and beautiful plains of Esdraëlon and Galilee. Turning a little southward you have in view the high mountains of Gilboa, so fatal to Saul and his sons. Due east you discover the sea of Tiberias, distant about one day's journey. A few points to the north appears the Mount of Beatitudes, the place where Christ delivered his sermon to his disciples and the multitude. Not far from this little hill is the city of Saphet, or Szaffad, standing upon elevated and very conspicuous ground. Still farther, in the same direction, is seen a lofty peak covered with snow, a part of the chain of Anti-Libanus. To the south-west is Carmel, and in the

south the hills of Samaria.

A SUNDAY AT AIX.

Ir is a very common observation, that in the journey of life, the sweet and the bitter are so mingled and so arranged, that there is no comfort without its drawback, and no scene of affliction in which there is not to be found some alleviation.— When in a state of the highest earthly prosperity there is always an accompanying dread of some impending misfortune, and where adversity presses most severely, the old adage constantly recurs, namely, when things are at the worst there is the best hope of amendment; and thus we have found it in our travels.

My last communication which was from Lyons, gave an account of a state of society, in which there did not appear one single ray of spiritual light. During the whole of that Lord's day, which I have described as having spent in that ancient city, we had not observed the slightest evidence of a respect for true religion, or even of a sincere regard for a false religion, in a single individual without the sphere of our own family. Although I trust that we were far from presuming to think that in the vast population of this great city, there might not yet be many of the jewels of the Lord, although the dust and the rubbish with which they were mingled, rendered it impossible for such casual observers as we were, to distinguish them amid the great mass in which they were

involved. Nor did we expect as we advanced farther towards the South of France, on our way to Italy, that we should enjoy a more encouraging view of the state of society as it regarded religion, for whereas at Lyons there had always existed a Protestant Congregation, we were not aware that there was even a remnant of nominal Protestants, however degenerate in the City of Aix, where we had resolved to spend the next Lord's day after quitting Lyons.

The road from Lyons to Aix, passes through the ancient city of Vienne, of which the Martyrs are justly celebrated in Ecclesiastical history, and where, as is reported, Pontius Pilate died by casting himself from a tower in which he was confined, into the Rhone; and Orange a principal seat in past ages of many true believers, who chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; and Avignon where for seventy years the impious head of the Roman Apostate Church, set up his ensign and erected his strong hold, all of them being cities closely connected with the histories of past ages, situated on the banks of the Rhone in a country abounding with vineyards, and commanding glorious prospects of that range of the Alps which are called Maritime, because they terminate in many branches on the shore of the Mediterranean, where they form beautiful promontories which being wooded to their bases compose some of the most striking and elegant scenes of which this fair globe can boast.

It was late on the Saturday evening when we reached Aix; our journey during the day had passed over a high stony road, the fields on each side of which being adorned with Cypress and Olive trees, Myrtle and Mulberry, admonished us that we were arriving at a region where the winter is ever tempered by the soft gales of the South. It was moonlight when we reached the heights above the ancient city of Provence, where for many ages was an independent and powerful principality, the last of whose princes, namely, Charles the III. was nephew of the good King René, who is still spoken of with affection by his people, although more than three ages are past since his death. Provence was bequeathed by Charles III. to the Crown of France, but even at this time the Provencals

still sigh for their ancient independence, and as it is supposed are watching the moment to cast off the yoke of France.

The town of Aix is situated in a valley on the shores of the little River Aix; the hills about the town are of a bold and noble form, and are the more beautiful from being covered with vines and olives, and almonds, mulberries and chesnut trees; various handsome country houses are scattered over the rising grounds in the neighbourhood of the city. Neither as in many towns of the continent do the interior buildings disgrace the charming environs, for Aix is a sort of Metropolis of the South of France, and its present inhabitants have added many elegant new buildings to the ancient towers and churches and palaces, which still remain to remind the beholder of its former importance, and of the time when the princes of the house of Berenger extended their sway as far as the Alpe Summa on the one hand, and the borders of Toulouse on the other. It was moonlight when we first saw this town: and there was a sweet tranquillity shed over the whole scene, the white buildings appearing distinctly amid the dark groves and gardens, which mingled with them.

We were driven to an Hotel in a street called the Course, at the entrance of the town, where we could see even by that dubious light, a marble fountain in the centre of the place jetting its waters to a considerable height; this fountain was a boiling one.

Those persons who have never left England, can have little notion of an inn in France; nor can they form a very accurate idea of the wide comfortless dirty stone or marble stairs, for all is marble in these southern provinces, up which the weary traveller is ushered through some long winding gallery, into a suite of comfortless rooms, paved with marble, having a bed in every corner, and a cold wide hearth and chimney, which last perchance admits the light of heaven; nor how wretched he feels, if the day has been cold till the blaze is kindled on the hearth, and the table is spread.

The inn at Aix, the Metropolis of this part of France, the seat of provincial fashion and elegance, was to the full as inconvenient and abundant in all species of discomfitures as any we had seen in the country, and the various odd

figures, male and female, which presented themselves either to ask or execute our orders, were to the full as indicative of an ill arranged state of society, as in any of the wildest inns at which we had hitherto put up, but we were not in the humour to make the most of annoyances, but rather to enjoy what might be lawfully enjoyed, and the Lord's day was before us, it was we trusted to be a day of rest for ourselves and our horses. And if we were not in a place where we could communicate with a visible church, yet had we found from sweet experience that there is a communion with the invisible Church which is above, which may be carried on independently of all outward circumstances, namely, that communion with God which is enjoyed only in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant within the veil-or of Christ our Lord, in his character of Mediator.

We were therefore very cheerful although we more than once expressed our sorrow that the false church should so entirely have prevailed in the charming country, through which we had travelled during the past week, that the very name of the Vallensees, and the poor men of Lyons had entirely sunk into oblivion.

We spent the morning of the next day, the Sunday, in our usual religious exercises, and as I have had occasion to observe on many similar opportunities, found a sweetness in the simple reading of the Bible, which we never could have derived from any human treatise, but the Bible was the only book we had, and here perhaps it would not be amiss to remark, what I have often observed that where persons who travel much are pious, they are generally less confused and more simple in their religious course, and religious principles, than persons who stay much at home, and I have often attributed this fact to two causes-the first is, that the world sits looser upon wayfaring persons than upon others, and the second that they cannot bear about with them the multitude of religious treatises which encumber the tables of the professor, who sits at home, and are hence driven (with the divine blessing) to a more direct study of the sacred volume itself. "Oh! that men would not forsake the fountain of living waters, and hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water." Jer. ii. 13. but I am forgetting

the principal object for which I took up my pen, namely, to describe a Sunday at Aix. Having read till two in the afternoon, we proposed a walk, and visited the ancient church of the Knights Templars, where are the tombs of the Berengers and the Cathedral, where amongst other curiosities is a picture drawn by King René himself, representing Moses when a shepherd in mount Horeb, worshipping the Virgin Mary in a burning bush-with sundry other absurdities of superstition, not worthy of record, and which now are as little respected by the nominal Roman Catholics and real Infidels of the day, even in Aix, as by an enlightened believer.

It would be but repetition to describe what we saw in the streets during that walk, as we had seen things at Boulogne, at Paris, at Dijon, at Lyons, so we saw them at Aix. The streets were filled with idle dissolute persons, the churches were nearly empty, the houses of entertainment crowded, the theatres were open, the gardens of pleasure abounding with company, and in the very hotel where we had taken refuge, was a large hall, where fathers betted their children's sustenance around the billiard table. We had set out to walk in a state of much mental peace, but we all experienced a feeling of sadness as we returned to our apartments, and one of us exclaimed under a sense of discouragement, not altogether consistent with the assurance we ought always to entertain of the Divine goodness and mercy—"these things are inexplicable, why is Satan permitted to reign so long, and with so complete a sway? There seems to be as little religion in this town as if it were a town of professed heathenism, and no means that we can discern of bringing any one to the knowledge of his error." This remark which was made by my daughter, did not pass without observation, for my son said in reply-"Had we left Geneva before we knew our worthy old friend, we might have said of that city as we are now inclined to say of Aix, Lord, who is there here on thy side?" This conversation was interrupted by two servants bringing in dinner, the one was an elderly female, and the other a young man. There was nothing in either of them which attracted our attention; they came and they went, setting one strange dish after another before us, and frequently talking to each other in