The ladies of Constantinople are not contented with contemplating the world through the bars of their casements, they walk in the town, in the bazaars, everywhere they please, without being subjected to any awkward surveillance. The Venetian women enjoyed formerly, thanks to their mask, an extreme liberty; the veil of the Turkish women renders them the same service. Not only it conceals the face, not only the ferradjah covers the whole form and gives it the appearance of a bundle, but veil and ferradjah are all the same in material, form, and nearly in colour; it is a domino, in which all are alike. not proceed against the one who enjoys the | Daghda, has passed the limits of youth. sultan's favour. The favourite slaves would He is about forty, tall and well made; his be much to be pitied if they did not allow countenance would be rather common-place themselves retaliation, but they are far from were it not lighted up by fine light blue denying themselves this pleasure. eyes, clear, smiling, and piercing as a sword. He does not affect the Oriental luxury of the pachas and chiefs of his tribe. His costume, house, and table, all indicate extreme simplicity. Behind the bey's house is a little square court-yard, surrounded by low buildings forming only one story. The yard being long, the two side buildings cover a surface about double that occupied by the constructions placed at the extremities. One of these is nothing but the connecting wall, which separates the harem from the house of the bey, and in which there is an entrance. Two small doors, with a window on each side, communicate with each of these side buildings. It is impossible to enter this silent cloister without thinking of a convent. You are at first introduced into a tolerable sized room, furnished with mattresses and pillows, on which opens another which serves as a garret or lumber-room. In each of the cells disposed around the principal chamber, reigns and governs one of the wives of the bey. Heirarchy is always respected in the harem, and whether Mustuk Bey be more or less charmed with one or the other of his wives, never, but in the dwelling of the first in date, does he deign to hold his levées. It was there he conducted me, when, after having seen my establishment for the night made ready in a large hall outside the sacred spot, I declared my self prepared to pay my respects to these ladies. After what has just been said about the manners of Oriental husbands towards their wives, it might be thought that brutality was the basis of their disposition. Nothing could be more false, for the Turk of every age and rank holds from nature a politeness, delicacy, and gentleness of manner which other nations only acquire after long study, painful efforts, and an almost eternal constraint. Never would a Turk be guilty of a word or gesture which could give offence to a woman, and if he treats his wife almost like a being deprived of reason, it is because she really does nothing to raise herself to a higher position. I wish any one could see the confused and distressed mien of a Turk placed between a European woman and his troops of odalisques.* He is even more severe with his wives than usual. He silences them every time they open their lips, and sends them away on any pretext; he casts side glances on the European woman, full of fear and mistrust, and he repeats every moment, "Pray no attention to what they say, they are only Turkish women!" or "You think me very harsh to these women, do you not what would you have? They are Turks!" Yes, yes, indeed, so they are, poor creatures! in the sense you give this word, that is to say, beings at once foolish and degraded; but who has made them so? You have willed that woman should submit to you as a slave; what but a slave can she be? Perhaps I have already prolonged these general reflections too far. One knows now what the word Harem means in the East. Mustuk Bey, the Prince of Djaour Odalisque means literally, chambermaid; or, rather, woman for the chamber. The Turkish language must be earned to make all illusions disappear! The aspect of the chief sultana appeared very strange to me. I could not help thinking of a retired rope-dancer when I looked at her. She had been very handsome, and her beauty had not yet completely disappeared; her skin presented a curious mix. ture of sun-burns and a series of layers of paint, beneath which the primitive tissue was scarcely visible. Her large sea-green eyes were remarkably hollow; one would have said they were reservoirs placed below the lachrymal gland to receive the torrents destined to flow. Her mouth, large and well modelled, showed teeth still white, but too wide apart, which seemed to shake in gums whose too deep red and diseased swelling aroused unpleasant thoughts. Apparently she disdained goat-hair wigs, for she wore her own hair, but dyed of an orange red. Her dress, though not tasteful, was rich, and forming a striking contrast with that of her children, who looked no matter how monstrous, how inexplicable like little beggars! So long as the bey was When we were alone she dropped the mask of timidity and conversed for some time with perfect freedom. She made many inquiries respecting our customs, which seemed to her as singular as they were amusing, if I may judge by her bursts of laughter, which were renewed as frequently as the burden of a song, and were as much àpropos. 1 was, however, convinced that my fair hostess was not as simple as her lord deigned to believe, on seeing the interest she took in a number of things which did not concern her, and the perseverance with which she asked me the why and the wherefore of everything. It would have been very difficult to reply categorically to all her questions so as to be understood, but I already knew the magic word, the talisman which subdues instantly all Oriental curiosity: just say, "It is the custom of the country," and The long train of sunshine which entered by the open door was suddenly obscured, a noise of whispering and slippers dragging on the damp steps was heard outside, and the bey's three other wives, who were in the house for the time being, came to make my acquaintance and bid me welcome. The second and third were so much alike that 1 thought them sisters. They had large, fat faces, whose premature coarseness might pass for freshness in a country where the taste is not very refined. Each dragged after her the troop of children accorded her by Providence. Behind these two women was a figure which kept humbly in the back ground, and on which my eyes fixed at once, and remained there obstinately in spite of all the manoeuvring of the other sultanas to turn them on their side. I do not remember ever having beheld anything more beautiful. This woman wore a long trailing robe of red satin, open on the chest, which was lightly veiled by a chemise of silk gauze, with wide sleeves hanging below the elbows. The head-dress was that of the Turks; and to have an idea of it one must imagine a complication, an infinite multitude of turbans placed one on the other, or one round the other, rising to inaccessible heights. There were red scarfs rolled six or seven times in spiral forms, and forming a tower like that of the goddess Cybele; handkerchiefs of all colours crossing the scarfs up and down without regularity, forming fanciful arabesques; yards of fine muslin enveloping a part of this scaffolding with their transparent whiteness, carefully folded above the brow, and falling in light and rich draperies down the cheeks, round the neck, and on the chest. Little gold chains or sequins strung together, pins in jewels, or diamonds stuck into the muslin, sparkled carefully among the folds, and gave them a certain stability which it would have been unreasonable to have expected from so slight a material. Small child-like feet, which seemed as if chiselled from marble, appeared and disappeared by turns beneath the long robe, whilst such hands and arms as I had never seen before, supported an infinite number of rings and bracelets, the weight of which could not have been trifling, and which sparkled like diamonds. The whole appearance was strange yet graceful, but all became as nothing when the face had been seen, which was surrounded by this floating drapery, and which so elaborate a toilet was supposed to embellish. This countenance was of a singular beauty, the description of which I renounce, for how give to any who had not seen it an idea of so lovely a masterpiece of nature, so exquisite a mixture of bashfulness and grace? I have said that each of the new arrivals drew after her, clinging to her robes, the children sprung from her, exactly like the mother of the Gracchi. My beauty, on the contrary, walked alone behind her halves (it is thus that is designated in the East the tie which consists in having a husband in common). The head was bent down, and her look was more humbled than humble. I paid my compliments hastily to the two first, for I was impatient to arrive at the last, and see how this fair face would look when animated by conversation. I saluted her; she made no answer. I asked her why she did not bring her children: the same silence. Then the three haives, all talking at once told me with the greatest satisfaction, that she had none, whilst the beautiful half bent her head and blushed excessively. I regretted having struck so delicate a chord, and no one would ever guess what I added to diminish the effect of my imprudence. It would have been the most odious brutality had I addressed myself to any other woman than the inhabitant of a harem; but I had been three years in Asia, and knew pretty well on what ground I was treading. said then, assuming an air of confidence and approbation, as if what I was about to say would necessarily put an end to the distress of the lovely Turk and restore her to honor, "The lady's children are dead, no doubt ?" "She never had any," vociferated the three harpies, with shouts of laughter; and this time two tears flowed down the poor victim's burning cheeks. Nothing is more despised, more shunned in the East, than sterility. To have had children and lose them, is doubtless a grief; but they soon console themselves, forget and replace them. After all, though there should be neither consolation, forgetfulness, nor substitutes, the mother who has lost her children is not the less respected. Her social and domestic position remains the same; she is admired, respected, perhaps loved, she has no cause for shame. To have no children, that is the real misfortune, the greatest of all; one which humbles to the dust, to the mire, and which authorises the meanest slave (provided she be a mother) to trample you under foot. Be lovely, be adored, bring your husband the fortune which he spends, have royal blood in your veins while he is but a laborer, from the moment that you are acknowledged childless you have no longer any hope. Better have done with life at once, for each day is but a succession of grief, insult, and humiliation. During the whole time I passed in the society of these ladies, I could not wring one single word from the fairest of all. She lowered her long eyelashes in the loveliest way, the bright color deepened and faded on her velvet cheeks, the sweet smiles played on her lips, but had she been dumb she could not have kept a more determined silence. It was not until the end of my visit, when I took leave of my hostesses, and, after having remarked to the silent fair one that I was leaving her without having heard the sound of her voice, that, taking a step towards me with an air as resolute as though she were about to mount a breach, she said, all in one breath, in a very sweet and pure voice, but without the slightest modulation, Lady, remain, for I love thee much.' Having thus spoken, her lips closed, her eyes resumed their downcast direction, the fire of resolution vanished from her sweet countenance, her enterprise had been crowned with success, the compliment had reached its address, and the fairest of the fair might repose on her laurels. I do not know how it happened, but from that moment I was haunted by the thought that my Queen of Beauty was an idiot, and that she had uttered one of the phrases, perhaps even the only one, with which she salutes her lord and master. When I saw him again I paid him many compliments, as customary, with respect to his wives, but was particularly enthusiastic on the rare beauty of my favorite. "You think her then very handsome?" asked he, with some surprise. "Exquisitely beautiful," I replied. He reflected a moment, then raised his eyebrows, causing by this action a multitude of horizontal lines on his forehead, projected his lower lip and chin, shrugged his shoulders, and said at length with a half-confidential air, "She has no children!"" She was judged. PRINCE METTERNICH ON INSANITY BUT to return to my conversation with Prince Metternich. He related to me several anecdotes of singular cases of insanity which he had met with when visiting lunatic asylums in company with Gall. They once saw two lovers in the same institution, who had become deranged in consequence of a sudden and cruel separation. They no longer knew one another as objects of mutual affection, although they were constantly raving to be united. When brought together, they acknowledged being acquainted, but each said the other was not the beloved one. Both were insane on this point. Poor creatures! how different to the cherished image of former days each may have become in the other's eyes. The prince mentioned, too, the case of a distinguished mathematician, whose derangement consisted in his mistaking the number 5 for an 0 in all his calculations. In speaking of periodical insanity and suicide, the prince told me that Gall considered all suicides to be insane. He related the case of a tailor who had jumped into the Danube, and when rescued had told how an angel had appeared to him, and enticed him to spring off the bridge. He had heard of several instances of a similar explanation of their conduct having been given by suicides before their death. One was that of a woman who had climbed upon the roof of a house, and then jumped off. She became collected before she died, and related how an angel had suddenly appeared to her and had enticed her upon the roof. When there, he hovered before her, and so allured her, that in attempting to reach him she fell to the ground. Cases of monomania the prince considered as strong evidence of the truth of Gall's system; and in all cases of insanity he was convinced that the brain was either primarily or indirectly affected by bodily disease. A VISIT TO A SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND. It has been well said, "We know not the value of a thing until we have felt the want of it:" this is true, as of other things, so especially of our providential mercies. The most eloquent sermon on the duty of being thankful for health, would scarcely produce so deep and lasting an effect, could hardly bring the importance of that blessing so forcibly before us, as a sharp fit of sickness. On recovery from illness, we often feel as though a new process of reasoning had opened upon us; the mind discovers motives for gratitude where, in health, it failed to discern them: benefits which before seemed mere trifles, now swell into importance and assume the form of mercies. In a word, we learn a little of the value of health by being deprived of it for a time. Secondary only to actual deprivation of a mercy for a time, value of that mercy, we must place in close as a means of enabling us to appreciate the contact with, and attentive observation of, those who themselves are deprived of it. Pause and scrutinize the unfortunate inmates of a lunatic asylum, or of an institution for the deaf and dumb, and we shall assuredly prize the faculties of reason, speech and hearing, all the more. I myself had never so large a view of the blessing of sight, as when meditating on the result of my visit to the Blind School, York. And if a visit to such an institution have no further beneficial effect than that of making it cannot even then be said that such a subus esteem the sense of seeing more highly, ject is profitless; but it can be shewn that there are many ways in which such a topic as the heading of this article indicates is likely to influence us for good, for it will lead us to pity and to sympathise with those unfortunate persons who can say of themselves in the affecting language of Milton "Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Presented with an universal blank Of nature's works to me expunged and razed, And again, it cannot fail to excite in our hearts feelings of admiration at the benevolence of those who have devised plans for ameliorating the condition of the blind, and at the beneficence of those who have actually carried out these noble designs, and afforded shelter, provision, and education for that large portion of our people who have one passage for the conveying of impressions, and for the entrance of knowledge, completely blocked up. It is one pleasing feature of the times we live in, that public memorials to great and good men, who have deserved well of their race, frequently take a utilitarian, practical form. Nowadays, instead of costly but useless columns and monuments, we choose rather to endow colleges, to found hospitals, and to erect schools. This is the origin of the Wellington College; of the Nightingale Institution for the training of nurses (now in course of formation); and from the same source sprang the Wilberforce School for the Blind, York: a visit to which institution I am about to describe. a mingled nature, but with feelings of sadness predominating, were stirred in my mind. There was, indeed, the cheerful smile, and the merry laugh, and the knowledge that here, at least for a time, was food, shelter, and instruction; but on the other hand, here was night, without hope of day In 1833, a meeting was held in York, to consider the best means of raising a memorial in honour of that great philanthropist, William Wilberforce. With singular judgment and good taste, it was resolved to erect an exclusion from participating in that something more durable in its results than first great decree, "Let there be light"marble and brass; a monument worthy of here was the closed lid, and here was the one whose life was devoted to works of bene- eye in some cases bright and in appearance volence and utility. The Manor House perfect, without a speck; but yet in reality (which was constructed partly from the with that mysterious something, sight, quite materials of the Abbey of St. Mary, as a quenched! How many sorrowing parents palace for the Lord Presidents of the north, and friends have wept over the sad case of and an occasional royal residence) was leased their offspring, thus doomed, during life, to from Government for a long term of years, perpetual night, and to a hard struggle with Here then, in a spot surrounded with the privation and want! But let us restrain most interesting historical associations, are such thoughts, lest we seem to call in quescongregated sixty blind persons of both tion the justice of His dealings and dispensexes, and of ages varying (in the majority sations who doeth all things well. As the of instances) from nine to eighteen years. pupils grope their way to their seats, we The York School for the Blind is said to be stop to examine one of the books used by one of the most efficient of the institutions the blind. Now it is obvious that it must which now abound in England for the pur- be chiefly by feeling and hearing that inpose of affording enjoyment, support and struction is conveyed to them; any books education, to those deprived of light and therefore intended for their use must be sight. The rules of the Yorkshire School such that the letters and words can be disfor the Blind were recommended for adoption tinctly felt. This is done by printing in to the Belgian Government, being also trans-relief, or in embossed letters; the letters lated and extensively circulated in France. Its design is, as the general rules state, not so much to provide maintenance for the blind, as to give them such instruction as may help them to gain a livelihood for themselves: attention being at the same time paid to their moral and religious in-shaped letters are used (elsewhere this is struction. Such persons only are admissible not always done), hence a seeing person can who have lost their sight to such a degree with ease read their books. I had been as to be able, at most, only to distinguish given to understand that in some institutions light from darkness-those who have a metal plates with raised letters were emcapacity for instruction-those who are free ployed in the earliest classes, for teaching from any dangerous or communicable dis- the rudiments of reading, considerable ease-and those who are free from vicious destruction of the paper rudimentary books habits. The girls are chiefly employed in being caused by the constant pressure of the knitting, sewing, netting, &c.; most of the beginner's hand flattening the letters, and boys in basket-making, weaving, &c. Some destroying the relief. However, this diffiof the boys are educated as musicians, and culty does not seem to have been felt in York; some are organists in churches-the whole for I was assured that books now employed in of the pupils being taught singing, more or the school had been in use there seventeen less. These occupations alternate with years. A great deal of the instruction in reading, writing (or rather printing), arith-spelling is given viva voce; which, inmetic, geography, religious exercises, &c. After this general and cursory glance, I must beg the reader to accompany me while I proceed to go a little more minutely into the details of my visit. On entering the building, the Minster clock struck two, which was the signal for the pupils to reassemble for their several occupations; and as I watched them trooping in, emotions of standing out, and being quite sensible to the touch. The blind reader passes his finger along the lines, sometimes with great rapidity, and detecting the letters and words by their feel, he reads with the greatest accuracy. In the York School the ordinary deed, is the case with many other of the studies. The arithmetical board, for teaching summing, is an ingenious improvement on one somewhat similarly constructed many years ago. Many of its improvements are due to the Edinburgh school. It consists of a metal plate pierced with a great number of pentagonal (five-sided) holes; the size of the plate is about 16 inches by 12 inches, |