dom, and in the ten kingdoms of the image, was and shall be partly in the hands of the kings and peoples, and partly in those of the priests. Some think that the Romish clergy are meant by the iron, living single lives as they do among the people-the potters' clay.

I shall now, my friends, after having given you a description of the six different well-marked features of the fourth kingdom, open the book of history, and briefly tell you the fate of this kingdom. Whoever has any knowledge of the events in Roman history, will greatly admire the truthfulness, the variety, and the exactness of what is told us in Daniel. No account has ever been written, even after the things had taken place, which describes more precisely, clearly, or in fewer words, or in a better manner, a complete outline of the history of these periods.

The fourth kingdom was of iron-of iron! It is impossible to state in stronger language the character of the Romans; everything belonging to them was like iron. Their government was like iron-hard, unbending, crushing, and merciless. Their courage was like iron-cruel, blood

thirsty, and unyielding. Their soldiers were like iron-never were a people more fearfully armed for battle: their breast-plates, helmets, long shields, javelins, spears, short heavy twoedged swords, and all their other arms, were ingeniously terrible. Their discipline was of an iron character. The Jewish historian, Josephus, has described it, after he had seen their army march past on its way to besiege Jerusalem: "Their laws," he says, "ordered the punishment of death, not only for desertion from the army, but for the least neglect of duty; and however severe these laws may be, the officers who carry them out are still more so." The treatment of the conquered by the Romans was as hard as iron-it was crushing, unbearable, and, at the same time, not to be got rid of. In their conquests they overthrew all that opposed them, or that they did not like; they turned all the countries that were subject to them into Roman provinces; they did not leave them any part of their nationality, and in time they deprived them even of their own languages. It became necessary to speak Latin, not only over all

Italy, but in a part of Germany, in Britain, throughout France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and in Africa. Their hearts were as hard as iron, they never felt pity; they made the blood of human beings flow like water. They needed pleasures as ferocious as those of cannibals, during a time of peace as well as during a time of war. Whenever they cut off the head of a man, they never did so until after they had first cut and torn his flesh to the bone, by beating him with slender sticks which they called rods. After they had conquered any king, they fastened him to a chariot or car of triumph on the day of their return to Rome, and during the banquet which was given by the emperor to his army, in the palace of the capitol, the wretched king was flogged until he seemed to be dead; his head was then cut off amid shouts of joy, and he was at last dragged by a hook to the river Tiber. When Julius Cæsar, who conquered all France, and made it a Roman province, had taken by storm the last city that held out against him, he caused both the hands of all the men that were found in it to be cut

off, and he even boasts of it in a work written by him, called his "Commentaries." The Romans, even in all their amusements, needed human blood to flow to gratify their brutal tastes. In all their cities they had theatres in which they could enjoy this pleasure, and where Roman ladies were present as well as men to look at the spectacle of wretched prisoners of war being obliged to fight to death, either with one another or with wild beasts. When one of those who were fighting was wounded, all the people shouted out, "He has got it! he has got it!" and the unhappy man was then forced to lower his shield, to kneel upon one knee, and stretch out his neck in a theatrical, elegant manner, to let himself be killed. The people, men and women, gave a signal at this sight, by holding up their thumbs, and the conqueror then immediately approached the defeated man, placed the point of his sword upon the jugular vein above the shoulder, and thrust the weapon in up to the hilt, when, if the wretched man was able to maintain an heroic attitude, and die in a graceful manner, shouts of applause were given

by the crowd at his last sigh. When Julius Cæsar, after his return from France, gave festivals to the people of Rome, there were, it is said, many combats in the immense city. German or French prisoners fought in them. The famous Titus who took Jerusalem, and who was called "the most amiable of the Romans, and the delight of mankind," had all the old men, all the sick, and all deformed people, put to death in cold blood; and when he set out on his triumphal march to return to Rome, eighty thousand young Jews, who remained alive, were obliged to follow his army as prisoners, and he caused thousands of them to be killed either by the sword, or eaten alive by wild beasts, in order to amuse the peoples of the cities through which he passed. In one day, for example, on the 24th of October, he had 2500 persons put to death, for the purpose of celebrating his brother's birthday. Some were burned alive, some were butchered, and the rest were devoured by wild beasts. Those that were left alive out of this vast multitude that had quitted Jerusalem, were employed in building the Colosseum