Enoch, the seventh from Adam, is mentioned by St. Paul in Hebrews, xi. 5, as having "pleased God;" by St. Jude, 14, as having been a prophet of Christ's coming, and a preacher against the ungodliness of the world; and by Moses, in Genesis, v. 22, as having walked with God three hundred years," and he was not, for God took him." The good Horatian rule of reason's discovery, "Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus inciderit," by which indeed all divine interposition has been regulated,(take as examples the raising of Lazarus, where the voice that awoke the dead unbound not the graveclothes, and that of Jairus's daughter, where the god-like command, "Talitha cumi," is succeeded by the homely direction, "give her something to eat,") -this acknowledged rule of economized power would induce us to believe that holy Enoch was translated to heaven on account of persecution on earth; that he was taken away from the evil to come, and rescued from the hands of murderous and wicked men. It is true indeed that in Elijah's case, 2 Kings, ii. 11, there appears no such necessity; but we must remember that Elias "went up by a whirlwind into heaven," that he might be the immediate harbinger of Christ to judgment, Malachi, iv. 5, although in deed he was typified at the first advent by John the Baptist, Matt. xi. 14; also for the purpose of representing "the goodly company of the prophets" at Christ's transfiguration, Mark, ix. 4. Perhaps Enoch may, in this light, be regarded as a representative of the patriarchal era. As in the case of Jonah, the history of whom the ancients have recorded in their accounts of Arion, so, by a like evident adaptation of the name, they have preserved the traditional memory of Enoch in the story of one Annachus, who is said by the Greeks to have foretold Deucalion's flood; (which, however, is not believed to be identical with Noah's.) There is nothing more interesting in classical reading, than the discovery of these incidental confirmations of Scripture. St. Jude in the well-known passage quotes the book of Enoch; but whether in so doing he intended to recommend it as authentic and inspired, is more than questionable as well might we argue for the canonical reception of the works of Menander, because St. Paul incidentally cites one of his verses, and therefore those who would reject the book of Jude in consequence, are guilty of great absurdity. Many of the fathers, and among them Tertullian, thought most highly of the prophecy attributed to Enoch: but the great stream of commentators and critics, headed by Augustine and Scaliger, consider that it bears evident marks of fabulous Rabbinism, or spurious Platonism. It is probable that some few of the genuine traditional sayings of the translated patriarch, as that quoted by St. Jude, are imbedded in the mass of mingled materials, known by the name of Enoch's prophecy. The luxuriant imaginations of Eastern writers have invented many wonderful matters concerning Enoch, but like most traditional or Talmudic stories, they are little worthy of repetition. Among other things, they pretend that he received direct from heaven thirty manuscripts on astrology, and other secret sciences, and that he was an adept in all kinds of knowledge: but there is no need to transplant such puerilities on the shores of the sober West. ZOROASTER. FATHOMLESS past! what precious secrets lie throng Fathers of wisdom, bards of mighty song, Hearts gushing with warm hopes, and feelings high, Lovers, and sages, prophets, priests, and kings, Sleep nameless in thy drear obscurity: Fathomless past!-the vague conception brings, Amid thick-coming thoughts of olden things, Hoar Zoroaster,-as he walked sometime In shadowy Babel, and around him stood The strangely-mitred earnest multitude Listening the wonders of his speech sublime: Hail, mantled ghost, I track thy light from far, On the chaotic dark an exiled star. Zoroaster,-probably a made name, signifying in Hebrew with a Greek termination, banished star, -is supposed by many to have lived about 2300 A. C. The history of this ancient astronomer and sage is little known, and it is difficult to separate his identity from others who have borne the like name : but there has come down to us generally a tradition of his great and acknowledged superiority over his cotemporary world. We read, that whereas open idolatry had enslaved the rest of men, Zoroaster alone preached the sublime doctrine of a one invisible Deity, admitting fire to be his emblem. There are said to be still in the East numerous tribes who follow him as their teacher, and when one man has exercised dominion over his fellows for upwards of four thousand years, it is only reasonable to suppose that he was excellent in his generation, and for the times in which he lived, enlightened. It is, no doubt, a vexata quæstio whether or not Zoroaster of Bactria, or Zoroaster of Babylon, be the greater man, and the founder of the sect: if so, his date must be brought nearer to us by almost two thousand years but the silence of history gives us the privilege of choice. Learned men have variously supposed Ham, Moses, |