raise him from the lowest place on the form. But, nothing daunted, he procured the grammars and other elementary books which his class-fellows had gone through in previous

terms. He devoted the hours of play, and not a few of the hours of sleep, to the mastering of these; till, in a few weeks, he gradually began to rise; and it was not long till he shot far a-head of all his companions, and became not only dux of that division, but the pride of Harrow. That boy, whose career began with this fit of energetic application, you may see his statue in St. Paul's cathedral to-morrow; for he lived to be the greatest oriental scholar of modern Europe, and most of you have heard the name of Sir William Jones. God denies nothing in the way of learning to well-directed diligence. It is possible that you may be rather depressed than stimulated when asked to contemplate some first-rate name in literature or science. When you see the lofty pinnacle of attainment on which that name is now reposing, you feel as if it had been created there rather than had travelled thither. No such thing. The most illustrious in the annals of philosophy, once on a time, knew no more of it than you now do. And how did he arrive at his peerless proficiency? By dint of diligence, by downright pains-taking. When Newton was asked how he came by those discoveries which looked like divination, or intuitions of a higher intelligence, rather than the results of mere research, he declared that he could not otherwise account for them unless it were that he could pay longer attention to the subject than most men cared to do. In other words, it was by diligence in his business that he became the most renowned of British sages. The discovery of gravitation, the grand secret of the universe, was not whispered in his ear by any oracle. It did not drop into his idle lap a windfall from the clouds. But he reached it by self-denying toil, by midnight study, by the large command of accurate science, and by bending all his powers of mind in the one direction, and keeping them thus bent. And whatever may be the subject of your pursuit, if you have any natural aptitude for it at all, there is no limit to your proficiency except the limits of your own pains-taking. There is no wishing-cap which will fetch you knowledge from the east

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THE Sieur Mezeray, in his " of azob France," relates anecdote of Pepin le Bref, the founder of second dynasty of French Sovereigns, the Carlovingian which suceded to the Merovingian, strikingly illustrative of the cause of the influence which one e man possesses over his fellows. Pepin, being of a low stature, his nobles had not that respect for him which he considered to be his due. Perceiving this, he resolved show them that he had more strength both of mind and body, than many of greater bulk, who have often only the outward appearance of bravery. In that day, much, delight was taken in combats of wild beasts, and the Monarchs were accustomed not only only to furnish public exhibitions of them, but have them more privately in their own p palaces occasion, at the Abbey of Ferrières, Pepin being there, there was a combat between a furious lion and a bull." The lion having seized the bull by the neck, Pepin called on the lords around him, for one of their number to descend into theds arena where the furious strugg struggle was going on, and make the lion let go his hold: Not one, however, had courage Ce to expose to bis adt himself to the peril which such a task implied. Pepin, perceiving this, looked round on them, drew his sword, sprang from the platform on which the spectators were standing, and approaching the enraged combatants, struck the lion with" such force and skill, , that he severed his head from his bos body, at the same time deeply wounding ounding the neck o of the bull. wist do Returning to his place, he said to the surrounding and

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THE LIGHT OF NATURE.

18

CICERO'S TREATISE ON THE NATURE OF THE GODS. ONE of the most important of the works which have come down to us from heathen antiquity, is the treatise of Cicero, "De Natura Deorum,"—"Concerning the Nature of the Gods." We are of opinion that it will be interesting, as well as profitable, to the older and more thoughtful class of our readers, to furnish them, in the course of the present volume, with some account of it, perhaps illustrated by a few extracts. Tog speak generally, it consists of several conversations on the subject, such as we may suppose would be held by Heathens themselves, Heathens with their own habits of thought, unenlightened, unguided by the teachings of divine revelation. Even in our own day we hear much of the powers of reason. It is one thing to exercise these powers in the light of a teaching directly from heaven, by which, ideas of truth are, from the first, communicated; so that we may, not recognising what yet is undeniably the fact, attribute to reason what in reality belongs to revelation, and another, and a very different, thing to exercise them in their own natural condition, unenlightened, unstrengthened by a revelation which comes to the aid of our infancy, and implants the ideas of truth long before we even suspect the difference between truth and error. We often talk of reason, and forget that before our reason could begin its task of discovery, the great principles of truth were given to it; given to it so early that they are often. attributed to its own researches; because, so soon as we begin to think, we find within us certain objects of thought, while we ve overlook the fact the fact that we should not have had them had

they not first been communicated to us. Had we learned them later, we should have known that we had learned them; and the very fact by which our gratitude should be excited, becomes the occasion of our unthankfulness, our self-confidence, and our pride. We fancy that our knowledge is original, because our teaching began at a period which our memory cannot reach. He who was born in the midst of Christian light, sees what otherwise would have been utterly undiscernible; and when he grows up, he speaks of the discovering powers of natural reason, and quotes himself as an example. The question is, What can the eye perceive in the total absence of sun-light? and the answer is not furnished by optical experiments performed in the blaze of noonday.

Here, therefore, is the value of Cicero's work. The experiment is performed under its proper conditions: it is performed as an experiment. And the result may be stated beforehand, by saying, that now, the child who has been taught by its peasant-mother to lisp, "Our Father, which art in heaven,” and who has only had the peasant-measure of instruction on the subjects thus suggested, not only can speak more correctly, but connects with its language clearer ideas, than Cicero could form or express after all his laboriously-conducted researches. Do we ask the reason? Two texts explain the whole subject. "The world by wisdom knew not God." "From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

For the sake of our older and more thoughtful readers, (as we have already said,) we think of furnishing two or three papers, in the course of the present volume, which will in some measure show them how a Heathen-a very gifted and eloquent Heathen-thought and spoke on these subjects in his actually heathen circumstances. It is easy for men like Lord Herbert, (of Cherbury,) or David Hume, to speak about the light of nature. They cannot rid themselves of the light of revelation; and they are, therefore, incompetent witnesses in the case. We ask what the eye can see without a certain light; and they tell us what their eyes can see with it. They may be honest witnesses; but they are very injudicious, to say the least. It is a suspicious circumstance that they are so

ready to claim for themselves what a moment's reflection would show them does not belong to them.

A French translation of Cicero's work was published a little more than a century ago, by "Monsieur l'Abbé d'Olivet, de l'Academie Françoise." Two or three discourses, of different kinds, are prefixed to his translation. The title of the largest is, "Remarques sur la Théologie des Philosophes Grecs." From this we make an extract, which we commend to the prayerful consideration of the reader.

The Abbé thus sums up the statements he has made on the theology of the philosophers, so far as it is exhibited by Cicero in the present work :

"All the ancient philosophers might have made this profession of faith, I believe the existence of a God. But their language would by no means have expressed what would be its meaning in the mouth of a Jew, or of a Christian. If we reduce to their just value the terms they employ, we shall find that this profession, in the mouth of Strato, or of Epicurus, signifies, I believe the existence of an inanimate nature. Spoken by a Stoic, its meaning would be, I believe the existence of an intelligent, but material, principle. While Anaxagoras or Plato would say, I believe the existence of an infinite Spirit, who has FORMED, but not CREATED, the universe.

"Thus, when we logically resolve the general profession to its real signification, we find that it never corresponds with the ideas of which it would be the expression if used by ourselves; and the meaning changes with the speaker.

"And with such an act of faith, what other acts could be connected in reference to such gods as were professedly acknowledged? What act of love, of adoration, of submission, of trust, of gratitude, of hope, of reverence? What philosopher could even have said to his disciples, 'But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him?' Nay, the very intention of these false sages was to stifle that fear of God which with us is the beginning of wisdom. They taught that the gods troubled not themselves concerning men, and exercised no moral government over them; punishing them (using the word properly) neither here nor hereafter.