conscience, is an evidence of our divine nature; and this tendency, acknowledged in the history of mankind, consecrates it as a noble and exalted science, for the truly philosophical inquirer.

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But," it may be asked, "if mankind, under the guidance of Providence, contend for so high an object, why then do the separate peoples, which collectively constitute mankind, perish and disappear from the field of history, without having approached this lofty aim?" This question may be very properly answered by another, namely-why are so many men found, heedless of the voice of conscience and forgetful of their high vocation, who, crippled in mind and body, meet an early death, without having attained the due degree of perfection? Gentlemen, all are called, but not all follow the calling; yet as, notwithstanding the immorality of many individuals, a nation may aspire to perfection, so, despite of the depravity of many nations, mankind is still striving onward for the noble end proposed to it by Providence.

Peoples and states flourish and fade, spring up and vanish,-but mankind belongs to an eternal history, and its existence is undisturbed by the perishing of single members, from which succeeding ones arise. It has its great periods, when its spirit obtains, as it were, a new impulse in order to effect its regeneration. If even those infantine dreams (reminiscences from an antehistorical time), the mythology and tales of almost every people, possessing

a history and a literature, point to a first blessed awakening from the embracement of creation, reason itself must deduce the necessity of such an antehistorical life from the analogy of the individual human life. Only divine wisdom can spring forth in armour, and prepared-earthly cultivation must be cradled and nursed.

If we trace the history of mankind to its earliest dawn, where it disengages itself from mythology; if we inquire into the historical documents of each separate people, which by language and literature has transmitted its records to posterity, we find mythology and tales to be the dark commencement of all history, with which, indeed, they are so interwoven, that the criticism of modern commentators was requisite, in order properly to distinguish between mythology and actual history. Witness the Roman, Jewish, and Northern histories, where this process has been successfully pursued by such eminent scholars as Niebuhr, De Wette, Gesenius, and Geijer. With the tales or songs alluded to, the literature of a nation is every where closely connected, they are the dawn of the approaching day; for, before a nation has a history it possesses a poetry, and the first lispings of poetry are songs.

Considering, thus, the history of mankind as the biography of an individual, three great periods occur to us; namely, the early ages, including childhood and boyhood; the middle ages, comprising youth; and modern times, forming the perfect manhood.

But, in each of these several periods, we find nations which appear the particular representatives of its character; yet so that, in the history of such separate peoples, all the epochs of human life, down to extreme old age, are nevertheless distinctly traceable.

Now the east, as it seems to be the cradle of mankind, so also in its nations shows the marks of childhood; and, first, in the calm, contemplative Hindoos. For several thousand years this people has possessed a poetry, and considerable cultivation, but has remained, as it were, in a petrified childhood. A child loves most to play with flowers, and thus the poetry of the Hindoos is throughout the poetry of nature, the life of nature being the centre, to which all the thoughts of the Hindoos are turned. A perusal of the Sacontala will be sufficient to convince any one of the truth of this assertion. The images of the Hindoos are by no means devoid of grandeur; nay, they often border on the gigantic and astounding, but, still, they are the creations of an infantine fancy, unrestrained by the precepts of moderation and harmony. Thus we find them in their science, literature, and art. But what renders the Hindoo history so charming, is the calmness, peace, and truly childlike innocence, which overspreads the character of the people. This nation may be likened to a smiling babe, with arms extended towards its mother Nature, and finding no delight, save in its own fanciful dreams. If it be true, as it is probable, that the Egyptian and Greek wisdom flowed from Indian

sources, our view will be thereby still further confirmed, for the Deity most easily manifests itself to the pure and infantine mind.

Though the Egyptians appear to have advanced a step beyond the Hindoos, yet their history, as far as we know it, also bears the mark of childhood. Here, however, intellect has burst its fetters: contemplation is no longer confined to the fields of fancy, but thought gains a new life in Egyptian history; the calm and musing character, which delights in the mere contemplation of nature, having risen to a higher reflection. The Egyptian wants a medium, by which he may approach the Deity; and to satisfy this want, he endeavours to draw the Deity down to himself, he allegorizes it. In social life, Egyptian history presents great bustle and activity. Commerce and science, agriculture and industry, are all in a progressive state; and, though the institution of castes be preserved, still it has a practical signification, whereas among the Hindoos it served only for religious purposes. The buildings, monuments, &c. of the Egyptians, are as gigantic as those of the Hindoos, but they have a more distinct form and a more defined utility. The Egyptian priests are not devoted to the merely calm and passive contemplation of the Deity, as the Brahmins, who despise all wisdom, save the religious; but they strive for the acquirement of human knowledge and science. To them, the stars are not only the eyes of God, but useful guides, whose course they calculate for human

purposes, and in whom they behold the rulers of human destiny. In their forms of art, if we may so term their allegorical representations of various deities, emblematical either of the powers of nature or of the influence of the Deity itself, we often remark the distorted workings of fancy, observable in a grown child, who is delighted by animal forms.

In Israel, the long standing guest of the Egyptians, the rude and stubborn boy occurs to us. A great capability and tendency to reflection is evident in this people; and conscience, or the discernment between right and wrong, is in a great degree awakened among them. With the two just mentioned nations, this conscience was comparatively dormant, because they had not to struggle with life so harshly as Israel. Not only is the moral law indelibly impressed on the minds of the Jews, but we find them striving to form their social life according to it: yet the sensuality of the boy always oversounds the voice which is heard, as well from the depths of his own heart, as from the summits of Sinai; and vainly for him were the commandments of the Decade engraven on stone. It is an undeniable fact, that the Jewish people became, in the hands of Providence, the means of sustaining that pure and genuine creed of a single and omnipotent God, which had been gradually lost in the other nations of the earth amidst the increase of immorality. But, it is equally certain, that they soon fashioned their God after their own idea. In their rude stubbornness, their pride and profound contempt for other nations,