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GENERAL CHARACTER OF FISH. Fish are peaceful animals; happy in themselves, and for the most part harmonising together, without any general display of savage cruelty or malignant passions. Such as are appointed to be food of others, die in that way, and are sought and taken for that purpose, when the appetite actuates, but no farther. But they cannot be justly stigmatised as voracious for this habit, more than ourselves for taking and eating them, and cattle, sheep, fowls, game, venison, and other living creatures. We are carnivorous, but not voracious. We kill and cook the animals we feed on; but we have no malice, or ill-will, or hostility in such action or diet, any more than in plucking the apple, grinding the corn, or boiling the potatoe. It is, therefore, unjust to impute peculiar voracity and destructiveness to these tribes, because some feed on smaller fish, and others on the molluscæ, worms, and insects that they find. These latter animals appear to be as specially provided for such as use them as slugs and caterpillars are for birds, and grass for cattle; for, at particular seasons, the ocean is made to swarm with them for no other visible purpose than that the fish may derive nutrition from them. The molluscæ, which supply so many of the natives of the sea with their subsistence, are therefore endowed with a power of multiplication which, as in several other cases, astonishes us by its amount. It is the abundance of these petty invertebrated animals, of various species, so sedulously provided for the nutriment of the fish, which constitutes that luminous appearance, or phosphorescence of the sea, which so often surprises and delights the mariner on his watch in his nightly navigation. If some species of fish are always eating, which is not by any means an authenticated fact, they would but resemble the graminivorous quadrupeds, who pass their day in browsing and in resting rumination; neither can be fitly branded as voracious in such perpetual mastication; for what animal is milder or more inoffensive than the tranquil, though ever-eating cow, who takes one hundred pounds of grass in a-day? But there are some facts which indicate that the fish have been much misconceived in this respect; and that, however it may be with some particular classes, the far greater number take less food, and live with pleasure, and apparently from choice, longer without any ascertainable quantity of it, than any other tribes of animals that we know of. The gold and silver fish in our vases seem never to want any food; they are often seen for months without any apparent nourishment. Even the pike, which has been so much branded as a devouring glutton, fattens on total abstinence. The salmon, although it comes in such multitudes from the ocean into the rivers, yet, when opened, is never found to have any nutritive substance in its stomach an evidence of their taking none in that period of their existence; for the herrings, when they shoal, are found, on being opened, to have fed largely on the sea caterpillar in their voyage. The lamprey tribe are confessedly small, or no eaters. Many facts of this sort would lead to the inquiry, whether the greater majority of the finny tribe do not, for the larger part of their existence, content themselves with the nutrition they exact from water alone, without any additional substance.

The mild and harmless character of the fish class

f being, in its general prevalence, is impressively exhibited by most of its largest tribes. The great Greenland whale pursues no other animal; leads an inoffensive life; and is harmless in proportion to its strength to do mischief. The massy sturgeon is of the same gentle nature. The formidable narwhal, Or sea unicorn, with all its size and powerful weapon of offence, displays the same disposition. The Oro. nooko manati, which has been found so huge in bulk,

that twenty-seven men could not draw it out of the water, and the others of this tribe, of which some are twenty-eight feet long, and weigh eight thousand pounds, are likewise gentle and peaceable animals. These mightier chief of the finny nation are the true representatives of its general character. All are for the most part the same mild, playful, animated, and unoffending beings; and have been so designed and organised, habited and stationed, as to be continually of this placid temperament.-Turner's History.

MORN.

Rise, rise, ye slumberers, rise!

See how morn dons her sheen!
Glancing on earth with her beaming eyes
And sweeping her train through the dusky skies
Like a brilliant eastern Queen;
Grimly and darkly the shades retire

Like slaves, as she waves her hand,
As if they feared her gathering ire,
And shrunk at her proud command.
The fair earth smiles,
And her thousand isles
Seem to start from the glittering sea,
As if just born

To greet the morn
With mirth and with minstrelsy.
Freshly and gaily the breezes sweep
Her path with their airy wing;

To her gates the watchful sunbeams leap,
Around ber a careful guard to keep,
With their lances glittering.

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A GOOD DAUGHTER!-There are other ministers of love more conspicuous than her, but none in which a gentler spirit dwells, or to which the heart's warm requitals more joyfully respond. There is no comparative estimate of a parent's love for one or another child. There is little which he needs to covet, to whom the treasure of a good child has been given. But a son's occupation and pleasures carry him more abroad, and he resides more amongst temptations, which hardly permit the affection that is following him, perhaps over half the globe, to be wholly unmingled with anxiety, until the time when he comes to relinquish the shelter of his father's roof for one of his own; while a good daughter is the steady light of her parent's house. Her idea is indissolubly connected with that of his happy fireside. She is his morning sunlight and his evening star. The grace and vivacity and tenderness of her sex have their place in the mighty sway which she holds over his spirit. The lessons of recorded wisdom which he reads with her eyes, come to his mind with a new charm as blended with the beloved melody of her voice. He scarcely knows weariness which her song does not make him forget, or gloom which is proof against the young brightness of her smile. She is the pride and ornament of his hospitality, and the gentle nurse of his sickness, and the constant agent in those nameless, numberless acts of kindness, which one chiefly cares to have rendered because they are unpretending but expressive proofs of love. And then what a cheerful sharer she is, and what an able lightener of her mother's cares! present delight and triumph to a mother's affection! Oh, how little do those daughters know of the power which God has committed to them, and the happiness God would have them enjoy, who do not every time that a parent's eye rests upon them, bring rapture to a parent's heart!

What an ever

REMARKABLE OCCURRENCE.

FUNERAL OF KING HENRY VIII.

The following incident, connected with the obsequies of Henry VIII., (which we extract from Miss Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England,") cannot be read without a shudder :

"The body of the king being carried to Windsor to be buried, stood all night among the broken walls of Sion, and there the leaden coffin being cleft by the shaking of the carriage, the pavement of the church was wetted with Henry's blood. In the morning came plumbers to solder the coffin, under whose feetI tremble while I write it (says the author)—' was suddenly seen a dog creeping, and licking up the king's blood. If you ask me how I know this, I answer, William Greville, who could scarcely drive away the dog, told me, and so did the plumber also.' It appears pretty certain that the sleepy mourners and choristers had retired to rest after the midnight dirges were sung, leaving the dead king to defend himself as best he might from the assaults of his ghostly enemies, and some people might think they made their approaches in a currish form. scarcely, however, to be wondered that a circumstance so frightful should have excited feelings of superstitious horror, especially at such a time and place; for this desecrated convent had been the prison of his unhappy queen, Katharine Howard, whose tragic fate was fresh in the minds of men; and, by a singular coincidence, it happened that Henry's corse rested there the very day after the fifth anniversary of her execution. There is a class of writers, too, who regard the accident which has just been related, as a serious fulfilment of friar Peyto's denunciation against Henry, from the pulpit of Greenwich church, in 1533, when that daring preacher compared him to Ahab, and told him to his face, that the dogs would in like manner lick his blood!"

It is

THE FIRST CORSE.-In the transgression of our first parents there was involved that dreadful penalty which has since passed upon all men. Death followed sin. And very soon, by a mysterious dispensation, was beheld, prostrate in the dust, what was a new and strange spectacle to angels and to men-the martyred Abel's lifeless body-THE FIRST HUMAN CORSE. Oh, what an object for man's observation! What a witness to the mournful fact and melancholy consequences of the fall! That first lifeless body reveals to us the evil of sin, and interprets God's threatening denounced against it. It speaks to us with deep solemnity, volumes of divine truth. Let him that readeth understand.

GENIUS. There are so many sources of enjoyment| open to genius, that in no condition can they be all dried up. To love the beautiful in all things is a high privilege; and feelings of rapture, as of awe, may be extracted from objects which only impress ordinary minds with pain and terror. If the calm lake, the green valley, and the pale primrose soothe us with sweet pictures of peace-the stormy ocean, the rifted rock, and the blasted tree, can and do stir us with deep delight.

GUNPOWDER. Before the invention of gunpowder, the number of castles erected chiefly as places of security was very great; but since, few have been built, and these have not been as places of defence. There were 1,100 castles built in England between the years 1140 and 1154.

RIGHT NEXT TIME. "Oh, my dear sir," said a poor sufferer to a dentist, "that is the second wrong tooth you have pulled out!" "Very sorry, sir," said the blundering operator, "but as there were only three altogether when I began, I'm sure to be right next time!"

THE INTERVIEW.-A FRAGMENT.
BY THOMAS FURLONG.

Slowly around the guiding dame
Three airy forms attendant came→→
The first, if judged by looks alone,

Seem'd as an infant free from sin;
Her winning air, her thrilling tone,
Might coax a cherub from his throne;
But heaven, to whom the heart is known,
Could only say what dwelt within.
The second sylph disclosed to view
Two laughing eyes of roguish hue;
Around her lips, when she chanc'd to smile,
A dang'rous dimple appear'd to play :
She look'd like a thief who could well beguile,
For her glance just led one for awhile,

And led them but astray.

The third appear'd, nor curl'd nor lac'd,
And sure no pencil ever trac'd
A mien with milder beauty grac'd;
And sure no chisel cut, of old,
A form of purer, fairer mould:
Each tint that loveliness might own
Seem'd resting in that face alone.
Yes, we may love the lily's glow,

Or say its leaf is soft and clear-
Still we may mark the falling snow,
Or praise the rose about to blow;

Bnt all their shades were mingled here.

THE WAY TO BE HAPPY.-Cut your coat according to your cloth, is an old maxim, and a wise one; and if people will only square their ideas according to their circumstances, how much happier might we all be! If we could come down a peg or two in our notions, in accordance with our waning fortunes, happiness would be always within our reach. It is the fonging for more than we have, the envying of those who possess that more, and the wish to appear in the world of more consequence than we really are, which destroy our peace of mind, and eventually lead to ruin.

CUTTING TEETH.-A person mentioning the remarkable fact of a gentleman aged seventy-nine having cut two new teeth-" Poh!" mumbled an old lady, who had none left, "I cut all mine more than three years ago!"

SUFFERERS IN NAVAL WARFARE.-The number of pensioners in Greenwich hospital at this time is 2,710; among whom are 732 maimed: namely, with loss of right arm 12, left arm 8 total 20; both legs 3, right leg 29, left leg 36-total 68; both eyes 61, right eye 44, left eye 45-total 150; ruptured on both sides 162, right side 152, left side 175, umbilical 5– total 494. Grand total, 732.

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ORIGIN OF THE TERM "YANKEE."-The current American term, Yankee," was a cant or favourite word with one Jonathan Hastings, a settler at Cambridge, North America, about the year 1713. The inventor used it to express excellency. For instance, a "Yankee good horse," or "Yankee cider," mean an excellent horse, and excellent cider. The students of a neighbouring college were accustomed to hire horses of Jonathan; their intercourse with him, and his use of the word on all occasions, led them to adopt it, and they gave him the name of " Yankee Jonathan." It was dispersed by the collegians throughout New England, until it became a settled term of reproach to all New Englanders, and eventually to all North Americans.

A HINT TO SMITHS.-The cutting of bars of iron or pipes with the chisel is a laborious and tardy process. By the following mode the same end is attained more speedily, easily, and neatly :-Bring the iron to a white heat, and then, fixing it in a vice, apply the common saw, which, without being turned in the edge or injured in any respect, will divide it as easily as if it were a carrot.

ANCIENT IRISH CUSTOM-DESTRUCTION

OF WOLVES.

We have been favoured, through the kindness of a friend, with the first part of the "Memoirs of Miss M. Nevill," written by herself, from which we extract the following interesting passage :

"Mr. Bowerman's estate of Cooline, near Charleville, in the county of Cork, was held on the tenure of his paying a fine of thirty wolves' heads to the crown. Mrs. Nevill remembers well her father going out to hunt the wolves, and his having armour for his horse and for his legs, with a long spear, a pair of pistols and a dirk. He used to go out accompanied by a large train of servants, well mounted and armed in the same manner, and had two wolf dogs, who generally disabled the animal before he could come to close quarters; but if he did, he was soon dispatched, as the wounds from the bite of a wolf are generally mortal. A certain number of 'wolf boys' were kept to give timely notice of their approach. Mr. Bowerman's exertions banished them altogether, and after his death this fine was commuted for a quit-rent of about fourteen pounds sterling. In one of these excursions Mr. Bowerman was slightly wounded, but his horse was dreadfully torn, so as to be shot afterwards, to end his misery. If the wolf was disposed to spring at the hunter, his progress was arrested at once by a goat skin, which each man carried loose before him across his saddle; at any emergency it was thrown adroitly over the wolf's head, and while he was struggling to free himself he was shot by one of the hunters. Some of the attendants carried a hatchet to cut off the head of the animal, and implements to flay it, the skin being considered valuable and frequently used for muffs and lining for cloaks. The dogs were so well trained, they stood off till all these operations were performed, and then the carcass was given them for a prey. During these excursions the ladies of the family prepared all manner of things for the wounded, and had divers applications ready, both for man and beast, on the return of the hunters. Every gentleman, in those days, had a surgeon or physician in his house, as a part of his establishment, who had his own apartments and servant separate, and under his directions all the medical arrangements were performed."

MOTION.-The common watch, it is said, beats or ticks 17,160 times an hour. This is 411,840 a day150,424,510 a year, allowing the year to be 365 days and 6 hours. Sometimes watches will run with care one hundred years. In that case it would last to beat 15,042,456,000 times! The watch is made of hard metal; but there is a curious machine made of something not so hard as brass or steel-it is not much harder than the flesh of your arm-yet, it will beat more than 5,000 times an hour-120,000 times a day and 43,830,000 times a year! It will sometimes, though not often, last 100 years; and when it does, it beats 4,843,000,000 times! One might think this last machine, soft as it is, would wear out sooner than the other; but it does not. You have this little machine about you. You need not feel in your pocket, for it is not there. It is in your body; you can feel it beat; it is your HEART!

FEMALE INFLUENCE. When Livia had attained such an ascendancy over her husband, Augustus, that he could hardly refuse her anything, though Emperor of the world, many of the married ladies of Rome were anxious to know the secret and the source of her success" I rule by obeying!" she replied.

NEWSPAPERS IN AMERICA.-In the United States there are 138 daily, 141 weekly, 115 semi and tri-weekly newspapers, and 227 periodicals!

LIFE.

Like the waves of the sea is this troublesome life,
Ever changing it seems-ever new-

And man, like a bark, borne on by its strife,
With a far distant haven in view.

The strange winds of fortune may waft us at will,
And its changes awaken alarmn;

But the haven we steer for is tranquil and still,
And its harbour secure from the storm.
The beautiful rose looks more beautiful yet,
In the morning refreshed by the dew;
But its lustre soon fades, and it seems to regret
That it ever so flourishing grew.

In the morn of youth, in the spring-time of life,
Man as fair and as promising grows,

But the troubles and cares in this world of strife
Nips his beauty and youth like the rose.
How transient this life!-'tis fast fleeting away-
Revived like the bud by a shower;

We are buoyant with hope and new prospects to-day-
To-morrow, cut down like the flower!

And the winter of years will soon lay in the tomb,
That in summer looks lovely and bright;

But in time the buds shoot-through eternity bloom
In the regions of Heavenly light.

Some are happy and heedless, tho' fortune should frown;
Resigned and content with their lot;

Looking forth to a bright and an Heavenly crown,
Where earth's perishing joys are forgot.

ELLIS.

SOLITUDE. What mistakes people have fallen into when writing about solitude! A man leaves a town for a few months, and goes with a wife and family and a travelling library into some solitary glen. Friends are perpetually visiting him from afar, or the neighbouring gentry leaving their cards, whilst his servant boy rides daily to the post village for his letters and newspapers. And call you that solitude? The whole world is with you morning, noon, and night. But go by yourself, without book or friend, and live a month in the hut at the head of Glenevis. Go at dawn among the cliffs of yonder pine forest, and wait there till night hangs her moon-lamp in heaven. Commune with your own soul-and be still. Let the images of departed years rise, phantom-like, of their own awful accord, from the darkness of your memory, and pass away into the wood gloom or the mountain mist. Will conscience dread such spectres? Will you quake before them, and bow down your head on the mossy root of some old oak, and sob in the stern silence of the haunted place? Thoughts, feelings, passions, spectral deeds, will come rushing around your lair, as with the sound of the wings of innumerous birds-ay, many of them like birds of prey, to gnaw your very heart. How many duties undischarged! How many pleasures devoured! How many sins hugged! How many wickednesses The desert looks more grim, the perpetrated! heaven lowers, and the sun, like God's own eye, stares in upon your conscience.—Professor Wilson.

EMBALMING IN NEW ZEALAND.-The New Zealanders have a method of embalming their dead, that is a custom not peculiar to themselves, though the method they undertake to perform it may be. The head and body is eviscerated, and cooked in an oven, after the native method of preparing for preservation the head of an enemy, after which the body is well stuffed with flax scraped carefully. These native mummies have answered the purposes of the embalmers for many years, but the custom is only prac tised to the south of the East Cape, where the original manners of the people have been less tinged, if not wholly unaltered, by the connection formed with Europeans.

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HEARTS.

Hearts that are fond hearts,

Never grow old;

Hearts that are true hearts,
Never grow cold;
Hearts that are worthy
Of bearing the name,

Hearts cast in worldly mould,
Will be the same;
Dull, worthless, cankered,cold,
Hearts but in name.
Hearts that have ever beat
With feeling's glow,
Fade not like summer-flowers,
Nor changes know.

FARM PRODUCE IN IRELAND.
The model farm at Glasnevin, near Dublin, is con-
ducted on the improved system of green cropping and
house feeding. The farm contains fifty-two statute
acres, and is conducted on a scientific rotation: on
it are kept during the year twenty-two head of cattle,
with three horses. It supplies on an average ninety In life's snow or its sunshine
persons during the year with farm produce, such as
milk, butter, potatoes, vegetables, &c. &c., and the
farming establishment with pork, besides a number of Hearts that are miscall'd hearts, Hearts that indeed are hearts,

private families with the above articles: a consider-
able quantity of vegetables are carried to market,
and all kinds of grain, which is abundant. There is
at present a crop of oats upon the farm, the produce
of fourteen and a half British acres ; it is secured in
eight stacks, and is estimated by the best judges to
be equal to the average produce of fifty acres. It
stood perfectly close to the ground, averaged six to
seven and a half feet in height, the head and ear cor.
responding. The other crops, potatoes, turnips,
Italian rye-grass, &c. &c., of like quality. The ma-
nager conducts the farm on his account, pays £257
7s. 8d. per annum of rent, besides other expenses,
amounting in all to upwards of £400 per year; and
we are informed and believe that he realises a very
handsome sum from it besides. He labours and ma-
nages it almost exclusively by a number of boys,
agricultural pupils, and teachers, who are there in
training in the science and practice of agriculture.

As the test of what land is capable of producing
when brought to its maximum point, there are few
examples such as we have in this particular instance;
there is perhaps more crop raised, more cattle kept
and fed, more human beings supplied with the com-
mon necessaries of life, more manure accumulated,
more employment given, and, in fact, more money
made, on this spot of ground, than on any farm of the
same extent (conducted on a proper scientific rota-
tion of grain and green crop) in any part of the em-
pire or the world.—Farmer's Magazine.

GLASGOW WATER WORKS.-These works are situate on the banks of the Clyde, about two miles above Glasgow. There are nine steam-engines, two of which are of great magnitude and power, the erec. tion of which, with their appurtenances, cost the company £20,000. The quantity of filtered water furnished by the works daily, amounts to 8,000,000 gallons. The water is conveyed into the city through the medium of four principal mains, respectively of 14, 21, 25, and 36 inches diameter. The whole extent of pipes, with the varied ramifications throughout the city, amounts to upwards of 140 miles. The supply to the inhabitants begins about six in the morning, and is continued without intermission throughout all the pipes till from 8 to 10 in the evening. The population of Glasgow, according to the last census, is nearly 300,000-and those works pour unceasingly, like the heart in the human system, the life-blood of a city-WATER-through a thousand channels, until it reaches the most distant and obscure members of the community. -Chambers' Jour.

SPEED OF TRAVELLING.-The opening of the Strasburgh and Basle Railway, which is about ninety miles in lenght, was celebrated recently by a great dinner at Mulhausen. An inscription on one of the walls of the room ran thus:-"In the year 1500, the journey from Mu'hausen to Strasburg occupied eight days; in 1600, six days; in 1700, four days; in 1800, two days; in 1841, two hours."-The distance is about seventy English miles.

MILKING COWS BY STEAM! This curious and ingenious application of steam power is due to Mr. Robinson, of Lisburn, already so well known on account of his valuable steaming apparatus.-Northern Whig.

Beat ever the same.

Are but the things
To which the fetter
Of earth only clings;

This

Throb to the last;
To feeling's pulses true,
Though youth is past.
C. B. W.

A BLIND MAN TAKING A LIKENESS.-Dr. Piles states that he saw in Italy a blind man, about 50 years of age, full of genius and intelligence, and an excellent draughtsman. He met him in the Giustiniani Palace, modelling in wax a statue of Minerva. man could, by the touch, discover the forms and proportions of the original. "I saw," says Dr. Piles, by this blind man, the portrait of the late King of England, Charles I., and of Pope Urban VIII., and in France, that of Mrs. Hessulin, all perfectly well executed. He found some difficulty in representing the hair, because it was moveable."

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SUGAR IN THE OLDEN TIME.--In the reign of Henry the Fourth of France, sugar was so rare in that country, that it was sold by the ounce by apothecaries, nearly as peruvian bark is now sold.

GOING TO LAW.-A person who goes to law resembles a young rustic in a barn on his first introduction to a flail, with which he belabours his own ears more than the ears that lie scattered around him— giving himself a good thrashing, and the corn a bad

one.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "PATRICIUS." ."—We are much obliged by your contributions, and shall be glad to hear from you again. Think not that our pages are not open to classical beauties or allusions. We agree with the great Erasmus, that an Editor should act like a polite host-viz., supply a variety of viands to suit the variety of tastes: and, as we number now among our readers many who have bathed in "the dews of Castalia," we solicit rather than refuse such contributions. "O. P."-We wish you would endeavour to frame short sentences. It distresses not only a reader, but a hearer, to make out the meaning of involved paragraphs. A literary morceau should be divided skilfully. Food for the mind, like food for the body, is better digested when taken in short quantities at a time.

"J. K." Killeany.-We are anxious to have your assistance in the advancement of our Journal. Our first Volume is in progress of binding-when completed, we shall, with pleasure, furnish you with one, according to direction. We hope to hear from you in the interim, with one of your best articles; and trust, ere long, to be in that position in which we can fully meet all your wishes.

"MARY."-Your hope will be realised, probably in our next. The productions of "the soft sex" shall always meet peculiar attention.

"M.," "E. B. J.," "G. T.,” “FREDERICK," and many other prose contributions, under consideration.

"R.," "F. D.," "P. J. M.," and a host of poetical correspondents, will be attended to in due course.

If some of our kind contributors would take a little pains to write legibly, and use but one side of the paper, accuracy would result, and our labour be materially abridged.

Printed for the Proprietors, at the Office, 32, Lower Sackville-street, Dublin, where all communications (post paid) are to be addressed, to the Editor.

lin

Published by T. TEGG & Co., 8, Lower Abbey-street, Dub; and all Booksellers.

of v. 2, no. ?..)

THE DUBLIN JOURNAL

OF TEMPERANCE, SCIENCE, AND LITERATURE.

No. 11.-VOL. II.

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.

ORIGIN OF THE RELIGION OF THE
ANCIENT PERSIANS.

"Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind."

POPE.

If, as some of our Irish historians assert, the "Green Isle" owes the affluence of her mines of fancy, legendary lore, and quaint, though innocently beautiful and imaginative, superstitions to the intermingling consanguinity of Eastern nations, 'tis but just that we should occasionally notice those countries and their inhabitants to whom we appear indebted for so much of our national literary vanity. Accordingly I submit the following sketch to the readers of the DUBLIN JOURNAL, having first wisely enlisted them in my favour, by identifying my subject with that truest talisman to their hearts-" Our Native Land."

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'Tis strange with what untiring and anxious avidity the people of remote ages sought after some first principles," some great author or being, something supernatural or mighty, to bow down before, and pour forth from their hearts that implanted, innate conviction, "that there was an Omnipotent and mighty Ruler of all nature.”

PRICE 1d.

Immediately before the time of Zoroaster, (I mean the Persian Zoroaster,) imagination had began to run riot with their religion; and a divinity, named Mithras, who was supposed to reside in the sun, and endow it with the life and splendour of his presence, was worshipped as a divinity. Fire, too, was adored; but only upon little altars and pillars in the open air, and attended by priests, named Magi. But Zoroaster seems to have purified again the ancient Persian faith from much of the Chaldean innovations, and whilst he entered deeper than the Chaldeans into a newer school of more modern philosophy, endeavoured to render the discipline of religious ceremonies more suited to the comprehension of his disciples.

The simple altars and pillars gave place to costly domes and temples, in which the sacred fires were kept constantly alive, and the Magi, attired in graceful white robes, barefooted, and holding long reeds in their hands, performed the official rites to the strains of entrancing harmony; and now astrology and ratiocination were almost entirely superseded.

This display was, of course, extremely captivating in its effects, and the "children of the sun" hailed with enthusiastic rapture the fascinating doctrines of the wily sage.

Yet as to the probable primal source of the "ancient faith," I think the phenomenon of "spontaneous combustion" to be a sufficiently abundant theme for supposition to grapple with.

In an illiterate and barbarous period we can hence easily reconcile the idea of the origin of even the most fantastic faith, aided in their development, as each and all of them invariably were, by imposition and artifice, as well as superstition and fanaticism. Thus the magic and astrology of the I allude to the columns of brilliant fire which Babylonians the abstinence, mortification, and contempt of death of the Indian Brachmans-the often have burst forth spontaneously from the mystery and splendour of the Egyptians-the scorching sands in the desert wastes of both Arabia simple, plausible philosophy of the Ethiopians and Persia, and continued thus burning unfaulterthe murderous solemnity of the Celts-the ro-ingly and undiminished for numbers of years mance, fable, and poetry of the Greeks-the together. luxury and sensuality of the Romans; all lent a complexion individually to every system of faith, and smoothed down the way to general credulity. According to Herodotus and Xenophon, the Persians (as Enfield tells us) looked upon the lightnings as the ensigns of the Supreme Spirit; and Strabo says, that they called the whole circuit

of the heavens-God!

What can be more plausible to conceive, than that any being, guided only by the laws of nature, and possessing in his heart that inherent conviction of the existence of a Divinity to which I have before alluded, should stand aghast at such an awsome sight in those his native interminable solitudes; and then, bewildered and subdued by its magnificence and splendour, cast himself upon the

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