subsistence; here industry, parent of enjoyments, collected the riches
of all climes, and the purple of Tyre was exchanged for the precious
thread of Serica;* the soft tissues of Cassimere for the sumptuous
tapestry of Lydia; the amber of the Baltic for the pearls and perfumes
of Arabia; the gold of Ophir for the tin of Thule.

* The precious thread of Serica.--That is, the silk
originally derived from the mountainous country where the
great wall terminates, and which appears to have been the
cradle of the Chinese empire. The tissues of Cassimere.--
The shawls which Ezekiel seems to have described under the
appellation of Choud-choud. The gold of Ophir.--This
country, which was one of the twelve Arab cantons, and which
has so much and so unsuccessfully been sought for by the
antiquarians, has left, however, some trace of itself in
Ofor, in the province of Oman, upon the Persian Gulf,
neighboring on one side to the Sabeans, who are celebrated
by Strabo for their abundance of gold, and on the other to
Aula or Hevila, where the pearl fishery was carried on. See
the 27th chapter of Ezekiel, which gives a very curious and
extensive picture of the commerce of Asia at that period.

And now behold what remains of this powerful city: a miserable skeleton!
What of its vast domination: a doubtful and obscure remembrance! To
the noisy concourse which thronged under these porticoes, succeeds the
solitude of death. The silence of the grave is substituted for the busy
hum of public places; the affluence of a commercial city is changed into
wretched poverty; the palaces of kings have become a den of wild beasts;
flocks repose in the area of temples, and savage reptiles inhabit the
sanctuary of the gods. Ah! how has so much glory been eclipsed? how