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tations by Satan of the divine method as exhibited in Scripture; that there are, among the heathen, examples of moral virtue so distinguished as that it would be venturesome to disjoin them from some sanctifying aid or other. It is probable, therefore, that God in His great mercy, here and there, from time to time, for the good of this or that soul, for His own glory and manifestation, or any other mysterious purpose above our comprehension, and which it is our business to adore, did vouchsafe to illuminate the old truths and imitations of divine methods imbedded in false religions, and cause His ministering spirits to act upon the soul or senses through those truths and methods. To what extent this mercy went man of course knows nothing; and it will be imagined scanty or abundant according to the peculiar temperament of each person who happens to give a thought to the matter. Supposing, as I should, such grace to have been exuberantly poured out when for particular purposes the true Church was imprisoned in one nation, and supposing a mind fond of laying bare divine traditions buried in the mould of heathenism and tracing the shadows flung from Scripture into the heart of false systems, the use of high epithets and noble names, when speaking of Greek paganism, becomes intelligible; and, if erroneous, at least pardonable: being a wish to write God's name on all things beautiful and true.

On this ground then it is that beauty or delicacy

are predicated of paganism as it existed before Christ's coming, because it is believed that there was at times a divine indwelling in it, so that virtue and life were disclosed by it. But after the preaching of the Gospel and the throwing open of the Church and the giving to her the new and stupendous power of becoming catholic, it was in accordance with the foregoing supposition, with the jealous temper and exclusive spirit of the Gospel, and with St. Paul's teaching that heretofore God had" winked," that all good spiritual agency should be withdrawn from heathen shapes and forms and collected upon the side of the universal Church of God. Satan too might concentrate and rally his powers on their old domains for the conflict between himself and the Seed of the woman. God's witness of Himself now was single, and, though single, yet more than adequate. The two faiths of light and darkness were no longer now, as in Jewish times, existing side by side in separate localities; but light invaded and encroached upon the realm of darkness at every quarter. It was a struggle of awful import. It is probable then that the influence of paganism became now purely malignant, a concentrated antichristian element. This will explain the language of the early fathers. Satan fell like lightning from heaven. The presence of the Holy One ejected him from thence at once. But the feeble, though divine, presence of the Church is more gradual and imperfect upon earth. Still, wherever she moved she gained

ground, ejecting malignant influences through prayer and fasting, and chasing the darkness with exorcisms from stronghold to stronghold; and so early had the ultimate victory become apparent, that St. Clement of Alexandria is already able to regard paganism in a somewhat different way from the earlier apologists. It has in it, truly, the indwelling of detestable spirits; yet can he now safely come to the polluted precinct to recover what had been erewhile stolen from the tabernacle of God. Thus the Church went on consecrating and exorcising, till the land was sufficiently subdued for her to dwell in; though it was not cleared of the enemy any more than Canaan, her type. Enough remained for the destruction of the reprobate, and the distress, trial, and perfection of the elect. Malignant objects were and are left, whereon the Church from time to time may make "full proof of her ministry" by miracles.

What has been said will also meet and explain the difficulties which some find in the accounts of occurrences in heathen lands at this day; manifestations, namely, of satanical energy attested by evidence of such a kind and in so many cases, that no one can quarrel with it without shaking all testimony to its very foundations. The case of the magicians of modern Egypt may be cited in point; the presence of the Church being very feeble there, and the whole land being the Scripture symbol of spiritual darkness, the magicians of Pharaoh may well have successors in the valley of the Nile. This

hypothesis, if it does not by this time amount to something more in the reader's mind, will also prevent us from finding matter either for scorn or selfdisturbance in what are called, in homely phrase, ghost-stories; and this will not be a slight comfort to serious persons, for there are few of us who have not in our own families instances of these visitations of sights and sounds, so distinguished from hallucination and so authenticated even by parental lips, that we could not reject them without an offence to natural piety.

There is an ancient tradition that our Blessed Lord, when on earth, was never seen to smile. It is an interesting and awful tradition, if it be true; interesting, as concerning our Lord, and awful, as magnifying the work of our redemption, in that it depressed His spirit continually, and as indicating, perhaps, what a fearful place this earth is, could we see it aright. Probably such trains of thought as the above may help to deepen our awe of common things.

I looked up to the cleft above Delphi, and felt uneasy, the coldness of the dawn conspiring with my awe-chilled spirit; yet while the busy operation of malignant spirits trouble the soul, we may look to the Church as our consolation, and say, as I said with the cleft of Delphi before me, "I opened my mouth and drew in my breath; for my delight was in thy commandments."

We left the harbor of Galaxidi at about two in the

morning; but when the sun rose we were only off Cape Djesphina, the eastern promontory of the Bay of Salona, and going about a mile an hour. The sunrise was uncommonly magnificent: his first beams fell on the coast of the Morea; the dark mountains of Achaia were lighted up, crowding down into the sea with fair cliffs and green headlands, while behind them the lofty summits of Arcadia, all covered with snow, shone most brilliantly. The scene shifted slowly, but was always beautiful; indeed, it is scarcely possible for any coast-scenery to rival the superb shores of the Gulf of Corinth. At eleven we had Parnassus on our left, Lyakoura, as the sailors called it, and we were at the mouth of the Bay of Aspropitia, with the opening to the Bay of Livadostro stretching before us, while our course was to the right, where Capes St. Dimitre and Malangara guarded the mouth of the Bay of Corinth; and AcroCorinth was visible in the haze. We were now utterly becalmed; and after a sound sleep in the shade of one of the sails, my only occupations were reading Herodotus, and looking over the boat-side into the singular blue water. The blue of Genoa did not resemble it; it was an ultra-marine blue of such powerful vividness, as I never saw even in a picture. The eye could penetrate a great way down; and the rays of the sun struck curiously under the water, producing dazzling images and reflections far below the surface. It realized to me, for the first time, what many think an unnatural simile:

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