on the assumption that man, as a person, was not in any reciprocal relation to the gods; that he was not in any sense the object of their solicitude; and that he could not by any means make them actively or positively friendly to him. The utmost that was proposed by this cultus was, by costly sacrifices, to propitiate the gods, and, so far, to protect defenceless man from the selfish or passionate ravages of malignant beings invested with irresponsible power. Christianity, on the contrary, afforded a ritual worship, which was in close connection with a system of ethics and philosophy. It was founded on the enlightened assumption that God was not only friendly to man, but had Himself incurred the most costly sacrifice for man's regeneration and promotion. Accordingly, the end of the Christian cultus was to bring him within a positive spiritual influence for his own good, making him better, wiser, and happier, both in fruition and in expectancy; making possible for him the possession of good, though also as a result of self-denial in this world, and the reversion of eternal good after death. 66 The elements of Christianity are stated by De Quincey to be1. A cultus. 2. A new idea of God. 3. An idea of the relation of man to God, "breathing household laws." 4. A doctrinal part, ethical and mystical. Of these elements, Paganism had but the first. It was a cultus. Now a cultus, in the Christian system, has four parts: (a) an act of praise, (b) an act of thanksgiving, (c) an act of confession, (d) an act of prayer. Of these the first and the last appear present in Paganism. Pagans glorified and invoked their deities. But how? You read of preces, of αραι, &c., and you are desirous to believe the Pagan supplications were not always corrupt." But, "vainly you come before the altars with empty hands. But my hands are pure.' Pure, indeed! would reply the scoffing god; let me see what they contain." Do ut des (i.e., I give thee that thou mayest give me), or quid pro quo, was the maxim. Do or quo was either a costly gift or a banquet (cana) dedicated to the god to the oracle it was a gift; to the altar it was a feast. But neither advice nor aid (even from a tutelary deity) could be had gratis. Even the magnificent choric prayer to Onca and the rest, in the Seven against Thebes, is backed up by reminding them that the sacrifices had been paid. Such was Pagan prayer; and Pagan praise was often the exaggerated imputation of the grossest vices. But from this cultus thanksgiving and confession were absent by the nature of the case; for thanks could not be due where every advance was paid for beforehand; and what were the poor Pagans to confess? Their sins? How could that be? for, first, they did not regard their vices as sinful, else were their gods the gravest of sinners; and, not regarding them as sinful, how could they feel remorse for them. Penitence they had none. Pænitentia meant regret, vexation. MεTávola meant either second thoughts, or afterthought, as being too late to be of any avail. Neither auapria nor peccatum meant sin; the nearest approach to sin was piacularity. No personal transgression was contemplated, but simply an offence against the idiosyncrasy of the god, and in such an offence the devotee was as often as not involved by the act of others, while he himself was wholly innocent of it. But not the less did the vengeance of the god fasten on him unless he could propitiate him; and such was precisely the case of Edipus. On his devoted head were poured the vials of wrath for the committal of three unconscious crimesregicide, parricide, and incest; not for slaying a man on the king's highway; not for marrying the king's widow; acts which he had done with his eyes open; but for crimes involved in these acts, but which were wholly hidden from his knowledge, he met with that pariah fate, which in its mysteriousness and its pathos is a likeness, and for its despair and misery is a contrast, to the fabled doom of our King Arthur. For this reason it is that De Quincey takes Edipus as the type of the child of truth according to the Pagan scheme. It must be allowed that, even if De Quincey's theory is a little too prononcé, it is pregnant with a truth which is of great value to the Christianity of our own day. It is incident to any religious de. velopment from a new centre that it should adopt and resuscitate the words that did duty for the religious system which it supplanted; and thus it must happen that in after ages a grave risk will be run of reflecting back on the words of ancient usage a sense and power which they did not then have. If this danger be not avoided, there is the consequent risk of mistaking the actual freshness and originality of the religious ideas of the latest development, and of arguing that all its peculiar doctrines are borrowed from the supplanted system. In this way it is that many are now, let us hope in ignorance, assailing the originality of the special characteristics of Christianity; and it was against this stupendous blunder that De Quincey devoted his best powers and his ripest learning. But it must be confessed that these views as a whole are chargeable with inconsistency. The Baptist's Metanoeite was addressed to Jews: the mainstay of the theory that the Jewish sect of the Essenes was a secret society of early Christians is, that on any other assumption there must have been a Christianity before Christ. The drift of De Quincey's remarks on these questions seems to be that Judaism, in a less degree than Paganism, but still in a great degree, had a distinct centre of evolution, and that a change in the point of reference, and an intellectual and moral revolution, were demanded in the one as in the other. But when brought face to face with this fact, De Quincey wards off the inevitable conclusion by the following note:-"Once for all, to save the trouble of continual repetitions, understand Judaism to be commemorated jointly with Christianity-the dark root together with the golden fruitage-whenever the nature of the case does not presume a contradistinction of the one to the other" (vol. xi., p. 241). But the only question between Judaism aud Christianity is just this-in what respect are they to be contradistinguished? in what respect was the "New Commandment" opposed to the old? And the answer to this, if searching and true, must go far to reduce Judaism to a rank with which Christianity had nothing in common save the doctrines of monotheism and original sin.* * In the course of De Quincey's works mention is occasionally made of other of his writings, which are not known to have been published. Such as "Suspiria de l'rofundis " (twenty to twenty-five sketches, of which "The Daughter of Lebanon " and (a) one other piece are all that have been published), mentioned in vol. i., preface, xiv. "De Emendatione Humani Intellectûs," mentioned in vol. i, p. 254. Prolegomena to all Future Systems of Political Economy" (possibly the same as "The Logic of Political Economy"), mentioned in vol. i., p 256. "Reveries on the Evolution of Pagan and Christian Literatures," mentioned in vol. xiii., p. 60. And a work citing the "Antigone," mentioned in vol. xiii., p. 204. Besides these, there are various papers by De Quincey scattered about our periodical literature, which have never yet been gathered in. Foremost is the admirable article on 66 Kant in his Miscellaneous Essays," published in Blackwood's Magazine, August, 1830, included, I believe, with some other papers unknown in England, in Messrs. Ticknor and Field's American edition of De Quincey's works. There is also the paper above mentioned to which (a) is prefixed, which I read in some English periodical circa 1850-1855. De Quincey mentions (vcl. vi., p. 267) a paper by himself on "Freemasonry," published in a London journal about 1823 or 1824; and (vol. xiv., p. 71, note) another on "The Prevalence of Danish Names of Places in England," published in a provincial newspaper. These are possibly only a few of the monographs of this gifted and voluminous writer yet to be garnered. One is loath to lose a line which fell from that inspired. penman. These references are to Black's reissue of Hogg's edition. Neither of the English editions, nor the American edition, nor the combination of all these, includes those of his works which had been published separately, viz., "The Logic of Political Economy," 1844; Walladior," &c. I believe I am guilty of no breach of confidence if I add that Mr T. Emley Young, of Falloden House, Clapton, has long been engaged on a "Life of De Quincey." I know of no one fitter to execute this work. CHRISTIANIZATION.- "The world for Christ,"-that is our motto. The world is Christ; He reared its lofty mountains, scooped out its beautiful valleys, gathered its world of waters into their place, and for ages He has been watching over it with the tenderness of a father over a child. He has dwelt upon it, sanctified it with deeds of holiest love, set up in it His cross of redemption, baptized it with His blood, and will have it again for His own, when the miseries and the woes of centuries shall be shaken off the bosom of the earth, and the light, lighting up the sky, shall fill all lands. The world seeking the cross, like a prodigal his home, shall come forth to the glories of eternal life, and shall rejoice with exceeding great joy in God's richest benedictions; then, like a prodigal, long wandering but come home at last, God shall take it to His bosom once more.-W. Jones, Birmingham. Philosophy. CAN HIGH EDUCATION COUNTERACT THE AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-I. THERE can be no doubt at all that high education, "by employing the mind and developing the character, counteracts the eagerness of the senses." We read of New ton neglecting the rare indulgences which were open to him for the divine and precious delights of study. We know that men have foregone pleasures of every sort for the higher gratifications of intellectual culture. How many men in the ardour of high and bracing thought have secluded themselves from all the common and ordinary allurements of the world, and devoted themselves sedulously to the attainment of the joy which high education gives when it "unfurls the bannered victory of mind." The very senses become deadened, and cold, and pure, and unindued before the power of a great idea. Hot blood may course in the veins, and the senses may urge their imperious suits with the energy of sword and spur, but the might and obstinacy of the mind keep the mastery, and the spirit labours to noble ends. The senses are but the servants of the thinker. It is in the man who is all sensation that the blood runs riot, and the claims of the passions become irresistible; not in the heart of the lonely student pouring over his books, engaged in the high prɔblems of science, or sounding the depths of philosophy. We do not mean to affirm that the lives of all scholars are pure and untainted, that there is no access at any time of a craving for the indulgences the world supplies, but we do mean to say that the mind which is honestly and zealously absorbed in high thought, and in the task of leading out his mind and all its powers to the investigation and conquest of some field of knowledge, has not only less time, but also less inclination, for the debasing pursuits of sensualism. He who knows little must be more exposed to the temptations and allurements which beset the vacant mind, while the man who has absorbing engagements on lofty themes cannot but be less open to the assaults of the suggestions to evil with which the world abounds: for the one has his whole nature ready to be touched to vile pursuits, has no pre-engagements to restrain and restrict his yielding to the enchantments of the senses, while the other has a source of joy ready to flush his soul, and cleanse it from the enticement of the tempter. It is clear that the mere fact of education having widened the area of experience, must have caused the power of the impressions made on the senses to be less strongly felt. That which impresses an extended surface is less intense than that which is concentrated; hence impressions made on the senses of a person whose capacity for experience has been widened by education must have less power than similar impressions made on a mind which has only the senses to be impressed, and nothing else to restrain or to distract the mind. It is a fact, too, that occupation is by far the best human security against sin. To keep the mind alert on other topics, and to have the power of turning to some other form of delight, must have this advantage at least, that we have an opportunity of being amongst those "That live according to the sober laws, And holy dictates of spare Temperance;" for we have other and more delicate pleasures available than those of sense and sin. But the man who has no other occupation for his hours of ease, relaxation, and enjoyment than the merely animal nature he possesses supplies, must be more exposed than the educated man to yield to the allurements of vice and the sophistries of Pleasure, when she promises that— "One sip of this Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight It is true that in one sense education will refine and render the senses more delicate, and capable of keener delight, and rarer sorts of pleasure, but that is, if education be applied to them. The painter's educated eye sees more in the forms and colours of nature than we do; the sculptor from the pure colourless form derives more rapture than we can conceive; the poet in his "fine frenzy" beholds a brighter and glandsomer world than we know till he becomes the revealer of it. The mechanic acquires a greater dexterity of touch by culture, and the epicure can distinguish and divide between taste and taste more acutely and accurately than we can. The notes which float along the air in music fill the ear of the trained and cultured scholar of harmony with a much more subtle delicacy than we can fancy, but this surely is not matter of dispute, it cannot be that this is in question-else why are we not all skilled in arts, acute in perception, thrilled with similar power and subtlety? We conclude therefore that our idea is that which is meant, that the query is one having moral and philosophical bearings, and that it really signifies. Are educated men more likely to be more moral than their neighbours? I am not here going to make a point which is quite open to me, namely, what is meant by "high education." It cannot, we might argue, be intended by this phrase, that the education given should be debasing, but if education does not protect men against the eagerness of the senses, but rather inclines them to find indulgence pleasant, it must be debasing; that cannot be high education which not only does not elevate, but actually touches the balance to the lower side. I shall accept the phrase "high education" in the usual and obvious sense, as that sort of training which is given at school |