The books mentioned, Acts xix. 19, were doubt less books of magic. How extensively they were in use may be learnt from the fact that the price of them' was fifty thousand pieces of silver.' Very celebrated were the Ephesian letters (TOaca ypciAaara), which appear to have been a sort of magical formulm written on paper or parchment, designed to be fixed as amulets on different parts of the body, such as the hands and the head (Plut. Synz. vii. ; Lakemacher, Obs. Philol. ii. 126 ; Deyling, Observ. iii. 355). Erasmus (Adag. Cent. ii. 578) says that they were certain signs or marks which rendered their possessor victorious in every thing. Eustathius (ad Ham. Odys. T 694). states an opinion that Crcesus, when on his funeral pile, was very much benefited by the use of them ; and that when a Milesian and an Ephesian were wrestling in the Olympic games, the former could gain no advantage, as the latter had Ephesian letters bound round his heel ; but, these being dis covered and removed, he lost his superiority and was thrown thirty times. These passages shew the feeling which prevailed respecting the books that were bought and burned, and serve to illustrate the remark made by the writer of the Acts, So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed.' The ruins of Ephesus lie two short days' jour ney from Smyrna, in proceeding from which towards the south-east the traveller passes the pretty village of Sedekuy ; and two hours and a half onwards he comes to the mined village of Danizzi, on a wide, solitary, uncultivated plain, beyond which several burial-grounds may be ob served ; near one of these, on an eminence, are the supposed ruins of Ephesus, consisting of shat tered walls, in which some pillars, architraves, and fragments of marble have been built. The soil of the plain appears rich. It is covered with a rank, burnt-up vegetation, and is everywhere deserted and solitary, though bordered by picturesque moun tains. A few corn-fields are scattered along the site of the ancient city, which is marked by some large masses of shapeless ruins and stone walls. Towards the sea extends the ancient port, a pesti lential marsh. Along the slope of the mountain and over the plain are scattered fragments of masonry and detached ruins, but nothing can now be fixed upon as the great temple of Diana. There
are some broken columns and capitals of the Corin thian order of white marble : there are also ruins of a theatre, consisting of some circular seats and numerous arches, supposed to be the one in which Paul was preaching when interrupted by shouts of, ` Great is Diana of the Ephesiant.' The ruins of this theatre present a wreck of immense gran deur, and the original must have been of the largest and most imposing dimensions. Its form alone can now be spoken of, for every seat is removed, and the proscenium is a hill of ruins. A splendid circus (Fellows' Reports, p. 275) or stadium remains tolerably entire, and there are numerous piles of buildings seen alike at Perga mus and Troy as well as here, by some called gymnasia, by others temples ; by others again, with more propriety, palaces. They all came with the Roman conquest. No one but a Roman em peror could have conceived such structures. In Italy they have parallels in Adrian's villa near Tivoli, and perhaps in the pile upon the Palatine. Many other walls remain to shew the extent of the buildings of the city, but no inscription or orna ment is to be found, cities having been built out of this quarry of worked marble. The ruins of the adjoining town, which arose about four hundred years ago, are entirely composed of materials from Ephesus. There are a few huts within these ruins (about a mile and a half from Ephesus), which still retain the name of the parent city, Asalook—a Turkish word, which is associated with the same idea as Ephesus, meaning the City of the Moon (Fellows). A church dedicated to St. John is thought to have stood near, if not on the site of, the present mosque. Arundell (Discoveries, vol. ii. p. 253) conjectures that the gate, called the Gate of Persecution, and large masses of brick wall, which lie beyond it, are parts of this cele brated church, which was fortified during the great Council of Ephesus. The tomb of St. John was in or under his church, and the Greeks have a tradition of a sacred dust arising every year, on his festival, from the tomb, possessed of miraculous virtues : this dust they term manna. Not far from the tomb of St. John was that of Timothy. The