rument, by which to effect the redemption and
deliverance of his country; not that he himself is to prove the messiah
of his nation--as they term their great expected prince--but that
through him, in some manner, by some service rendered or office filled,
that great personage will manifest himself to Israel. No disappointment
damps his zeal, or convinces him of the futility of expectations resting
upon no other foundation than his own inferences, conjectures, or
fanciful interpretation of the dark sayings of the prophets. When in the
East, it was through Palmyra, that his country was to receive her king;
through her victories, that redemption was to be wrought out for Israel.
Being compelled to let go that dear and cherished hope, he now fixes it
upon this little "Joseph," and it will not be strange if this child of
poverty and want should in the end inherit all his vast possessions, by
which, he will please himself with thinking, he can force his way to the
throne of Judea. Portia derives great pleasure from his conversation,
and frequently detains him long for that purpose; and of her Isaac is
never weary uttering the most extravagant praise. I sometimes wonder
that I never knew him before the Mediterranean voyage, seeing he was so
well known to Portia; but then again do not wonder, when I remember by
what swarms of mendicants, strangers, and impostors of every sort,
Portia was ever surrounded, from whom I turned instinctively away;
especially did I ever avoid all intercourse with Christians and Jews. I
held them, of all, lowest and basest.

* * * * *

We are just returned from Tibur, where we have enjoyed many pleasant
hours with Zenobia. Livia was there also. The day was in its warmth
absolutely Syrian, and while losing ourselves in the mazes of the
Queen's extensive gardens, we almost fancied ourselves in Palmyra.
Nicomachus being of the company, as he ever is, and Vabalathus, we
needed but you, Calpurnius, and Gracchus, to complete the illusion.

The Queen devotes herself to letters. She is rarely drawn from her
favorite studies, but by the arrival of friends from Rome. Happy for her
is it that, carried back to other ages by the truths of history, or
transported to other worlds by the fictions of poetry, the present and
the recent can be in a manner forgotten; or, at least, that, in these
intervals of repose, the soul can gather strength for the thoughts and
recollections which wil