dismay and hazard, Mr. Wheler formed a solemn resolution to dedicate himself to the ministry, if it should please God to prolong his life*. His description of the scenery of this island, which is now destitute of inhabitants, cannot be read without much gratification.

He has given an engraving of the forked top of Parnassus, which he considers as being " not only the highest in all Greece, but one of the

* His devotedness to the ministerial office, in the earliest period of his life, is thus noticed by Mr. Hickes : "I know you think the priesthood itself a great dignity, for the relation it gives you to God as his minister, even a greater dignity than all the other modern titles, by which (to honour the profession, and encourage the study of divinity) the canonlaw, and the schools, have distinguished priests. You know the office and title of a priest was thought so honourable in the primitive times, that the most noble of the laity were desirous of it, when it was attended with all the discouragements of persecution. And so much reverence you had for it when a youth in the college, and after your return from your travels so strong an inclination to it, that you changed your gown, and honoured your military with the sacerdotal title; when you had no prospect but to serve God (as you did for some years) in a cure of souls with a very little revenue, which with much of your own you made great to the poor; and I am confident you would then have taken holy orders, though

the church had been under a Dioclesian, an Arian, or Marian, or Anti-prelatical persecution: so pure were your intentions in desiring the priesthood, and so great your zeal for the service of God and his church."

(Spirit of Enthusiasm Exorcised. 1707.)

highest in all the world, and not inferior to Mount Cenis amongst the Alps *.

At Constantinople, in 1675, Mr. Wheler was admitted into the friendship of Dr. John Covel, who was successively Chaplain to Sir Daniel Harvey †, and Sir John Finch, when they were Embassadors to the Porte. Sir John Finch was, at that time, at Adrianople ‡. But, upon his return thence, he gave them frequent opportunities of free access to him, and communicated to them much useful information §. Dr. Covel gra

Travels, IV. 318.

+ Dr. Thomas Smith, usually called Rabbi Smith' or 'Tograi Smith' from his knowledge of the Oriental languages, and the intimate friend of Sir G. W., was Chaplain to Sir D. H. from 1668 to 1671. See Phil. Trans. ccxxx. 527., clii. 335. He was the author of Vitæ quorundum eruditissimorum,' &c. 1707, and a great many other works connected with the ecclesiastical antiquities and literature of the East.

'We had a very hot plague: my Lord Embassador retired to a village; but it soon arrived there. So he lived in his tents, till the sickness got among the servants, of whom five died; then he returned to the village.' (Letter from Mr. Coke, Secretary to the Turkey Company, dated from Pera, October 9, 1675, in the Harleian Miscellany, V. 347.)

§ Sir John Finch was of Baliol College, Oxford, having received his education at a school in Oxford, under the care of Mr. Edward Sylvester, noted in his time (to use the coarse language of Antony Wood) as the common drudge of the University, either to make, correct, or review the Latin sermons

of

tified his young countryman with the inspection of many medals and ancient intaglios, as well as

of certain dull theologists thereof, before they were delivered at St. Mary's; as also the Greek and Latin verses of others, as dull as the former, that were to be put in or before books that occasionally were published." He was afterward admitted of Christ College, Cambridge. It is not possible to mention his name without recalling to our memory the history of the solid friendship which subsisted with uninterrupted harmony between him and Sir Thomas Baynes, the Gresham Professor of Music. They were both pupils of the seraphic Henry More. Attached to each other from no mean or selfish motives, pursuing one kindred plan of studies, and nearly of the same age, with—

Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit,

they formed a resolution to live together in constant habits of virtuous conduct.

During the usurpation of Cromwell, they spent several years in Italy, and were created Doctors of Physic at Padua, where Mr. Finch was made Consul of the English nation. He was also promoted to a high station in that University, was honoured with a marble statue, and received marks of favour from several of the Italian princes.

At the Restoration they returned to England, and were admitted Fellows Extraordinary of the College of Physicians. In 1661 Mr. Finch, having been knighted by his Majesty, was admitted, along with his friend, Graduate of Physic at Cambridge. In 1664, they were both elected Fellows of the Royal Society, upon the first choice made by the Council after the grant of their charter; and, as long as they remained in England, constantly attended the meetings, and cordially exerted themselves in advancing the designs, of that illustrious Institution.

(Sprat's History of the Royal Society.' 1667. 431,432.)

When

with specimens and descriptions of rare plants and animals which he had himself ingeniously designed.

When Sir John Finch was commissioned to negociate the King's affairs at the Court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, he was accompanied by Dr. Baynes to Florence. In 1673, he was named Embassador in Ordinary to the Grand Signor; and his friend, who had been knighted the year preceding, attended him to Constantinople as his Physician. In this department, he conducted himself to the entire satisfaction of the English merchants.

On the fifth of September, 1681, Sir Thomas Baines died, as it is said, of the plague. "His corpse was embalmed, and the bowels interred at Constantinople, with a monument over them by his [Sir John Finch's] order; and soon afterward returning to England, he brought the body with him, and sent it to Cambridge; where, having made a funeral oration in honour of the deceased, it was deposited in the Chapel of Christ's College. And a few months after this (namely, on the eighteenth of November, 1682) Sir John himself dying at London was carried down to Cambridge and, according to his desire, laid in the same grave with his friend; being unwilling to be separated from him at death, who had been his constant companion, and the partner of his fortunes so many years while living."

(Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College.) On a monument, erected in the College-Chapel to their memory, is still extant a Latin epitaph written by their venerable tutor. The classic scholar will read with pleasure a composition, which has been justly admired for the elegance of it's language, and it's accurate delineation of their learning and friendship. A transcript of it is inserted in Le Neve's Monunumenta Anglicana, in the Biographia Britannica under the article Baynes,' and in Ward's Lives.

Our travellers lodged in the house of an honest Jew at Galata, a town bordering on the harbour of Constantinople *, and hence they made different excursions into the adjacent country. Among other places, they visited a neighbouring village toward the Black Sea, which from it's beauty and the pleasantness of it's situation is called 'Belgrade.' They subsequently traversed several parts of Asia, along with Dr. Covel and Dr. Pickering, physician to the English factory at Symrna. The former, beside his other acquirements of elegant science, was

well-skill'd

In every virtuous plant and healing herb,

That spreads her verdant leaf to th' morning-ray.

Mr. Wheler accompanied him to Olympus ‡, a mountain covered with a profusion of plants;

* Travels, II. 204. This place commanded a view of the Grand Signor's Seraglio. See, in Sandys' Travels, the Plate opposite p. 24, 6th edit. 1673.

To this place many natives of rank, foreign embassadors, and opulent merchants, retire during the scorching heats of summer. Rees, in his Cyclopædia,' mistakes this village for the celebrated city of the same name, four hundred miles from Constantinople!

Travels, III. 218. This mountain is usually called Olympus Asiaticus, or Olympus of Mysia, to distinguish it from the Olympus of Macedonia or Thessaly, so much celebrated by the Greek and

Latin