detain you no longer in the demonstration of what you should not do, but straight conduct you to a hill-side, where I will point you out the right path of a virtuous and noble education, laborious, indeed, at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming. I doubt not but ye shall have more ado to drive our dullest and laziest youth, our stocks and stubs, from the infinite desire of such happy nurture, than we have now to hale and drag our choicest and hopefullest wits to that asinine feast of sow-thistles and brambles which is commonly set before them, as all the food and entertainment of their tenderest and most docible age." Yet, after all that teaching can do, upon your own aptitude to apprehend what is taught, and your readiness and skill in applying it, will, under God, depend your success; and these, again, will, in a great measure, depend upon your attention, and thoughtfulness, and patient industry. You have not commenced, and will 'not carry on your studies here, in mere reliance on your own strength: you hope and trust in God, that He will afford you help. I have just quoted Milton : I will refer to him again. He says that he sought preparation for his great work, not only by "industrious and select reading, steady observation, and insight into all seemly and generous arts and affairs," "but by devout prayer to that eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out His seraphim with the hallowed fire of His altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom He pleases." You will seek Divine help by prayer; and that which made Milton great, you may confidently hope, will make you eminently useful. But prayer, to be acceptable to God, must proceed from a heart pure, devout, believing: therefore, among your other cares while you are here, this, I hope, will be your prime one,―to cultivate and "keep your heart with all diligence;" and of all your exercises this will be your principal one,-to "exercise yourselves unto godliness."

HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY.

THE great leading doctrine of the Eastern Sages was that of EMANATION. They held the existence of one great Author and Father of things, by whose providence the world is governed, who is the source of all intelligence, and the origin of all the order and beauty existing in the universe. This Supreme Being they regarded as the fountain of those inferior divinities whom they supposed to preside over all parts of the material world, these being of several orders,-gods, demons, and heroes; and probably divided into subordinate classes, as their practice of theurgy or magic required. Among these spiritual substances, or emanations, they supposed the soul of man to hold an intermediate place. From this doctrine sprang their views with reference to the immortality of the soul; a doctrine universally believed among the nations of the East. They were not so certain with reference to the place of the soul's abode after death. The prevailing opinion was, that the souls of the good take up their abode in the stars, where they shall remain until re-united to their original source; and that, on the other hand, the souls of the wicked pass into the bodies of the inferior animals, until, by a series of purgations, they are at length purified, and also rendered worthy of an abode in the stars.

Thus early do we recognise the doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls; a doctrine frequently employed and adopted by the philosophers and poets of later times. Pythagoras, the founder of the Italic school, embraced the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and forbad, in consequence, the use of animals for food and sacrifices. It appears, from the "Timæus," that Plato held the same doctrine. Similar views, with certain variations, are also incidentally introduced into his "Phædrus," while in his "Phædo" he represents Socrates as holding the same opinion. Empedocles, one of the followers of Pythagoras, but who flourished after the death of that great philosopher, VOL. XVIII. Second Series.

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taught that in the course of those transmigrations to which human souls are liable, they may inhabit not only other human bodies, and the bodies of animals, but also those of plants.

The theology of the nations of the East sprang from their philosophy. This fact furnishes an easy explanation of their modes of worship. Holding the doctrine of emanation, and supposing that the heavenly bodies were endowed with the largest share of the Divine principle, those luminaries became, by a very natural process, the objects of their veneration. Hence the popular religion of the nations of the East consisted in the worship of the sun, moon, stars, and plants, as divinities. The Patriarch Job, who flourished during the times now under consideration, in the celebrated protestation of his own integrity, disavows all connexion with such idolatrous practices. "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." (Job xxxi.)

This system of worship gave rise in its turn to two arts for which the nations of the East were highly celebrated,— magic and astrology.

Their arts of magic consisted in the performance of certain religious ceremonies, which were supposed, through the intervention of good demons, to exercise a beneficial effect. Of the reputation of the eastern magicians at the courts of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, the sacred Scriptures afford abundant evidence. It appears that the Kings of both Chaldea and Persia were instructed in the arts of magic before ascending the throne; such arts being thought to be a useful instrument of government among a people whose ignorance and credulity rendered them easy subjects of imposition. "At fourteen years of age, those who are called the royal preceptors take the boy under their care. Now these are chosen from such as are deemed the most excellent of the Persians,-four in number. The first of these instructs the youth in the learning of the Magi

according to Zoroaster." The magic of the Chaldeans consisted in the performance of certain religious ceremonies, paid to good demons, by whom supernatural powers were supposed to be communicated to herbs, stones, and other substances. Among the Persians it appears to have consisted of magic incantations, the interpretation of dreams, and other superstitious rites. Plato makes several allusions to this art; and Juvenal alludes to the old superstition that eclipses of the moon are caused by magic, and that a loud noise is sufficient to break the charm. When speaking of a loud and clamorous woman, he says, "Henceforth let no one trouble trumpets or brazen vessels: she will be able singly to relieve the moon when suffering an eclipse."+

The astrology of the nations of the East was founded on the principle that the stars exercise either a beneficial or malignant influence on the affairs of men; and that this can in certain cases be discovered, and made the ground of prediction. The stars, as already intimated, were supposed to be endowed with the largest share of the Divine principle; and might, therefore, be easily supposed to exercise such an influence as that which their astrology recognised. The implicit credit which the Chaldean Priests obtained among the people in later times is remarked by Juvenal, "But their confidence in Chaldeans will be greater still: whatever the astrologer tells them, they will believe reported straight from the fountain of Ammon; since at Delphi the oracles are dumb, and darkness, as to the future, is the punishment of the human race."|| Horace, also, makes a sensible reflection, on the same absurd science: "Seek not to know, Leuconoë, (for 'twere impious,) how long a term of life the gods have granted to you or to me: neither consult the Chaldean calculations (neu Babylonios

• Plato, Alcib., i.

↑ Alcib., i. Meno, Cratylus, Phædrus, Theætetus.

1 Satire vi., 442.

I Satire vi., 553.

tentáris numeros). How much better it is to bear with patience whatever is to happen.”*

The doctrines of the Persian Zoroaster were a slight refinement on those of the eastern philosophers. He taught that there is more than one mind at the head of the universe; that good and evil are blended together, and that nature produces no theory unmixed. He taught that there are two conflicting principles,-Oromasdes and Arimanes: the former being the author of good, and the latter of evil; and that as either of these prevails, light or darkness, good or evil, is in the ascendancy. He also taught that both these principles sprang from a superior divinity, called Mithras; the first being nearly, and the latter more remotely, related to him. These views of Zoroaster made much noise in the world, and raised their author to a distinguished celebrity, though but a slight improvement on the doctrines of the Sages of the East.

HISTORY OF THE JEWS AT ROME.

EVER since Pompey (about seventy-nine years before Christ) entered Jerusalem, and set his profane foot within the sacred precincts of the temple, that city has been more or less connected with Rome and its history. At all events, from that time there are traces of Jews being settled at Rome. Certain it seems that Pompey brought the first Jewish slaves to Rome, and that from his time Jewish freemen were heard of at his residence. Nothing indicates their having been in any way molested as to the exercise of their religious rites, or that their religious persuasion was looked upon as a particular hinderance to their residence.

• Lib. i., Od. xi.-Juvenal also speaks in his sixth Satire of the "Calcula tions of Thrasyllus," the astrologer, under whom Tiberius studied the Chaldean art at Rhodes, (Tac. Ann., vi.,) in allusion to the calculations of astronomical tables employed for casting nativities, and ascertaining the fortunate and unfortunate days of life, and called "Numeri Thrasylli;" "Chaldaicæ rationes;" "Numeri Babylonii." Cic. de Div., ii., 47.