crossed from top to bottom. The boundaries of the three old quarters could be distinguished, now merged together and here and there rising up like huge rocks or spreading out in enormous flat spaces of walls-half-covered with flowers, and blackened by wide streaks caused by the throwing over of filth; and streets passed through in yawning spaces like streams under bridges. The hill of the Acropolis, in the centre of Byrsa, disappeared under a medley of monuments; such as temples with torsel-columns, with bronze capitals, and metal chains, cones of uncemented stones banded with azure, copper cupolas, marble architraves, Babylonian buttresses, and obelisks poised on the points like reversed flambeaux. Peristyles reached to frontons; volutes unrolled between colonnades; granite walls supported tile partitions. All these were mounted one above another, half-hidden in a marvelous incomprehensible fashion. Here one felt the succession of ages, and the memories of forgotten countries were awakened. Behind the Acropolis, in the red earth, the Mappals road, bordered by tombs, extended in a straight line from the shore to the catacombs; then followed large dwellings in spacious gardens; and the third quarter, Megara, the new city, extended to the edge of cliffs, on which was erected a gigantic lighthouse where nightly blazed a beacon. Carthage thus deployed herself before the soldiers now encamped on the plains. From the distance the soldiers could recognize the markets and the cross-roads, and disputed among themselves as to the sites of the various temples. Khamoûn faced the Syssites, and had golden tiles; Melkarth, to the left of Eschmoûn, bore on its roof coral branches; Tanit, beyond, rounded up through the palm-trees its copper cupola; and the black Moloch stood below the cisterns at the side of the lighthouse. One could see at the angles of the frontons, on the summit of the walls, at the corners of the squares, everywhere, the various divinities with their hideous heads, colossal or dwarfish, with enormous or immeasurably flattened bellies, open jaws, and outspread arms, holding in their hands pitchforks, chains, or javelins. And the blue sea spread out at the ends of the streets, which the perspective rendered even steeper. A tumultuous people from morning till night filled the streets; young boys rang bells, crying out before the doors of the bath-houses; shops wherein hot drinks were sold sent forth steam; the air resounded with the clangor of anvils; the white cocks, consecrated to the sun, crowed on the terraces; beeves awaiting slaughter bellowed in the temples; slaves ran hither and thither with baskets poised on their heads, and in the recesses of the porticoes now and again a priest appeared clothed in sombre mantle, barefooted, wearing a conical cap. This spectacle of Carthage enraged the Barbarians. They admired her; they execrated her; they desired at the same time to inhabit her, and to annihilate her. But what might there not be in the military port, defended by a triple wall? Then behind the city, at the extremity of Megara, higher even than the Acropolis, loomed up Hamilcar's palace. - Salammbô. LEMING, OR FLEMMING, PAUL, a German lyric poet; born at Hartenstein, Saxony, October 5, 1609; died at Hamburg, April 2, 1640. While he was a young child his mother died, and his father, a clergyman, was transferred to a higher charge at Wechselburg, and the boy grew up under the kind treatment of an affectionate stepmother. He was sent to school at Leipsic, where he developed a generous, manly character, and gave evidence of poetic genius. On attaining his majority he was driven from Leipsic by the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. About this time the Duke of Holstein resolved to send an embassy to Persia for the purpose of negotiating for the establishment of closer trade relations with the Oriental countries. Young Fleming secured a subordinate official position in the expedition, which, having met with some obstruction at Moscow, was delayed for a year, the leaders returning to the Duke of Holstein for instructions, leaving the inferior officers at Revel, a fashionable seaside resort on the shores of the Baltic. Fleming was received in the best families of the place, and fell in love with a German maiden, to whom he indited many charming sonnets, full of the ardor and confidence of youth, but with a nobility of mature expression, evincing ability to grapple with the more serious problems of life. Early in 1636 the embassy again got under way and reached Ispahan in 1637. During the three years the expedition was abroad Fleming wrote many lively poetic descriptions of the strange sights he saw in the foreign lands. Returning to Revel in 1639, he found his inamorata the wife of another. He transferred his pliant affections to a certain Fräulein Anna, to whom he was soon betrothed, and he returned to Leipsic to study medicine with the intention of settling down at Revel to practise, but the fatigues of foreign travel had undermined his health, and he died when thirty years of age, while on his way to Revel. In 1624 Martin Opitz, a talented Silesian poet, published a treatise on the art of versification, in which he counselled a departure from the monotonous Alexandrine, which had been the favorite style of the poets of the sixteenth century, and while he still clung with mathematical precision to the rules of rhyme, he injected more life into the lines and more poetic feeling into the theme. Fleming became a disciple of Opitz, and erelong, though unconsciously, he surpassed his master in intensity of feeling and melodious metre. Without any apparent straining after effect, he is celebrated for the aptness, beauty, and variety of his phraseology. His Spiritual and Secular Poems (1642) are justly admired for the melody of their versification. Among his religious poetry is the well-known hymn, beginning, "In allen meinen Thaten." His works, both secular and religious, were collected and published after his death under the title Teutsche Poemata (1646). "He was not," says The Leisure Hour, "a great, but a truly good man. No one could desire to have a more sincere and trustworthy friend, a more amiable companion. Purity of heart, benevolence of disposition, were the most prominent features in his character. His mind was richly stored with learning and observation. His best poems are some of his spiritual sonnets, and his hymns. Feelings and ideas are here so distinctly expressed, that the plainest man cannot but thoroughly understand them, while his heart is warmed with their devotional aspirations. The simplicity of the words is best adapted to the sublime subject; while the well-observed prosody, the flowing melody of the verse, bears the test of the keenest criticism." His "Traveler's Song," on A Long and Dangerous Journey, was written in 1631, while on the journey to Russia and Persia. This is considered one of his best hymns, and is much sung in German congregations. The original-which begins "In allen meinen Thaten" loses in translation some of its force and beauty; but the rendering by Miss Winkworth seems to have caught the spirit of the pious poet, as well as his thought and expression. THE LONG, PERILOUS JOURNEY. Where'er I go, whate'er my task, Who all things hath and can; For what can all my toil avail? Then let Him order all for me For naught can come, as naught hath been, Whate'er He gives me I will take, I lean upon His mighty arm, If by His precepts still I live, But only may He of His grace And wipe out all my debt; Though I have sinned He will not straight Pronounce His judgment, He will wait, Have patience with me yet. I travel to a distant land To serve the post wherein I stand, Which He hath bade me fill; |