| 366 ward behind the distant gloomy mountains, and just now with his orient beams tinting the dawn in your heavens, under which dwell all that I hold most dear on earth; if his dim beams which now fall almost level on me, could but convey to you what I feel this moment, it would be an epistle indeed. But I must hasten down from the mount of God, and rest me in the monastery; built as tradition says, where Moses beheld the burning bush. There, I hope to finish this letter, and say how I have spent the day of the Lord in his holy mountain; in a cleft of which I was so fortunate as to find a young, vigorous shrub, planted by the hand of the Almighty on his own holy hill, which I have cut, and purpose if God spare us to meet again, and spend an hour of leisure together, to present to you, and explain at length why I have adopted the new route (the southern) for Israel from the Red Sea, a route over which no one, I believe, has passed heretofore, who has written expressly on the subject, but which has often been suggested by eminent travellers [travelers], who have felt pressed with the difficulties of the northern route by Suez, among whom are Buckhardt and Laborde.
I wish I could sit here in this deep solitude for an hour longer: but my companions and one guide are gone, and the other, a young active Arab, is crouched at my feet in astonishment at my writing and apparent earnestness; and seems to say as he casts a glance at the setting sun, 'the way is long and dangerous.' So I must say, Fare thee well, Sinai! I have stood upon the Alps, in the middle of July, and looked around upon the snowy empire-I have looked upon the Appenines [Apennines], and looked upon the plains of beautiful eventful Italy-I have stood upon the Albanian mount and beheld the means of the Eneid from the Cicean promontory, over the Campagna, to the eternal city and the mountains of Trivoli-I have sat down upon the pyramids of Egypt, and cast my eyes over the sacred city of Heliopolis, and the land of Goshen, the fields of Jewish bondage, and the ancient Memphis, where Moses and Aaron, on the part of God and his people, contended with Pharaoh and his servants, the death of whose 'first born of man and beast in one night' filled the land with wailing; but I have never set my feet on any spot from whence was visible so much stern, gloomy grandeur, heightened by the silence and solitude that reign around; and infinitely more heightened by the awful and sacred associations of the first great revelation in form from God to man. I feel oppressed with the spirit that breaths around me, and seems to inhabit this holy place. I shall never set down upon the summit of Sinai again, and look upon the silent and empty plains at its feet; but I shall go down a better man, and aim so to live as to escape the terrible thunders at the last day which once reverberated through these mountains, but have long since given way to the gospel of peace. I can scarcely tear myself away from this hallowed summit, and I wish I too could linger here forty days in converse with the Lord.
POETRY
For the Times and Seasons.
GOD
O THOU ETERNAL ONE! whose presence bright The sands, or the Sun's rays; but God! for Thee
All space doth occupy-all motion guide; There is no weight nor measure; none can mount
Unchanged thro' Time's all-devastating flight, Up to the mysteries. Reason's brightest spark,
Thou only God! There is no God beside. Though kindled by Thy light, in vain would try
Being above all beings! Mighty One! To trace thy councils, infinite and dark;
Whom none can comprehend, and none explore; And Thought is lost ere thought can soar so high,
Who fill'st existence with Thyself alone; E'en like past moments in eternity.
Embracing all-supporting-ruling o'er-
Being whom we call God-and know no more! Thou, from primeval nothingness, didst call
First, Chaos, then Existence. Lord, on Thee
In its sublime research, Philosophy Eternity had its foundation; all
May measure out the Ocean deep-may count Spring forth from Thee; of Light, Joy, Harmony,
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