the fashion of those whom the Greeks call natural philosophers (physicos); nor need one be anxious about a Christian's being ignorant of any thing touching the powers and number of the elements; the motions, order, and eclipses of the heavenly bodies; the shape of the sky; the kinds and natures of animals, shrubs, fountains, rivers, mountains; the spaces of place and time; the tokens of impending changes of the weather and approach of different seasons, and six hundred other such things about those matters, which those natural philosophers have either discovered or think themselves to have discovered.

"For, not even have they themselves, excellent as they show themselves in genius, ardent in study, and abounding as they do in leisure, discovered all that is to be discovered, by their investigations made upon such conjecture as man is capable of, or by their researches by means of experiment. In what they boast themselves to have ascertained, there is more of mere opinion than of sure knowledge. It is enough that a Christian believe that the cause of things created, whether celestial or terrestial, whether visible or invisible, is nothing else than the goodness of the Creator, Who is the One and true God, and that there exists nothing which is not either Himself or from Him, and that this God is a Trinity, namely the Father, and the Son begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the same Father, but equally one and the same Spirit of the Father and of the Son. By this infinitely, equally, and immutably good Trinity were all things created, and that neither infinitely, nor equally, nor immutably, good; yet each in itself good, and, altogether, very good; for of them altogether consisteth the wonderful beauty of the universe. In which even that which is called evil, when rightly ordered and set in its proper place, maketh what is called good to be seen, more clearly to be so, so that good things please more and are more praiseworthy when set in contrast with evil things. For God Almighty, (as even unbelievers confess Him to be), Who hath infinite power over all things, could by no means, seeing that Ile is infinitely good, allow any evil to exist amidst His works, except that He were so utterly omnipotent and good as to educe good even out of evil."

St. Augustini Enchir. de Fide, Spe et caritate c. ix. x. xi.

With this extract we drop the subject for the present, though fully aware that we have done little more than open it, and conscious that our argument may seem to want filling up here and there. Still we believe it is a sound argument. Let it be examined;-only let none examine it under the idea that we have been setting ourselves against the extension of education simply. Our argument has to do with un-religious education. What would constitute a religious education for the idolaters, &c. in question is a further topic to which we now need only point. Let none set us aside simply on the ground that the popular voice is so strong in favor of the notion against which we have been setting ourselves, as to have exalted it in general esteem to the place of a recent Revelation for the regeneration of fallen men.

When the "Vox populi," on a memorable occasion, said "Vox Dei!" it preferred Herod in his worldly pomp to God.

Pharoah hardened his heart by preferring the magicians and their enchantments to the authority of Aaron and Moses, though the latter also "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."

THE APOSTLES' CREED.

(Revel. xxi. 14, 19, 20.)

A golden frame of Twelve accordant strings
He toucheth who Salvation rightly sings.
The Jasper, Sapphire, and Calcedony,
The Em'rald fourth, the fifth the Sardony,
The Sardinn stone, and then the Chrysolite,

The Beryl, Topaz, and their equals bright—

The Chrysoprasus, Jacynth, Amethyst,

Deck these twelve strings, in wondrous order mixed.

ONE is the halo of their mingling blaze

ONE is the voice these chords of glory raise.—

As, though the prism many hues disclose,

The Sun-beam's self one only colour shows,

So these, instinct each with unborrowed fire

One Glory and One song emit forth from this Golden Lyre.

June 6, 1842.

SPHYNX.

The tradition that the Apostles' Creed was the joint-composition of the Twelve Apostles, each furnishing one Article, is alluded to (but not, of course, maintained) in the above. It being the undoubted summary of what they, one and all, taught, each may be said to have furnished every, and all to have furnished each, Article of it.

66

III.

BLESSED ARE THE DEAD THE RAIN RAINS ON."

Old English* Saying.

Oh! "Blessed are the dead, whom the rain rains on !"

Oh!

The sad, soft, gentle, rain,
Nature's tears of silent pain

Till the body come again :

Yes; Blessed are the dead, whom the rain rains on !"

"Blessed are the dead, whom the rain rains on ;

The loud, sharp, heavy, rain;

While the trees around are sighing,

And the laden winds are moaning,―

Creation's throes and groaning

"Till the body come againt

Yea; "Blessed are the dead, whom the rain rains on."

But, what is this men say?

Of the blessing of the rain
That falleth night and day ?-
The rain, it doth fall
Alike upon all ;—

As the Sun sheds his light
On the bad and the upright;
And the earth yieldeth food
To the wicked and the good ;-
Then what is this men say,
Of the blessing of the rain
That falleth night and day ?-
Who are the happy dead
Whom it blesses in their bed,
Whilst it tells Creation's pain
Till the body come again?
This saying holds a store
Of holy Gospel lore.

These dead, in life are dead,

And in death they have their life,
Which now in God is hid

With Christ Who is their Head.‡

This rain, is of the womb

Of that morn when from the tomb

* The idea would seem not peculiar to England. Bar Hebræus, Chron. Syr. pt. 3 (Cf. Assemann. t. ii. p. 316) relates that "the physician Gabriel was told by a Nestorian who had travelled in Egypt that the Jacobites insulted Nestorius, throwing stones at his grave, and saying, "the rain falls not upon him."

† Rom. viii. 22, 23.

(See Newman's Fleury, Bk. xxvi. c. 34. note y.)

Coloss. iii. 3.

Jesus brought on the day
Of quickening for aye.
This rain, it is the rain
Which washeth from all stain.
And with "continual dew"
Our frailty doth renew;
Yea, maketh e'en the tomb
Our bodies' second womb.

When Christ in Jordan's flood
The Sanctifier stood

He made all water meet
For "the other Paraclete."*
Since Pentecost's full hour,†
The Spirit of the Son-
With the Father ever One-
All water doth empower
When blessed with the Word,‡
Sharper than sharpest sword,
To separates from sin

And sanctify within.

Now, on the floods beneath, and on the floods above,
Moveth, as at the first, the Lord of Life and Love.

From this Blessing of the Flood,—
Ocean, rivers, lakes, springs, rain,—

Devoutly understood,

In simple hearted days

Men thus spoke Faith and Praise.

Thus, in the blessed rain

They read Creation's pain

"Till the body come again,

And saw the Holy Flood

That flowed forth on the Rood ;T

And, ever and anon,

As the dead they bare along,

This was their simple song

"Oh! Blessed are the dead whom the rain rains on !"

Far then, and wide, and long, prevail this olden lay,

So full of Faith and ruth, by night and by day,

And far, and wide, and long,

Be sung this simple song,

That," Blessed are the dead the rain rains on !"

IV.

ANCIENT ETRURIA.*

Ever since the publication of Dempster's elaborate work De Etruria Regali, about a hundred and twenty years ago, researches on the history and antiquities of that extraordinary nation have formed one of the most productive occupations of the learned. The extent of erudition which that laborious scholar brought to bear upon his investigations; the wonderful ingenuity which surmounted the impediments of a language and character utterly unknown, and unravelled intricacies of period and genealogy with an accuracy which subsequent research has continually tended in a large measure to confirm; the consummate industry with which he explored, and the high and costly art which was subsequently empanelled for the illustration of the Eugabinian tables and various other monuments of Etruscan annals; signalize his volumes as among the most remarkable penetrations of an untrodden field which the genius of an individual has ever accomplished; and still entitle them to rank as the original garner from which all subsequent investigators have enabled themselves for ampler research.

It is not to be expected that the labour of one man, however unintermitted and rich in produce, could fully and to entire satisfaction expatiate on so wide a theme. It is no small praise to have led the way in investigations which have exposed to us more of the art, the religion, the language, and the inner life of a nation of Ancient Italy than was known to the profoundest historian of the Augustan age. It is no mean testimony to the advance of a scholar beyond his era, that, a hundred years after his death, his neglected manu script should be unsephulchred, edited with all the embellishments wherewith an advancing art could honour and adorn it, and prove to be the standard repertorium whence all future enquirers must derive the mass of their materials. It is no common monument of persevering genius to have unburied the records in illustration of which the profoundest criticism of the past century has been brought successfully to bear.

A new impulse was given to these investigations, by the proposal of a Prize Essay by the Royal Prussian Academy

*The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. By George Dennis. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street.

VOL. III.

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