Varia.
PIOUS DIRECTION POST.
Under this title, in a west-country paper of the present year, (1827) there is the following statement:—
On the highway near Bicton, in Devonshire, the seat of the right hon. lord Rolle, in the centre of four cross roads, is a directing post with the following inscriptions, by an attention to which the traveller learns the condition of the roads over which he has to pass, and at the same time is furnished with food for meditation:—
To Woodbury, Topsham, Exeter.—Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
To Brixton, Ottery, Honiton.—O hold up our goings in thy paths that our footsteps slip not.
To Otterton, Sidmouth, Culliton, A. D. 1743.—O that our ways were made to direct that we might keep thy statutes.
To Budleigh.—Make us to go in the paths of thy commandments, for therein is our desire.
MARSEILLES.
The history of Marseilles is full of interest. Its origin borders on romance. Six hundred years before the Christian era, a band of piratical adventurers from Ionia, in Asia Minor, by dint of superior skill in navigation, pushed their discoveries to the mouth of the Rhone. Charmed with the white cliffs, green vales, blue waters, and bright skies, which they here found, they returned to their native country, and persuaded a colony to follow them to the barbarous shores of Gaul, bearing with them their religion, language, manners, and customs. On the very day of their arrival, so says tradition, the daughter of the native chief was to choose a husband, and her affections were placed upon one of the leaders of the polished emigrants. The friendship of the aborigines was conciliated by marriage, and their rude manners were softened by the refinement of their new allies in war, their new associates in peace. In arts and arms the emigrants soon acquired the ascendancy, and the most musical of all the Greek dialects became the prevailing language of the colony.[141]
[141] American paper.