vering and exemplary efforts in their calling, and, as they have brought greater energies and abilities to the task than most other Missionaries, their labors have been proportionably more successful. The Coptic patriarch is on the best terms with Mr. Lieder, calls him his "father," allows and encourages the Coptic children to attend the Missionary schools, and sanctions the circulation of the Scriptures and Church of England tracts amongst his flock.

These are great privileges, and they appear to be deserved by the tact and temperance with which Mr. Lieder has availed himself of them. Mehemet Ali also encourages the Missionary schools, and has upwards of 200 of the scholars in his employment. There were about ninety boys at the school when I visited it; an ugly ophthalmic set they were, drest in blue shirts, and red caps. But a far deeper interest than mere eyesight could receive was excited by the contemplation of these poor children, bending with Arab eagerness over the books, whence they were allowed to imbibe truth, for the first, and, perhaps, for the last time in their lives.

They acquire the first rudiments of knowledge, as also the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, by chanting in chorus, as in our infant schools.

At twelve o'clock, a bell rang, and all the little swarthy creatures, rushing out into the courtyard, ranged themselves on benches to receive their dinner from the charity of the Church Missionary Society. I wish the London sight-seers could look upon this little congregation, educated, and nourished, and reclaimed from misery and ignorance, by the active charity of those who, although 3000 miles away, in their own happy and favored land, do not forget the claims of these poor brethren upon their sympathy and their assistance.*

I would beg to direct the attention of those who are interested in the welfare of these missions, to that excellent institution, the Medical Relief Mission, as established at Beyrout. There it has been productive of infinite good, and Cairo would appear to be a station especially adapted for its establishment, from the wide extent of physical suffering, the want of medical advice, and the excellent results of making a prejudiced people grateful, and inclined to look up to those who have the means of distributing more than physical solace.

The food was simple enough-dates and coarse bread; but it was luxury to those who thankfully received it. The missionaries do not attempt to make proselytes, but content themselves with teaching truth, and leaving it to assume its own form as to creed. There is also a girls' school, for which no Egyptian teacher could be found not one woman in all the land could read or write, except a daughter of Mehemet Ali's, who is very accomplished. A Maronite lady was therefore invited from Mount Lebanon; she seems to discharge her difficult duty well, and her little pupils appeared eager and anxious to improve. It is a great inducement to the Egyptian women to send their daughters to these schools, that they there learn the Western style of embroidery, which is highly prized in the East. Mrs. Lieder is a frequent visitor in the Pasha's hareem, where they even invited her to take up her abode permanently.

These schools of Cairo afford altogether a very cheerful aspect to an English eye; and it is a gratifying duty to bear this impartial testimony to their utility and good conduct. Attached to the schools is a neat chapel, wherein the service of our church is performed. The congregation was very small, compared with the number of English at Cairo. The latter seem to succumb, for the most part, to the fatal influence of this voluptuous climate, and with some admirable exceptions, do little credit to the proud character of their country.

8

EGYPT has been in all ages the reputed stronghold of magic and of mystery. She was the immediate inheritrix of the knowledge, the arts, and the sciences, which flowed into other lands, with their possessors, from the concentrated wisdom of the world on the Babel Dispersion. As far as we can penetrate into the dim Past by the light of conjecture, the mightiest mass of humanity parted thence into two great streams; the one expanding into India, the other into Abyssinia, Ethiopia, and finally into the land of Egypt.

The powers with which the early race of man was originally endowed, seem never to have been wholly lost; at all events, they lingered for centuries under the tent of the Chaldean, and the caverns of Africa. The grandsons of Adam were skilled in sciences which the world has now only begun to regain a knowledge of; and in the days when angels mingled their blood

See Gen. iv. 22; vi. 4.

with that of earth, intellectual power and art may have attained a height from which-continuing to fall with man's degeneracy -they can never rise again. In the busy and distracting life consequent on the universal emigration from Babel, much of this knowledge was undoubtedly lost; as, being oral, it was the first to suffer from the confusion of tongues: but Astronomy still kept her watch on the starlit plains of Chaldea; Architecture wrought her wonders at Carli, Ipsambul, and stupendous Thebes; and Magic cherished his dark mysteries in the caverns of Dakke, Ekmin, and Domdaniel.

The Egyptian priests are said to have long retained somewhat of the ancient superhuman knowledge; which, being purely traditional, was at any time liable to contract or expire under the jealous guardianship of some high priest, who wished to be the last of his power. In the mysteries of Isis some of the great secrets were darkly shadowed forth; and enough has already been discovered, in the hierophantic walls of her ancient temples, to prove the intimacy of their authors with subjects that the wise men of our day are just beginning to obtain glimpses of; amongst others that of Freemasonry, now little more, with us, than a convivial bond.

Magnetism also appears to have been well understood by the Egyptian hierarchy; not only from some of the effects we find recorded, but, in one of the chambers, whose hieroglyphics are devoted to medical subjects, we find a priest in the very act of that Mesmerism which is pretended to have been discovered a few years ago. The patient is seated in a chair, while the ope rator describes the Mesmeric passes, and an attendant waits behind to support the head when it has bowed to the mysterious Sleep.

But to return to Magic. Moses was well skilled in this, as in all other "learning of the Egyptians;" but when, by miracles, he came to prove his mission, Pharaoh sent to Dakke and Ekmim for magicians to oppose him. Their power would seem to have been real, though-like that of Elymas in later times-serving only as a foil to the mightier works of the divine missionary. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they were so imbued

with magical practices, that we find them forbidden upon pain of death; yet, four hundred years afterwards, Saul found a witch at Endor, and books have been written upon Solomon's necromancies. The study of magic is still followed in Egypt, as it has always been. Caviglia told Lord Lindsay that he had pursued it to the bounds of what was lawful for man to know; and M. Preiss, an eminent antiquary, is said to be now deeply engaged in the same pursuit.

There are many professors of magic among the natives of Cairo, and these are not to be confounded with jugglers, of whom there are also considerable numbers. The most remarkable of the magicians is the Sheikh Abdel-Kader Maugrabee, who has been introduced to English notice by Lord Prudhoe, Mr. Salt, Mr. Lane, Lord Lindsay, and several other writers. None of these travellers were men likely to lend themselves to a deception, yet they were all more or less convinced of the reality of this magician's pretensions. On my arrival at Cairo, I found some difficulty in inducing him to come to my hotel, as he had been recently kicked down stairs by a party of young Englishmen, for a failure in his performances. At length, through the kindness of our consul, I procured a visit from him one evening. He was rather a majestic-looking old man, though he required. the imposing effect of his long grey beard and wide turban to counteract the disagreeable expression of his little twinkling eyes. I had a pipe and coffee served to him, and he discoursed without reserve upon the subject of his art, in which he offered to instruct me. After some time, a boy about twelve years old was brought in, and the performance began. He took the child's right hand in his, and described a square figure on its palm, on which he wrote some Arabic characters; while this was drying, he wrote upon a piece of paper an invocation to his familiar Spirits, which he burnt with some frankincense in a brazier at his feet. For a moment, a cloud of fragrant smoke enveloped the wizard and the cowering child who sate before him, but it had entirely disappeared before the phantasms made their appearance. Then, taking the boy's hand in his, he poured some ink into the hollow of it, and began to mutter rapidly; his countenance assumed an appearance of intense anxiety, and the per