its absence, they acknowledged the necessity of its influence. At length, the fuel began to fail, and the fires to go out. The wicked lived and died in works of darkness, in fury, and violence, and terror. The virtuous few that still remained, wandered up and down, a prey to all they met, and sought in vain for light. The moon, pitying their undeserved sufferings, and fearing the total extinction of human nature, sent a message by a comet, which approached the most distant part of the orbit, acquainting her brother with the state of human affairs, and beseeching him to return, if not to save a race ungrateful to him, yet, at least, for the preservation of those who loved the light, and lived a life becoming it. The sun,' says the chronicle,' moved with compassion, and hoping that the miseries man had suffered by the absence of his rays, would have subdued his inordinate passions, and disposed him to a more decent conduct, set out again for this world; and, as he drew nearer, the heavens, to the eastward, shone with glorious light, and glowed with unusual heat. Lest he should surprise and dazzle the world, by a sudden and unexpected arrival, he sent the morning star before him, as his harbinger, to prepare his way; which the eastern astronomers no sooner observed, but they published the glad tidings, to the great comfort of the good, and the no small dismay of the evil. However, notwithstanding this preparation, there were but few, even of those who wished for his return, who could bear the brightness of the day-spring when it visited them; so tender had the long continued darkness rendered their eyes. It was some time before they could inure themselves to the strong beams of light that shone so powerfully on them. There were numbers whom the length of night had entirely blinded, who comprehended not the light, but attributed their stumbling and straying to a continuation of darkness, when it was really owing to a defect in their own optics. All nature welcomed the return of the sun with a joyful salutation, except the owls, and beasts, and men of prey, who had tyrannized in the dark. The lions, the tigers, the bears, and the wolves, betook themselves to their dark caves and gloomy dens, because their deeds were evil. The more subtle serpent put on a shining garment, which it pretended to have borrowed from the new beams of the morning, and practised its frauds in

daylight. The more impudent vulture and hawk, stayed and out-faced the sun, directing themselves by its light in the bloody deeds they coinmitted. Among men, some roused by its arrival, rejoiced, and went forth to their honest labours in the vineyard, or among their folds, whilst others took the advantage of it, to oppress their neighbours with open robberies and cruel wars; and, when it served them ill for such purposes, they reviled it, and wished that those clouds which it had raised, might shut out its light from the world, or entirely extinguish it. At length there arose a sect of philosophers, falsely so called, who endeavoured to prove, that the sun was of bad consequence to the happiness of the world.

'They bade their disciples observe how its heat sublimed the poison of the baneful weed, giving growth to the horrid bramble and the prickly thorn; but took no notice of its calling forth the useful tree, with the wholesome herb, and clothing nature in its splendid attire of flowers, perfumed with ten thousand odours. They accused it with causing calentures and fevers, ungratefully forgetting that it had removed those numberless disorders that proceeded from the immoderate cold, and the damp vapours. They made it the cause of putrefaction and stench in pools and fens, without considering that its genial heat ferments the warm spirits and volatile odours of the spices. They were too shortsighted, to see the remote benefit of those seeming or immediate inconveniences that attended the influence of the sun. They could not dive so far into nature, as to find out the secret properties of things, and therefore did not consider, that what is hurtful in one case, is most useful in another, for which it is peculiarly designed. They taught that it was the source of violent passions and madness, without remembering that, whilst it gently softened and warmed the material world, it infused a sympathetic tenderness and mildness into the intellectual. They apprehended it would set the world on fire, because it had thawed its ice. They contemplated the comets with more pleasure, and commended them as brighter luminaries than the sun. They admired the meteors, as infinitely more glorious than the source of day. They said, the sun was the prison of impious souls, and that its light was elaborated by fiends,

ascribing all the wonders it performs in this world, to the devils that work in its flery furnace. Nay, they cursed the moon and the planets, for no other reason, but because they borrowed their light from the sun. Some of them lighted up candles at noon-day, and pretending to do their evil deed by those, ascribed all the light about them, each to his own glimmering taper. Others maintained, that the eye itself was a luminous body, endued with innate light; by the emanations of which, they said, vision was performed; and that it was not only superfluous, but dangerous to let in the adventitious light of the sun, lest it should extinguish the natural rays of the eye. All this, and a great deal more they urged, because the daylight was an enemy to their works of darkness. The all-seeing sun was not ignorant of their hypocrisy, their ingratitude, and malice; but he neither approached to set them on fire, nor retired again to leave them in darkness; he only said,

'My sister moves and shines on, without being disturbed or detained by the ill humour of those curs, who bark at her from the earth. In like manner, I shall pour out my heat and light promiscuously on all, on the evil as well as the good, that whilst it directs and comforts these, it may be a continual witness against those. My influence is good in itself, and its lustre glorious, as well when it shines on a dunghill, as when it paints the radiant bow in the clouds. I decree, that my rays shall be to every man, as he is disposed to receive them; good to the good, according to his nature; and evil to the evil, according to his. Whilst they shall enable some to see, they shall deprive others of their sight, who have a previous disposition to blindness. Whilst they direct and enlighten the upright, in his honest calling, and are a blessing to him, they shall detect and accuse the fraudulent, and bring a curse on his ways. They are calculated for good, and by nature fitted for that only, yet they may be turned aside, from the direct pursuit of that end, and made to co-operate with evil causes in perpetrating works of darkness. They are, by nature, the vehicles of truth, although demons may array themselves in robes of light in order to deceive.'

ALLUSION VII.

No city was more commodiously situated, governed by wiser laws, nor inhabited by a more virtuous and courageous people, than Hierapolis. The consequences of this were, that, in the space of about three hundred years, it became mistress of many nations, and gained ground apace in all the other parts of the known world. It did not long enjoy this power, until it began to abuse it. Luxury, which subdues even conquerors, supported by wealth and ease, spread apace among the Hierapolitans, banished the original simplicity of their manners, and substituted foppery and vanity in the place of it. This corruption of manners was soon followed by an affectation of useless niceties and novelties in knowledge, and by false politics. Hence it came to pass, that, in a little time, the laws, although as intelligible as common sense itself, and as determinate as the utmost caution could make them, began to be variously interpreted; insomuch, that they were forced, by an infinity of glosses, to speak the language of artifice and faction; nay, and of contradiction too, oftener than that of truth and justice. This clogged the wheels of the government; and, what was worse, turned them aside from the right way. Different parties founded themselves on different interpretations. Folly, enthusiasm, and fraud, had each its own interpreters, to extract such opinions from the laws, while they were forced to pass through bad heads and worse hearts, as threw all into confusion, and stopped the progress of their arms abroad, and shed their blood within the walls in mutual slaughter and destruction.

At length, one party, growing more powerfulthan the rest, engrossed the revenues of the city, new modelled the body of the laws, adding or taking away what they thought proper, imposing their own sense of what remained, and prohibiting, under severe penalties, the popular perusal of the laws themselves. This party chose a head, whom they called Dictator, and on him conferred an unlimited power to impose such interpretations of the laws, as he pleased, on the Hierapolitans, and to govern them at his own discretion.

This tyrant, thus invested with the supreme authority, changed the name of the city, and called it after his own, Dictatoria. He also contrived a very horrible kind of dungeon, to which he confined all such persons, as presumed either to read the ancient laws, or dispute his absolute authority, in any case. There was a kind of press in this dungeon, in which the party offending being placed, his fortune, his conscience, or his life, were squeezed out of him. He erected public stews, from whence he drew considerable revenues. To conclude, he made miserable slaves of the poor Dictatorians, who were so enervated by luxury and vice of every kind, and so entirely broken by the power of this tyrant, that they had no strength nor inclination to resist him.

At length his folly, his insolence, and his exactions, becoming intolerable, the few who remained still uncorrupted and unenslaved agreed to quit the city, and commit themselves to the sea, in quest of some new country, where they might settle and govern themselves, by the ancient Hierapolitan laws, purged from all abuses, and laid open to every member of the community. There were no more of these found than three or four ships were sufficient to receive. These vessels had scarcely provided themselves with necessaries, and put from shore, when the alarm of their departure was given; upon which the tyrant, ordered out to the pursuit, as many Dictatorian galleys as could be got ready. But a storm arising, and they being ill provided, as putting out in haste, and little acquainted with the service, were all lost, but a few; which, being for several days tossed about by the storm, happened to meet, and come to an cngagement with the adventurers, who easily defeated them, for they had none but Dictatorian slaves on board. The adventurers, rejoicing in this victory, as a happy presage of their future fortunes, pursued their course, as well as the storm, which was now less violent, would permit. Their captains knew well how to govern, and their pilots to steer. Their sailors plied upon deck with diligence, and were eager to assist and relieve each other. However, as there was not a sufficient number of experienced seamen, to man all the vessels, some of them were wrought by passengers and sailors in conjunction, which occasioned great disor