CHAP. III.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

199

was flanked with towers; the towers along theramparts being never at above a stone’s throwdistance from each other. Within it, its squareswere all spacious and airy; coloured glass innearly all its houses was what most distinguishedit from the whole globe . 1 If no people in all Syriawere so effeminate as of Acre, luxurious habits andlaxity of morals are they not the almost inevitableevil consequences of great wealth? Streets andhouses almost all rebuilt, with a wideness and mag-nificence till then unrivalled in other countries—otherwise its original features kept to in this, thatall the buildings were of white marble or cut stone,all equal in height, with flat roofs and terraces, bywhich you could walk, or even ride, from one endof the city to the other, without descending, butbridging the streets; the principal of which had silkawnings, transparent enough for light, but of softtints, and keeping off the sun. If glass was nolonger singular in Europe , 2 yet here it was in fargreater abundance, and in almost every window,great or small, poor or rich. Even the ancientshad glass, says a very respectable authority; forthough it be true that they kept the doors openmuch more than we do, yet in Pompeia and Hercu-

1 Comeri Chron.—Bib. Crois., iii. 135.

2 Michaud : Hist., v. 120.