justin's works, but qualified to read them, another result may follow, in their being led to seek a knowledge of his writings for themselves. For that purpose they will find no edition more serviceable than the one of which we have given the title. It is not expensive; the Greek type is clear and agreeable; the printing very accurate; and the apparatus of Prolegomena, version, notes, and indices all that can be desired. The pieces which are given in it are the Oration to the Greeks, the Exhortation, on the Monarchy, the two Apologies, the Dialogue, and the Epistle to Diognetus; all of which, without exception, the editor attributes to Justin. In this, of course, we do not agree with him. The fragment on the Resurrection, and other fragments, are added, along with the ancient account of Justin's martyrdom. The text is carefully amended according to manuscript authority, and the aid of a new MS. is employed in those pieces which it contains. This codex belonged to Reuchlin, and bears his autograph: it has been found in the public library at Strasburg. A lithographed specimen of it is inserted in the work.

Art. V. The Modern Syrians: or Native Society in Damascus, Aleppo, and the Mountains of the Druses. From notes made in those parts during the years 1841-2-3. By an Oriental Student. 12mo. pp. 309. London: Longman & Co. 1844.

THE author of this work informs us that after some years travel on the continent of Europe, he longed to see the wonders of the East; and in the midst of preparatory oriental studies, 'chance' hurried him across the Mediterranean, and procured him the opportunity of being a spectator of many remarkable transactions. " He entered, in a French steamer, the port of Alexandria, which then contained the combined fleets of the Sultan and Mohammed Ali. But although he remained in Egypt the appointed time,' he judiciously abstains from requiring our company on

this beaten ground: and to our very great relief, takes us at once by water to Beyrout, and there proceeds to lay before us the cream of the observations made during his protracted sojourn in those parts. Lebanon and its inhabitants, particularly the Druses; Damascus, and Aleppo, are his leading subjects. His statements, under the first of these heads, form by far the most valuable portion of the work, affording, as it does, information not elsewhere to be found, respecting the social condition, the politics, and the state of religion in a highly interesting region, our knowledge of which has hitherto been of the slightest description. Next to this in interest is the account of Aleppo, which has been less visited by English travellers than Damascus: but even at Damascus, the information of this writer has considerable novelty, and embraces many points of interest, arising from his leisurely sojourn, from his mixing more than other travellers with the native population, and from his ability to converse with them in their own language. Hence we have pictures more distinct in their outlines, facts more positive, and information more real than the passing traveller, ignorant of the local language, can be reasonably expected to exhibit. Davis's Chinese, and Lane's Modern Egyptians owe their high and informing character to the more extended and complete operation of the same causes. We have, indeed, seen this work advertised as 'a companion to Lane's Modern Egyptians.' This absurd pretension arises from a dim perception of their common features; but it is as unjust to the present writer as to Mr. Lane, seeing that it excites expectations which neither the scope of the work nor the mode of dealing with the subject by any means warrant. Such a book as Lane's is not so easily produced as booksellers imagine, and requires rare opportunities and a rarer combination of qualifications, which it is no wrong to the author of Modern Syrians to say that he has not possessed. It is, however, a very good book, and makes larger additions to the common stock of information concerning Syria than any work which could be easily named since Burckhardt's Travels in Syria appeared. Considering the small size and cost of the volume, and remembering the multitude of books which have since been produced, this is no small praise. In fact, the number of paragraphs marked in this volume with our pencil, which was only employed when something new or striking met our survey, bespeaks a very favourable verdict upon a book which has afforded us so much satisfaction.

The sixth chapter of the work is occupied by a full and very interesting account of the Druses, and as this singular people has lately engaged much attention, this chapter will doubtless be read with interest. It is more full and exact than the

particulars formerly furnished by Burckhardt, with which, however, in substance it agrees. We would willingly lay this information before the reader, but it is too long for extract, and would suffer by abridgment.

The writer returns to the Druses in an appendix, entitled 'Origin of the religion of the Druses;' which he offers as a digest of what has been written on the subject by 'De Sacy, Adler, Venture, and other Orientalists,' whose pages he apprehends that few of his readers would have the patience to wade through. Nor need they; for, as it happens, all the real information this part of the book contains which is chiefly an account of Hakem, the Fatemite khalif of Egypt-may be found in the third volume of the Modern Universal History.

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This Hakem is believed by the Druses to have been the Deity, or rather the last and greatest impersonation of the Divinity upon earth. The doctrine was started in Hakem's life-time by a man called Darazi; and although the khalif did not publicly take part with Darazi, he gave him much underhand encouragement, and eventually sent him secretly into Syria, supplied him with money, and enjoined him to promulgate his doctrine in the mountains, where he would find a rude people favourably disposed for the reception of novel doctrines. The existence of this doctrine to the present day among the Druses is a proof that in this the khalif had judged rightly. The Druses do not, however, regard this Darazi as the real founder of their religion; but rather ascribe that equivocal honour to Hamza, who afterwards took up the doctrine, and supported it with so much ability that Hakem himself, who was undoubtedly insane, no longer hesitated to sanction the monstrous pretensions on his own behalf which it involved. 'Hamza is to the Druses,' says our author, 'what Mohammed is to the Moslems, and it is to Hamza and not to Hakem that we must attribute the construction of this system, which was founded upon ideas and allegories current for a long period previously among many sects of Moslems, particularly those who professed an especial reverence towards the descendants of Ali.'

The following is what our author gives as

"The Doctrine of the Druse Religion —The Druses believe that the appearance of Hakem is the last and most perfect of the manifestations of the Divinity, and that he is not to re-appear until the last day, when he will exercise his judgments upon men in a rigorous manner by the sword. Certain signs are to foreshadow this event, such as kings governing according to their own will, Christians having dominion over Moslems, an earthquake at Cairo, and the destruction of Aleppo by the armies of Antichrist, who is to be an apostate Unitarian, called the 'blind of one eye, the imposter of the time of the resurrection.'

Next to the Deity, in the Druse system, comes the Spirit of Universal Intelligence, the incarnation of which, in the time of Hakem, was Hamza. This intelligence was the first of the creations of God, and his delegate in the work of the creation of men and things. Various other impersonations of the Intelligence appeared before Hamza, one of which was Adam. One cannot help smiling at the way in which the scriptural account of him is treated. Adam, and two counterparts whom they give him, is believed to have been born of a father and a mother, and not of earth. "God forbid that the Creator, who is worthy of praise, and whose power is to be revered, should have formed his chosen one of earth, which is the vilest of all things. If we were to judge of things according to external appearance, he would have formed him of the most excellent substances, such as precious stones, hyacinths, and emeralds."

Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed the founder of the Batenian religion, are all considered as false prophets, and the inventors of false systems. Hamza was the most perfect of the manifestations of the Intelligence, and the Druses apply to him many of those expressions which, in the New and Old Testament, are given to the Messiah. Hamza, and not Hakem, gives his name to the Druse era, which is 408 of the Hegira, or A.D. 1033.

"The form of engagement of the votaries of the Unitarian religion,' runs thus :-" Written in such a month, such a year of the years of the servant of our Lord, whose name be glorified, and of his slave Hamza Ebn Ali ebn Ahmed."

''Praise,' says Hamza,' be accorded to him who has created me with his light, and given me the succour of his holy spirit, who has favoured me with his science, and confided to me his commands, who has revealed to me the secret of his mysteries.

"I am the root of his creatures, the written book, the inhabited house, the master of the resurrection and the last day, and, with the permission of the Lord, the blower of the trumpet. I am the Messiah of the nations; from me grace flows; and by my ministry vengeance will fall upon the polytheists."

'God is supposed to have four other ministers, entitled the Soul, the Word, the Preceding, and the Following; but a description of their characteristics and various incarnations would be too abstruse a matter for the general reader.

The world, according to the Druses, was created at once in its present state, composed of males and females, young and old, millions in number. Every man supposed he had a father and mother of a particular name and profession, and used to visit the tombs, where he saw bones that he imagined to be those of his deceased relations. Every man knew his trade, which he imagined had been taught him by such and such a person, but all this was merely an effect of the power of the Creator and thus was the machine of the world at once set in motion. Souls were created by the light of Hamza, their number being fixed, and neither increasing nor diminishing in the course of time.

'The catechism of the Druses states that at the last day God will make the true believers Pashas, Emirs, and Sultans: while those who deny Hakem, whom they consider the true Messiah, are to have rings suspended from their ears, which will be burning hot in summer and ice

cold in winter, with a dress of pig's skin, and they will be subjected to misery and drudgery in the service of the true believers.

The impersonation of the Divinity who appeared in the time of our Saviour, is called Solomon the Persian, and John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew, were his ministers. Solomon acquainted the son of Mary and Joseph the Carpenter, "whom the Christians call the Messiah," with his divine nature; but as he rejected it, Solomon infused hatred of Jesus into the hearts of the Jews, who crucified him. All critique on such absurdities is surperfluous.'-pp. 305–308.

We add a few paragraphs of miscellaneous matter, to mark the character of the work :

'Conversation at Damascus. The conversation at the soirées is of a general nature. Such a man is in arrear with the Defterdar or treasurer. The pasha said so and so, on such an occasion. The locusts of the Hauran are eating up the corn, and bread will be dear. Ought Damascus, which, as a holy city, is exempt from the capitation tax, to pay one of its own free-will? &c. As may well be supposed, I was often asked about England, and my first impressions of the Thames Tunnel and of railway travelling were duly recalled, and excited a great deal of wonderment. Adjaib, adjaib, what a strange country! But more strange still, in their opinion, was the circumstance of the sovereign being a lady.'

What, does she smoke?—a chiboque, or a narghilé ?'

Neither the one nor the other!'

Adjaib! (wonderful!) When she transacts her business, does she show her face to the divan?'

"Yes!'
"Adjaib!'

I attempted to explain in answer to another question, that the queen alone reigned; and that the emir, her husband, did not interfere in state affairs. But this seemed to be the most incomprehensible of all arrangements, and the Franks the most extraordinary people.'—pp. 149, 150.

'The best library in Syria. Taking off our shoes, we entered a small mosque (at Aleppo), and passing through an inner apartment, found ourselves at the door and screen of the library. The library is the best in Syria; but let not the reader suppose it a Bodleian, or a Bibliothèque du Roi; it might have passed for the dusty study of a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. Around the walls of an ordinary sized room were placed substantial cases, in which the books were contained, not standing upright, but lying flat upon each other, the titles being written with ink on the leaf-edges in large characters. In the corner of the room was a pair of old-fashioned English globes, which bore a label stating that they were sold at the sign of the Atlas and Hercules, in the Poultry, London. On asking the attendant where the reading room was, he pointed to the arcades of the quadrangle we had passed through. I then asked him if he had many readers; but the answer was not indicative of much taste for literature on the part of the Aleppines. Some weeks we have books asked for; some weeks they lie undisturbed on the shelves.' I was promised a catalogue of the books of this library,