element of rational liberty, a deep sense of responsibility, is wanting there are no checks to selfishness, no incentives to disinterested conduct. This also was the era of astrologers, sorcerers, and magicians. Lucan introduces the astrologer Figulus, predicting the horrors of the civil wars, and gives a summary of his astrological doctrines, which is a valuable exposition of the nature of that form of superstition, and of the influence which it had acquired in Rome. But Figulus* exclaims (to science bred, And in the gods' mysterious secrets read; Whom nor Egyptian Memphis' sons excelled, Nor with more skill the rolling orb beheld; Well could he judge the labours of the sphere, And calculate the just revolving year): "The stars," he cries," are in confusion hurled, And wandering Error quite misguides the world; Or if the laws of Nature yet remain,

Some swift destruction now the Fates ordain.

But, God of Battles! what dost thou provide,
Who in the threatening scorpion dost preside?
With potent wrath around thy influence streams,
And the whole monster kindles at thy beams:
While Jupiter's more gentle rays decline,
And Mercury with Venus faintly shine;

The wandering lights are darkened all, and gone,
And Mars now lords it o'er the heavens alone.
Orion's starry falchion blazing wide,

Refulgent glitters by his dreadful side.

War comes, and savage slaughter must abound,
The sword of violence shall right confound;

The blackest crimes fair virtue's name shall wear,

And impious fury rage for many a year.†

Figulus was an intimate friend of Cicero. There was a story, mentioned by Suetonius as a common report, that he predicted to Octavius, the father of Augustus Cæsar, the reign of his son over the Roman people. Octavius ordered the boy to be put to death, but Figulus found means to divert him from his intention. "There are cases," says Benjamin Constant, " in which we may lament that a crime was omitted." + Rowe's Lucan, i.

Tiberius proscribed magic and astrology, but it was because he dreaded the use his indignant subjects might make of them. A herd of magicians and astrologers were his companions at Capreæ, where he lived, as Juvenal says, Coop'd in a narrow isle, observing dreams,

With flattering wizards, and erecting schemes.*

mys

Nero invited sorcerers to Rome, that he might be initiated in their secrets. Adrian was a professed student of witchcraft. Alexander Severus, Dioclesian, and Constantine before his conversion, endeavoured by magical practices to dive into the secrets of futurity. Spells and incantations were employed by all classes to obtain the aid of the terious powers of darkness; and it seemed as if men had abandoned the worship of the gods to follow that of devils. Lucian's description of the influence acquired by the great impostor Alexander of Paphlagonia, would appear an incredible romance, were it not confirmed by all the historians of his age, and attested by existing medals struck in honour of the impostor.

"Such, then," says Constant, "was the aspect of humanity. Infidelity vaunted itself on having delivered man from prejudices, errors, and fears; and all possible fears, all prejudices, and all errors, seemed to be unchained at once. The empire of reason was proclaimed, and all the world was seized with madness; systems were based on calculation addressed to self-interest, permitted pleasure, recommended repose; and never were delusions more disgraceful, tumults more disorderly, and sufferings more poignant, until at last the miserable generation seemed willing to descend into the infernal regions, to escape an earth from which the Divinity had been banished."†

* Dryden's Juvenal, Sat. x.

+ Du Polytheisme, ii. 128. See also the Sixth Satire of Juvenal

In such a condition it was impossible that the human mind should long remain. Mankind discovered the value of a positive religion so soon as they tried to do without it: skepticism, and its ally credulity, had proved such severe masters, that men made an effort to get back to the polytheism of their forefathers, which, as belief was not in their power, was utterly impossible. They revived the forms, but the doctrines were gone; and in fact, when we examine the writers who flourished in the last age of polytheism, we discover obvious proofs that their doctrines were very nearly pure theism, and therefore utterly inconsistent with their forms. The philosophic system generally called Neo-Platonism was an attempt, and not a very infelicitous one, to combine both; but it wanted authority and consistency sufficient to elevate it into a rule of conduct; it proclaimed the want of some form which would embody the doctrine of the Divine Unity as the first great principle of the religious system, but it did not supply the deficiency. Reason continued hesitating before the gaping void, until Revelation came to its aid, and exhibited Christianity as "the divine system" for which the world had long wished, without comprehending the nature of its desires.

for a description of the arts practised by the fortune-tellers and sorcerers at Rome, too long and too disgusting to be quoted.

CHAPTER VIII.

ON THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CIVILIZATION.

In all the ancient systems of religion previous to the introduction of Christianity, we find that more attention was paid to the physical attributes of the Deity than to his spiritual nature. That this should be the case in polytheism is not wonderful, but it is equally so in the purest systems of theism to which unassisted reason has attained. Poets and philosophers have celebrated the Almighty power that causes the sun to shed its rays over the earth, but not the beneficence which bade it shine on the evil and the good: they have praised the wisdom which directed the rain to fall in its due season, but not the tender mercy which sent it equally on the just and the unjust. Under the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, the Divine power always appears more prominent than the Divine goodness: in Jehovah's address to Job, all the subjects introduced refer to the attribute of Omnipotence, and even the passage in which the moral government of mankind is claimed, will be found to display the absolute sovereignty rather than the merciful care of the Deity:

Gird up now thy loins like a hero;

I will question thee, and answer thou me.
Canst thou render my purpose void?
Wilt thou condemn me, to justify thyself?

Hast thou an arm like that of God?

Canst thou thunder with a voice like his ?
Deck thyself now with majesty and excellence:
Array thyself in glory and beauty.

Pour forth the fury of thy wrath; ·

Look on the haughty, and humble him;
Look on the proud, and prostrate him;
Crush down the wicked to the dust,
Hide them in the earth together,
Cover their faces with dishonour;

Then I will confess to thy praise,

That thine own right hand can save thee.*

The patriarchal creed of the Divine Unity was greatly enlarged under the Mosaic dispensation, and the moral government of the universe was more prominently brought forward as an article of faith; but still the attribute of power was more frequently mentioned than goodness or mercy, and even the declaration of the paternal protection accorded by the Deity to his creatures, is introduced by an assertion of the terrors of his sovereignty. "The Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.†

In the prophetical books, particularly in those written after the captivity, the spiritual nature of the Deity is more fully developed than in the Mosaic records; but we nowhere find it depicted with the force and universality that

* Job xii. 13-20, Wems's Translation. I cannot for the last time refer to this work without adding, that during the many years that I have been a student of Biblical Hebrew, I have met with no version of a book of the Old Testament superior to Wemyss's Job in accuracy, elegance, and depth of information.

+ Deuteronomy x. 17, 18.