shunned him; his servants refused to minister to him; his serfs closed their doors to him; his neighbours thrust him forth; till, like a leper, he sought refuge in the wilderness, or sunk and died; and, the ban still clinging to him, he was buried like a dog.

When the Church of Rome was the great protector of learning, and stood like a strong tower against the lawless force of ignorance and brute power, the belief in the anathema must have worked with a salutary effect. Lawless force was often kept in check by the charmed circle which the Church drew around those whom she wished to protect. She claimed high authority for her blessings, nor less so for her curses ; and in this authority she taught others to believe; for when the Papacy took upon herself the place and authority of the Godhead, she took also this power: she assumed to work miracles; she dealt with blessings. She seized also the thunder of Jupiter, as the high priests did; and, like those of Baal, she rent her garments, and cried aloud for a punishment upon her enemies. Pio Nono tells us that it was not without prayers, and councils, and fastings, that he uttered his curse. Perhaps not. No man tumbles into a ditch with a full sense of where he is going. The worse part of error is, that the person manifestly in the wrong always will fancy himself in the right. Now, it is the business of a wise man not to prove others in the wrong, but to be sure that he himself is in the right. If a man were starting from London to Dover, he would not trouble himself that his opponents were wandering about Barnet or Finchley, but

hasten on himself. In the American mission-houses of Tonga they place up labels for the young to read and remember, just as we do in our schools, and as we did in our churchesgolden sentences, full of wisdom. One of these is very wise and very characteristic: "First, be sure you are right, and then GO AHEAD." The Popedom, although not half so poor nor decayed as some popular prophets wish to make out, has never yet been quite sure that it was right. The consequence is, that it has gone ahead the wrong way, which is a serious inconvenience, and rather "pothers its cause."

Before it vented its thunder, it should have first been quite sure that it was real, and not sham thunder. The Jews themselves were sure; nay, even as the promises of the law are material and worldly blessings, they are pretty well sure now. The promise of the New Testament extends more certainly to the next world than to this. The better a man is, frequently the more plagued is he in this world. All the curses of Ernulphus could not have exceeded the troubles of St. Paul nor the persecutions of the early Christians; yet they were good men, and hoped for their reward in a world where, we are told, there are few popes, and no kings, save One.

The Jews, even in later days, have clung to their excommunication in common with other hierarchies; and certainly any society has a right to expel and threaten unworthy members. That is a curious story among them of Uriel Acosta, a Portuguese of Jewish extraction, who, having embraced the religion of his ancestors, out of which his father had been persecuted, escaped with great difficulty, from the

terrors of the Inquisition, to Amsterdam. He was received with joy by his brother Hebrews; but, being a learned man, he must needs enter into controversy, and found that the manners of the Jews were not conformable to the laws of Moses. He published a book on the subject, and for this work his brethren excommunicated and publicly cursed him. Now Acosta had already renounced one religion, and his mind was not one which could go back. His brethren denounced him before the tribunals as a man without religion: he was imprisoned and fined. He wrote again, and was again imprisoned. He was glad, after fifteen years' struggle, to be received into the bosom of his Church; but, one day speaking freely with his nephew, he was again denounced by him, seized, imprisoned, and persecuted for ten years, till he again, says Bayle, crawled on his belly before the high priest, and was forgiven;" but, being again plagued by doubts, he composed a small tract confuting his enemies, and then laid violent hands on himself; in fact, after trying to shoot his principal antagonist, and failing, he shot himself. So this sad story ends.

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The sentence of the civil judge does not set aside the acts and offices of humanity, much less the duties of relationship; but excommunication arms parents against children, brothers against brothers, breaks the bonds of hospitality and friendship, renders the victim even more abandoned than if he had the plague, and stifles all the sentiments of nature. Now amongst Protestants the Pope's brief will have little effect. The chief charge against the moribund and maledicent

power is this-that with its own faithful its behests have weight; that they will and have added bitterness to the repression at Naples and the strife at Palermo; that in misfortune and distress, and the pangs of death, the curse will cling to its victims; and lastly, that in the midst of the light of the nineteenth century the Pope has recalled the darkness of the ninth.

What is here said of large and political curses applies equally to our common wishes of hate: they only hurt him who entertains them; and if we look at the matter quietly, we shall find that true religion is as wise as it is good, and that the man who entertains no malice, and vents no curses, is not only a better, but a much wiser man than the hot enthusiast who curses like Caliban, and with as little effect.

ON ONE OF OUR LAST ACTS.

M

ONS. DE MONTALEMBERT, whose temperate laudation of the liberties and character of Englishmen is worth reading, the more SO as he differs from us upon many vital points, cites as one of our great privileges, and one which has an immense influence upon us, that of libre arbitrement, the power of making our own wills, and of willing our personal property to any one whom we may wish. This is a great privilege, and we ought to be proud of it; but as sweet flowers distil poison, and the best things, when abused, are the worst, so this has proved an eccentric one in its use, no doubt, as many follow the poet's advice, and “die and endow a college or a cat,” whilst others pension Pincher or a parrot, or leave an annual leg of mutton to be climbed for, or a new hat to a beadle, a new blue gown, coal-scuttle bonnet, and pint of tea to poor women; a handle to the village pump, or ornamental pipes to the church organ. There is no end to an Englishman's eccentricities, and he is eccentric in death as in life. He will perpetuate a quarrel or found a college prize; endow an almshouse or explore the