that the day on which she fixed for this first flutter into the wide world, -a timid and aimless excursion, yet one, she felt, which must have some influence in one way or another in guiding her determination—was the day so signalized by its alarming thunderstorm. She had not long left the house when the ten pest broke over her head, she tried to mark her way carefully, but in the terror and confusion she lost it, and it was not till after hurrying up and down street after street, afraid to ask the way of the few dripping wayfarers who hastened by, laughed at by a crowd of men and boys who were standing at a stable-entrance for shelter, she arrived at last at the right street, drenched and terrified, and flew up the passage, to find the door hopelessly closed.

At Dr. Heinrichs' her life was for some days despaired of. The fever broke like a tide over all the barriers science could oppose. She was delirious for several days, haunted by the strangest phantasies. She thought at one time that she was the earth, that all the sorrow and passion on sea and land, in the cities and the fields, was centred in her heart, she seemed to feel the heat and chill of summer and winter rapidly, alternating,to partake in the feeling of all the forests, and mountains, and valleys, as though they were endowed with sensation,-every interment was a pang, she shuddered at the bloodshed of a battle, and an earthquake overthrew a city;-then the sea rebelled, and the oceans joined the forces of their waves across the continents, and advanced their embattled line of foam, and after a tempestuous battle, covering the world with a dome of sheeted spray, the waters conquered, and she was buried under the seething brine. Again, she was alone in a desert, and about to perish like Ishmael and Hagar with thirst and heat; she knelt down, and there came down from the clouds upon her brow and hands a company of flakes of snow, alighting, white and soft, like fairy doves, and each infusing life as it fell and melted after its fellow. She had seen the picture of St. Francis of Assize receiving the stigmata, and it seemed to her that she, in the same attitude, was the recipient of a blessed solace that assuaged, as by a miracle, her fevered anguish. At another time, she thought herself a spirit imprisoned in one of the bubbles on the leaf of a water-plant, at the bottom of a stagnant pool.

and

She pined beneath the green dome in the little sphere of sickly air, and watched the strange shapes of the zoophytes, and the battles of the water-insects, to her of giant size-creatures with jaws armed with dreadful instruments to cut and tear, and around, the curling arms of the hydras undulating every where. Then the little world in which she was a captive began to move; it detached itself from the leaf, rose up, burst upon the surface; and she, escaping like a fairy air, ascended to the sky, and became a star, guiding the watchful mariner. One of these imaginations-to her, in her wandering and disorder, only too real-recurred with some variation more than once. She thought she was looking in the bay of Naples-before her stood the great mountain of which Soeur Angelique had so often spoken-the smoke ascended from it, and lay in a slanting line across the entire sky-a darke stripe, thinner and fainter toward the farthest west; the wind was down, and it stretched motionless over the whole hemisphere of sky, like a shadowy highway, slanting between heaven and earth. Then it appeared that this smoke

was made up of human beings, lessened by the distance to the smallest particles; the long cloud was composed of millions of men, all rising from the giant's mouth of the crater; and all, she thought, were counterparts of Aguilar-her dread-locusts, hanging in the air to be carried by the next wind down over the fields of waving grain, and the hill sides embossed by the dark-brown olive. She saw no contradiction or incongruity-a sense of an approaching work of desolation distressed her, as really as though the fruits to be devoured had been indeed souls that would be destroyed. As she looked, the shore on which she stood opened beneath her; she sank down, down, she knew not whither. When her fall was stayed, and she could look up and round, she found herself at the bottom of a great vortex, as it were, of a hollow-inverted cone; she was the lowest, the downward point of it; and the sides were all made up of living beings, stretching up above her head far as the eye could reach. They stood in rising circles on every side, in ranks that ascended spirally, widening as they rose; the last and topmost row she could discern were like those nearest her, but diminished by an immeasurable distance, and visible by a faint light that broke over from above. Then they all passed slowly round; and, as the circles moved, she sank dizzily lower and lower; and one voice came from them all-lost! lost!-till a sudden shock and cry brought her to herself and she discerned a female face bending over her, a hand raised her head, and a strange but kindly voice spoke soothing words.

The fever passed away, and strength returned. The reader has already imagined how Louise thanked and loved the good Fran Doctoria; how the consciousness of health restored, and restored in freedom, overwhelmed her often with tearful thankfulness to God; how once free and able to follow the dictates of her heart, her cheerful self-forgetting kindness brought a new element of joy into the Doctor's quiet circle; how she was known as the benefactor of the poor, constant in her care and service for them, filling every day with efforts for others, forgetful of no one save herself; how Roger loved-ventured to tell his love, and was beloved; and how the adventure related in the last chapter was brought about by an attempt to recover Louise, set on foot by the authorities at the Seat of the Beast, as Dr. Heinrichs profanely called St. Joseph's.

4.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN NATURE.

The Nature of Man as Spiritual, Immortal, and Responsible, will be the most frequent topic of this department: though sometimes we shall introduce MISCELLANEOUS Subjects.

THE EVIDENCE OF TESTIMONY;

AND ITS SPECIAL APPLICATION TO THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY.

TESTIMONY is the declaration of another respecting the truth of something which he professes to know. By testimony we acquire a knowledge of things from the experience of others instead of our own; believing that had we been placed in their circumstances our senses would have received similar impressions. The greater part of what we may be said to know, is derived from testimony. On this evidence we act with entire confidence in the most important affairs of life.

There are two ways in which testimony may prove fallacious, viz., by mistake, and by wilful deception. It admits of various degrees of credit, from moral certainty to the lowest presumption. The degree of credit due to it, in any particular case, depends on the degree of assurance we possess, that the testifier has been placed in the proper circumstances for knowing the facts; and that he possesses the honesty to declare them as they really are. When, from the nature of the case we are assured that mistake is impossible, and that no personal or relative interests could be promoted by falsehood, and that the testifier's character for veracity stands unimpeached, we then place undoubting confidence in another's declarations. Testimony is either oral or written. Written testimony is only another word for HISTORY. Authentic history is the only means by which we become acquainted with the persons and events of other times and countries. On testimony depends all our knowledge of places where we have not been; of facts and events which we have not witnessed; and of the persons, and writings, of other times and countries.

With respect to the application of this kind of evidence, our present task will be confined to verify and illustrate the point,-that it applies equally to SACRED HISTORY as to PROFANE. Historical testimony is the basis on which the truth of Christianity is founded. The miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, are facts which depend on exactly the same kind of proof as the wars and death of Julius Cæsar. The writings of the Evangelists, and the Apostles, are proved authentic by the same means as those of Plato, Pliny, Plutarch, Tacitus, Herodotus, Cicero,

and Virgil. Sacred and profane history rest precisely on the same foundation; and, consequently, they stand or fall together.

But there are some persons who admit the validity of the latter as unquestionable; and yet, doubt or deny the truth of sacred history. Let us then enquire,—what is the comparative strength of their evidence? This point settled, will determine with what degree of consistency the facts, and authenticity of the New Testament Scriptures can be denied or doubted, by any who believe the records and authenticity of classical literature.

Previous to entering on this enquiry, it may be well to remark, that when, from the nature of the case, mistake is impossible, the truth of testimony claims our belief in proportion as we can ascertain the following things, viz:-the character of the witness, for veracity; his freedom from inducements to falsehood; the agreement between the several parts of his story; and the degree in which his statements are corroborated by the declarations of others. By these rules, the truth of testimony is determined in Courts of Justice; especially by the two latter. Criminals are often condemned to death, fairly and justly so condemned, on evidence to which all the above particulars will not apply. But, in cases where they do apply, testimony has attained the utmost perfection of which its nature is capable.

The man who should doubt the truths of facts thus substantiated, ought to forfeit his privilege to sit on a jury, in consequence of having virtually renounced his claim to the possession of common sense. Now, should all the above particulars appear to be fully and fairly applicable to the testimony of the Evangelists, its truth must be admitted to be thereby established on a foundation which challenges the assent of every understanding capable of appreciating the force of evidence.

It is manifest from the nature of the principal facts they record, that they could not be MISTAKEN. How, was mistake possible in witnessing the blind receive their sight; the lame, ability to walk; the deaf, the sense of hearing; or, the dumb, the power of speech? How could they be deceived in beholding the dead son of the widow arise from his bier; or Lazarus come forth from his tomb? How could they be mistaken with respect to the reality and identity of Christ's body, after his resurrection; when they received every assurance which their own senses, and his affirmation could give.

As mistake, then, is clearly out of the question, if the testimony of the Evangelists be untrue, they must have been INTENTIONAL DECEIVERS. This, however, is a supposition destitute of the least shadow of proof. On the contrary, it is evident, that the Evangelists were no deceivers, from the strict integrity of their characters, as manifested by the principles inculcated in their writings, and by the actual conduct of their lives. It is, also, clear from the fact, that their testimony, instead of tending to promote their personal interests, constantly exposed them to cruel persecutions. And it is quite certain that men will never voluntarily bring miseries upon themselves, endure sufferings, and even death itself, in attestation of what they know to be false. It is also manifest from the manner in which the Apostles and first Christians, agreed in the principal parts of their story; although strictly, and cruelly, examined

by the Jewish and Roman magistrates. It is also evident from the circumstance, that the testimony of the Apostles was confirmed by a number of witnesses. Nay, even the Jewish Sanhedrim itself, notwithstanding all the bitter hostility and relentless hatred, which it felt and displayed towards Jesus of Nazareth and his followers, could not deny, but fully admitted, THE REALITY OF MIRACULOUS FACTS! The heathen historians, especially Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny, mention the vast number of persons living in the time of the Apostles, who believed their testimony; and also record the sufferings they patiently endured, solely in consequence of that belief. From this it appears undeniable, that the Apostles and first Christians, were no deceivers; but that they really believed the truth of what they, with such unshaken constancy, affirmed, amidst perils, sufferings, persecution, and death.

The only question, then, on this part of the subject, that remains to be determined, is, are the historical books of the New Testament really what they profess to be, copies of the genuine writings of the Evangelists?

This question may be confidently answered in the affirmative, on the following grounds :-there are at present in existence, nearly five hundred ancient manuscripts; some of them seven or eight hundred years old; and others probably a thousand. The books of the New Testament were so often quoted by authors immediately succeeding the Apostles, that from their writings the whole text might be supplied, supposing all other copies were destroyed. The Christian Scriptures were early collected into a volume, publicly read and expounded, and constantly appealed to as decisive evidence in religious controversies. Catalogues of these books were soon published; commentaries written, and translations made, which were extensively circulated in different countries.

Besides, the very existence of the system of Christianity, is a fact which cannot be accounted for with the least shadow of reason, without admitting the truth of the New Testament histories. The origin and meaning of those two distinguishing ordinances of Christianity, the Lord's Supper and Baptism, which history declares to have been observed by great numbers of persons residing in various parts of the world, for the period of eighteen centuries-are totally inexplicable on any supposition, than that the Evangelists give a true account of their institution and design.*

These considerations appear to establish two positions, viz:-(1.) That the histories contained in the New Testament are NOT FICTÍONS; because it is manifest that the writers were NEITHER DECEIVED THEMSELVES, NOR DESIGNED TO DECEIVE OTHERS. (2.) That the books in question are NOT FORGERIES; because their AUTHENTICITY and GENUINENESS, are proved by THE STRONGEST EVIDENCE OF WHICH THE SUBJECT IS SUSCEPTIBLE. From this brief and rapid sketch of the evidence in favour of the Christian Scriptures, we confidently appeal to the unbiassed judgment of every man, whether the criteria, which render testimony perfect and complete, do not fairly apply to the writings of the Evangelists.

We now proceed briefly to enquire-what is the comparative strength of the evidence in favour of classical literature, and that of the New

* See Paley's Evidences.