THINKINGS, FROM JAMES BURGH,

(Author of "The Dignity of Human Nature.")

THE PEOPLE THE SOURCE OF POWER.-All lawful authority, legislative, and executive, originates from the people. Power in the people is like light in the sun -native, original, inherent, and unlimited by any thing human. In governors, it may be compared to the reflected light of the moon; for it is only borrowed, delegated, and limited by the intention of the people, whose it is and to whom governors are to consider themselves as responsible, while the people are answerable only to God; themselves being the losers, if they pursue a false scheme of politics. As the people are the fountain of power, so are they the object of government, in such manner, that where the people are safe, the ends of government are answered, and where the people are sufferers by their governors, those governors have failed in the main design of their institution, and it is of no importance what other ends they may have answered. As the people are the fountain of power, and the object of government, so are they the last resource when governors betray their trust; and happy is that people, who originally have so principled their constitution, that they themselves can, without violence to it, lay hold of its power, wield it as they please, and turn it (when necessary) against those to whom it was entrusted, and who have exerted it to the prejudice of the original proprietors.

ON RETIRING FROM BUSINESS.-As on the one haud it is olious for a man of an overgrown fortune to go on in business to a great age, still striving to increase a heap already larger than is necessary, to the prejudice of younger people, who ought to have a clear stage and opportunity of making their way in life; so it is vain for a person, who has spent his days in an active sphere, to think of enjoying retirement, before the time of retirement is come. He who resolves at once to change his way of life from action to retirement, or from one state to another directly contrary, without being prepared for it by proper age and habit, for some continuance of time, will find, that he will no sooner have quitted his former way of life, than he will desire to be in it again.

It is on this, as well as other accounts, of great advantage, that a man have acquired some turn for reading, and the more sober entertainments of life, in his earlier days. There is not a much more deplorable sort of existence than that which is dragged on by an old man, whose mind is destitute of the materials proper for yielding him some entertainment suitable to the more sedate time of life; I mean, useful knowledge. For the remembrance of fifty years spent in scraping of money, or in pursuing pleasure, or in indulging vicious inclinations, must yield but poor entertainment at a time of life, when a man can at best say, he has been. THE VIRTUES PRACTISED BY THE HEATHENS.-There is not a virtue which the Heathens have not shown to be practicable. Do not pretend that it is impossible for a Christian to forgive injuries, when we know, that Phocion, going to suffer death unjustly, charged it upon his son, with his last breath, that he should show no resentment against his father's persecutors. Do not excuse yourself in giving up the truth, through fear of offending those on whom you depend, when you know that Attilius Regulus gave himself up to tortures, and death, rather than falsify his word even to his enemies. Do not excuse yourself from a little expense, trouble, or hazard of ill-will, for the general good, when you know, that a Leonidas, a Calpurnius Flamma, the Decii, and hundreds more, voluntarily devoted themselves to destruction, to save their country. If you pretend to be a Christian, that is, to profess the most pure and most sublime principles in the world, do not infamously fall short of the perfection of unenlightened Heathens.

TIMES AND OPPORTUNITIES.-As we ought to be more frugal of our time than our money, the one being infinitely more valuable than the other, so ought we to be particularly watchful of opportunities. There are times and seasons proper for every purpose of life; and a very material part of prudence it is to judge lightly of them, and make the best of them. If you have, for example, a favour to ask of a phlegmatic, gloomy man, take him, if you can, over his bottle. If you want to deal with a covetous man, by no means propose your business to him immediately after he has been paying away money, but rather after he has been receiving. If you know a person, for whose interest you have occasion, who is unhappy in his family, put yourself in his way abroad, rather than wait on him at his own house.

"OH, GIVE US REST."

Oh! give us rest! the idler cries,
Why all this turmoil, all this din?
This useless work? Our energies

Are vain; removeless is the sin.
Come let us rest, why moil and toil;
Too many weeds choke up the soil.
Come, let us rest; the coward's tongue
Re-echoes back the craven cry;
Improveless is the vulgar throng;

That let the wild enthusiast try.
Yes, let us rest; I have no pride,
In stemming thus against the tide.
Come let us rest, the despot says,

And freely joins the dulcet strain;
O give us rest! few are our days;
Why lessen them with needless pain?
Come sit thee down, the easiest way,
Is, still unquestioned, to obey.
Birmingham.

Ay, let us rest! the traitor's voice

Then swells the burden of the song.
Come eat and drink, laugh and rejoice;

For man is weak, and death is strong.
Let dreamers prate of race and kind,
And labour on, while rest we find.
Rest! rest! O God. that such there are,

Who ask for rest upon this earth!
While wealth exists with want and woe,

And every hour new crimes have birth.
Oh, rest not! till removed each wrong!
The weak yet suffer from the strong.
'Tis sacrilege to talk of rest,

While man's humanity is stained;
While still oppressors and opprest,

Against each other are arraigned.
On such an earth no rest I crave,
Until I sleep within the grave.

JOHN ALFRED LANGFORD.

Leicester.

FEBRUARY.

Ungenial as thou art, O February!

Thine is the short'ning of the shadows bleak.
Oft, too, is seen, as thy cold features vary,
The vernal tinge, full-rosy, on thy cheek.
Now, waft thee hither, little lightsome fairy!
Each op'ning bud which rainbow beamlets streak;
Chase through earth's pores the vegetable sap;
And wake the myriad tribes that dose in Torpor's lap.

I love ye, vales, when spring's first influence

Quickens the moss-beds; and the feeble bleat
Of lamb is heard; and, round decaying fence,
Young peasant children, gathering fuel, meet:
I love ye, hills, in wild magnificence,

When the dark storm-cloud, rising from its seat,
O'ershadoweth all below, its tow'ring crest

In azure lost-oh, then, I feel enraptured, blest!

When green leaves grace, or, withered, strow the bowers—
From baleful factory far, to roam among

Thy scenes, old Charnwood, musing lone for hours;
To give each season, as it rolls, a song ;

To mark thy trees, rocks, ruins, fern and flowers-
"Tis bliss for which a cloistered saint might long ;
Ay, 'tis the silken thread whose soft consistence
Binds, beautifies the woof of my else dark existence !

O February, fickle as a child!

On the pale primrose, first-born of the spring,
Thou smil'st as sweet as love on beauty smiled,

Ere the fond boy and girl knew suffering!

Now dark as Noah's raven, and as wild;

Now, gentle as his dove, thou peace dost bring:
At eve all tranquil, then, ere morn awakes,

Weeping in moodiest woe, or whirled in pothery flakes!

Nay, lo! e'en now, the sun doth shroud in gloom,
And changeth fast the landscape's every feature ;

A gath'ring chillness, dreary as the tomb,

Creeps, like a dismal nightmare, o'er all nature;
The fays return to where the orient bloom

Of summer's presence blesseth every creature!
Me th' abhorr'd frame re-calls! Dark spirits near,
Sing dissonant and loud in stormy orchestre !

WILLIAM JONES,

Choose the path of Right, man ;
Think out the Truth and tell it ;
Drag Error to the light, man,

And then we can expel it.

Heed not the curling sneer, man,
Nor thoughtless Fashion's frown;
Be bold and be sincere, man,

And both will soften down.

In word and deed be true, man;
Fear not what others say,
But stedfastly pursue, man,
The tenor of thy way.

HINTS.

Go forward with the band, man,
Of the noble, brave, and free,
And firmly take thy stand, man,
To fight for liberty.

Let churlish Envy die, man ;

All selfish passion smother;
And look with gentle eye, man,

On the weakness of thy brother,

Have faith in moral power, man—
Faith in the growth of mind;
Hope for the glorious hour, man,
That shall strike for human-kind,
FRANK GRANT.

CRITICAL EXEGESIS OF GOSPEL HISTORY,

ON THE BASIS OF STRAUSS'S LEBEN JESU.'

A SERIES OF EIGHT DISCOURSES; DELIVERED AT THE LITERARY INSTITUTION, JOHN STREET, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, AND AT THE HALL OF SCIENCE, CITY ROAD, ON SUNDAY EVENINGS, DURING THE WINTERS OF 1848–9, AND 1849–50.

BY THOMAS COOPER,
Author of The Purgatory of Suicides.'

II. THE BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION OF JESUS.

(Concluded from last number.)

IMMEDIATELY following their narrative of the Baptism the first three Evangelists bring us upon that singlar legend, the Temptation by the Devil: a revelation which has embarassed divines themselves, perhaps more than any other in the Gospels. John not only excludes all mention of it, but excludes the possibility of its occurrence, by leaving no sufficient period for its transaction. John's phrases, the next day, (ch. i. v. 29,) again, the next day, (v. 35,) and again, the next day, (v. 44); and lastly, on the third day, (ch. ii. v. 1.) when the presence of Jesus at the marriage in Cana of Galilee is related-admit of no introduction of the forty days of the Temptation. When the origin of the Fourth Gospel in the circle of Grecian and Platonic ideas, (at Ephesus, according to the tradition) is remembered, we cannot wonder that this legend was rejected by its author or authors,-if they had, indeed, ever heard of it; for it might not be current in the region where the Fourth Gospel was composed.

The forty days' fast first staggers us; but still more the personal appearance of the devil; and, above all, his strange feats and his want of the cunning proverbially attached to his character. For the first, we shall soon see a mythic source. For the second-what really intelligent man, in our age, believes in it? What is the Devil, but an assemblage of contradictions? Who does not perceive that as the idea of angels originated in a limited observation of nature, so that of the Devil originated in a limited observation of self? And as our knowledge of human nature progresses, all idea of a Devil must recede farther into the back-ground, and all appeals to his existence be henceforth regarded as the resource of ignorance and sloth. We are accustomed to laugh at the Monkish stories of the Devil, and to remark how deficient they make him in real intelligence. Yet the Devil in this scene of the Temptation is a devil really as stupid as the Monkish fiend. His first suggestion, appealing to hunger, was not so ill-conceived; but as a

skilful tactician, he should have had a yet more alluring temptation at hand. Instead of this, Matthew makes him next propose to Jesus the neck-breaking feat of a leap from the pinnacle of the temple. And to propose to a pious Israelite to fall down and worship the Devil!-truly the imagination of the legend-writer was but poor. But how did Jesus pass with the devil from one place to another? It was all spiritual-all within the mind of Jesus-say some commentators, in their perplexity. But the expressions, the devil takes him-sets him, in Matthew; taking-brought-set, in Luke, bind us to the external. The incredibility of all this, who does not perceive it? And the magical nature of Satan's exhibition of "all the kingdoms of the world, in a moment of time;" (Luke ch. iv. v. 5.)-is anything in the wildest Oriental romance more repugnant to reason ? Lot Strauss reply to the critical apologists for this story :

"The well-known question suggested by the last temptation, as to the situation of the mountain, from whose summit may be seen all the kingdoms of the world, has been met by the information that κóoμos here means no more than Palestine, and Bavideías, its several kingdoms and tetrarchies; but this is a scarcely less ludicrous explanation than the one that the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world on a map! No answer remains but that such a mountain existed only in the ancient idea of the earth as a plain, and in the popular imagination, which can easily stretch a mountain up to heaven, and sharpen an eye to penetrate infinity."

Among the Jews, the Devil was a comparatively late idea: they brought it with them on their return from captivity; for Satan,' the evil being and enemy of mankind, is really borrowed from the Persian religion. Once imported, however, into the popular creed, Satan became with the Jews, the special adversary of Messiah, and the grand Tempter. The idea of temptation was current in their more ancient theology; but not by the Devil: it was attributed to God, Himself: as in the cases of Abraham (Gen. 22 ch. 1 v.,) and of the Israelites (Exod. 16 ch. 4 v.) The change of ideas may be traced. In the second book of Samuel, David's project of numbering the people is attributed to temptation by the Almighty in the Chronicles (written after the captivity) it is placed directly to the account of the Devil. Numerous Rabbinical stories were told also of the Dovil's temptations of Abraham; and, at length, the rabbins created and strengthened the notion that Messiah, like his forerunners would be tempted by Satan. These ideas were common to the religion in which Christianity arose; and it could not be expected to escape from the matrix in which it was formed without this admixture with legend.

:

And the legendary or mythical origin of this story almost suggests itself at the surface of reflection. Both Moses and Elias fasted forty days (forty, a number that was held sacred in Hebrew antiquity!) and Jesus must, in the imagination of his early Jewish followers, fulfil this type. Nay, the people of Israel were tried forty years in the wilderness; and from the type of God's collective son's trial, this 'Temptation in the Wilderness' of Jesus was more peculiarly drawn. The Israelites were chiefly tempted by hunger, during their wanderings in the wilderness; and from the recapitulation of these their trials in the 8th chapter of Deuteronomy-the writer of the legend in the gospels has manifestly taken his idea, for in the 3rd verse will be found the very reply he puts into Christ's mouth, "Man doth not live by bread alone, &c." The two other suggestions of the Devil, in the gospels, are less sagacious, because the legend-writer had to cast about in his own barren intellect to supply them, and then to make quotations' for their support. In conclusion, be it remarked that Matthew and Mark end their story of the Temptation with the appearance of angels

to Jesus, and their refreshing him with nourishment after his long fast: so also Elijah was ministered unto by angels after his forty days' fast; and the manna which appeased the hunger of the Israelites in the wilderness was named angel's food. (Psalm 78, v. 25.) By these methods of dovetailing fragments of the old, is the new legend almost invariably formed.

In the whole story of the Temptation, then, we have no degree of fact: it is no real part of the experience of Jesus of Nazareth. In the history of the Baptism, we have a relation so overloaded with marvellous and mythical additions, that it leaves us in the greatest uncertainty: the fact that Jesus was one of the recipients of John's baptism may be regarded as a real incident in the young Nazarene's life; but that John bore testimony to his Messiahship cannot be received as historical.

Does the character of Christ suffer by our rejection of these parts of evangelical story? What additional dignity does he receive by being thrown into the monstrously absurd situations of the Temptation legend? What increase of authority, as a moral teacher, is given him for us, by the supposed testimony to his Messiahship of John the Baptist? To men living in the nineteenth century, it is the moral excellence of Jesus as an exemplar, it is the consonance of his teachings with the religion of human nature, which must enthrone him in the hearts and minds of his disciples. That these are his indisputable claims to our reverence and love, we shall see in the course of this attempt to analyse his history; but we have still to enter on enquiries of the utmost moment, in which the faculty of reason must operate, rather than our affections. The 'Miracles,' from the importance attached to them in the current Theology, must occupy us at least for the two next Sunday evenings; and I trust that speaker and hearers will alike bring to the examination of these parts of the Gospel narratives, a spirit of candid and yet determined judgment.

Review.

1. Six Prize Essays on the Causes which regulate the Wages of Labour. By Six Working Men of Leicester and of the County.

2. An Essay on the same subject. By JOSEPH BLACK, Framework-knitter,

Leicester.

3. An Essay on the Causes which regulate the Wages of Labour. By THOMAS EMERY, Framework-knitter, Leicester.

THESE essays were produced in Leicester, during last year, in competition for Premiums offered by Mr. William Biggs, Mayor of the Borough. The "Six Prize Essays" were published "under the sanction," and, of course, at the expense, of the "Leicester Chamber of Commerce." The compositions of Mr. Emery and Mr. Black are published at their own expense; and under the conviction of their authors that, although their essays were unsuccessful in winning the prize, the sentiments contained in them ought to have public utterance. The "Six Prize Essays," therefore,-as every reader will expect, -enunciate, generally, such doctrines of orthodox Political Economy as might be expected to meet the approval of a body of employers. The two independent essays utter propositions and arguments which such a body might be expected to regard as heterodox. This is a general statement of the contents of these pamphlets; but it requires some little qualification.

The degree of talent evinced in these compositions is creditable to all the