ery age the admiration of
mankind, is destined to the most degrading servitude. A few thousand
disciplined troops are sufficient to hold the many millions it contains
in bondage, under which they groan, without ever conceiving the design
of vindicating their natural rights by arms.'----

"'Unhappy people,' exclaimed Sophron, 'how useless to them are all the
blessings of their climate! How much rather would I inhabit the stormy
top of Lebanon, amid eternal snows and barrenness, than wallow in the
vile sensuality of such a country, or breathe an air infected by its
vices!'

"Chares was charmed with the generous indignation of Sophron, and thus
continued: 'I was of the same opinion with yourself, and therefore
determined to leave a country which all its natural advantages could not
render agreeable, when I became acquainted with the manners of its
inhabitants. But before I quitted that part of the globe, my curiosity
led me to visit the neighbouring tribes of Arabia--a nation bordering
upon the Egyptians, but as different in spirits and manners as the hardy
shepherds of these mountains from the effeminate natives of the plains.
Egypt is bounded on one side by the sea; on every other it is surrounded
by immense plains or gentle eminences, which, being beyond the
fertilizing inundations of the Nile, have been, beyond all memory,
converted into waste and barren sands by the excessive heat of the sun.
I therefore made preparations for my journey, and hired a guide, who was
to furnish me with beasts of burden, and accompany me across those
dreary deserts. We accordingly began our march, mounted upon camels,
which are found much more useful than horses in such a burning
climate.'"----

"Indeed," said Tommy here to Mr Barlow, "I am sorry to interrupt the
story; but I shall be much obliged to you, sir, if you will inform me
what kind of an animal a camel is?"

"The camel," answered Mr Barlow, "is chiefly found in those burning
climates which you have heard described. His height is very great,
rising to fourteen or fifteen feet, reckoning to the top of his head;
his legs are long and slender, his body not large, and his neck of an
amazing length. This animal is found in no part of the world that we are
acquainted with, wild or free; but the whole race is enslaved by man,
and brought up to drudgery from the first moment of their existence. As
soon as he is born, they seize him, and force him to recline upon the
ground, with his