about Jesus, his communication was undoubtedly in harmony with the good opinion, which he had expressed of Jesus, when reluctantly and by compulsion forced to condemn him. He had said, "I find no fault in him ;" he had taken water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it." If he wrote his good opinion to Tiberius, and added, moreover, that Jesus was believed by some to have reappeared, and was highly reverenced by them, there is not the slighest difficulty in admitting, that a proposition might be made to deify the Saviour among the thousand gods accepted by the Senate and people of Rome. This step, on the part of the Emperor, would be far from proving that he was a Christian, or even that he knew anything more of Christ, than was contained in the document from Pilate. He probably knew very little concerning the mythological histories of the gods of his own and other nations. There is no difficulty in supposing that the Senate might have denied his proposal; for in other matters we know they acted contrary to his opinion.

On the whole, therefore, we are satisfied to repose some confidence in the integrity of this reference. After this survey of the Literature, which was hostile to Christianity, or unobservant of it, let us again call to mind, that the larger part of the literature of those times has perished, that the Christian part of it which survives is nearly the whole of it. The portion of it has perished in which we might have looked for the most frequent notices of Christianity; such as diaries of daily occurrences, last testaments, family registers, private letters, &c. Christianity had not, as yet, in the eyes of the heathens, become worthy of notice in extended histories, even if we had any such histories in our possession.

It would be a most weak and idle fear for any one to regard this want of Pagan testimony, as a deficiency in Christian evidences. No single fact in the history of ancient times is established by such accumulated, overwhelming evidence, as the appearance of Christianity at the beginning of the Christian era.

We are now left to account for two things; first, for the heedless, erroneous, and insulting notices of Christianity in those times, if any such were made; and second, for the total silence of those who might have mentioned it. These apparent difficulties have often been exceedingly exaggerated.

Let us answer them both together. An illustration, afforded by the supposition of a case somewhat parallel, will be our readiest answer to any objection on these grounds.

Suppose that 1800 years hence, a question should arise as to the origin, existence, and character of a certain religious sect said to have existed in this country, at this very time, and suppose that the works of only three of our numerous writers, the three most eminent of all in several departments, were then remaining in the world for use. Let us suppose that sect to be the Mormons, and those three writers most eminent in their departments, to be Webster, Irving, and Channing. The question then, 1800 years hence, is to be, whether there was such a sect as the Mormons at this time; who and what they and their pretensions were; and the works of Channing, Irving, and Webster are opened for the search. Now we know that there is such a sect; that the founder pretends to miracles in his favor. We know that they have written books called sacred; they have founded settlements, made many converts, and have caused fightings, skirmishes, and even violent deaths. We know all this; but we are supposing that those, who are to examine the subject 1800 years hence, do not know, but are inquiring about it. They take up the works of Channing, Webster, and Irving. It is plain from the works of those writers, that each and all of them have been to the West, the very region where the Mormons sprung up, and where they live in great numbers. Those writers have visited the West, have read about it, spoke about it, and written about it. It is altogether likely that each of them has seen a Mormon, at least as likely as that Josephus ever saw a Christian. It would seem that Dr. Channing especially could scarcely avoid speaking of them, for one of his Letters is addressed to a minister in that region, and is devoted to a discussion of the state and prospects of religion in that region. Here then critics, inquirers, and doubters take their stand. They hold up the works of these three authors, and say they shall decide whether there was such a sect as the Mormons, and what sort of people they were. And what would be the consequence? They would not find the slightest mention of the Mormons, in any one of the works of either of those three wriAs far as those writings are concerned, there would not be a shadow of proof, that the Mormons ever existed. But if the newspapers, the almanacs, the private letters, and the judicial proceedings of our time had been preserved, as well as the

ters.

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writings of those three authors, for the men of 1800 years hence, then, then, there would be abundant information concerning the origin, pretensions, and number of the Mormons. We leave it to our readers to follow out the application of the case, which we have supposed, to that which we have in hand. We will only suggest one or two particulars, in which the cases are parallel. Christianity at first, when feeble, disgraced, and obscure in the land of its origin, could not certainly interest the learned men of Rome, any more than Mormonism interests our learned men. Christianity might be talked about in private, by those who wandered from place to place, and caught the news of the day; but this class of persons has left no document or record. Again, the West is now, as the East once was, the region of many religious extravagances, which are often noticed only in the lump; and as Mormonism is now included under the general title, without especial mention, so was Christianity. Nor will it destroy the parallel between the two cases, if one should say that the miraculous character of Christianity would draw attention to it. Its miraculous character would not draw the attention of those who were distant from the scene; indeed, the hearsay of its wonders would create a prejudice against it. Mormonisin, too, claims its miracles, of golden books discovered by revelation. For a time, the story passed current, but when the books were demanded, nobody could find them. On the contrary, when attention was fixed on Christianity, then it was mentioned continually. On the whole we must say that its reception was just such as onr best knowledge of human nature would lead us to expect. We have the very records written by its first teachers; these we are next to examine. We have the writings of those whom its first teachers converted. As regards those who were its adversaries, at the proper point of time, we have their testimony, full, explicit, and valuable. Before that proper point of time, we find, on the part of opponents, silence, indifference, or mere superficial notice. This proves nothing more than that the Christian Church had a beginning; strong in the hearts of its disciples, feeble in the prejudices or insults of its adversaries. Christianity was sent into the world, like every thing else which comes from God; in its infancy, and with a power to grow and increase. If we witness its development, let us not doubt that it had a beginning.

G. E. E.

THE SHADE OF CORNELIA TO PAULUS..

PROPERTIUS, BOOK IV., ELEGY XI.

WE present to our readers a translation of the closing Elegy of Propertius, a writer of the Augustan age. It is a Héroide from the dead. The version is quite literal, and line for line. We offer it for three reasons. One is, the intrinsic beauty of the original poem. Another, that it has never-so far as we know—been translated into our own tongue. The last, which is, indeed, the leading reason, is the opportunity that it gives of comparing some of the purest sentiments of classical antiquity, respecting the state of the dead, with those of the simplest minds that have had the advantage of a Christian Education. This Elegy has often been called "the queen of Elegies." We think that it deserves the title, which has thus, as by the common consent of scholars, been awarded to it. As an expression of those domestic affections, which belong to no time or country or institutions, but to the common heart of man, it takes rank above every thing of a like kind among the poets of that cultivated period. We know of nothing, within the same compass, that approachés it, as a picture at once of Roman pride, Roman opinion, and Roman

manners.

CORNELIA TO PAULUS.

CEASE, Paulus, with thy tears my tomb to pain ;1
The black gate opens to no prayer. 'Tis vain.
When once we've passed beneath death's lower sway,
Relentless adamant bars up the way.

Though Dis should hear thee from his dusky halls,
The silent shores would drink each tear that falls.
Vows move Celestials. When the boatman's paid,
The dismal door shuts in the parted shade.

So sang the funeral trumpets, when my head
Found, o'er the funeral torch, the pyre its bed.

1 The ancients supposed that the dead were troubled by the immoderate grief of their friends.

What profit to be Paulus' wife? to claim
Ancestral cars, and living heirs of fame?
Would Fate for these extend Cornelia's days?
Lo, I'm a weight that five small fingers raise.1

2

Detested glooms, thou grim flood's sluggish sheet,
Ye weedy waves that tangle round my feet!
Too soon, but guiltless, hither have I come;
The Sire here grant my bones a gentle doom!
Or, if an Aeacus in judgment sit,
Let urn and balls protect me, and acquit.3
Nigh let the brother sit; and Minos nigh;4
And the fell Furies stand as listeners by.
Stop, stone of Sisyphus ; Ixion's wheel,
Hush; and let Tantaleus one slow draught steal ! 5
Let cruel Cerberus scare no ghosts to day;

And let his unlocked chains their clanking stay!

1 This line brings before us the image of the urn, into which the ashes were gathered.

2 The Sire here" is Pluto.

3 The "urn and balls," or lot, decided who should sit Chief Judge in the case. For this judicial custom, see Heyne's Virgil, Æneid vi., 430, and Excurs. xi. We are not to suppose that the guilt or innocence of the parties arraigned was left to the decision of a lot. And yet Dryden has fallen into this mistake, in his strangely loose version of the Æneid, at the passage referred to:

"Round in his urn the blended balls he rolls;

Absolves the just, and dooms the guilty souls."

4" The brother" is Rhadamanthus.

Our poet, who rather affects singularities, gives the Greek termination to the name of Tantalus. Ovid has described in the 10th book of the Metamorphoses a similar respite to the sufferings of the tormented ghosts, to Sisyphus, Ixion, and the rest, at the music of Orpheus. The description is familiar to the English reader, through the imitation of it in Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia's day. The two Roman poets are at variance, however, in the case of Tantalus. According to Ovid, he ceased to catch at the water, so charmed was he by the sounds of the lyre. Propertius allows him to taste a little, as it flows less rapidly by. The difference seems not wholly unworthy of notice, in an æsthetical point of view.