The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-22 00:00:00

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.
" "fhe 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! IN hat 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 in
rival chivalry—a city which Diahomet sighed to rule, and
over which the Creator alike of Assyrian kings and Egyptian
Pharoahs and Roman Cxsars, the framer alike of the Desert
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 crest,
the voice of birds, the bounding forms of beauteous
animals,—all sights and scunds of material loveli-
ness that might become the delicate ruins of sonic
archaic theatre, or the lingering lanes 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."

OPPO RT UN ITT,

" It was destined that Napoleon should never enter Rome,
and Mahomet never enter Damascus. What was the reason
of this ? They were not uninterested in those cities that in-
terest all. The Emperor selected from the capital of the
Camars 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 triumpkant. 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."

MUSD PALMERS7ON.
" Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the policy
pursued by the Foreign Minister of England, with respect to
the settlement of the Turkish empire in 1840-41, none can
be permitted, by those at least competent to decide upon such
questions, as to the ability with which that policy was ac-
complished. When we consider the position of the Minister
at home, not only deserted by Parliament, but abandoned by
his party and even forsaken by his colleagues; the military
occupation of Syria by the Egyptians; the rabid demonstra-
tion of France; that an accident of time or space, the
delay of a mouth or the gathering of a storm, might
alone have baffled all his combinations ; it is diffi-
cult to fix upon a page in the history of this
country which records a superior instance of moral
intrepidity. The bold conception and the brilliant perform-
ance were worthy of Chatham; but the domestic difficulties
with which Lord Palmerston had to struggle place the ex-
' ploit beyond the happiest achievement of the elder Pitt.
Throughout the memorable conjunction, Lord Palmerston,
however, had one great advatage, which was invisible to the
millions; he was served by a most vigilant and able diplo-
macy. The superiority of his information concerning the
state of Syria to that furnished to the French Minister was
the real means by which he baffled the menaced legions of
our neighbours. A timid Secretary of State in the position
of Lord Palmerston, even with such advantages, might have
faltered ; but the weapon was placed in the hands of one who
did not shrink from its exercise, and the expulsion of the
Egyptians from Turkey remains a great historic monu-
ment alike of diplomatic skill and administrative energy."