claiming remedy from all,-are we to regard it as a more baleful than the quiet state, or rather not so baleful? Ireland is in chronic atrophy these five centuries; the disease of nobler England, identified now with that of Ireland, becomes acute, has crises, and will be cured or kill."

And how are these evils to be cured? Clear enough is it that things cannot be left as they are, and hard as may be the task, it cannot be said their cure is impossible. It is not so. The convulsive agony of society proves its vigor. It is advancement which, in part, creates this agitation. If then the Government and upper classes of Great Britain resolve to meet the difficulty, it will be cured. But if they tamper with it, if they resort to expedients, paliatives, and lumber along, heedless of suffering, content if they but secure their own well-being, there will burst out a revolution, which will whelm the country in a wide, black, devastating ruin.

"The toiling millions of England ask of their English Parliament foremost of all, Canst thou govern us or not? Parlia ment with its privileges is strong; But Necessity and the Laws of Nature are stronger than it. If Parliament cannot do this thing, Parliament we prophesy will do some other thing and things which, in the strangest and not the happiest way, will forward its being done,-not much to the advantage of Parliament probably! Done, one way or other, the thing must be. In these complicated times, with cash payment as the sole nexus between man and man, the toiling classes of mankind declare, in their confused but most emphatic way, to the untoiling, that they will be governed; that they must, -under the penalty of Chartisms, Thuggeries, Rick-burnings, and even blacker things than those. Vain also is it to think that the misery of one class; of the great universal under class, can be isolated and kept apart and peculiar, down in that class. By infallible contagion, evident enough to reflection, evident even to Political Economy that will reflect, the misery of the lowest spreads upwards and upwards till it reaches the very highest; till all has grown miserable, palpably false and wrong; and poor drudges hungering 'on meal-husks and boiled grass' do, by circuitous but sure methods, bring kings' heads to the block."

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

(From the German of Herder.)

INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL OF JOHN.

(CONTINUED FROM THE LAST NUMber.)

7.

Meanwhile there had grown up amid the Median Hills a faith which was a prototype of the organization of a kingdom. It taught of a good God, Ormuzd, who dwelt in light; and his adversary, Ahrimann, who dwelt in darkness. About the former stood the seven greatest princes of Heaven, the Amschaspands, waiting upon his commands; round the throne of Ahrimann stood the Dews, who were the executors of his malignant decrees. As amongst the radiant princes of Heaven, there was a countless throng of good Genii, Ireds; so there were innumerable destroyers of good Dews, the guardians of darkness; both in incessant war with one another. All upon earth, according to this system, was divided into light and darkness. Pure thoughts, good words, salutary deeds, together with all their effects, as the fruitfulness of the land, purity of body and soul, health, industry, cheerfulness, social harmony, order, the happiness of men, belonged to the kingdom of Light. Envy, on the other hand, and hatred and indolence, impurity in body and soul, crime, persecution, were the works of the evil Demon, to whom also they ascribed all dangerous animals, poisonous plants, bad weather, diseases, barrenness, in short all the ills of life. Ormuzd, dwelling in eternal light, had created the world pure and good; Ährimann had mingled himself in it, and corrupted all its elements. The worshippers of Ormuzd, associates in the kingdom of light, had it for their glorious calling, to free the world from the operations of the evil Dews, to make it fruitful, to purify it, and form it into a kingdom of everlasting joy. In this calling they are destined finally to prevail, as Ormuzd through his mighty word: "I am!" was victorious over Ahrimann. Ormuzd spake this word; then beings arose. To everlasting he speaks it; so forever they continued their existence, while new beings spring into life. This word is the soul of Ormuzd, the source of all life, the in-dwelling root of all power, all good; living and giving life to all.*

*This language plainly implies that only the Good has truth, substance, being, reality; all evil is of itself nothing, and is overcome, daily overcome by the former, till it is finally done away. The system of the Zendavesta is well known in Germany, through the translation and extracts by Klenker, who appeared at Paris in 1771.

Such was the doctrine of Zerduscht, whose origin and purpose are easily understood according to their time and place. A race of Priests, Magi, divided into three orders, disciples (Herbeds,) Masters (Mobeds,) and perfected Masters (Destur-Mobeds,) preserved this doctrine in books, prayers, and sacred customs. Through their hands passed the offerings; through them Ormuzd spoke; they were the wise men of the nation, the counsellors of the kings, the mediators between Ormuzd and men.

8.

Under the wide spread Persian monarchy, this religion, which had attached itself to the kingdom, the Court and the person of the Kings, acquired the greatest veneration in all the border parts of Asia; but on no nation did it make such an impression as on the Jews. For just at the time of their first captivity, this State system of religion was in full bloom under the Medish kings, and had passed from them to the Persians. Nor could it fail to happen, that the conquered people, whose religion and ways of thinking were nearly a thousand years older, besides being almost exclusively national, however true they might remain, in other respects, to the law of their fathers, should appropriate to themselves their conqueror's theory of the universe, especially seeing that it was more perfectly formed, more clear and comprehensive than their own.

We find traces of it already among the prophets, who lived during and after the captivity; but the greatest proof is the total change which took place in the Jewish mode of thinking after the captivity. They had finally become ashamed of their old boorish idolatry; they now worshipped a God, the God of Light, to whom they ascribed a countless host of servants, in a splendour never known to their old pastoral, Mosaic mode of thinking.* They now tell of heavenly princes standing about the throne of God, and beholding the glory of his countenance; (Matt. xviii.) of countless heavenly hosts, obedient to his will, (Dan. vii. 10. Rev. v. 11. vii. 11.) The whole creation was divided among orders of Angels; they ruled over the elements. John's writings not only borrow of this imagery, but are for the most part written in it.t

It can be clearly shown that the ideas of the Hebrews were a different thing before and after the captivity, although the later views have been introduced into the earlier books, wherever they could be made to apply. This will be shown in the continuation of the "Spirit of Hebrew Poetry."

+ Thus the Angels go up and down, (John i. 5:) the Angel of the water stirs the pool of Bethesda, (John v. 4:) others the winds of the earth, (Rev. vii. 1:) the fire Angel has power over fire, (xiv. 18;) they are as priests in the temple of God: they give signs, seal, announce, save and destroy, (Rev. vii. 2. 3. x. 6. xiv. 6--9.

9.

It was unavoidable, that, after their return from the MedishPersian Provinces, the Jews of Palestine should regard and interpret their own ancient writings according to this more enlarged mode of thinking: for just at this time were these writings collected and arranged, and some of them, Psalms and parts of the Prophets, were unquestionably first written during the Captivity. The circle of their old pastoral state now seemed to them too narrow: the God of their fathers spoke to them too simply. They began to raise into notice passages, which spoke in a mystical sense; above all, the Prophet Daniel served them for this purpose. Into other passages a new sense was introduced; till finally the genuine plain exposition was almost wholly lost in that art of arts, the Cabbala. The Priests and men learned in the scriptures became a class of Mobeds and Destur-Mobeds.

10.

Above all, these interpreters made use of the beginning of the books of Moses, in which God says: "Let there be light!" "Through the word of God," says one of the Psalms, "the Heavens were made: all their hosts through the breath of his mouth. The word of God made his angels winds, his servants flames of fire; he spake, and it was done; his word went forth, and all the elements obeyed him." (Ps. ciii. 4. cxlvii. 15-18.) The Almighty word is represented in the Egyptian destroying angel as a warrior descending from the throne of God in still midnight: (Wisdom xviii. 14-19) in every messenger, who bore a commission from above, walked Memrah, the word of God.

II.

As they did the word, so also they personified wisdom, as the first-born daughter of God, the Architect of the world, the friend of men. (Proverbs viii. 22-31.) This imagery, too, was eagerly and richly depicted. (Sirach xxiv. 1—46). Wisdom proclaimed of herself, that she proceeded from the mouth of God, that ever present she fulfills all, that she is the Priestess in the holy tabernacle, and that her rule goes forth from Zion over all the earth.

xvi. 1. xx. 1. &c.) Opposed to them stands Satan with his Angels, (Rev. xii. 7:) He, the persecutor and accuser, (xii. 9. 10;) the liar from the begining, and the father of lies, (John viii. 44.) The whole world, according to John, is divided into light and darkness, into children of God and of Satan, [John i. 6. 10. iii. 1921. viii. 44. xii. 31. xiii. 27. xiv. 30. xvi. 19. 1st John 1--5.] The other [writings of the New Testament present the same appearance. Let any one read the Zendavesta, which is now laid open to us, and he cannot question the origin of this un-Mosaic mode of thinking, which he here finds in connected order.

12.

As the word and wisdom, so also they personified other attributes of God; in Gabriel and Michael his strength; in the angel of his countenance, his majesty: in the angel of the covenant, his goodness and truth. Even the pillar of clouds (Schechinah) was animated, and became a mediator between God and his people.

13.

When, finally, in spite of all opposition, Platonic ideas had found their way into the Jewish system, there arose from the strange mixture of the same with the words of Moses (Gen. i. 26, 27,) and with the doctrine of the Magi that first and celestial man, the proto-type of all worlds and especially of the Messiah, (Adam Cadmon:) a fiction unlike anything which could have entered the senses of the Attic wise man.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

J. S. D.

GRANDFATHER'S SPECTACLES.

"Grandfather," said John, "I am so near sighted, I cannot read this fine print, besides, the book is very dull, and there are no pictures in it."

"Near sighted, are you, child? Come, none of this affectation! This is only an excuse for not learning your lesson. You are growing lazy, I fear."

"No! grandfather, I am indeed near sighted. Mother says I shall one of these days have a pair of spectacles like those our new minister wears. She says I must wait till I am older, but I want them now, for I shall ruin my eyes unless I have them."

"Well, child," said the grandfather, "if you really want a pair of glasses, you may use mine, and keep them; I have another pair like them." So saying, grandfather took off his spectacles and placed them across the nose of his grandson. But they fitted him about as well as a saddle would a mouse, or Saul's armour David. But what was worse still, he could not even see through them. All was blur before him. After making his eyes ache and swim for some time, he threw down the spectacles and the book in despair. ""Tis no use," he said, "I can do better without them, Grandpa!" His mother coming in just then, saw his distress, and smiling drew from her pocket another pair. "Take these, my son," she said, "and put them on, they are meant for your eyes-I have just