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nothing can long resist their force. Yes, the book so extravagantly lauded by some, and as extravagantly abused by others,-hated by the thorough-going Infidel adored by the thorough-going Believer, but used by men of wit and sense; the idol of the spiritualistthe abomination of the materialist; the latter rejecting all-the former swallowing everything;-here both are right, and both are wrong. Neither the mere materialist, nor the mere spiritualist, can study the Bible with full profit; they may search the Scripturesthey may toil much, and catch but little unless they unite and cease to run, as heretofore, in parallel lines; for materialism may be aptly called the first person of the philosophic trinity; spiritualism being the son,-for spirit is born of matter; and few will deny that it is within the compass of human ability to conceive of existences without motion, substances without spirits, matter without mind, body without soul; but a first-rate spiritualist would be puzzled to imagine soul, spirit, or sense, without substance, or motion without parts.

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Matter, then, in the moral trinity, is the father-spirit is the son, as begot of matter-but reason is the holy ghost, which will reconcile the father and the son, shew that they are one, that these three are one, that all are one-a trinity in unity, comprising universal unity. The holy ghost, or right reason, would shew at once that a peacock is a peacock, as materialists insist; while the holy ghost would agree with the spiritualist, that in a spiritual sense, serpents might speak, and asses discourse most eloquently, as in the case of the ass of the prophet Balaam. Nor will the Scriptural text, " The same hour was the thing fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar; and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dews of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws," be any difficulty in the way of the spiritualist for he searcheth not the Scripture for the letter, but the spirit, for the spirit is life; but the letter killeth and Paul speaketh wisely when he saith, "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not, as though they were;" so that, although, as said (2nd Tim. 3, v. 16) "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," it is only profitable to those who take from materialism that which is good, who cast not off spiritualism, but use it for what it

is worth, led by the holy ghost, or right reason, which, though the last person in the moral trinity, is the first in excellence. Let no Christian be alarmed, for are we not told, that the first shall be last, and the last shall be first?

Taken literally, no person, of sane mind, can believe that Samson's strength lay in his hair-that he caught three hundred foxes, or three hundred jackals (as some natural theologians now contend that they were), tied their tails together, and setting fire to them, sent them amid the standing corn of the Philistines; what is said in the book of Judges, notwithstanding. "And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took fire-brands, and turned tail to tail, and put a fire-brand in the midst, between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives." The character of Samson, like that of Hercules, is purely fabulous. What is said about his rending a young lion as a kid, and, he had nothing in his hand-killing three thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass-being deprived of his strength, and subsequently of his life, by the artifices of a woman,-squares exactly with the stories told of Hercules, who, like Samson, was destroyed by the artifices of a woman, and so enamoured of fighting, that when he had nothing else to fight, he amused himself by slaughtering wild beasts, and other heroic exercises.

The Bible is a book of riddles, parables, allegories, and deep meanings; almost every line has a spiritual, as well as material sense; that which appears, and that which doth not appear; food for faith, and food for wisdom; rank nonsense, and fine philosophy; according to the capacities of those who read. Nor need our readers be informed that the most admirable philosophy, if misconceived, hath no advantage over folly. What can be more absurd than the literal interpretation of Scriptural texts; what more admirable than that truly sublime sense within the heaps which form a kind of envelope or covering; transparent to the man possessed with the holy ghost, but opaque, dense, and impenetrable to the mental visions of others. Yes, mere idle words are Scriptural texts, as now used-mere shells, which must be broken ere we can obtain the kernel of truth. To believe it as it is written, is to outrage reason, and common sense; it is to sacrifice judgment upon the altar of folly, and at the same time, run counter to Biblical

texts, which plainly tell us that the Bible is a book of allegories, parables, similitudes, and words, which carry upon the face of them one sense but when probed and searched into, are found to possess another; in short, " calleth those things which be not, as though they were."

That the Scriptures are much abused by unscrupulous men; that they are ransacked for texts, to support the most impious and unholy dogmas, is plain; all parties have used them in turn, and all found arguments in support of their views ;-the tyrant an apology for his despotism; the murderer for his cruelty; the debauchee for his lust; and the deceiver for his jesuitry. This, which, in the eyes of some, is as dust, rendering them blind to the real merits and demerits of the book; to the sharp-sighted, will merely shew that it is a book of riddles-much read, but little understood; like all ancient writings, disfigured by mysticism; like them, a compound or medley of good and evil-truth and falsehood. The Bible is a sealed book; and the like may be said of all, or nearly all, the books of the ancient poets: for verily, they are books of wonders, of riddles, and of spiritualities, which a mere matter of fact reader can never comprehend; in short, the Testaments, old and new, are full of many important truths believed to be falseand many falsehoods thought to be true. But as gold can only be purged from its dross by physical labour, so the saving truths, con→ tained in the Scriptures, can only become the prize of those who are content to pay the legitimate price-mental exertion: "for the husbandman that laboureth must be the first partaker of the fruits."

Did not men most inconsistently hate those who tell them the truth, they would long since have known that no book can be so written as to contain all truth, and nought but truth; besides, the Bible was written in remote times, when men were just emerging from the darkness of idolatry. The early Christian fathers were infected by a superstitious spirit" mere children in bondage, under the elements of the world," "who observed days, months, times, and years." Even Origen, one of the most learned Christian writers, held the opinion, that the government of the world was presided over by gods and spirits. "I advance boldly (said he) that there are celestial virtues which have the government of the world; the one presides over the earth, the other over the planets, others over the rivers and the fountains, some others superintend the wind and the rain." Astrology placed a part of these powers in the stars;

thus, the Hyades controlled the rains, Osiris the tempests, Sirius the great heats, Aries the flocks and the birds. The Hebrews and the Christians supposed that four angels had charge of the four corners of the world. The Persians believed that four great stars, which were placed at the cardinal points, performed that duty; and their astrologers in like manner accorded the surveillance to four planets; in short, the administration of the universe was divided between an infinite number of intelligences, whether called gods, angels, heros, or geniuses, all of whom interested themselves, more or less, in human affairs; for, with the uninstructed among the ancients, wherever motion was, there life was supposed to be ; and all effects, of which the causes were unknown, seemed to those who knew not the mechanism, as intelligent living effects. The Sun appeared to move; the savage did not for a moment suppose that it could move, except by its own will, it appeared to him, a huge hill of flame, moving majestically from east to west,— and he in his simplicity, concluded that the Sun was a living creature-adored and worshipped it accordingly, and statues were placed in temples, to represent the force, brightness, and grandeur of the great luminary.

The opinion that the Sun, the Moon, and even the Stars, were animated and conducted by intelligences, was common among the Chaldeans, the Jews, the Persians, and the Greeks, as well as the Phenecians, the Ethiopians, and their descendants the Egyptians. The Christians placed an angel in each star, and these angels were supposed to conduct the celestial bodies, and regulate the move. ment of the spheres. Each of these geniuses, or angels, were charged with a certain department, or particular function; cold, heat, rain, dryness, the fruits of the earth, the multiplication of flocks, the arts, the operations of agriculture, &c., all was under the inspection of an angel or a deity.

In the seventh book of the Enead, where Anchises reveals to his son the origin of souls, and the fate which attend them after death, he says " You should know oh my son! that the sky and the earth, the sea, the brilliant globe of the moon, and all the stars, are moved, by a principle of life, which perpetuates their existence; that it is a great and intelligent soul, spread in all parts of the vast body of the universe, which mingles with all, and agitates all, by an eternal motion. It is that soul which is the source of the life of man, of the flocks, of the birds, and of all the monsters which breathe in

the bosom of the waters. The living force which animates them, emanates from an eternal fire, which shines in the sky, and which, held captive in the gross matter of our bodies, is only developed as far as is permitted by the diverse mortal organizations which deaden its force and its activity. At the death of each animal, these germs of life, these portions of the spirit universal, return to their principle and to their source of life, which circulates in the starry sphere."

The Persians had their angel Chur, which guided the chariot of the Sun ; and the greeks their Apollo, who had his seat in that star. The theological books of the Persians speak of the seven grand intelligences, under the name of Amschapands, which formed the cortege of the god of light, called the geniuses of the seven planets. The Jews made of them, their seven archangels, ever present before the Lord. To the number seven of the planetary sphere, have been added, the fixed sphere, and the circle of the earth. The Greeks attached to these nine muses, who by their songs produced the universal harmony of the world. The Chaldeans and the Jews placed in the planetary system, other intelligences, called cherubims and seraphims, &c., to the number of nine choirs, who, by their concerts, were supposed to rejoice the Eternal. The Indians had also their geniuses; who presided in the differet regions of the world. Their astrological system had submitted each city and each town, to the influence of a star; it was natural for them to suppose that they were the seats of intelligent deities, who were the souls of the stars, as we find the sacred books of the Jews admit a tutelary angel of the Persians, and a tutelary angel of the Jews. That the number seven is a mystical number, and had a relation to the planetary system, was shewn in a former letter; and in like manner the number twelve, or that of the signs through which the Sun seems to pass.

The worship of Nature and its parts, was not peculiar to the Egyptians, but universal in the ancient world. In the Egyptian system the world was regarded as a great divinity, made up or composed of an assemblage of inferior gods, or partial causes, which were nothing else than the members of the great body called God. If any curious reader doubt this, let him read the highly poetic Hymns of ancient authors, as Hesiod, Orpheus, and others, and his scepticism will be cured; for they all relate to Nature-the motions and modifications of matter," Let us sing (says Hesiod, when invoking the muses) to the immortal Gods, children of the earth, and