outdo the efforts of those who seek to serve them. The exceptions to this courteous and generous usage, serve but to make the fact as marked, as it is significant of an amiable impulse; one it is a duty to cherish, even were it not, as in this case it is, good policy. The feeble and afflicted, unselfishly thoughtful of the wants of others, and even of the capricious tendencies of some, will at times find themselves the recipients of greater favours than they bestow. It is the planting and watering which surely bring forth fruit in season. And in this indulgence of gracious, as of grateful feeling, let not the obligation be overlooked of duly recognizing and acknowledging the Higher Favour, which has given all varieties of climate and scene, to serve and charm; to comfort and invigorate the enfeebled frame, delight the sense, gladden the spirit, purify the heart, and instruct the mind.

Afflicted, sad, and perhaps hopeless; without physician to heal, friendly sympathy to soothe, or home to welcome him; what would be the fate of the wanderer after help, but for that goodness which gives a genial refuge from winter's blast; and shields the enfeebled body from exhaustive heats, amid Alpine scenes watered by streams from icy halls, and fanned by nature's breath of purity and coolness? Apart from the treasures of art-means of pastime to all, and to many, of exalted and enduring pleasure-Italy and Spain are, like Switzerland and the Tyrol, in their appropriate seasons great store-houses of God's precious gifts. And he who aids, however feebly, in making them tributary to the good of his fellow-man, fulfils a mission of mercy and love.

6

CHAPTER II.

ROUTE TO SPAIN, ARLES, ORANGE, NISMES—THEIR ANTIQUITIES. PERPIGNAN.

WHERE Spain can most advantageously be entered, and what route should be pursued, to see what is best worth looking at, depends upon collateral circumstances. The object-whether for health, pleasure, or businessand whether Spain is to be embraced in a comprehensive Continental, or form in itself an independent tour, must of course govern the decision of the question. Premising, that it should be avoided in summer, because of the intense heat; and that no invalid, especially one labouring under pulmonary disease, should expose himself to the winter cold, and atmospheric vicissitudes of its northern and middle Provinces; it may be said, that, while those who are under the necessity of fleeing from more rigorous regions to Southern Spain, should take the speediest and most endurable means of getting there, whether it be by land or sea; those, on the other hand, whose purpose is covered by the word "sightseeing," will be sure to fail of its full enjoyment, unless they interweave with their web of pleasure a thread spun by the fairy fingers of Spring or Autumn. Even Spiritual emotions are enhanced by agreeable sensations, however material.

Spain may be readily run over in the "tourist-ticket" style of many American and English travellers, in four or five weeks. But if this skimming mode of sight

seeing be adopted, let it be borne in mind, that expense, inconvenience, worry, and vexation, will be incurred; and, in proportion to the hurry and haphazard of the choice, for the doubtful ability of recognizing a magiclantern picture of scenes, past which they may have flitted, when this may possibly meet their eyes at some future day on the screen of an itinerant exhibitor. From five to six months should be devoted to the task by him, who, with an exclusive object in view, proposes to see the Peninsula well. And less than three months should not be deemed sufficient by one, who, having made the customary Continental tour, is unwilling to return to work and weariness of the flesh, without seeing something of a country, which once, beyond all others, controlled the destinies of both hemispheres.

Separated from the rest of the Continent by the Pyrenees, the Peninsula is commonly sought landwise, by one of two roads-respectively at the east, and west end of that dividing chain of mountains. The latter, which enters Spain at Irun-near St. Sebastian-is that usually taken, both coming and going, because of its being a continuous railway. The former, vid Perpignan-a southern frontier town of France-and Gerona, in Spain, embracing a Diligence route of sixty miles. from sixteen to eighteen hours in time, is less frequently selected; especially by those who are unwilling to surrender even the questionable comforts of an often over-crowded, and suffocating railway carriage, for a wider field of the picturesque, and a knowledge coming of varying the route.

It has been intimated that spring and autumn are the most favourable seasons for travelling in Spain. If

a choice be permitted, the former should be taken, as that, which, from the bursting into bloom and beauty of orchard, field, and forest, is most likely to give delight; while the daily brightening and lengthening sunshine, will aid vernal breezes in comforting the body and cheering the spirit. Especially will this be the case if the tourist, entering Spain by way of Perpignan and Gerona to Barcelona, in March-certainly not later than the first week in April-should proceed by rail along the Mediterranean coast to Valencia, and thence first to the south of the Peninsula. There, breathing the perfume of orange blossoms, and joining in the new-born joy of a far and wide Andalucian Eden, he may then go, with lengthening days and increasing temperature to those higher levels to the north, which usually give no unvarying and welcome warmth until May. April in Madrid is not uncommonly as disagreeably capricious as in London. The last mentioned route is well suited to the purpose of him who, having spent the summer, autumn, and winter, in travelling through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, would finish his year's Continental tour by visiting Spain; and bathing at Biarritz; then sauntering about the Pyrenean foot-hills of Pau, and drinking Vichy water, on the return through the most interesting part of France to Paris. It is that route which experience justifies our recommending, and which has the advantage of perpetuating the archæological interest which may have been lighted up in Rome-that old "mistress of dead empires," herself never paying the debt of her Being to Time, but, however desolated and decaying, still clinging to the glories of her Great Past.

On the road from Genoa to Gerona-supposing one to have come this way from Southern or Central ItalyNice and Marseilles, being passed, the tourist should stop at Arles, in Southern France, where the Hotel du Nord has plain, but comfortable accommodations. At Arles is seen a Roman Amphitheatre in a state of preservation fully equal to that at Verona in Italy; usually considered by those who have not visited the antiquities in France, the most perfect of such remains. The amphitheatre at Arles is estimated to have held twenty-five thousand spectators. As a ruin on which, as yet, the restorer has not yet laid his hand, its picturesque beauty will charm the artist. There it stands, shattered, scarred, and seamed, but still in its granite strength and massive proportions, a monument of the genius and skill of the people, who planted even in their distant colonies such proofs of enterprise and power. Another ruin, not so well preserved as the last named, but yet sufficiently outlined to determine its character, is an ancient Theatre. The remains of these buildings, devoted to dramatic, rather than to the less intellectual, and merely spectacular shows, are the more interesting not alone because of that fact, but for the reason that but few of them are now found in a sufficient state of preservation to show either their arrangement, or style of architecture. In this ruin are seen the fragmentary marble floor of the Podium-the pit-the special place of honour, reserved for the Patricians: next, several rows of successively ascending semicircular seats for the use of the Knights: then several similar rows for the better classes of citizens: and lastly others, still higher, for the common people. Corridors beyond these, on a