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Various

"The Illustrated London Reading Book"


Such is the aspect of this shore;
'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more!
So coldly sweet--so deadly fair--
We start, for soul is wanting there:
Hers is the loveliness in death
That parts not quite with parting breath;
But beauty, with that fearful bloom,
That hue which haunts it to the tomb:
Expression's last receding ray,
A gilded halo hovering round decay,
The farewell beam of feeling past away!
Spark of that flame--perchance of Heavenly birth,
Which gleams, but warms no more its cherish'd earth!
BYRON.
[Illustration: SUBTERRANEAN CHAPEL, GREECE.]
* * * * *


THE FORT OF ATTOCK.

[Illustration: Letter A.]
Attock is a fort and small town in the Punjaub, on the left or east bank
of the Indus, 942 miles from the sea, and close below the place where it
receives the water of the Khabool river, and first becomes navigable.
The name, signifying _obstacle_, is supposed to have been given to it
under the presumption that no scrupulous Hindoo would proceed westward
of it; but this strict principle, like many others of similar nature, is
little acted on. Some state that the name was given by the Emperor
Akbar, because he here found much difficulty in crossing the river.


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