The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-24 00:00:00

TANCRED, or the NEW CrUTSADE.
The foilt,wing art extracts from Mr. Disraeli's new
work :

JERUSALEM'
" The broad moon lingers on the summit of Mount Olivet,
but its beini has long lett the g.triten of Gethsemane and the
tomb of Absalom, the Waters ot K., dr n, and the dark abyss
cf Jelmsliapl.iit. Full falls its splendour,. however, on the
opposi+e coy, vivid and defined in its silver blaze. A lofty
wall, with turrets, and towers, and frequent gates, undulates
with the unequal ground which it covers, as it encircles the
lost capital of Jehovah. It is a city of hills, far more famous
than those of Rome : for all Europe has heard of Sion and of
Calvary, while the Arab and the Assyrian, and the tribes
and nations beyond, are as ignorant of the Capitolian and
Aventine Mounts as they are of the Malvern or the Chiltern
Hills.

" The broad steep of ZiOn, crowned with the tower of
David; nearer still, Mount Moriah, with the gorgeous tem-
ple of the God of Abraham, but built, alas! by the child of
Hagar, and not by Sarah's chosen one; close to its cedars
and its cypresses, its lofty spires and airy arches, the moon-
light falls upon Bethesda's pool; further on, entered by the
gate of St. Stephen's, the eye, though 'tis the noon of night,
traces with ease the Street of Grief, a long winding ascent to
a vast cupulaed pile that now covers Calvary, called the
Street of Grief; because there the most illustrious of the
human, as well as of the Hebrew race, the descendants of,
King David, and the divine Son of the most favoured or
women, twice sank under that burden of suffering and shame
which is now throughout all Christendom the emblem of
triumph and of honour; passing over groups and masses of
houses built of stone, with terraced roofs or surmounted with
small domes, we reachi the hill of Salem, where Melehitedek
built his mystic citadel ; and still remains the hill of Scopast
where Titus gazed upon Jerusalem on the eve of his final
assault. Titus destroyed the temple. The religion of Judxa
has in turn subverted the fanes which were raised to his
father and to himself in their imperial capital; and the God
of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, is now worshipped before
every altar in Rome.
"Jerusalem by moonlight ! 'Tis a fine spectacle, apart from
all its indissoluble associations of awe and beauty. The
mitigating hours soften the austerity of a mountain land-
scape magnificent in outline, however harsh and severe in
detail; and, while it retains all its sublimity, removes much
of the savage sternness of the strange and unrivalled scene.
A fortified city, almost surrounded by ravines, and rising in
the centre of ch:.ies of far-spreading hills, occasionally offer-
ing, through their rocky glens, the gleams of a distant and
richer land !"

ASSOCIATIONS.
" Tancred came forth from the garden of Gethsemane, his
face was flushed with the rapt stillness of pious ecstacy
hours had vanished during his passionate reverie, and he
stared upon the declining sun.
66 6 The path to the right leads to Bethany.' The.force of
association brought back the last words that he had heard
from a human voice. And can he sleep without seeing
Bethany? He mounts the path. What a landscape sur-
rounds him as he moves! What need for nature to be fair
in a scene like this, where not a spot is visible that is not
heroic or sacred, consecrated or memorable; not a rock that
is not the cave of prophets ; not a valley that is not the valley
of heaven-anointed kings; not a mountain that is not the
mountain of God!
" Before him is a living, a yet breathing and existing city,
which Assyrian monarchs came down to besiege, which the
chariots of Pharoahs encompassed, which Roman Emperors
have personally assailed, for which Saladin and Coeur de Lion,
the Desert and Christendom, Asia and Europe, struggled 111
rival chivalry—a city which Mahomet sighed to rule, ET
over which the Creator alike of Assyrian kings and Egyptian,
Pharoahs and Roman Caesars, the framer alike of the Deg!'
and of Christendom, poured forth the full effusion of his di-
vinely human sorrow.
" What need of cascade and of cataracts, the deep green
turf, the foliage of the fairest trees, the impenetrable
forest, the abounding river, mountains of glaciered creel
the voice of birds, the bounding forms of beauteous
animals,—all sights and sounds of material loveli-
ness that might become the delicate ruins of some
archaic theatre, or the lingering fanes of some forgotten
faith ! They would not be observed as the eye seized on Sion
and Calvary; the gates of Bethlehem and Damascus; the
hill of Titus ; the mosque of Mahomet and the tomb of
Christ. The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world;
it is more, it is the history of earth and heaven."
OPPORTUNITY.
" It was destined that Napoleon should never enter Rome,
and Mehemet never enter Damascus. What was the reason
of this 1 They were not uninterested in those cities that in-
terest all. The Emperor selected from the capital of the
Caesars the title of his son; the Prophet, when he beheld the
crown of Syria, exclaimed that it was too delightful, and
that he must reserve his paradise for another world.
Buonaparte was an Italian, and must have often yearned
after the days of Rome triumphant. The son of Abdallah
was descended from the patriarchs, whose progenitor had
been moulded out of the red clay of the most ancient city of
the world. Absorbed by the passionate pursuit of the hour, the
two heroes postponed a gratification which they knew how
to appreciate, but which, with all their success, all their
power, and all their fame, they were never permitted to in-
dulge. What moral is to be drawn from this circumstance?
That we should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more
powerful even than conquerors and prophets."