contributing their best store (if I may so speak) to the banquet, Bacchus, Juno, Venus, Pomona, Ceres, and the rest, with store of fruits, wholesome air, pleasant aspect and prospect; secured by Mars, lest any sinister accident should interrupt their delights; if his garrisons of soldiers were needful where nature had so strongly fortified before; only Neptune with his ruder sea-deities and Pluto with his black-guard of barking Cerberus, and the rest of that dreadful train (whose unwelcome presence would trouble all that are present) are all, save Charon, who attends on every feast, yea now hath ferried away those supposed deities with himself, perpetually exiled from this place. Once, heaven and earth, nature and industry, have all been corrivals to it, all presenting their best presents, to make it of this so lovely presence, some taking this for the place of our forefathers' paradise. And yet though thus admired of others, as a paradise, it is made a prison to some, on whom nature had bestowed the greatest freedom, if their freedom had not been eclipsed with greatness, and though goodly stars, yet by the sun's brightness are forced to hide their light, when gross and earthly bodies are seen, their nobleness making them prisoners, that one sun only may shine in that Ethiopian throne.

It is situate in a great plain largely extending itself every way without other hill in the same for the space of thirty leagues, the form thereof round and circular, the height such, that it is a day's work to ascend from the foot to the top; round about, the rock is cut so smooth and even, without any unequal swellings, that it seemeth to him that stands beneath, like a high wall, whereon the heaven is as it were propped; and at the top it is over-hanged with rocks, jutting forth of the sides the space of a mile, bearing out like mushrooms, so that it is impossible to ascend it, or by ramming with earth, battering with cannon, scaling or otherwise to win it. It is above twenty leagues in circuit, compassed with a wall on the top, well wrought, that neither man nor beast in chase may fall down. The top is a plain field, only towards the south is a rising hill, beautifying this plain, as it were with a watchtower, not serving alone to the eye, but yielding also a pleasant spring which passeth through all that plain, paying his tributes to every garden that will exact it, and making a lake, whence issueth a river, which having from these tops espied Nilus, never leaves seeking to find him, whom he cannot leave both to seek and find, that by his direction and conveyance he may together with him

present himself before the father and great king of waters, the sea. The way up to it is cut out within the rock, rot with stairs, but ascending by little and little that one may ride up with ease; it hath also holes cut to let in light and at the foot of this ascending place, a fair gate, with a Corpus du Guarde. Half way

up is a fair and spacious hall cut out of the same rock, with three windows very large upwards: the ascent is about the length of a lance and a half: and at the top is a gate with another guard. The air above is wholesome and delectable; and they live there very long, and without sickness. There are no cities on the top,

but palaces, standing by themselves, in number four and thirty, spacious, sumptuous, and beautiful, where the princes of the royal blood have their abode with their families. The soldiers that guard the place dwell in tents.

There are two temples, built before the reign of the Queen of Saba, one in honour of the sun, the other of the moon, the most magnificent in all Ethiopia, which by Candace, when she was converted to the Christian faith, were consecrated in the name of the Holy Ghost, and of the Crosse. At that time (they tell) Candace ascending with the eunuch (whose proper name was Indica) to baptize all of the royal blood, which were there kept, Zacharie the eldest of them, was in his baptism named Philip, in remembrance of Philip's converting the eunuch, which caused all the emperors to be called by that name, till John the Saint, who would be called John, because he was crowned on St. John's day : and while they were busy in that holy work of baptising the princes, a dove in fiery form came flying with beams of light, and lighted on the highest temple dedicated to the sun, whereupon it was afterwards consecrated to the Holy Ghost by St. Matthew the Apostle, when he preached in Ethiopia. These two temples were after that given to the monastical knights of the military order of Saint Anthony, by Philip the seventh, with two great and spacious convents built for them. I should lose both you and my self, if I should lead you into their sweet, flourishing, and fruitful gardens, whereof there are store in this plain, curiously made, and plentifully furnished with fruits both of Europe plants there, as pears, pippins, and such like; and of their own, as oranges, citrons, lemons, and the rest; cedars, palm-trees, with other trees, and variety of herbs and flowers, to satisfy the sight, taste, and scent. But I would entertain you, only with rarities, nowhere else to be found: and such is the cubayo tree, pleasant beyond all compari

son in taste, and whereunto for the virtue is imputed the health, and long life of the inhabitants; and the balm-tree, whereof there is great store here and hence it is thought the Queen of Saba carried and gave to Solomon, who planted them in Judæa, from whence they were transplanted at Cairo long after. The plenty

of grains and corn there growing, the charms of birds alluring the ear with their warbling notes, and fixing the eyes on their colours, jointly agreeing in beauty, by their disagreeing variety, and other creatures that adorn this paradise, might make me glut you (as sweet meats usually do) with too much store. Let us therefore take view of some other things worthy our admiration in this admired hill, taking the Friar for our guide, whose credit I leave to your censure.

(From Purchas, His Pilgrimage.)

SIR THOMAS OVERBURY

[Sir Thomas Overbury (1581-1613) was the son of Nicholas Overbury, a squire in Gloucestershire. After three years at Queen's College, Oxford, where he took the degree of B. A., he travelled for some time on the Continent. His introduction to the Court was doubtless due to Carr, who was, till close upon Overbury's death, his most intimate and constant companion. In 1608 Overbury was knighted; in the following year he visited France and the Low Countries, and wrote his Observations Upon the State of the Seventeen Provinces. On his return he was regarded as the most accomplished of James's courtiers, and the wits and poets vied with each other in soliciting his patronage. Ben Jonson, with whom he quarrelled afterwards, ascribes in some complimentary verses the saving of wit and manners at Court to Overbury's presence. In 1613, as "oracle of direction" to Carr, now Lord Rochester, Overbury strongly opposed his friend's marriage with the Countess of Essex, who had obtained a divorce with this purpose. The countess in revenge secured his imprisonment in the Tower, where, after five months of lingering suffering, he died of poison at the age of thirty-eight. In 1616 Rochester (then Somerset) and his wife were found guilty of the murder. Some contemporary records suggest that James I. was implicated. It is possible that the pride and insolence of bearing with which one contemporary, Weldon, charges Overbury, may have made him enemies at Court. But even this writer admits him to have been "a man of excellent parts." Overbury's works, published after his death, gained an immense popularity. His poem of The Wife, written, according to Overbury's father, "to induce Viscount Rochester to make a better choice than of the divorced Countess," appeared in 1614. To the second edition in the same year were "added many witty Characters and conceited News, written by himself and other learned gentlemen his friends." There are only twenty-one characters in this issue. By the ninth impression in 1616 the number had swelled to eighty. An excellent comparison of Theophrastus and his English followersHall, Overbury, and Earle-is to be found in Mr. Jebb's introduction to his edition of Theophrastus (Macm. 1870).]

SHORT sketches of character and manners form a feature of our seventeenth-century literature. Over two hundred "characters," or books of characters, are said to have been published between the years 1605 and 1700. Casaubon had published in 1592 a Latin translation of Theophrastus. But though the Greek author