Thou art Peter, and on this Petra I will build my

"Then the whole Roman Empire becomes Idumea," said Markland. "What becomes of Jewry?"

"Mahomet enlarges it, and makes a new Jewry of the Eastern Empire, which he conquers in the legitimate Mosaic style-by the sword which belongs to the Law; and now Judea and Idumea are Mahometandom and Christendom. They are both washed by the Dead Sea, in which no living creature can exist, for bigotry on the one hand and materialism on the other destroy the soul of both. They await an enlargement and a union of principle. Then law and liberty must become one."

"But how is Rome like Petra?

of a rock," said Markland.

Here is a city cut out

"Rome," said I, "is remarkably like Petra, only you must now look for the figurative, not the material likeness. We are rising into a higher sphere. Petra took the rock of Esau, and cut houses and temples out in its sides, and faced them with architectural decorations. Rome, the new Petra, took the rock of Paganism, and hewed out all its religious rites and ceremonies, even its gods and its goddesses, and gave them a Christian facing. It took an immensity of trouble in making the transformation; but still so great is the resemblance that you have only to change Cybele, the mother of the gods, into Mary, the mother of God, Jupiter into Jew Peter, deified heroes into canonized saints, the consecration of heathen images into the consecration of Christian images, the lustra water into holy water, the devoting of armour and implements of art and useful inventions in temples of the gods into the like

But Jacob himself must be transformed into Israel before he can be the right man. It is a series of transformations, or of boxes within boxes till you come to the jewel; and Jacob and Esau are alternately one the other, for Jacob is Esau to Israel."

First

"Then they are pretty much of a piece, the two brothers," said Markland," and they are merely one after all. I see them both in myself and every man. comes my rough, unpolished nature, my first-born; then comes my educated and polished, crafty and smooth nature, and supersedes the other. This is Jacob doing for Esau; but then this polish, this etiquette, this conventional goodness is not the right thing. It is a mere aping of goodness. To be really good I must rise higher still, and instead of being led by the conventional rules of politeness, and merely affecting the gentleman in my exterior demeanour, I must actually be the gentleman in my heart and conscience. This is Israel, which is perfection. It is very beautiful when so explained by this threefold process.

"You have explained it admirably," said I. "The story of Jacob and Esau is a universal fact, it is of universal application, and tells everywhere. That of Ishmael and Isaac is the same. Ishmael is Mahometandom, the bondwoman's son, and Mahomet is his prophet, with a real mission to the desolate lands. Isaac is Christendom, the son of laughter, the free woman's son. You observed to me the other day that the Mahometans were all a grave people, and that there was none of the jolly good-nature amongst them that characterizes the Christians. Now, Isaac was not only a free woman's son, but he was called

Isaac, or laughter, to denote the cheerfulness of the principle he represents. Bondage or slavery is the first law of society; liberty is the next: all nations are Ishmaels before they are Isaacs. The principle of liberty travels northwestward, where you will find Isaac. But he becomes blind in his old age, for laughter and liberty, not corrected by the severity of the law, lead a people to levity and sensuality. He was not the man."

"Who was the man?"

"He who fought with the angel, and prevailed."

"Stuart, you'll make me think if you go on talking that way. It is a curious drama altogether, and most admirably foreshadowed. These three countries, Judea, Idumea, and Rome are singularly related. Look you here: King Herod was an Idumean, Pontius Pilate was a Roman, Caiaphas the High Priest was a Jew; and these three performed the great sacrifice on Calvary; and then Rome stole the robes of Aaron, who died at Petra, and set up a new Aaron in the Eternal City. It is all one great growth coming from one root, and enlarging itself till it cover the earth.”

"The analogies are very curious, but we lose ourselves in them. They are infinitely divisible; you see them best on a large and general scale, but when you come to subdivide, or go into particulars, you get entangled.”

"Well, by all means don't let us get entangled; let us keep our feet out of the stocks, even at the risk of becoming blind Isaacs."

CHAPTER LI.

THE ANAZAH ARABS-A FRIGHTFUL DRAMA.

From Edward to Senior.

Jerusalem.

Y DEAR FRIEND—

MY

I am just making arrangements for a visit to Babylon, through the great desert. It is five hundred miles in breadth-a mountain of sand-with very little vegetation. I have met with a small herd of Anazah, Aenezeh, or, as Markland calls them, uneasy Arabs, who are willing to conduct us there and back again. They are encamped in the Belka, about fifty miles east at present, in about forty tents, around which graze many hundreds of camels and thousands of sheep. They have also a few horses. They will send merely a detachment along with us, with as many camels and horses as we require. They offered to ride over the desert at full trot with us if we had courage to undertake it; but we durst not venture, it is death to an unpiloted stranger. But to the "uneasies" it is a mere pleasure-trip. They have horses that will carry them a hundred miles a day for a week without experiencing much fatigue; and there are little fertile spots to be found on the way, cultivated too, and well supplied with food for man and beast. I