The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 1, 1842.

worth, who is almost the'only poet among us who has
succeeded in rescuing from insipidity this most diffi-
cult species of composition ? In alluding cursorily to
Anacreon, the author speaks of his " richness of
imagination." - This is hyperbolical praise. Ana-
creon possessed an arch, and sportive, but limited
fancy ; ,'but as for a rich imagination, this
was a quality in which he was glaringly de-
ficient. " Mary O'Brien" is an Irish story, told by
Lady Harriette D'Orsay with feeling and simplicity.
" indsor Castle" is the commencement of a new
work of fiction from the prolific pen of Mr. Ainsworth.
It promises well, and is cleverly and profusely illus-
trated by Tony Johannot. A " Visit to the City of
the Kalfs" describes the present aspect of the once
renowned city of Bagdad. so dear to all the lovers of
the Arabian Nights. We quote a passage or two,
giving an account of a visit of ceremony paid by the
author and his fellow-travellers to some of the prin-
cipal authorities of the city
Ali l'acha received us in a capacious time-worn tent,
on the floor of which water had been thrown to cool the
air, till it formed so many puddles. He was a very fine
01(1 man, very fat, but his eye animated, his forehead
good, his aspect benevolent, and manners courteous. He
was very anxious that we should see his guns and war-
like preparations ; and when he rose to walk with us,
his appearance partook highly of the ridiculous. His
full trousers did not reach to his ankles, and made him
look like a fat boy
,just breeched ; a light and almost
transparent mashallah, or cloak, was thrown over his
shoulders, the train of which was upheld by bearers,
while the inverted cone which his figure represented,
was terminated by a pair of European shoes, which did
not tally with the oriental portions of his habiliments.
We next visited the General commanding the troops,
who was honoured by the title of Sarkosh Pacha, or
the drunken pacha, a poor, weak, debilitated-looking
wretch, who had won his title by his habits, and his
rank by a mad feat of courage, in capturing a Russian
officer. The ceremonies of visits over, we had time to
proceed to a somewhat hurried exploration of the ba-
zaars, khans, jamis, colleges, and other curiosities of this
renowned city, but which have been too often made the
object of description to detain us long on paper. The
cupolas of some of the jamis are superbly decorated with
coloured briek- work, laid in Mosaic, as are also some of
the menarchs. The houses are flat-roofed, and the roofs,
whither in summer the inhabitants repair to sleep, are
surrounded by a low wall. The evening hour displayed
to us no small number of beauties, both of the lily and
the ebony kinds, and who, loving the sunset and the
long shadows of the date-trees, stole occasional glances
from their circumscribed domiciles that overhung the si-
lent river banks with a quick eye and elastic step, some-
what after the fashion of the jerboa of the plain, but
with the lustrous glance and a movement of grace which
belongs to woman only.

It is only on arriving at Baghdad, that the European
coming from the north, either by the Tigris or the Eu-
phrates, feels that he has at length got fully and really
into the East. He has passed towns that are oriental,
houses and garments that are oriental, and jamis and
menarehs that are oriental, yet the very greensward
and every flowering plant reminds him of home ; but, at
B ighdad, there is no longer any greensward , and the
rich deep green of the long forest of palm-trees that he
has met, with the bright bhcsoms of pomegranate and
orange bursting into view below, lend to what else is
oriental that only which can fill up the cup of his antici-
pations ; and no where does the sun set so beautifully—
in such a clear, vivid, blue green atmosphere—as behind
a boundless level of torest palms.
Bat with those exceptions, which belong to nature and
not to art, Baghdad, like most Mohammedan cities, is no
longer what it was ; its very magnificence is ruinous,
and its ruins are crumbling into dust. The condition of a
Mohammedan city is, now-a-days, the picture of Moham-
medanism itself ; and in no one place in the East is there
any stay to the universal decay that pervades everything,
except where the civilization of Chtistianity is rising
upon the ashes of a faith which has involved in similar
ruin the mind of man, the edifices which he constructs,
and the country that he inhabits.