however, what was not of Greek origin must be termed rude, gigantic, and colossal.

It might be contended, that a new period in the history of mankind begins with the subversion of the western Roman empire, when German barbarians, breaking forth from their forests, altered the existing state of things; but I think the period should rather be dated from the Augustan age, and for the following reasons:—that the Roman people, during the reign of Augustus, had reached the highest point of power and intellectual culture to which they ever attained; and that their subsequent history evinces only a gradual decline of Roman glory, which decline keeps pace with the diffusion of the Christian doctrine. we further consider, that with the extinction of the Roman commonwealth, Pagan wisdom and Pagan art become less all-prevailing, it must surely appear, that a new period in the history of mankind commences with the Christian era. This opinion will, perhaps, be supported by some general observations, which are not unsuited to the present occasion.

If

Nothing in nature proceeds with abrupt rapidity; whatever is durable unfolds itself gradually: 'and it is an acknowledged law of nature, in the moral as in the physical world, that the period of decline shall be proportionate in length to that of the developWe hardly perceive the rise of the youthful oak, which for a thousand years defies the storm; and the man, who enjoys a lengthened youth, may look forward to a proportionate age. So, also, is it in the

ment.

history of the world; the transitions from one stage to another are imperceptible; and, as this history is an ever-moving stream, no distinct point can be defined as the boundary where these transitions take place. The different degrees in the age of mankind are so united, that the entire history resembles rather a sloping declivity, than a step-by-step gradation; and in the life of the individual man we also find, that the transitions from one period of life to the other are not so distinctly marked, that we can say, " Here boyhood ends, and youth begins." States and nations which expanded slowly enjoyed a proportionately long duration. It was from small beginnings that Rome gradually, but irresistibly, rose to its gigantic magnitude; and when this very magnitude became an incumbrance, when the Roman spirit had left the colossal form, and there were none to strengthen and cement its loosening joints, still it proceeded slowly in its unavoidable decay. The empire of Alexander, on the contrary, fell with its founder, and the power of Dschingischan and Napoleon burst in its unnatural swelling. The mental culture of nations must be regarded in the same view. Greek cultivation was prepared through centuries, before it reached its bloom, in the time of Pericles: and should this latter period seem comparatively short, we must reflect, that it lasted long enough to give the Greeks an eternal place in history; and that, from this short period, they shed a light which has pervaded the subsequent annals of all cultivated nations.

The Romans were slow learners in the school of wisdom and science, but what they have produced has withstood the destroying tooth of time; as, for instance, their laws, which were collected into a code long after the sun of Roman grandeur had set, and are, to this day, the source from which European legislators draw their wisdom.

The same gradual progression is observable in the first advancement of Christianity, which may be said to have stolen secretly among the Pagan nations, for centuries, before it could subvert the old and longestablished gods and idols. But its influence, though, slowly gained, was lasting; while, on the contrary, the doctrine of Mahomet instantaneously, as it were, collected millions round the crescent. Within a period of one hundred years, Islamism had spread through all the east and a portion of the west; but the doctrine has already survived itself, because, wanting the germ of perfectability, it is incapable of reformation.

These remarks were necessary, in order to prepare you for a consideration of the state of mankind at the period when Christianity was propagated. That Providence, whose beneficent influence, we perceive at every step, furnishes a remedy for all evils; and when mankind stood on the verge of moral destruction, he sent to them a deliverer from their necessities.

The foundations of Paganism had been shaken to their centre, and neither philosophy nor, religion, as

they existed at the birth of Christ, could satisfy the mind, thirsting after truth. Men were too far advanced in reason and reflection, to rest content with the childish consolations which the gods of Greece and Rome could offer them. A longing for something unknown and undefinable, like to that which often agitates the mind of ripening youth, began to move all nations. In Judea, this feeling was manifested in a hatred of oppression; in Greece, altars were raised to the Unknown God; and, in Egypt, the worship of Isis, which the Romans had also established in their capital, was intended to satisfy this yearning after the mysterious. But none of these was sufficient; and a sort of chill despair, a tendency to scorn and scoff what had been hitherto held sacred, combined with a sense of utter inability to furnish any thing better, now filled the minds of men. Conscious of their guilt and moral degradation, they felt all the tortures of remorse, without any of the consolations of repentance. The ancient gods had been hurled from their elevation, and could afford no help to the afflicted. The philosophy of the Stoics gave this only solace,-the advice to suffer sorrow patiently because it was no evil; and men, maddened by despair, plunged into a 'sensuality so gross, that the bare idea thereof must excite horror in the human mind, conscious of its divine origin. The literature—that infallible mirror of the moral state of a people-presents but too faithful a picture of the depravity prevailing at this period. Read the works of Sallust, Suetonius,

and Tacitus; compare them with the poetical effusions of Juvenal, Martial, and others; and every where you will find an expression of indignant sorrow for the fallen glory and vanished spirit of degraded Rome; a bitter irony which, in some instances, under a light, lascivious veil, attempts to hide a blush for the deep and all-prevailing immorality. Holiness is scoffed at; vulgarity is satirized; earthly power and splendour are scorned, but no celestial agency acknowledged: vices and follies are chastised, but no way to virtue pointed out. Cremutius Cordus was right, when styling Brutus and Cassius the last of the Romans. They dreamed a golden dream, but their efforts vanished as tracelessly as a vision, for their country; and the beautiful death of Seneca seemed to the Stoics irreconcilable with a life, which had been unable to withstand the allurements of vanity and ambition. From the time of Augustus, the Roman commonwealth is but a dissevering structure: in vain did Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius, endeavour to retard its overthrow: if it did not earlier fall, the praise is due to the first founders, who furnished materials, so lasting, for the structure.

The Roman people of this period is the historical representative of mankind, for their empire had received and embraced the elements of all nations, mentioned in previous history; and this circumstance it was, which so especially favoured the perfect regeneration of mankind, as the Christian religion gradually pervaded the whole mass of people throughout