Damascus

The most unoient center t trade il) I the world, und one wbïch still rutalfW ! lts mercantilo cuiTBiiif, is Damnscus.- The caravan uomeü und Rfei h it did 3,000 yeara ng.; thir r.Y UU Uw Bheik, the il-s, nud the water whuri ; the merehaur of the Enphmtes umi of the Stédito'rAnéan aiiü "' occíupy iili the multiiuile f' thoir waier.-." Krom I Uaiuasciln cunie the Jamnóii, bluw [iluiu, and tho lJl'u:iiUH apricfó f Porluiil ; Dumuscu.s ditniik, tbe bnautiful tiibr.ic ( of cultoii and silk wi,U víihin umi i ers raised upon a .smootli, b'iulu ground; the duinitsk roso, iiitroiiuced nto Englaf)d in tliii time. of rlir) VIII; the Dam'twnuè blacK-, au tiirnoi's tho World over for its keen eigi; and WOhderful elusticity, ttlC fecl'e! Of whcwe iiunuf;icture was lost wken Tuni erlatie uai-riod oft tlie wrtK iuto L'ersia ; and that beautlful art uf wdoiI aud stebl with BÏlver and gold- a kind of Mosaiu enj(ravii)fi and sculpture united - callöd Damuskeeninu:, with whioh box-es and bureaus and iWÓrds and guns are ornaraented. Uamascus iü mains what it was in tliH days before Abraham - a center of trade aiid travel- .an island of verdura in a desert - a " prodestinal onpital," with martial and sacred associations extending through itiore than thirty centnrie.s. It wna " uear Dauiiiscus " tlnit Sanl of TarSUSMWftha 'Might from Hfvun abuve the brightneaa of the sun;'' and tlus street which is called Straight, ín whirh it wa said " he pïttVeth," still runs through ttie city. The city which MahoniHt Burvoyed from a neiiíhboting iug heijíht, and was afraid to enter, beca'use it was givwn to inen t' huve but oue Paradise, and lor h'n part he was resolved not to have bis in this wirld is, to this day, what Julián oaíío'd " the eye of the East," and Isa'tah "tlinhead of Svria." It is still a city ofHoers and bright waters ; The streains from Lebanon, the " rivers ot Damtiscns," the " rivera of gold," still mnrmur and aparkle in the wilderness of Syrian garden, while Tyre and Sidon huve crumbled on the shore, Baalbuu is a ruin, Palmyra is bdried in the sands of the desert, aud Nineveh and Bubylon have disappeared from thu Tigna and Euphrates.