works of Grecian art, is indelibly imprinted that first feeling of the Greek,--a most intense and enthusiastic love for nature and his gods. There is none of that dread of the superior powers to be found in Greece, which was prevalent in Hindoostan, even the Furies, divinities so foreign in their functions and attributes to the spirit of the Greek mythology, become the Eumenities or bountiful goddesses.* The grammarians call this an Euphemism, but it was an Euphemism of the heart. There was more than a philosophic theory latent under the myth, that before the day was born, or the blue expanse of heaven unrolled, or the sun and moon hung up, or Time created, Love arose as the eldest born of Eternity. Over all things, at their creation, this Love had presided; he had breathed his spirit into all things, and the Greek, filled with the sweet effluence, turned to nature and his gods, which were nature embodied, with an ardor and almost frenzy of affection which we can scarcely conceive. The gods of the Orientals were far, infinitely far removed above them; between them and man there could be no intercourse but that of prayer, and often the only prayers were the deprecations of despair,-but to the Greek the divinities themselves descended,--the Nymphs met him in his wanderings, the Fauns danced around him as he passed, Pan whispered to him in the solitudes and greeted his ear with the pastoral music of Arcadia.

Here is another point of the most marked dissimilarity, when compared with the peculiarities of the East. The gods of the Orientals were invisible, spiritual essences, in Greece they were all incarnated,-in the East, the idolatrous symbols which represented them were either grotesque, uncouth monsters, or singular animals,--always receding as far as possible from humanity and ordinary forms,-in Greece they were rapturous idealisms of a purified and spiritualized humanity. The gods of the Greeks were their friends, their brothers, their companions; like themselves they were dwellers upon earth, and were subject to like

* Vide Soph. Ed. Col. v. 487. Ed. Hermann., and that most beautiful of chorusses in their honor, v. 674, which Bulwer has translated with much grace, in his Athens, B. v., c. iv., § 6, note.

+ Hesiod. Theogon. v. 121. Ed. Winterton. Plato. Symposium. tom. ii., p. 180. Ed. Stephani. Simmiæ Rhodii Alas.

See the chorus in Soph. Antig. v. 777-in Eurip. Hippol. v. 1213. Ed. Bothe and the opening of Lucretius. De Nat. Rer. which is an evident translation from some Greek original.

passions and like pains with themselves. The only perceptible difference between them was, that the God was immortal, the man mortal. Yet, even this distinction was narrowed down, for certain divinities had put off their immortality, and the instances were numerous, and fresh in their memory, of men, elevated from the mortal state, to partake of the ambrosia and nectar of heaven. The divinities were, indeed, to them, only a higher order of the same race,* more glorious in beauty, more excellent in attributes, more mighty in power, and enjoying a more enduring and blissful existence than themselves. They had the same frailties, the same virtues, and instead of being reverently adored as gods, they were enthusiastically loved as fellow-beings.

The grand enigma of Grecian civilization seems to be the absorption of all things into humanity,-the gods are human, nay, sometimes mortal. The religion of the Greeks is the spiritualized affection of man for his fellow-creatures. There is no longer any cringing subservience to the powers of nature. The atmosphere which they breathe is an atmosphere of love, but there is no awe mingled with it. Every where there is life-human life,-and as if mankind were riotous in this first emancipation from the thraldom of the powers of this world, "the dark and beggarly elements,”—there is a rapturous display of freedom and a continual manifestation of energy. These characteristics reveal themselves clearly in the manners, polity, arts, literature and science which they have formed. They have no hierocracy,-no constituted order of priests,-they have despotism neither in religion nor in state. Unshackled by restraint, they develope their feelings in the most beautiful and perfect forms,-they have naturalized the divinities on earth, and, at the same time, have brought down the ideal from heaven, and crystalized it in terrestrial shapes.

When the difference between the Eastern nations and Greece was so great, it may be asked, where was that simiThe Sixth Nemean opens thus,

Εν ἀνδρῶ, ἓν θεῶν γένος ἐκ μιᾶς δὲ πνέομεν

μarpòs dμpórspo. Pind. Nem. vi. v. 1. Ed. Boeckle.

Boeckle's explanation of the passage gives it a different meaning from that in which we quote it. But the obvious sense of the words is supported by the Scholiast, and by comparison with the Schol. Venet. ad. II. a. v. 222, cit. apud Bloms. P. V. v. 85, with the Orphic Hymn, apud Clem. Alexandr. incohortat. ad Gentes. e. vii. and Hesiod, Op. et Dier. liv. i. v. 108. Ed. Winterton.

larity which should unite the two together, as successive developments of the same fundamental and actuating spirit? First, it is to be traced in the constant presence of divinity among these people. The Greek could not eat, nor drink, nor travel, nor do any important act in life without libations or sacrifices, while the public observance of the deities may be estimated from the fact, that that there were seventy festivals annually at Athens alone. Secondly, their religious system was still the worship and deifications of nature and her powers. Thirdly, it was still indissolubly connected with the state. Thus, humanity had been progressively emancipating itself from the tyranny of the external world, but had never yet left the stadium in which it had started. Nature-worship is the grand phenomenon of this earlier period of the world's history, and explains its spirit and its productions.

With Greece, ends the first grand era of human progress. Rome collected into herself all the forms of preceding civilization, all the shades of previous opinion. She absorbed them, confused them, amalgamated them, and undermined the colossal fabric, which was composed of incongruent materials, "part of iron and part of clay."* Christianity introduced the germ of a new system and more perfect civilization, it precipitated the elements of the crumbling fabric and swept the wrecks away. The old world had exhausted itself, a renovated and re-impregnated world commenced. And here, for the present, we must stop. The examination of the Jews and Romans is the preliminary to this new inquiry, but, as we have been already led far beyond our design, and though we confess our sketch to be partial, and lamentably, perhaps hopelessly, imperfect, yet we have struck out some new suggestions which may be profitably attended to by other writers, who have that time, learning and ability to make them available, which we have not.

The necessity of closing this long and tedious article brings us back to the point from which we started,-the

*The foregoing observations on India, Persia, Greece and Rome, were written without any reference to the Scriptures. In verifying, however, the quotation just made, we read the whole chapter of Daniel, (the second,) in which it occurs. It has given us new confidence in our inferences, and, at the same time, has become more profoundly significant to ourselves from our researches. That part which refers to Rome, though a prophecy, eontains more of his Philosophy of History than we can pretend to develope. We entreat our readers to study it.

consideration of Herder and his Philosophy of History.. The course of our reflections has led us into paths never trodden by Herder, and so wholly foreign to the style and tone of his book, that we have long lost sight of him and have almost forgotten him. Hesiod, and the early Greek poets, commenced their songs with

"All things begin with Jove, and all things end with Jove." We will follow the example, and as we commenced with Herder, so we will end with him. After our long and weary investigations we have become thoroughly sensible of the extreme difficulty of the task assumed by him; and we feel therefore, a tenderness for his failures, and a gratitude for whatever good may be in his volumes. But we have been no less thoroughly convinced of his utter incapacity for the labor set before him, and as the world is to be benefitted or injured by the good or bad results of the work, not by the palliations which may be alleged in compassion for the author, we must condemn Herder's Philosophy of History, without introducing any saving clause. We would say of it, in rather awkward Latin, but most profound truth

Sunt mala, sunt quædam mediocria-pessima plura

Quæ legis hæc:

others, desirous of taking the sting out of these words, may add, if they please,

Aliter non fit, Avite liber.*

* Martial. Epigram, lib. i. Ep. xvii., slightly altered.

ART. II. THE REFORMED ISRAELITES. 1. Twelve Sermons, delivered in the New Temple of the Israelites at Hamburgh, by Dr. GOTTHOLD SALOMON. Translated from the German, by ANNA MARIA GOLDSMID. First American Edition. London and Charleston. 1841. 2. Instructions in the Mosaic Religion, from the German of Johlson, translated by the Rev. ISAAC LEESER. Philadelphia. 5594. 3. The Mosaic System, in its fundamental principles, by the Rev. Dr. LEWIS SALOMON, Minister of the Congregation Rodif Shalone. Philadelphia. 5601.

4. The Voice of Jacob,-Newspaper,-Semi-Monthly.— London.

THERE are manifestations of late of a considerable movement among the Israelites of England and America, having for its object some radical reforms in their doctrines and modes of worship. What we note, is not an abandonment by modern Jews of their ancient name and their ancient religion, but a disclaimer of the authority of mere tradition,— a disuse of idle, superstitious and burthensome ceremonies,a higher respect for the unadulterated Law of God, than for the human testimony of dogmatical Rabbins,-for the Bible than for the Talmud. What we note, is a determination, on their part, to restore Judaism to its original simplicity, to render the doctrine of Moses and the Prophets,-the inspired Scriptures, more authoritative than "the commandments of men," and without altering the substance of their religion, and fully retaining its spirit, to adapt their institutions and their worship, in some good degree, to the demands of an enlightened age, and to the feelings, expectations, and even necessities of an intelligent and educated people. Such a reform is greatly needed. The Jews have long owed it to themselves, to their children, their country and their age, to render their religion respectable by rendering it intelligible, not only to the mass of those who are to be more immediately benefitted by the worship of the synagogue, but to all others, who are curious to know what the real faith of the Israelite is. On this subject much might be said, and much in which the honest Israelite might not concur with us, as our standards of faith are different, and the measures of reform, which we might respectively consider demanded in