RHODES.

BY GEORGE redford, D.D. LL.D.

"There huge Colossus rose with trophies crowned,
And Runick characters were graved around."

POPE.

THIS small island, with its dismantled fortifications and dilapidated city, but a degree above a fishing town, long prostrate under the feet of Mohammedan oppression and misrule, was once the brightest gem of the Mediterranean sea; renowned alike for arts and arms; a favourite with the gods, the impregnable asylum of liberty, and the pet of the free states of Greece. Its inhabitants long sustained a high rank among those celebrated masters of the world, and contributed not a little to heighten that unrivalled splendour with which the name of Greece will for ever be invested.

The island of Rhodes is celebrated in ancient history for its maritime greatness, and the regulations of commercial intercourse which it originated, and was the means of establishing among civilized nations; for its successful defence against one of the most powerful and renowned of the successors of Alexander the Great; and for the wonderful statue of Apollo, which, in the days of its glory, strided across the entrance to its harbour, and under which the largest ships of war then known in the world, could enter in full sail. Its more ancient names were, Asteria, Ophiusa, Etheria, and some others of classic authority. The name of Rhodes, by which it has been most