from him, the prophet Daniel was enabled both to recall it to his memory and to furnish the interpretation of it.

The king said to Daniel: Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation thereof? And Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said: The secret, which the king hath demanded, cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king. But there is a God in heaven, that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in future days'. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these.

Thou, O king, sawest; and, behold, a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold: his breast and his arms, of silver: his belly and his thighs, of brass: his legs, of iron: his feet, part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest, till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, and the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone, that smote

Heb. In the futurity of days.

the image, became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

This is the dream: and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

Thou art this head of gold. But after thee shall rise another kingdom, inferior to thee: and another third kingdom of brass, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and, as iron that breaketh, all these shall it break in pieces and bruise. And, whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay, and part of iron; the kingdom shall be divided: but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And, as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. And, whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And, in the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be to other people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever1.

2. The second prediction is the vision of the

a

four great wild-beasts, seen by Daniel himself in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon.

I saw in my vision by night: and, behold, the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse from one another.

The first was like a lion, and it had eagle's wings. I beheld, till the wings thereof were plucked, wherewith it was lifted up from the earth and it was made to stand upon the feet as a man; and a man's heart was given to it.

And, behold, another beast; a second, like to a bear. And it raised itself up on one side: and it had three tusks in the mouth of it, between the teeth of it. And they said thus unto it: Arise, devour much flesh.

Our common English translation places three ribs between the teeth of the bear: but such a version is irreconcileable with the etymology of the original word. That word is derived from a root (by), which signifies to swallow up or to devour : and the root in question is employed by the author of the book of Job to describe the action of eaglets, when they are greedily swallowing the blood of their prey. Job xxxix. 30. Now the idea of active swallowing is plainly foreign to a rib: and the idea of being passively swallowed can never have given a name to that bone; because such an idea is purely accidental, not inherent. A rib may be accidentally devoured by a wild-beast: but such an accidental circumstance does not express its inherent nature or qualities. Hence the original word, derived as it is from a root which denotes to swallow up, must signify some member employed by a wild-beast to devour or swallow up its prey. On these principles, Houbigant would translate the word jaws but the ascribing of three jaws to a wild-beast, and

After this I beheld: and, lo, another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. The beast had also four heads: and dominion was given to it.

After this, I saw in the night visions: and, behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth. It devoured, and brake in pieces, and stamped, the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it: and it had ten horns. I considered the horns: and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

I beheld, till the thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit; whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame; and his wheels, as burning fire. A fiery stream

the placing of those three jaws among its teeth, is physically incongruous and notionally intolerable. The position of the three members spoken of, and the etymology of the word used to describe them, equally and naturally lead us to conclude, that those members were three projecting tusks or three teeth considerably larger than the others. I readily adopt, therefore, the translation proposed by Mr. Wintle. It may be added, that to place three ribs in the mouth of the bear introduces a sort of hysteron-proteron: for it puts the animal in actual possession of its prey, BEFORE it hears the invitation, Arise and devour much flesh.

issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him; and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judg ment was set; and the books were opened. Į beheld, then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld, even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions ? and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given to him dominion and glory and royalty, that all people and nations and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed.

I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body: and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.

These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth: but the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.