have been distorted to fit the hypothetical frame-work. Hints, plausibilities, contradictions, floating on the surface or lurking in the dark recesses of history, have all and each, in their turns, been brought in aid of theory; and, probably, after all the pains that have been bestowed upon the subject, we are not much nearer to a satisfactory adjustment, than were our ancestors of the olden time. Still, we are not inclined to deny that great, though sometimes perverse ingenuity, has been displayed in the endeavour to work out this most desirable solution. Genius, learning, perseverance, have been employed in the research, and not altogether ineffectually. Light has been cast on important portions of the great scheme, and bright glimpses have been caught of its admirable consistency, and its steady progress to an appointed consummation.

Mr. Hetherington has made a fair essay toward a further explanation. He is an eloquent writer; he is, moreover, a shrewd investigator; and when we speak of his views as being more extensive than profound, we do not mean to describe them as merely superficial, but as exhibited on a broad scale, somewhat better suited, perhaps, for an escape from circumstantial difficulties, than for their removal. His general plan shall be stated in his own words.

The principle to be developed in the following work is this. As we fully believe that God brings every man through that kind of discipline best suited to his constitutional peculiarities, and to the production of those results which it is His pleasure to have produced; so we hold, that the world itself has been brought through a similar course of moral and intellectual culture, preparatory to the coming of Him who was manifested to destroy the works of the devil and bring in everlasting righteousness. To establish this view, it will be necessary to prove, that the process of culture through which the world was brought, was expressly adapted to draw forth into full maturity the various powers of the general mind, as they naturally arise in the progress of civilization; that all these leading powers actually were thus excited in natural succession; and that, while, if the Christian era had come earlier, it would have intercepted their development, if it had been longer delayed, man would have sunk into such a state of degeneracy, and even imbecility, as to have materially frustrated the gracious purpose of God, in sending forth his Son to fulfil the law and save the sinner. p. 10.

A further parallel is drawn between individual and social character in their development and tendency. Man and men begin with things, and end with inferences. In savages, the senses are sharpened to an exquisite edge, and in their perception of details they awaken the astonishment of civilized men; but of general principles they are entirely ignorant. Vapour is to them a mere sign that tells of shelter or refreshment: the exhibition of its

6

powers in the steam-engine belongs to a long training and a distant age. Centuries divide the sensual from the intellectual. The life of man supplies a further parallel. Youth is acute in detailed perceptions; maturity and experience acquire general 'ideas; and philosophy attains general principles.' Thus, in the world's childhood, the social and political qualities are formed and unfolded. The process advances with advancing years: forms of polity, adjustment of rights, definition of interests, gradually but surely struggle into a settled and advantageous shape; a higher principle begins to mingle with the fermenting elements, and public morality is acknowledged as the basis of the political system.

It will further be found, that there is a deeper and more powerful principle in the human mind than those from which civil polity and common morality spring, capable of controlling both; the principle, namely, of religion, or that which impels men to believe in the existence of a God, and to render Him due worship. The influence of this mighty principle will be found to be altogether supreme in promoting the good or the evil of man, according as it may itself be pure or corrupt. To trace the reciprocating influence of these three great principles upon each other, and upon the common mind, during the development of its powers in the several stages of its progress; and to mark how the various leading events of general history were so arranged as to nourish each and all in their natural process of growth, and to the full amount of their inherent abilities, will engage no small part of our attention. We shall thus be led along the path by which the whole human race has travelled towards that mighty confluence of destinies, "the fulness of time;" and by the aid of the leading ideas already stated, may be enabled to unravel the complicated structure of human society till we arrive at a few intelligible master-principles, and to comprehend some portion of that infinite and gracious Wisdom which pre-determines, arranges, pervades, and governs all things in such a manner, as at once to be productive of the greatest good to His creatures, and to furnish the greatest display of His own most glorious and merciful attributes.' pp. 12, 13.

It will be obvious, that all this must include distinct and even opposite views of the social system, both in character and effects. If there be a tendency to good, there is also an impulse towards evil. The development of the religious principle, without Divine intervention, manifests itself in idolatry and its attendant demoralizations. Advancement in art and science, high intellectual attainment, cannot control nor counteract this fatal lapse. The vanity and malignity of the human spirit, unchecked by the knowledge and cordial reception of religious truth, will not be held back from the work of destruction by aught that human motive can suggest.

If, then, the course of our researches shall enable us to show, that

this double process held on its way with equal front, at once cultivating the various powers of man, in all possible relations, and up to their highest pitch; and at the same time, by an incessant course of demoralization and degeneracy, proving the utter impossibility of any physical, intellectual, or moral culture to rescue man from the corruption and misery of his fallen condition, without the infusion of an entirely new principle;-if this can be made clearly to appear, then, the period in which the whole converging lines of the multiform process met in mature completion, may well indeed be termed "the fulness of time "; and the express fitness of the position it occupies in the world's history, both to the nature of man and to the course of events, will tend to supply another vindication and illustration of the wise and merciful providence of Him "who seeth the end from the beginning," "who doeth according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth," and who causeth "all things to work together for good to those who love Him, and are the called according to His purpose." pp. 14, 15.

It will be seen at once, that this is an interesting thesis, requiring no slight exercise of the mental faculties in its illustration; and when we feel ourselves justified in saying of the Work in which its demonstration is attempted, that we have found in it much valuable matter and important suggestion, we hope not to be understood as intending censure by the intimation of an opinion that, for the complete exhibition and proof of such comprehensive propositions, there required an ampler collocation and a more severe discussion. In fact, the design is too large and crowded for the canvas; and there have followed, as the inevitable consequences, somewhat too much rapidity in the narrative, and more of omission in the details, than is quite compatible with the satisfactory treatment of a subject so rich and so complicated. Be this, however, as it may, the following paragraphs will, we believe, be found to give a fair general view of Mr. H.'s scheme.

In the few, but generally just and striking comments which occur in reference to the antediluvian era, we find one statement which appears to require modification. Mr. H. assigns, as among the predisposing causes of the extreme degeneracy of mankind during that period, the length of human life, and the great fertility of the soil. Respecting the first, he infers, from the recklessness of death and its results, manifested among ourselves, in the profligacy of a race, the comparative duration of whose existence is, on the largest calculation, as one to ten, that it must in those days have operated most injuriously, by placing at a term scarcely realizable from its remoteness, the close of life. We suspect that there is not much value in this suggestion. Judging on general principles, it should seem probable that the brevity of man's continuance upon earth, and the rapid lapse of time, would

furnish as frequent and as little heeded subjects of comment, as they may do at present. The moralist of the ancient world, if questioned, in his thousandth year, of the number and colour of his days, would reply-" Few and evil"; while the youth on the celebration of his first centenary, might heave a sigh at the anticipation of his last, and at the quick succession of those steadily recurring revolutions of the great time-marker, which warned him of the season "appointed unto all." And that reflection would be as transient, and that warning as lightly heeded, as they are with us, in our restricted space of three-score years and ten. With the Millenarians, as with the Septuagenarians, the motive would be the same,—the absorbing interest of the present pleasure and the passing hour.

The period before the Deluge stands somewhat apart from the series of dispensations which takes origin from that awful manifestation of the Divine justice; and Mr. Hetherington gives it as the distinctive characteristic of the antediluvian age, that it was 'the development of the paradisiacal state, when tainted by the ' infusion of sin.' For all purposes of actual inquiry, the first indications of human character, as expressed in social and political institutions, must be sought for in the patriarchal times: of these the normal type,' to use a fashionable phrase, is to be found in the history of Melchizedek, whom Mr. H. identifies with Shem, and finds in his person a perfect example of that "royal priesthood" which belonged to the patriarchs of old before their power had merged in monarchy, and their sacred functions passed into the 'hands of a separate priestly caste.' While the sacerdotal royalty of these eminent men is exhibited in the character of Melchizedek, their religious belief is preserved in the book of Job, wherein also we may find the dark traces of corruption effacing the noble lineaments of that earliest creed.'

6

The system of government that prevailed in Egypt was primarily a continuation, and ultimately a corruption, of the patriarchal state. We cannot say that we quite adopt the plan suggested by Mr. Hetherington, as the most probable way of accounting for the first peopling of the territory of the Nile. He seems to think that the difficulties which opposed themselves to the direct march of the children of Ham in their progress towards the possessions allotted to them, would send them round by the straits of Babelmandeb; a hypothesis so loaded with improbabilities, as not to tempt us to a moment's discussion. We agree with him, however, in his conviction that the boasted Egyptian science has been greatly overrated, though we cannot think that every thing in Egypt may be characterized by ab'sence of combination of means; at least if we rightly apprehend the import of the phrase. There was a cordial union between the monarch and the priests for purposes of oppression, though

the division of power might, by introducing an element of weakness, tend to the gradual mitigation of that stern despotism. In the very bosom, however, of this debased and degrading system, the joint product of tyranny and superstition, there were preserved, in direct and unbroken tradition, the knowledge of the true God and the principles of primeval government. The Jews, first admitted as guests and colonists, but afterwards oppressed as captives, carried forth with them in their miraculous Exodus, the light destined, in its glorious expansion, to enlighten the world, though confined, during a long succession of years, to a despised people and a narrow territory.

If the history of Egypt avail only as the exhibition of man in the infancy of his intellect and his institutions, we seem to advance a step, when we are brought in contact with the nobler people and the more vigorous monarchies of Assyria and Babylon. The view increases in brightness and promise as we approach the kingdom of Persia and its splendid aristocracy.

This was the closing youth, the opening manhood of the world, when intellect began to assume the ascendancy over sense, preparatory to the departure of the one, and the coming dominion of the other. Symptoms of a similar character began to glimmer on the orient of the world's horizon, even before the sun of Persia had reached its noon. The western expeditions of Darius Hystaspes brought him into contact with Greece, where genius was already beginning to burnish those weapons by which innumerable conquests were speedily to be achieved. Inflated rather than inspired by the demon of vainglorious arrogance and domineering pride, Persia thought to crush the infant Hercules; and in her baffled and disgraceful recoil there was displayed an omen of the future, which at once foreshowed and led the way to its own fulfilment. The reign of intellect was evidently approaching; and where could its throne be erected, but on the shores of Greece? All that could be done for elevating man above the level of the mere animals, in what regarded the wants and gratifications of the senses, had been done by Persia; and the world learnt, and never has forgotten the lesson: but this very refinement of sensual pleasures, if it elevated and idealized them, confirmed the tyranny which they too readily acquire over man. Had no process followed to break their rod of magic power, the recovery of the human race to a more spiritual existence would, humanly speaking, have been impossible. To prove this assertion, it is only necessary to allude once more to the death-like dormancy of soul, in which Asia has slumbered ever since. It was now time for another nation to take the lead; and since the physical nature of man had now been fully developed, to give full scope and ample culture to his mental being, if happily he might thus be rescued from his degraded condition.' pp. 229, 230.

In the energetic democracies of Greece, then, are to be recognized the world's manhood; and the Author traces, in the brilliant mythology, the perfected institutions, and the high intel