or begotten? or produced? or proceeding from the Father? or proceeding from the Son? or proceeding from both? Can he beget? can he produce? is his hypostasis consubstantial with the hypostasis of the Father and the Son? and how is it that, having the same nature—the same essence as the Father and the Son, he cannot do the same things done by these persons who are himself?

These questions, so far above reason, certainly needed the decision of an infallible church.

The priest Arius, whom we call Arius, was quite scandalised by Alexandro's monade, and explained the thing in quite a different way. He cavilled in part like the priest Sabellious, who had cavilled like the Phrygian Praxeas, who was a great caviller.

When he saw the flames of civil war lighted among the scholastic brains, he sent the celebrated Bishop Osius with dissuasive letters to the two belligerent parties. "You are great fools," he expressly tells them in this letter, "to quarrel about things which you do not understand. It is unworthy the gravity of your ministry to make so much noise about so trifling a matter."

By "so trifling a matter," Constantine meant not what regards the Divinity, but the incomprehensible manner in which they were striving to explain the nature of the Divinity. The Arabian patriarch, who wrote the history of the Church of Alexandria, makes Osius, on presenting the Emperor's letter, speak in nearly the following words-

The Christians sophisticated, cavilled, hated, and excommunicated one another, for some of these dogmas inaccessible to human intellect, before the time of Arius and Athanasius. The Egyptian Greeks were remarkably clever; they would split a hair into four; but on this occa- "My brethren, Christianity is but just sion they split it only into three. Alex-beginning to enjoy the blessings of peace, andros, Bishop of Alexandria, thought and you would plunge it into eternal disproper to preach that God, being neces- cord. The Emperor has but too much sarily individual-single-a monade in reason to tell you, that you quarrel about the strictest sense of the word, this mo- a very trifling matter. Certainly, had the nade is trine. object of the dispute been essential, Jesus Christ, whom we all acknowledge as our legislator, would have mentioned it. God would not have sent his son on earth, to return without teaching us our catechism. Whatever he has not expressly told us, is the work of men, and error is their portion. Jesus has commanded you to love one another; and you begin by hating one another, and stirring up discord in the empire. Pride alone has given birth to these disputes; and Jesus your master has commanded you to be humble. Not one among you can know whether Jesus is made or begotten. And in what does his nature concern you, provided your own is to be just and reasonable? What has the vain science of words to do with the morality which should guide your actions? You cloud our doctrines with mysteries-you, who were designed to strengthen religion by your virtues. Would you leave the Christian religion a mass of sophistry? Did Christ come for this? Cease to dispute, humble yourselves, edify one another, clothe the naked, feed

Alexandros quickly assembled a small council of those of his own opinion, and excommunicated his priest. Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, took the part of Arius. Thus the whole church was in a flame.

The Emperor Constantine was a villain; I confess it :-a parricide, who had smothered his wife in a bath, cut his son's throat, assassinated his father-in-law, his brother-in-law, and his nephew; I cannot deny it a man puffed up with pride, and immersed in pleasure; granted: -a detestable tyrant, like his children; transeat :—but he was a man of sense. He would not have obtained the empire, and subdued all his rivals, had he not reasoned justly.

the hungry, and pacify the quarrels of families-instead of giving scandal to the whole empire by your dissensions." But Osius addressed an obstinate auditory. The council of Nice were assembled, and the Roman empire was torn by a spiritual civil war. This war brought At court every thing soon changes. on others, and mutual persecution has Several non-consubstantial bishops, with continued from age to age, unto this day. some of the eunuchs and the women, The melancholy part of the affair was, spoke in favour of Arius, and obtained that as soon as the council was ended, the the reversal of the lettre-de-cachet. The persecution began; but Constantine, same thing has repeatedly happened in when he opened it, did not yet know how our modern courts, on similar occasions. he should act, nor upon whom the perseThe celebrated Eusebius, bishop of Caution should fall. He was not a Chris-Cæsarea, known by his writings, which tran, though he was at the head of the evince no great discernment, strongly acChristians. Baptism alone then consti-cused Eustatius, bishop of Antioch, of trated Christianity, and he had not been being a Sabellian; and Eustatius accused baptized; he had even re-built the Temple Eusebius of being an Arian. A council et Concord at Rome. It was, doubtless, was assembled at Antioch; Eusebius perfectly indifferent to him whether Alex-gained his cause; Eustatius was disander of Alexandria, or Eusebius of placed; and the See of Antioch was Nicomedia, and the priest Arius, were offered to Eusebius, who would not acFight or wrong; it is quite evident, from cept it; the two parties armed against the letter given above, that he had a pro- each other; and this was the prelude to found contempt for the dispute. controversial warfare. Constantine, who But there happened that which always happens and always will happen in every court. The enemies of those who were Eustatius for believing in him;-nor are afterwards named Arians, accused Euse-such revolutions uncommon. bres of Nicomedia by having formerly

Constantine, prodigal as he was of human blood, did not carry his cruelty to so mad and absurd an access, as to order his executioners to assassinate the man who should keep an heretical book, while he suffered the heresiarch to live.

had banished Arius for not believing in the consubstantial son, now banished

St. Athanasius was then bishop of taken part with Licinius against the Em-Alexandria: he would not admit Arius, peror. "I have proofs of it," said whom the Emperor had sent thither, into Constantine in his letter to the church of the town, saying that " Arius was excomNicomedia, "from the priests and dea- municated; that an excommunicated cons in his train whom I have taken, &c." Thus, from the time of the first great or country; that he could neither eat nor council, intrigue, cabal, and persecution sleep anywhere; and that it was better to were established, together with the tenets obey God than man." A new council of the church, without the power to dero-was forthwith held at Tyre, and new gate from their sanctity. Constantine lettres-de-cachet were issued. Athanagave the chapels of those who did not sius was removed by the Tyrian fathers, believe in the consubstantiality, to those and banished to Treves. Thus Arius, who did believe in it; confiscated the pro-and Athanasius his greatest enemy, were perty of the dissenters to his own profit, condemned in turn by a man who was and used his despotic power to exile Arius not yet a Christian. and his partisans, who were not then the The two factions alike employed artistrongest. It has even been said, that office, fraud, and calumny, according to the his own private authority, he condemned old and eternal usage. Constantine left to death whosoever should not burn the them to dispute and cabal, for he had writings of Arius; but this is not true. other occupations. It was at that time

man ought no longer to have either home

that this good prince assassinated his son, his wife, and his nephew, the young Licinius, the hope of the empire, who was not yet twelve years old.

Under Constantine, Arius's party was constantly victorious. The opposite party have unblushingly written, that one day St. Macarius, one of the most ardent followers of Athanasius, knowing that Arius was on the way to the cathedral of Con-3 stantinople, followed by several of his brethren, prayed so ardently to God to confound this heresiarch, that God could not resist the prayer and immediately all Arius's bowels passed through his fundament-which is impossible. But at length Arius died.

reigned in Italy, Illyria, and Africa, as guardian of the young Valentinian, proscribed the great Council of Nice; and soon after, the Goths, Vandals, and Burgundians, who spread themselves over so many provinces, finding Arianism established in them, embraced it in order to govern the conquered nations by the religion of those nations.

But the Nicean faith having been received by the Gauls, their conqueror Clovis followed that communion for the very same reason that the other Barbarians had professed the faith of Arius.

In Italy, the great Theodoric kept peace between the two parties; and, at last, the Nicean formula prevailed in the

Constantine followed him a year after-East and in the West. wards; and, it is said, he died of leprosy. Julian, in his Cæsars, says that baptism, which this emperor received a few hours before his death, cured no one of this distemper.

As his children reigned after him, the flattery of the Roman people, who had long been slaves, was carried to such an excess, that those of the old religion made him a god, and those of the new made him a saint. His feast was long kept, together with that of his mother.

Arianism re-appeared about the middle of the sixteenth century, favoured by the religious disputes which then divided Europe; and it re-appeared, armed with new strength and a still greater incredulity. Forty gentlemen of Vicenza formed an academy, in which such tenets only were established as appeared necessary to make men Christians. Jesus was acknowledged as the Word, as Saviour, and as judge; but his divinity, his consubstantiality, and even the Trinity, were denied.

After his death, the troubles occasioned by the single word consubstantial, agitated Of these dogmatisers, the principal the empire with renewed violence. Con- were Lælius, Socinus, Ochin, Pazuta, stantius, son and successor to Constantine, and Gentilis, who were joined by Serimitated all his father's cruelties, and like vetus. The unfortunate dispute of the him held councils; which councils ana- latter with Calvin is well known; they thematized one another. Athanasius went carried on for some time an interchange over all Europe and Asia, to support his of abuse by letter, Servetus was so imparty; but the Eusebians overwhelmed prudent as to pass through Geneva, on him. Banishment, imprisonment, tumult, his way to Germany. Calvin was cowardly murder, and assassination, signalized the enough to have him arrested, and barbarclose of the reign of Constantius. Julian, ous enough to have him condemned to be the Church's mortal enemy, did his ut- roasted by a slow fire-the same punishmost to restore peace to the Church, but ment which Calvin himself had narrowly was unsuccessful. Jovian, and after him escaped in France. Nearly all the theoValentinian, gave entire liberty of con-logians of that time were by turns perscience; but the two parties accepted it secuting and persecuted, executioners and only as the liberty to exercise their hatred victims. and their fury.

Theodosius declared for the Council of Nice: but the Empress Justina, who

The same Calvin solicited the death of Gentilis at Geneva. He found five advocates to subscribe that Gentilis deserved

to perish in the flames. Such horrors were worthy of that abominable age. Gentilis was put in prison, and was on the point of being burnt like Servetus: but he was better advised than the Spaniard; he retracted, bestowed the most ridiculous praises on Calvin, and was saved. But he had afterwards the il-fortune, through not having made terms with a bailiff of the canton of Berne, to be arrested as an Arian. There were witnesses, who deposed that he had said that the words, trinity, essence, hypostasis, were not to be found in the Scriptures; and, on this deposition, the judges, who were as ignorant of the meaning of hypostasis as himself, condemned him, without at all arguing the question, to lose his head.

covered by Newton, and the metaphysical wisdom of Locke. Disputes on consubstantiality appear very dull to philosophers. The same thing happened to Newton in England as to Corneille in France, whose Pertharite, Théodore, and Récueil de Vers, were forgotten, while Cinna was alone thought of. Newton was looked upon as God's interpreter, in the calculation of fluxions, the laws of gravitation, and the nature of light. On his death, his pall was borne by the peers and the chancellor of the realm, and his remains were laid near the tombs of the kings-than whom he is more revered. Servetus, who is said to have discovered the circulation of the blood, was roasted by a slow fire, in a little town of the Allobroges, ruled by a theologian of Picardy.

ARISTEAS.

Faustus Socinus, nephew to Lælius Socinus, and his companions, were more fortunate in Germany; they penetrated into Silesia and Poland, founded churches SHALL men for ever be deceived in the there, wrote, preached, and were success-most indifferent as well as the most seriful: but at length, their religion being divested of almost every mystery, and a philosophical and peaceful rather than a militant sect, they were abandoned; and the jesuits, who had more influence, persecuted and dispersed them.

The remains of this sect in Poland, Germany, and Holland, keep quiet and concealed; but. in England, the sect has re-appeared with greater strength and erlat. The great Newton and Locke embraced it. Samuel Clarke, the celebrated rector of St. James's, and author of an excellent book on the existence of God, openly declared himself an Arian, and his disciples are very numerous. He would never attend his parish church on the day when the Athanasian Creed was recited. In the course of this work will be seen, the subtleties which all these obstinate persons, who were not so much Christians as philosophers, opposed to the purity of the Catholic faith."

Although among the theologians of London there was a large flock of Arians, the public mind there has been more occupied by the great mathematical truths dis

ous things? A pretended Aristeas would make us believe that he had the Old

Testament translated into Greek for the use of Ptolemy Philadelphus-just as the Duke de Montausier had commentaries written on the best Latin authors for the use of the Dauphin, who made no use of them.

According to this Aristeas, Ptolemy, burning with desire to be acquainted with the Jewish books, and to know those laws which the meanest Jew in Alexandria could have translated for fifty crowns, determined to send a solemn embassy to the high-priest of the Jews of Jerusalem; to deliver a hundred and twenty thousand Jewish slaves, whom his father Ptolemy Soter had made prisoners in Judea; and, in order to assist them in performing the journey agreeably, to give them about forty crowns each of our money-amounting in the whole to fourteen millions, four hundred thousand of our livres, or about 567,000l.

Ptolemy did not content himself with this unheard-of liberality: he sent to the temple a large table of massive gold, en

riched all over with precious stones, and of thirty talents of silver-that is, of the had engraved upon it a chart of the Me-weight of about sixty thousand crowns, ander, a river of Phrygia, the course of with ten purple robes, and a hundred which river was marked with rubies and pieces of the finest linen. emeralds. It is obvious how charming such a chart of the Meander must have been to the Jews. This table was loaded with two immense golden vases, still more richly worked. He also gave thirty other golden and an infinite number of silver vases. Never was a book so dearly paid for; the whole Vatican library might be—which adds much to the marvellousness had for a less amount.

Eleazar, the pretended high-priest of Jerusalem, sent ambassadors in his turn, who presented only a letter written_upon fine vellum in characters of gold. It was an act worthy of the Jews, to give a bit of parchment for about thirty millions of livres.

Ptolemy was so much delighted with Eleazar's style, that he shed tears of joy.

The ambassador dined with the king and the chief priests of Egypt. When grace was to be said, the Egyptians yielded the honour to the Jews.

Nearly all this fine story is faithfully repeated by the historian Josephus, who never exaggerates anything. St. Justin improves upon Josephus; he says that Ptolemy applied to King Herod, and not to the high-priest Eleasar. He makes Ptolemy send two ambassadors to Herod

of the tale; for we know that Herod was not born until long after the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus.

It is needless to point out the profusion of anachronisms in these and all such romances, or the swarm of contradictions and enormous blunders into which the Jewish author falls in every sentence: yet this fable was regarded for ages as an incontestable truth; and, the better to exercise the credulity of the human mind, every writer who repeated it added or retrenched in his own way-so that, to believe it all, it was necessary to believe With these ambassadors came seventy- it in a hundred different ways. Some two interpreters, six from each of the smile at these absurdities which whole twelve tribes, who had all learned Greek nations have swallowed, while others sigh perfectly at Jerusalem. It is really a over the imposture. The infinite diversity pity that of these twelve tribes ten were en- of these falsehoods multiplies the followtirely lost, and had disappeared from theers of Democritus and Heraclitus. face of the earth so many ages before; but Eleazar the high-priest, found them again, on purpose to send translators to Ptolemy.

The seventy-two interpreters were shut up in the island of Pharos; each of them completed his translation in seventy-two days, and all the translations were found to be word for word alike. This is called the Septuagint or translation of the Seventy, though it should have been called the translation of the Seventy-two.

As soon as the king had received these books, he worshipped them-he was so good a Jew. Each interpreter received three talents of gold; and there were sent to the high-sacrificer, in return for his parchment, ten couches of silver, a crown of gold, censers and cups of gold, a vase

ARISTOTLE.

Ir is not to be believed that Alexander's preceptor, chosen by Philip, was wrong-headed and pedantic. Philip was assuredly a judge, being himself wellinformed, and the rival of Demosthenes in eloquence.

Aristotle's Logic.

Aristotle's logic- his art of reasoning, is so much the more to be esteemed, as he had to deal with the Greeks, who were continually holding captious arguments; from which fault his maste Plato was even less exempt than others.

Take, for example, the article by which in the Phædon, Plato proves the immor tality of the soul: