which blunts all consciousness and dulls all pain. But the lethargy which dulls all pain is itself a pleasure; and, therefore, I said but now that the approach of death is even pleasurable. Surely the best and truest part of what men call pleasure consists in freedom from pain; and thus, as death draws nigh, if we feel aught, 'tis pleasure that we feel. For me, although in my last hour I paid small heed to my sensations, since my physician counselled calm; yet I bethink me that the sense I felt was not unlike the pleasant languor of approaching sleep. The Other Mummies. Such, too, was what we felt. there to await his coming. In the course faithful people together in Jerusalem, of a few years he found himself at the head of a small community of zealous persons eager to settle as colonists in Palestine. But it was not until 1858 that the first pioneer band, consisting of three gentlemen, was sent out to examine the land, and report on its capabilities for colonization by Europeans. They came home in the following summer; but their report was not encouraging. What their objections and difficulties were we shall see subsequently. Meanwhile, the small community of the friends of Jerusalem, baving been excluded from the national Evangelical Church of Würtemberg, formed themselves in 1861 into an independent religious society, calling themselves the " German Temple." But the Templars encountered a good deal of opposition and discouragement at home, chiefly from the clergy of the orthodox Church. Hence the movement grew with extreme slowness, so that in half-a-dozen years it did not number more than two thousand memIbers all told, including small parties of adherents in the United States and in the south of Russia. At no time has it exceeded five thousand members. Ruysch. Be it as you say; though all with whom I have discussed the theme have taken a far other view of it; but they, 'tis true, did not, like you, speak from their own experience. But now tell me, in the hour of death, while you felt that pleasant sort of languor you describe, did you realize that you were dying; knew you that it was death which approached; or had you some other thought? Mummy. Till I was actually dead never felt clearly persuaded that I was about to die; and while I retained the faculty of thought, it seemed to me I yet might live; and such, methinks, is the At length, in 1869, the first serious atcommon phantasy of dying men. tempt was made by the Templars to The Other Mummies. Such was our establish themselves in Palestine. phantasy. In September of that year Dr. Hoffmann and Mr. G. A. Hardegg, the leaders of the movement, in spite of the refusal of the Ottoman government in Constantinople to grant them a concession of land unless they would enrol themselves as Turkish subjects, managed to purchase land at Haifa, a small town situated at the northern foot of Mount Carmel. At the same time a second nucleus was formed at Jaffa, the ancient Joppa, farther south. Ere the year ran out, more than one hundred immigrants had arrived, the bulk of them going to Haifa and Jaffa, though a few wended their way to Beyrout and Jerusalem. During the next three years the number of the Templars in Palestine grew apace. A second estate was purchased near Jaffa, and there, in 1872, was founded the exclusively agricultural colony of Sarona. In the following year a fourth city of Jerusalem; and in 1876 a Templar colony was established close to the holy community was formally constituted near Beyrout. But these German Templars were not the first people to attempt the colonization of Palestine and the introduction into that neglected land of the civilization of the West. Already in 1848 an American lady, | of climate such as that implied in emigrat Mrs. Minor, at the head of certain of her ing from Würtemberg to Palestine. Malacountrymen and a few German families rial fevers are common, almost persistent, from the valley of the Rhine, had settled in most of the Templar colonies, though in Palestine for the express purpose of they do not seem ever to have been of a putting before the Jews an example of malignant type, except at Sarona. But industry and thrift, and thereby doing even at Sarona a great improvement has something to awaken them to the con- been effected in this regard as the years sciousness of the advantages that follow have rolled by. Whereas in the first in the steps of Western culture. But the year there died 8.33 persons in every hun. undertaking came to an untimely end in dred, the death-rate for the years 1876-80 1857 with the death of the leader. was only 1.32, and for the years 1881-85; 1'47. Again, in 1866, a more pretentious effort was made to plant another colony in the Holy Land, this time at Jaffa. The prime mover at this time was an American gentleman named Adams, the founder of a religious sect called the Church of the Messiah, who in the year mentioned brought over to Palestine a company of one hundred and seventy people. But this enterprise was not more successful than its forerunner. In spite of everything having been done beforehand to ensure success, the scheme did not prosper. The colonists began to lose heart; their expectations were not realized; no help came to them from America, and none from Europe; and in the end the greater part of the colonists were carried home at the expense of the government. The immigrants are for the most part farmers and handicraftsmen, with a sprinkling of professional men. As a whole, they are not rich, though each family is possessed of some means. They are, generally speaking, simple, honest, industrious folk, straightforward in faith and in conduct. In accordance with the more practical side of their aims, they strive to realize as far as may be the ideal Christian life as laid down in the New Testament. By this means they set a useful example to the Arabs and Jews who dwell around them; and in this way they hope to sow in Palestine the good seeds of European enlightenment and civilization. These good-hearted Würtembergers are fully alive to the importance of sound education; they maintain good schools, and bestow much attention upon them. Every colony possesses at least one school, modelled on the pattern of the communal schools at home. At Jerusalem they have a lyceum or grammar school for boys; and at Haifa there did exist for some time a higher school for girls. To return to the German Templars. Up to 1878 there was no falling-off in the influx of immigrants to the colonies of the society. At first the chief difficulties they had to contend against arose out of their position as foreigners on Turkish_soil. The Ottoman government refused to legalize their titles of ownership to their land; and so long as the matter was not defin- During the first years of their settlement itively settled, they were exposed to the in Palestine the organization of the Temexactions of the nominal native owners, plar society was changed more than once. and to the arbitrary demands of the native They experienced some difficulty in maktax-collectors. But they struggled bravely ing the civil headship harmonize with the on, and eventually these difficulties were religious or spiritual headship; and at the successfully overcome; although the Turk-end of the tenth year it was found necesish authorities still continue to look upon the Templar communities, foreigners as they are both to their government and their creed, with considerable suspicion and mistrust. Their other difficulties were incidental to the land and its geographical situation. The soil of Palestine has been neglected for so long a period of time that it has lost much of the extraordinary fertility for which it was once famous. It has ceased to be a "land flowing with milk and honey," and this chiefly through the supineness and ignorance of its inhabitants. Then, again, the Templars had to fight against the disagreeable consequences that necessarily attended a change sary to separate the two functions. In August, 1887, the worldly affairs of the Templar communities were rendered more secure against the interference of the Turkish authorities in a very ingenious manner. Under the auspices of the German consular court at Jerusalem an ordinary commercial company was formed, the Central Treasury of the Temple of Aberle and Hoffmann, which was to be conducted by two presidents and a popular council of twelve members, who should meet at least once a year for the transac tion of business. Of this company all the members of the Templar communities were enrolled as sleeping partners. But they did not adopt, as might perhaps be the higher have been terraced, and are supposed, any communistic form of prop- planted with vines. But although the erty; each person retained his economic Würtembergers are experienced and capaindependence. The device, though ad- ble vine-dressers, as almost every hillside mittedly running counter to the spirit of in their native country abundantly testifies, the Templar society, was resorted to sim- these colonists at Haifa have not been ply for the purpose of safeguarding their altogether successful in their attempts at position as foreign colonists in a land un-vine-growing, their comparative failure der the rule of Turkey. By putting them being due to the fact that the vines they selves under the protection of their own first planted were imported from Germany, consul, in the character of a commercial and were unable to withstand the attacks or trading company, they became exempt of mildew. in many respects from the jurisdiction and vexatious interference of the Turkish officials. Since 1878 the colony at Jerusalem, consisting principally of artisans, has taken the first place amongst the Templar com. munities in Palestine. It is to these German aliens that the Holy City owes the industrial activity which has lately begun to manifest itself within her walls. As already remarked, the colony at Sarona is a purely agricultural settlement; that at Jaffa has attracted most of the professional men among the colonists; the people settled at Haifa are for the most part vinegrowers, agriculturists, and handicraftsmen, with a few merchants. The total number of colonists is estimated at thirteen hundred, almost exclusively Germans. Most of them came direct from Würtemberg; a few, however, found their way to Palestine from south Russia and from the United States. The land belonging to the colony of Haifa extends along the northern foot of Mount Carmel, overlooking the Bay of Acre; it occupies a narrow plain, nearly one thousand paces wide and two and a half miles long, that has squeezed itself in between the mountain and the sea. The surface of the plain ranges for the most part at about ninety feet above the level of the sea, and the land has been cultivated for nearly one thousand feet up the slopes of Carmel. The native town of Haifa, with a population of about six thousand, stands at the eastern extremity of the plain. About a mile distant from it on the west are the houses of the German settlement, where dwell about three hundred people in all. The principal street of the little village stretches up from the shore towards the mount. It is bordered on each side by a double row of shadetrees, behind which, each in a well-kept garden, stand the houses, built of white stone, one or two stories high, with slate roofs and a text of Scripture in German over the doorway. The lower slopes of Mount Carmel are planted with olives; The German colony was not the first settlement of Europeans in this part of Palestine; for during more than seven hundred years there had existed on Mount Carmel a monastery of Carmelite monks -in fact, their original seat. Nor was the settlement of the Templars unattended with drawbacks and difficulties. They suffered from the opposition of Turkish officials, and not from these only; for the native population greeted the intrusion of the new-comers with the religious and racial antagonism that exists almost everywhere in the Orient between Mohammedan Arabs and Christian Europeans. Nevertheless, the Templars of Haifa have finally succeeded, if not in winning the cordial good-will of the native population, at all events in disarming their aggressive opposition, open and covert. For Germans and Arabs now carry on commercial and agricultural operations conjointly, and apparently in perfect amity and concord. But the Templars have not been content with merely setting the Arabs and Jews a better and stimulating example; they have actually conferred upon them positive and tangible advantages. At their own expense they have constructed a highroad to Acre, on the other side of the bay; and a second one, more useful still, across the Plain of Esdraelon to Nazareth, twenty-two miles distant, and have introduced upon them the use of wheeled vehicles. These roads are now regularly used by the natives, who have adopted from their German neighbors their method of carrying produce namely, on carts and wagons. They have also, under the influence of the same good example, improved their methods of agriculture, and have begun to build stone houses, in imitation of those of the Germans, and to attend to the sanitary condition of their little town. For whereas, before their arrival, the native town was as dirty and as dilapidated as any native town you please in all Palestine, it is now a model of neatness and cleanliness. And in yet other ways the natives have reaped profit from the advent of the Templars. The value of land has increased threefold. The commerce of the little seaport has received a notable impulse. Large quantities of grain and other raw produce from the Hauran and other districts beyond Jordan are brought down to Haifa for export. There is now perfect safety for person and property; whereas, twenty years ago, it was often a very hazardous thing to venture outside the gates of Haifa without an armed escort, not at night-time, but in broad daylight. And all these estimable results the Templars have brought about simply through the sheer force of exam ple; by the strictest honesty and uprightness in their dealings with one another and with the native population; by industry, simplicity of living, and steady good-will. The Haifa colony seems to be now well started on the way to prosperity. It has mills for grinding corn into flour; it has a manufactory for making olive-oil soap, and another for making useful and ornamental articles from olive-wood. And of all the Templar colonies in Palestine it is undoubtedly the healthiest. The heat, although high, is neither unpleasant nor yet excessive, except when the sirocco happens to blow. The regular winds are pretty constant, and exert on the whole a cooling influence. During the day, a breeze blows in from the sea; whilst at night a breeze blows in the contrary direction, from the land seawards. Malaria does indeed occur, but not very frequently, and always in a mild and innocuous form. It may be added that General Gordon several times visited this Templar colony; and Mr. Laurence Oliphant, the wellknown author, lived there nearly a year. The settlement that has suffered most from sickness, and the untoward conditions of the climate has been that of Sa rona. This colony stands on the alluvial plain of Sharon, which stretches from Jaffa to Mount Carmel, and is situated about one hour's journey from Jaffa, not far from the sea. It is nearly surrounded by a little stream, which during the hot, rainless season of summer-lasting from May to September dries up completely, with the exception of a few pools of stagnant water left here and there in its bed. At first the colonists who settled at Sarona were severely visited by malarial fevers and dysentery; a very high proportion of the settlers having perished in the first year. But by dint of dogged endurance, and by strenuous labor to improve the sanitary conditions of the place, they have managed greatly to reduce the risks. The death-rate does not at the present time exceed 1.50 per cent. a year. Here, too, the patience and industry of the Templars have converted what was formerly a barren wilderness into a fruitful and beautiful garden. The colonies of Jaffa and Jerusalem never suffered to anything like the same extent as Sarona, though neither of them is exempt from recurrent attacks of a mild form of malarial fever. The one, however, is situated immediately on the coast, where it can get the benefit of sea-air and the sea-breezes. The other is situated forty or forty-five miles inland, on the water parting between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean, amongst the mountains of Judæa, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. The colony at Jaffa, as already observed, consists very largely of professional men; that at Jerusalem almost exclusively of artisans and handicraftsmen. Between the two towns the Templars maintain active communication by means of wagons and similar wheeled vehicles; and here again the Arabs and Jews have not been slow to imitate the example that has been put before them. Thus it would seem that at last something is really being done to dissipate the mists of sloth and ignorance which for so many centuries have hidden the Holy Land from the hand of usefulness, and to give it back that great measure of fertility which it enjoyed in antiquity. From Temple Bar. EDWARD FITZGERALD. A POET, like a prophet, sometimes suffers from a lack of appreciation on the part of his neighbors. Mr. Groome, in his interesting article on Edward FitzGerald, informs us that two old ladies of Aldeburgh, whenever they heard the name of their distinguished townsman mentioned, used always to smooth their black mittens and remark:"We never thought much of Mr. Crabbe," intellectual superiority not being a recognized quality in that slightly barbaric region. We have consulted some authorities of Woodbridge respecting Edward FitzGerald. One of them informs us that the only thing he knew of him was that he was an "eccentric man who walked about with his mouth open and his hat at the In Blackwood's Magazine. back of his head." Woodbridge evidently | adaptations, of Calderon's two finest dramas, entertained a great man unawares. The "The Wonderful Magician" and "Life's a letters of Edward FitzGerald, edited by Dream," and a splendid paraphrase of the Mr. Aldis Wright, have delighted the Agamemnon of Eschylus, which fills its reader reading world. The art of letter-writing the whole of the great trilogy with the same with regret that he should not have Englished is not lost, but it is wrong to mention art severe sublimity. In America this gentleman in conjunction with such letters, which is better known by his translation, or adaptaare written in "the purest, simplest, tion-how much more of it is his own than raciest English," without a shade of affec- the author's I should like to know, if I were tation, or a thought that they would ever Irish-of Omar Khayam, the astronomer-poet be subjected to public criticism. Of of Persia. course there are superior persons who see nothing in them, but as usual they are in a hopeless minority. FitzGerald's description of Madame de Sévigné's letters might be applied to his own:"good sense, good feeling, humor, love of books and country life. Having adopted no profession on leaving Cambridge, Edward FitzGerald seemed at one time to have intended to adopt a farming life on scientific principles. Perhaps he was wise in rejecting the idea. In the mean time he was much amused at Edward FitzGerald was born in 1809 at Bredfield Hall, near Woodbridge. He was educated at Bury School, where he ac-glish and Foreign Review. quired the friendship of James Spedding, William Bodham Donne, and John Kemble, afterwards licenser of plays and a great Anglo-Saxon scholar; on leaving Bury he entered Cambridge University, where he first met his friends, the Tenny the lucubrations of his friends, Donne, John Kemble, and Edgeworth, in the En sons. Edward FitzGerald's name was first known in America through Mrs. Kemble's account of his family in the Atlantic Monthly. Mr. FitzGerald is described as a most amiable and genial Irish gentleman, the possessor of large property in Ireland and Suffolk, with a house in Portland Place, where he, with his wife, who was also his first cousin, lived in great state. Mrs. FitzGerald is described as a very handsome, clever, and eccentric 66 woman. One member of her family, her son Edward FitzGerald, has remained my friend till this day: his parents and mine are dead; of his brothers and sisters I retain no knowledge; but with him I still keep up an affectionate and to me most valuable and interesting correspondence. He was distinguished from the rest of his family, and indeed from most people, by the possession of very rare intellectual and artistic gifts. A poet, a painter, a musician, an admirable scholar and writer-if he had not shunned notoriety as sedulously as most people seek it, he would have achieved a foremost place among the eminent men of his day, and left a name second to that of very few of his contemporaries. His life was spent in literary leisure, on literary labors of love of singular excellence, which he never caused to be published beyond the circle of his intimate friends: Euphranor, Polonius, a collection of dialogues full of keen wisdom, fine observation, and profound thought; sterling philosophy written in the purest, simplest, raciest English; noble translations, or rather free Since I saw you I have entered into a decidedly agricultural course of conduct: read books about composts, etc. I walk about in the fields also where the people are at work, and the more dirt accumulates on my shoes funny? Gibbon might elegantly compare my the more I think I know. Is not this all retirement with that of Diocletian. Have you read Thackeray's little book, "The Second Funeral of Napoleon"? If not, pray do; and buy it, and ask others to buy it, as each copy sold puts 72d. in T.'s pocket, which is very empty just now, I take it. I think this book the best thing he has done. What an account there is of the Emperor Nicholas in Kemble's last Review-the last sentence of but Jack himself) has been meat and drink to it (which can be by no other man in Europe me for a fortnight. The electric-eel at the Adelaide Gallery is nothing to it. Then Edgeworth fires away about the "Odes of Pindar," and Donne is very æsthetic about Mr. Hallam's book. What is the meaning of "exegetical"? Till I know that, how can I understand the Review? Edward FitzGerald was very much amused by receiving an invitation to fig ure as a lecturer to the cultivated mechanics of Ipswich. Wild horses would not have brought him to make such an exhibition of himself. He writes to Bernard Barton: New honors in society have devolved upon me the necessity of a more dignified deportment. A letter has been sent me from the secretary of the Ipswich Mechanics' Institution, asking me to lecture-any subject but Party Politics or Controversial Divinity. On my politely declining, another, a fuller and more pressing letter, was sent, urging me to comply with their demand. I answered to the same effect, but with accelerated dignity. I am now awaiting the third request in confi |