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BAALBEC,

Baalbec signifies in the Syrian language the city of Baal, or the Sun; the Greeks, in changing it into Heliopolis, as in many other cases, translated the Oriental name, which the Romans appear to have retained, until it was again changed into its original Syriac name, Baalbec.

The city is pleasantly situated on a rising ground, near the north-east extremity of the plain of Bocat,* and immediately under the mountain-range called Anti-Libanus. This plain extends from Baalbec almost to the sea, in the direction of N. E. by N. to S. W. by S.: the width appears to be in few places more than four, and not in any less than three leagues.

When the city was in a flourishing state, it is probable that the advantages arising from its commerce with Tyre, its connection with Palmyra, and the traffic with India may have been very great, and possibly the source of its wealth, and the means of erecting those edifices, the ruins of which still exist. The ruins in front of the great temple, of which we shall speak hereafter, were most probably designed for Fora (markets or places of business,) and are therefore provided with suitable shady porticos and exhedræ, in which the merchants could conveniently transact their affairs. The history of the place itself is very obscure; but from two Roman inscriptions of the time of Antonius Pius, there can be no doubt that it was then a place of some importance under the name of Heliopolis. These facts are confirmed by several coins of Roman emperors.

At what time and by whom the city was first founded, is wholly unknown; even the epoch when the temples, which from their style must be attributed to the Roman period, were erected, is a matter of much uncertainty. The only historical authority for the building of the temples of Baalbec, is that of John of Malala, from whom we learn

* Bocat is variously written-Bocat, Bekka, Beka, Bquam, and Bokah, (see Wood and Dawkins, Bruce, De la Roque, Rennell, &c.

that Ælius Antonius Pius built a great temple to Jupiter at Heliopolis, near Libanus in Phoenicia, which was one of the wonders of the world. (Joan Malalæ, Hist. Chron, lib. xi.) Julius Capitolinus, who wrote the life of this emperor, does not mention the temple of Heliopolis.

The universal tradition of the country, Wood informs us, is, that Baalbec as well as Palmyra, was built by Solomon. Many stories, it seems, are told by the inhabitants of the manner in which the celebrated Jewish king spent his time in this retreat. Some cities have supposed that some building at Baalbec may possibly be that spoken of in his writings as "The tower of Lebanon that looketh towards Damascus." One of the stories current on the spot is that the city was built by him as a residence for the queen of Sheba. It is believed, of course, that in this, as in all his other similar unself of the agency of genii or spirits. dertakings, the wise monarch availed him

(A recent visitor to Syria has favoured us with a view of the great temple, which we intend to publish in our next number.)

THE strict honesty of the Bedowins among themselves is proverbial, however little regard they may have to the right of property in others. If an Arab's camel dies on the road, and he cannot remove the load, he only draws a circle in the sand round about, and leaves it. In this way it will remain safe and untouched for months. In passing through Wady Sa'l on our way to 'Akabah, we saw a black tent hanging on a tree: Tuweilib said it was there when he passed the year before, and would never be stolen. Theft, he said, was held in abhorrence among the Tawarah, but the present year the famine was so great that individuals were sometimes driven to steal food. He had just returned from Egypt with a camel-load of grain for his family, which he had put into one of the magazines as a place of safety, but it had all been stolen. Burckhardt relates that he was shown in Wady Humr a point upon the rocks, from which one of the Tawarah, a few years before had cast down his son headlong, bound hand and foot, for an offence of the very same kind. -ROBINSON's Palestine.

The MALTA PENNY MAGAZINE is published and sent to Subscribers, in Valetta, every Saturday, Subscriptions at Is. per quarter received at No. 97. Str. Forni.

No. 118.

Saturday, 11th. December 1841.

BAALBEC.

After surveying the extraordinary magnificence of the temple of Baalbec, remarks M. Volney, one is with reason astonished that the Greek and Latin writers have scarcely spoken of it. Mr. Wood, who has consulted them on this subject, has found no mention of it, except in a fragment of John of Antioch, which attributes the construction of the edifice to the Emperor Antoninus Pius. The inscriptions which still remain accord with this opinion, which would sufficiently account for the Corinthian order being employed, since that style of architecture was not much used till the third century of Rome.

The worship of the Sun existed at Baalbec from the most remote period of antiquity. A statue like that of Osiris had been transported there from the Egyptian Heliopolis, and the ceremonies of the worship are described by Macrobius. We have no account of the ancient state of the city, but it may be presumed that its position, on the road from Tyre to Palmyra, would give it a share of the commerce of those wealthy capitals. Under the Romans, in the time of Augustus, it is referred to as a garrisoned place; and an inscription remains, which proves this to have been the fact, for the words in Greek letters, Kenturia prima, are still legible. A hundred and forty years after this period, Antoninus Pius built the present temple in the place of the more ancient one, which had no doubt fallen to ruin. But when, in the reign of Constantine, the Christian religion had acquired the ascendancy, the modern temple was at first neglected, then converted into a church, of which there yet remains a wall that concealed the sanctuary of the idol. The church existed till the Saracen

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invasion; the Arabs probably envied the Christians so noble a possession. In the subsequent wars, it was converted into a place of defence. On the outer wall, on the pavilions and at the angles, were built the battlements which are still to be seen; and from that period, the temple fell rapidly into decay. What, indeed, with earthquakes and the Turks, it is only a wonder that so much remains standing of this majestic pile.

The minutest description of these magnificent ruins is furnished by Dr. Pococke. Speaking of the great temple, he says: The several members of the columns and pedestals of the pilasters, both within and without, are carried all round the building, and the whole temple is built as on one solid base

ment.

The entablatures of the temple both within and without, are exceedingly rich; in the quarter-round of the cornice without, there are spouts, carved with a lip and flowers that do not project; and the frieze is adorned with festoons, supported by heads of some animal. Nothing can be imagined more exquisite than the door-case to the temple; almost every member of it is adorned with the finest carvings of flowers and fruits; the frieze, particularly, with ears of corn, is most beautifully executed.

This fine temple is deservedly admired as one of the most beautiful pieces of antiquity that remain; and yet it is a melancholy thing, to see how the barbarous people of these countries continually destroy such magnificent buildings, in order to make use of the stone. They privately chip the pillars, for the purpose of undermining them; and when they fall, the stones are so large, that they can carry away but very few of them. The pillars of the portico before the temple are ruined, except four on the south-east corner, and four of the pillars on the south side are fallen.

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There is likewise a wall built across the portico before the temple, insomuch that a great part of the beauty of it is destroyed; and yet the admiration of every one must be greatly raised, who has the least taste for architecture and considers all the particular parts of it.

Burckhardt had visited the ruins of Palmyra only a few months before he came to Baalbec. His impression was, that the first view of Palmyra as a whole, when it first breaks upon the traveller, is infinitely more striking, but there is not any one spot in those ruins so imposing as the interior view of the temple of Baalbec. The temple of the Sun at Tadmor is upon a grander scale, but it is choked up with Arab houses, and the architecture is decidedly inferior. At Baalbec he observed, he says, no Greek inscriptions, but a few in Latin,* and in Arabic, and one in Cufic characters on the side of a staircase leading into some subterranean chambers below the small temple, which the Emir has walled up to prevent a search for hidden treasures. The walls of the ancient city may still be traced, they include a larger space than the present town ever occupied, even in its most flourishing state. Its circuit may be between three and four miles.

The ruined town of Baalbect contained, in 1810, according to Burckhardt, about seventy Montouali families, and twenty-five of Greek Catholics; but he does not mention any Maronites, though there are certainly some of this persuasion among the inhabitants.

Modern Traveller.

* Near a well on the south side of the town, between the temple and the mountain, Burckhardt found upon a stone the following inscription: C. CASSIVS ARRIANVS MONUMENTUM SIBI-OCO SUO VIVVS FECIT.

+ in 1751, according to Volney, it contained 5000 inhabitants; but the earthquake of 1759 was most ruinous in its effects, and the subsequent wars of the Emir and Djezzar Pasha so entirely destroyed its commerce, that, in 1785, it numbered only 200 inhabitants.

PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE.

It is of no use talking, for if a man have no correct principle, and if his practice be not in agreement with it, all the advantages in the world will never make him what he should be.

A poor man came to me to ask my advice about companions. "Why," said I, "companions may be found as plentiful as thorns upon a gooseberry bush, and the one will prove as sharp to your bosom as the other will be to your fingers, if you are not careful: but let Principle and Practice be your companions; the first will direct you, in all cases, what is best to be done, and the last will enable you to do it in the best manner. So long as you and Principle and Practice agree, so long will you prosper; but the moment you begin to differ, your prosperity and your peace will melt away like a snow-ball in a kettle of boiling water."

A rich man stopped to talk to me about a new carriage. "Never mind your carriage," said I, "but take special care of your horses. Principle and Practice are a pair of the best coach-horses in the world; while they run neck and neck together, you and your carriage will bowl along safely; but hold them up tightly, for if one trips, it will go hard with the other, and you may find yourself in the mire a day sooner than you expect."

Said a merchant to me, "I am about to send off a rich cargo, and must have a captain and a mate who are experienced. pilots on board, but it is hardly in your way to assist me in this matter." Yes, Yes, it is," replied I, " and I shall recommend Principle and Practice to you, the best commanders you can have, and the safest pilots you can employ. The one possesses the best compass in the world, and the other is unrivalled at the helm. You may securely trust your ship to their care, even though she be laden with gold. Draw your nightcap over your ears, and sleep in peace, for Principle and Practice will serve you well, and if they cannot

ensure your prosperity, your hope is but a leaky vessel, and not sea-worthy."

"I wish, Mr. Humphrey," said a neighbour of mine, "that you would recommend my son to some respectable house, for I want sadly to put him apprentice."

"That I will," said I, "and directly too; my best shall be done to get him a situation under the firm of Principle and Practice, and a more respectable establishment is not to be found. So long as the parties in that firm hold together, they will be as secure and as prosperous as the Bank of England; but if a dissolution of partnership should ever take place, in a little time neither the one nor the other would be worth a single penny."

"I want a motto," simpered a beauish young man, who was about to have a ring engraved for his finger.

"And I will give you one," was my reply, "Principle and Practice.' You may wear that motto on your finger, and in your heart too, perhaps with advantage; but if you neglect it, though you wear rings on all the fingers you have, and bells on all your toes too, it is ten to one if ever

you will meet with a better. He who adopts this motto may boldly appear withour ornaments in the presence of a king; while he who despises it, though adorned with all the trinkets in a jeweller's shop, is not fit to associate with an honest cobler."

"I wish to take in half-a-dozen boarders," said a sharp, shrewd, over-reaching widow lady, "If I could meet with any that would be agreeable, and not give too much trouble, and pay regularly; but I am sadly afraid that it will be long enough before I shall be able to suit myself."

"Take my advice," said I, "be content with two boarders to begin with, Principle and Practice. You cannot do a better thing than to get them into your house, and to keep them there as long as you can; for they will pay you better, behave more peacibly, and do 'you more credit, than twenty boarders of a different character."

"If I had a proper plan," said a gentleman to his friend, "I should be half inclined

to build me a house, and to lay out a gar den on the ground which I have bought on the hill yonder." Happening to pass at the time, I laid hold of him by the button, and advised him in all his plans and his projects to consult Principle and Practice, as they were by far the most able architects, whether a man wanted to build a house for this world or the next.

The poor man and the rich man, the merchant and the father, the beau, the widow, and the gentleman, may, or may not follow my advice; but if, in adopting any other plans, they disregard correct Principle and upright Practice, they will prepare for themselves a meal of wormwood, and a bitter draught; and a nightcap of thorns, and a bed of briers; a life of vexation, and a death of sorrow. Old Humpry.

PROVERB.

Well begun, is half done.

This ancient proverb is found in Horace, and there is one in Italian like it, The beginning only is hard and costs dear.

We often have great reluctance in setting about an appointed task, the apparent difficulty continuing to increase with delay: but once engaged in it, we proceed with pleasure until it is completed. It is the case in those trifles which make the sum of human things. The young scholar wants courage to set about his lesson in time; the friend, or man of business, to answer a letter, or to some point of useful information. And to go higher in application of the maxim, it tells us, that to begin to do good leads on to continued improvement. So the Italians say, Begin your web, and God will supply you thread. Akin to this, are two valuable proverbs, which chide us for indecision and needless hesitation. Procrastination is the thief of time; and,

To do what's right make no delay,
For life and time slide fast away.

PRIDE-It is difficult to say whether pride is more hateful to God, or injurious to man. It leads the train of those vices and villanies, which distract and desolate society, and turn the world into one great field of fierce sanguinary conflict, of deplorable and aggravated misery.

Sold at No. 97 Strada Forni.

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