me it had been over a rocky
path, strewn with loose stones; and the last stage is by a pretty
abrupt, and very rough descent. My poor animal had cast a shoe, and the
only relief that could be afforded in his calamity, was to dismount and
lead him. We, too, were somewhat tired; but the glorious sight that
burst upon us, bathed our spirits afresh in the waters of invigoration.
The road had, for some time, kept us dodging among crags and corners,
which allowed no prospect, and where, indeed, we were well employed
picking out our way. But when we emerged, what a sight did we behold!
One of the noble Asiatic plains stretched before us. Far as the eye
could reach, to right and left, the green expanse extended; and
immediately before us, it was only in the far distance that the boundary
of hills was seen. Here and there clumps of trees variegated the turf;
and a fair river wound itself amid all, looking like some huge and
silvery serpent disporting itself in this apt solitude. Think how
beautiful such a scene must have looked at evening, when the tops of the
hills, and a few fleecy clouds were rosy in the sunbeams. Its expression
was Paradisaical, the rather because the empire of Peace was invaded by
no sight nor sound. The air was absolutely still, except for the sound
of our own footsteps: as for our voices, after the first expression of
delight, they were hushed. We seemed to be gazing on some primeval
solitude,--on the spot where Astraea might have last lingered, and whence
the impress of her footstep had not been yet obliterated by the violence
of man. It was a perfect presentation of the still and calm, and touched
the same associations that are made to thrill by Flaxman or Retsch.

On the verge of this plain, snugly ensconced under the lee of the hills
we had been descending, lies the city of Magnesia. It is of reverend
aspect, and quite worthy of its incomparable situation. It is placed so
closely under the hills, that its details are very gradually unfolded to
one advancing. First appears a minaret, that most graceful of
architectural conceptions; then comes a burying ground, and at last peep
out the domes of the baths and mosques, and particular houses. The place
has quite the air of having come to hide itself in this quiet nook; and
its inhabitants seemed to be of the same mind, for not one of them could
we see. At such an hour, poetic justice demanded that there should have
been, scattered over the ways, groups of p