for the solution of which I have never ceased to search in my obscurity, I discover that I have a place in the world, I feel supported; if not in my own country, (still a prey to that destructive, narrow, exhausted philosophy which continues to retain a large portion of France, out of the debate upon the great interests of the world,) yet at least in Christian Europe. It is this support which has emboldened me more clearly to explain my views, in various parts of my work, and to draw from them their ultimate consequences.'

What is the creed so solemnly spoken of? What are the great interests which agitate the world? What is the problem with which the future is big? Where is the place which our author has at last found in Christian Europe? To all these questions we have met with no satisfactory answer in any page of the three volumes, in any coherent and tangible form. Let us try to pick it up piecemeal, beginning with the creed.

Man is a galley slave, punished, but not amended, in chains for a crime of which he is unconscious; doomed to the punishment of lifethat is, to death-he lives and dies without being able to obtain a trial, or even to know of what he is accused. A power which would revenge itself on its creation, must be limited; but the limits, who has fixed them? The greater the incomprehensibility of the mystery, the greater the necessity, and the greater the triumph of faith.'-Vol, i., p. 60.

We are not sure we quite comprehend this; but, so far as we do, it seems to us a very strange beginning of a Catholic creed. It certainly implies a singular idea of God, of Providence, whose names are constantly under the pen of our author, and almost always with the same degree of propriety; thus we find (Vol. ii. p. 235,) that 'the man who occupies the place of God upon earth, ought to acknowledge no other possibility but that of doing evil. He is constrained to resemble Providence, in order to legitimate the power which he ascribes to himself.' In two or three different parts of the work, we read, that such or such things 'make us doubt the power or the compassion of Deity;' that such and such other things are the justification of God,' 'justify Providence;' and with such notions our author pretends to be a Christian, a Catholic! he boasts of having faith; and assumes the right of condemning all those who differ from him!! His faith is much of the same character as his notions of providence. It originates, he tells us, in the impossibility of understanding. He believes, because he cannot account for any one thing; and Russian sorcerers themselves contribute their share, in making the Marquis a believer :

'Sorcerers are not scarce amongst the Russians, with whom they supply the place of physicians; these rogues perform numerous and complete cures, as is corroborated, even by the scientific practitioners! What a triumph for

Molière and what a vortex of doubt for all the world! . ... Imagination! . . . Who can tell if imagination is not a lever in the hand of God to raise creatures of limited power above themselves? For my own part, I carry doubt to a point that brings me back to faith; for I believe, against my reason, that the sorcerer can cure, even unbelievers, by means of a power whose existence I cannot deny, and yet know not how to define.'-Vol. iii., 242.

In the second volume, page 236, he says: Faith will remain upon earth, as long as will the inexplicable and the incomprehensible.'

It is in vain that we have looked into these volumes, for the matters of the faith of the author; the only passage in which he attempts to explain it, is in the preface:

Nothing is less ambiguous than our faith; it is no system of philosophy, of which each one may take or reject what he pleases. An individual is altogether a Catholic, or he is no Catholic at all; there can be no almost, nor yet any new manner in Catholicism. Neo-Catholicism is a disguised sect, which must soon abjure error, to return into the bosom of the church, under penalty of being otherwise condemned by a church justly impressed with the necessity of preserving the purity of faith, much more than with the ambition of increasing the number of her doubtful and equivocal children. When the world shall adopt christianity with sincerity, it will take it as it is. The essential point is, that the sacred trust remains pure from alloy.'-p. xiv.

In despair of finding out the creed, the faith of the author, shall we aim to discover what he means by Christianity and Catholicity? Here, again, our attempt will be fruitless. There is not a single sentence in the thousand pages which we have read with the most scrupulous attention, which enables us to guess at the signification he gives to those words; and it is evident that his christianity and his catholicism are, like all his other notions, the fantastic dreams of a diseased brain. Illiterate, unlearned, unable to argue, his phrases upon the matter are like the ravings of a madman. The least unintelligible extract we can find, is the following:

:

I am not one of those who view Christianity as a sacred veil, that reason, in its illimitable progress, will one day tear away. Religion is veiled, but the veil is not religion. If Christianity mantles itself in symbols, it is not because its truth is obscure, but because it is too brightly dazzling, and because the eye is weak. . . Beyond the pale of Christianity, men remain in a state of isolation; or, if they unite, it is to form political communities; in other words, to make war with fellow-men. Christianity alone has discovered the secret of free and pacific association, because it alone has shewn to liberty in what it is that liberty consists. Christianity governs, and will yet more rightly govern the earth by the increasing strict application of its divine morals to human transactions.

Hitherto the Christian world has been more occupied with the mystic side of religion, than with its political bearing. A new era commences for Christianity: perhaps our grandchildren will see the gospel serving as the basis of public order. . Unless you can substitute the peace of your conscience in place of the agitation of mine, you can do nothing for me. ... Peace! no, however bold you may be, you would not dare to pretend to it! and yet, peace is the right and the duty of the creature rationally endowed; for, without peace, he sinks below the brute. But, O mystery of mysteries! for you, for me, and for all, this object will never be attained by ourselves; for, whatever may be said, the whole realm of nature does not contain that which can give peace to a single soul. . . . Thus you have furnished me with new proofs of the need of a physician of souls; of a redeemer, to cure the hallucinations of a creature so perverse, that it is incessantly and inevitably engendering within himself contest and contradiction; and which, by its very nature, flies from the repose it cannot dispense with; spreading around itself, in the name of peace, war,-with illusion, disorder, and misfortune. Now, the necessity of a redeemer being once admitted, you must pardon me if I prefer addressing myself to Jesus Christ, rather than to you! Here we come to the root of the evil! pride of intellect must be abased, and reason must own its insufficiency. As the source of reasoning dries up, that of feeling overflows; the soul becomes powerful so soon as she avows her want of strength; she no longer commands, she entreats; and man approaches near his object when he falls upon his knees. But when all shall be cast down, when all shall kiss the dust, who will remain erect upon the earth? what power shall exist amid the ashes of the world? The power that shall remain, is a pontiff in a church.

If that church-daughter of Christ, and mother of Christianity—has seen revolt issue from her bosom, the fault was in her priests; for her priests are men. But she will recover her unity, because these men, frail though they be, are not the less direct successors of the apostles, ordained from age to age, by bishops, who themselves received, bishop from bishop, under the imposition of hands traced backwards up to St. Peter and to Jesus Christ, the infusion of the Holy Spirit, with the requisite authority to communicate that grace to the regenerated world.'—p. 6.

We are almost inclined to beg pardon of our readers, for transcribing such a long extract of the most contemptible trash we ever read; but we considered it our duty to give it in full, as it contains the whole system of Catholic-christianity of our author. There they find his reasons for believing in a Redeemer, for making a pontiff the representative of the Redeemer, and for subjecting the whole world to the authority of that pontiff, and of his church. Besides this, we thought it of some importance to expose, in his own language, the basis upon which the Marquis de Custine rests his religious system; in order that, his logical power being ascertained, the value of his attacks upon other systems may be the more easily appreciated. Every one of us resents an insult proffered by a stranger, but if the stranger proves

to be an idiot, our resentment is soon changed into pity. Such ought to be the case with the poor Marquis. From what he himself states, it is clear that he has no distinct idea of catholicity, or even of christianity; that he hardly ever took the trouble of studying the matter; that he never even read the bible, or any of the books, numerous in France itself, in which the truth of the Christian religion is defended. It is no less evident, that he knows no more of Protestant, or of Greek Christianity; that he never inquired into the principles of the Reformation; and that he attacks Protestantism, not as it really is, but as he imagines it to be. Thus he says, (Preface, p. 13,) To acknowledge the divinity of Jesus Christ is, undoubtedly, to do much; it is more than is done by the greater number of Protestants.' And in his concluding chapter, (Vol. iii., p. 340,) we read: When hypocrisy ceases to triumph in England, the greater part of the kingdom will again become Catholic.'

Our patience is quite exhausted. We cannot go any further with this work, a compound of religious and political hallucinations, of mischievous misrepresentations, of bombastic nonsense, of superlative vanity, of perpetual contradictions, intermixed with as many asseverations of the author's love for truth, which he declares to be nothing but an assemblage of contrasts.' It is, indeed, painful to us to be compelled to censure with such severity a man whose admirable family still lives in our grateful recollections; but we have a duty to perform towards the public, and we can boast, as well as the Marquis de Custine, of the

motto:

'Fais ce que dois, avienne que pourra.'

Art. IV. 1. Die Authentie des Daniel und die Integrität des Sacharjah. Erwiesen von E. W. Hengstenberg Dr. der Philos. und der Theologie. Berlin: Svo. 1831.

2. Commentar über das Buch Daniel. der Theologie. Hamburg: 8vo.

3. Neue kritische Untersuchungen über

Von H. A C. Hävernick, Licentiat 1832.

das Buch Daniel. Von H. Häver

nick der Theologie Doctor, u. s. w. Hamburg: 8vo. 1838.

4. Daniel neu uebersetzt und erklärt. Von L. Bertholdt. 2 Theile, Erlangen: 8vo.

1806, 1808.

5. Das Buch Daniel verdeutscht und ausgelegt. Von C. V. Lengerke. Koenigsberg: 8vo. 1835.

It is wise occasionally to review the grounds of our opinions, especially when they are assailed by new opponents. There may be something untenable in them, which the progressive wisdom

and ingenuity of ages succeed in detecting. Truth and candour will always welcome the light; while an obstinate adherence to former sentiments refuses to accept any addition to the stereotype stock of knowledge once laid up in the mind. Persuaded that there is nothing in the Bible of which we should be ashamed-nothing unsound or worthless; it is matter of comparative indifference to us, whether it be openly or insidiously invaded with new weapons. For the result of such attempts there is no cause to fear. The rock of ages is firm. Former endeavours to shake its authority have failed, although acute and powerful intellects were enlisted on the side of its enemies. It is true that weak and wavering minds may be disturbed at these unhallowed movements. Timid Christians may be alarmed when they hear of plausible objections; and they may tremble for the ark of truth; but let them stay themselves upon God, and look with confident expectation to the issue of the controversy between light and darkness.

Believing that it may be profitable to state the grounds of our belief in the authenticity and genuineness of the Scripture-books, and at the same time to demonstrate the weakness of modern scepticism in its bearing upon them, we have selected the book of Daniel as a specimen suitable to our purpose. The artillery of rationalism in modern times has been displayed with much appearance of power against it. Old arguments have been revived; and its predictions have been robbed of their essential character. The wand of neology has converted prophecies of clear import and indubitable verity into prosaic history penned subsequently to the events described. It becomes, therefore, a matter of some importance, to look at the reasons of longcherished opinions, lest perchance we have been building on frivolous and fanciful ground. Are the arguments by which the integrity of Daniel is supported sound and safe? Was the book that bears his name written by himself, or by some later person? Does it exhibit the stamp of Heaven's inspiration, or is it to be put in the class of mere human compositions? Are we at liberty to reject any part of it as incorrect or untrue? Have the neologians of Germany succeeded in destroying its credit in the eyes of intelligent men? These are serious questions to which the attention of Biblical students should be directed, They involve the momentous interests of eternal truth.

The following considerations may serve to establish some who are wavering, to confirm the simple believer, and to expose the superficiality of corrupt rationalism. Perhaps they may tend to the strengthening and consolation of the faithful, who have been accustomed to repose upon the plain affirmations of this