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its condition, that it was then become a solitude, but a solitude in good preservation as a royal park. The vast city had disappeared, and the murmur of myriads; but as yet there were no signs whatever of ruin or desolation. Not until our own nineteenth century was the picture of Isaiah seen in full realization-then lay the lion basking at noonday-then crawled the serpents from their holes; and at night the whole region echoed with the wild cries peculiar to arid wildernesses. The transformations, therefore, of Babylon, have been going on slowly through a vast number of centuries until the perfect accomplishment of Isaiah's picture. Perhaps they have travelled through a course of much more than two thousand years and, from the glimpses we gain of Babylon at intervals, we know for certain that Isaiah had been dead for many centuries before his vision could have even begun to realize itself. But then, says an objector, the final ruins of great empires and cities may be safely assumed on general grounds of observation. Hardly, however, if they happen to be seated in a region so fertile as Mesopotamia, and on a great river like the Euphrates. But allow this possibility-allow the natural disappearance of Babylon in a long course of centuries. In other cases the disappearance is gradual, and at length perfect. No traces can now be found of Carthage; none of Memphis; or, if you suppose something peculiar to Mesopotamia, no traces can be found of Nineveh, on the other side of that region: none of other great cities Roman, Parthian, Persian, Median, in that same region or adjacent regions. Babylon only is circumstantially described by Jewish prophecy as long surviving itself in a state of visible and audible desolation: and to Babylon only such a description ap. plies. Other prophecies might be cited with the same result. But this is enough. And here is an à posteriori miracle.

Now, observe: these two orders of miracle, by their very nature, absolutely evade the argument of Hume. The incommunicability disappears altogether. The value of absolutely vanishes and becomes =0. The human reason, being immutable, suggests to every age, renews and regenerates for ever, the necessary inference of a miraculous state antecedent

to the natural state. And, for the miracles of prophecy, these require no evidence and depend upon none: they carry their own evidence along with them; they utter their own testimonies, and they are continually reinforcing them; for, probably, every successive period of time reproduces fresh cases of prophecy completed. But even one, like that of Babylon, realizes the case of Beta (Sec. II.) in its most perfect form. History, which attests it, is the voice of every generation, checked and countersigned in effect by all the men who compose it.

SECTION VI.

of the Argument as affected by the particular Worker of the Miracles.

This is the last "moment," to use the language of mechanics, which we shall notice in this discussion. And here there is a remarkable petitio principii in Hume's management of his argument. He says, roundly, that it makes no difference at all if God were connected with the question as the author of the supposed miracles. And why? Because, says he, we know God only by experience

meaning as involved in natureand, therefore, that in so far as miracles transcend our experience of nature, they transcend by implication our experience of God. But the very question under discussion is-whether God did, or did not, manifest himself to human experience in the miracles of the New Testament. But, at all events, the idea of God in itself already includes the notion of a power to work miracles, whether that power were ever exercised or not; and as Sir Isaac Newton thought that space might be the sensorium of God, so may we (and with much more philosophical propriety) affirm that the miraculous and the transcendent is the very nature of God. God being assumed, it is as easy to believe in a miracle issuing from him as in any operation according to the laws of nature (which, after all, is possibly in many points only the nature of our planet): it is as easy, because either mode of action is indifferent to him. Doubtless this argument, when addressed to an Atheist, loses its force; because he refuses to assume a God. But then, on the other hand, it must be remembered, that Hume's argument itself does not stand on the footing of

Atheism. He supposes it binding on a Theist. Now a Theist, in starting from the idea of God, grants, of necessity, the plenary power of miracles far greater and more awful than man could even comprehend. All he wants is a sufficient motive for such transcendant agencies; but this is supplied in excess (as regards what we have called the constituent miracles of Christianity) by the case of a religion that was to revolutionize the moral nature of man. The moral nature the kingdom of the will-is essentially opposed to the kingdom of nature even by the confession of irre. ligious philosophers; and, therefore, being itself a supersensual field, it seems more reasonably adapted to agencies supernatural than such as are ratural.

GENERAL RECAPITULATION,

In Hume's argument, which expresses the resistance to credibility in a miracle, is valued as of necessity equal to the very maximum or ideal of human testimony; which, under the very best circumstances, might be equal to +x, in no case more, and in all known cases less. We, on the other hand, have endeavoured to show

1. That, because Hume contemplates only the case of a single wit ness, it will happen that the case Beta [of Sect. 11.] where a multitude of witnesses exist, may greatly exceed +x; and with a sufficient multitude must exceed x.

2. That in the case of internal miracles-operations of divine agency within the mind and conscience of the individual-Hume's argument is necessarily set aside: the evidence, the +, is perfect for the individual, and the miraculous agency is meant for him only.

3. That, in the case of one primary miracle, viz., the first origination of man on this planet, the evidence greatly transcends : because here it is an

evidence not derived from experience at all, but from the reflecting reason: and the miracle has the same advantage over facts of experience, that a mathematical truth has over the truths which rest on induction. It is the difference between must be and is—between the inevitable and the merely actual.

4. That, in the case of another order of miracles, viz., prophecies, Hume's argument is again overruled; because the + in this case, the affirmative evidence, is not derived from human testimony. Some prophecies are obscure; they may be fulfilled possibly without men's being aware of the fulfilment. But others, as that about the fate of Babylon-about the fate of the Arabs (the children of Ishmael) -about the fate of the Jews-are not of a nature to be misunderstood; and the evidence which attends them is not alien, but is intrinsic, and developed by themselves in successive stages from age to age.

5. That, because the primary miracle in No. 3 argues at least a power competent to the working of a miracle, for any after miracle we have only to seek a sufficient motive. Now, the objects of the Christian revelation were equal at the least to those of the original creation. In fact, Christianity may be considered as a second creation ; and the justifying cause for the constituent miracles of Christianity is even to us as apparent as any which could have operated at the primary creation. The epigenesis was, at least, as grand an occasion as the genesis. Indeed, it is evident, for example, that Christianity itself could not have existed without the constituent miracle of the Resurrection; because without that there would have been no conquest over death. And here, as in No. 3, +x is derived-not from any experience, and therefore cannot be controlled by that sort of hostile experience which Hume's argument relies on; but is derived from the reason which transcends all experience.

TURKEY, EGYPT, AND THE AFFAIRS OF THE EAST.

THERE is a witchery, an enchantment, about all that relates to the East, which throws far into the shade the more homely spectacles, and the more familiar events of the western world; and which renders us fabulists rather than historians, and novelists rather than biographers, when we attempt to write of Turkey, Egypt, and the East. The Arabian Nights' Entertainments is the mirror of Eastern life and of Eastern history. The porphyry pillars, the bazaars, and baths; the gilded barges, the embroidered elephants, the cloudless skies, the halfveiled maidens of Eastern luxury; the curtains which surround the voluptuous slaves of the mighty pachas, beys, and lords, of those distant climes; the feathers of the egret of Cashmere, or of the argus pheasant's wing; the costly armour of the cavaliers, the lake of pearl, the sacred shade of a banyan tree, the Brahmins of the great Pagoda, the story-tellers of the East, the shawl goats of Thibet, the flowered girdles, the hung strings of fine pearl, the kitars to which Arab maids lis tened by moonlight in the gardens of the Alhambra, the prophet-chief, his tomb, the haram's curtained galleries, the burning focusts of Brahma, the rich Divan with its turbaned heads, the fur-bound bonnet of Bucharian shape, the full and fawn-like eyes of Persia, the small half-shut glances of China, the bloom of Georgia, and Azar's darker smiles; the splendid pageants, the endless processions, the white flag of Mokauna, the hundreds of banners to the sunbeam spread, the plumes, and lances, and the glittering thrones; Bucharia's ruby mines, Eden's sainted shades, the mosques, mausoleums, and sepulchres of distant ages; the camels with their camel-drivers, the Hassan of the desert, the caravanseras, the gold-coloured campac on the black hair of the Eastern women, the perfumed rods of the Eastern halls, the variegated coories which visit the coral trees, the blue pigeons of Mecca, the pagoda thrush, the birds of paradise, the white heron's feathers in the Uzbek Tartar's turban, and the "Alla Acbar" cry of the Arab-are some of the Eastern remembrances of our youth, and some of the dreamy recol

lections of departed years, when "life was new, and all was in its spring!"

The

The Christian, when he thinks of the East, remembers "the Man of sorrows, who was acquainted with grief"-follows him in his wanderings in the Holy land-gazes on that bright star of Bethlehem, which led the Eastern sages and the Eastern shepherds to a stable and an infant-listens to the sayings of him "who spake as never man spake," on the Sea of Galilee, on the Lake of Gennesaret, on the Mount of Olives, and in the Temple of Jerusalem-weeps at the Cross of Calvary, and in the Garden of Gethsemane, and treads with hallowed awe those plains, or ascends with sacred rapture those mountains, which were once gazed on by that eye which ever beamed love and mercy, and which was itself moistened with tears, when he wept at the grave of Lazarus, or over the then future fate of the Holy City. pious Jew, when he thinks of the East, remembers that there the first man was created that there dwelt the first long-lived patriarchs, and the descendants of Noah till long after the Deluge-and that there the great monarchies of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, were founded and flourished. He remembers the land of Judea or Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Assyria, Arabia, and Egypt. Palestine is pre-eminently dear to him. There the kingdoms of Israel and Judah flourished-there the temple of God was erected by King Solomon-there most of the inspired Scriptures were written-and there, in after ages, One arose who accomplished the all-important work of human redemption, and the Apostles of the Saviour were supernaturally qua lified to go forth among all nations to preach the gospel of eternal salvation to a lost and ruined world. In the East, also, lay the land of Canaan, the land of promise to Abraham and his family, the land of Palestine, named after the Philistines, and that land of Judea, from the tribe of Judah possessing its most fertile division, now more commonly called the Holy Land, as there the ministry of Christ was exercised, and there the obedience, and death, and resurrection, and ascension of our

Redeemer took place for our eternal salvation.

What Christian can hear of SYRIA, and think of Antioch, now Antachia, without remembering that it was there that the Christians were first so called after their Divine master? There were the mighty Babylon, the humble Bethany, the celebrated Bethsaida, the hill of Calvary, the Cana in Galilee, the well-remembered Capernaum, the rivulet Kedron, the lamented Chorazin, the distinguished Corinth, the famous Damascus, the cities of Decapolis, the beloved Emmaus, the adored Galilee, the awful Golgotha, the destroyed Gomorrha, the of ten-mentioned Jericho, the four-hilled Jerusalem, the dear and worshipped Nazareth, the ancient and venerable Nineveh, the Patmos, so interesting to our earliest astonishment, the Samaria, whose daughter's history has so often been perused with delight, the Sarepta, with whose widow we are so familiar, the Siloam, whose healing waters we have heard of from our infancy, the Sheba, whose Queen has surprised us by her unbounding riches, the Sinai and the Horeb of another dispensation, the Zion, whose children's songs shall constitute the music of heaven, the Sodom, whose destruction we mourn over, the Tarsus, whose Saul afterwards became the glorious apostle of the Gentiles, and the Mount Tabor of Palestine, on which, in very deed, transpired the scene of the Transfiguration.

The philosopher, whether natural or moral, the poet, the linguist, the lover of arts and sciences, the antiquarian, the painter, the sculptor, the historian of ancient days and of bygone centuries, all seek in the records, monuments, and recollections of the East, materials for their minds, tastes, and occupations; and drawing from those vast storehouses of knowledge and of facts, they enrich our libraries, adorn our galleries, and excite a live lier piety in our houses and in our temples.

We approach, then, with unaffected diffidence, and yet with undisguised delight, the consideration of the Eastern question; and, with the page of prophecy in one hand and the light of revelation in the other, we propose to open up fully this mighty and momentous subject. Nations do not rise

and sink of their own volition; the decline and fall of the Turkish empire, and the expanding power and influence of the Egyptian monarchy, are not the doings of man, but the works of God; and we feel, as the patriarch was enjoined to do, when approaching the burning bush-" the place on which we stand is holy ground."

But whilst we thus introduce to the attention of our readers this mighty question of the " affairs of the East," let it not be supposed that we shall be unmindful of those "material" questions which are identified with the history of modern society, or that we shall not descend from the heights and loftiness of the mountain, to the shades and retirement, obscurity and workday character of the valley. Whilst we would cultivate, as a source of cheerfulness, excitement, and pure delight, the illusions of the world in which we have not lived, we would not forget that world in which we are living; that we have to do with man as he is, in the age in which we are suffered to play our humble part in the great drama of time; and that we are Britons as well as Christians, and citizens of the bravest and the brightest of the Isles of the ocean, as well as of a world created by the power and the perfections of Heaven. We have no love of chimeras. We derive our greatest enjoyments from facts. Sometimes those facts are past, at other times present realities, and at others only viewed through the long vista of futurity;-but they are facts and our faith is no more required to be exercised for the future than for the past. If, then, our introductory observations have appeared to the man of business, to the capitalist, to the merchant, to the politician, the diplomatist, or the statesman, to be more poetic than historical, and more imaginative than real;-if any of them shall have apprehended that we are disposed to deal in generalities rather than in specialties, and in flights of fancy rather than in positive and uncontradictable facts-let all such misapprehensions be laid aside, let all such misconceptions be abandoned—and let a fair and undivided attention be granted to us, whilst we unfold and develope the vast subject which now occupies our minds as well as interests our affections.

Since the incorporation of Egypt with Turkey, the two great questions, until within a few years, have been, 1st, whether the pachas have acted honestly and fairly by the Egyptians, as representatives of the Sublime Porte; and 2nd, whether they have submitted to the suzeraineté of the Sultan, and have faithfully transmitted the khazneh, or tribute, to the Sultan. The Mameluke Government was an episode. The Mamelouks or Mamelukes were a race originally composed of Circassian or Mingrelian slaves, and for some years were the only military force in the country. For many years, at the close of the past and during the present century, Egypt was distracted by civil wars between the contending beys, by whom its provinces were governed. In 1786, the Turkish admiral, Hassan Ali, gained several victories; but though he repressed, he could not totally subdue them. In 1811, the Pacha Mehemet Ali, having received information of a conspiracy formed by the Beys, he, under the plea of a solemn feast, induced 800 of the chief Mamelukes to join in a procession to Cairo. When in the citadel, they were entrapped between the outer and inner wall-many of them were shot, and the rest were beheaded. An equally large number were subsequently killed in the neighbouring towns and villages, and their massacre was pursued into Nubia, till the race of Mamelukes became extinct.

has never recognised Egypt as an independent government, is at this moment demanding the payment of the arrears of the khazneh, and is anxious to oppose the dominion of the rebel Pacha, in that portion of its former dominions (Syria), to which now we must direct a moment's attention.

SYRIA, or Suristan, was possessed by a succession of foreign nations, before the time of Ptolemy, when it became a province of the Roman empire. Five centuries afterwards, when the sons of Theodosius divided their immense patrimony, this country was annexed to the empire of Constantinople. In this situation it continued till the 7th century, when the Arabian tribes, under the banners of Mohammet, laid it waste. Since that period, torn by civil wars and by numerous invaders, it fell into the hands of the Turks, who have been its masters from the beginning of the 16th century. It is divided into the governments of Aleppo, Tripoli, Damascus, Acre, and Gaza, or Palestine.

The history of the pachas, from the time of Selim I. downwards, would be profitless, though not uninteresting -and it would prolong this article to an unreasonable length. It is only necessary to be borne in mind, that the Pacha of Egypt, up to very late years, was the acknowledged subject of the Porte; that, with but very few exceptions, the submission of the pachas was complete; and that, although in consequence of the gradual weakening of Turkey by the defection of her allies England and Austria, and by the aggressions of her foes the Russians and the Greeks, her authority is so much reduced, her power so inconceivably small, and her state so help. less, as to be unable to resist the disobedience and rebellion of the present Pacha and his victorious and able son, Ibrahim, yet that the Sublime Porte

Is this province of Turkey in Asia, bounded on the north by Caramania and Diarbekir, on the east by the latter and by the deserts of Arabia, on the south by Arabia Petræa and Egypt, and on the west by the Mediterranean, to b. come a portion of Egypt, under an independent crown, and separated from Turkey,- -or is it to remain connected with the Turkish empire? This is one of the mighty questions which must erelong be resolved in the East

and one of those to which we must direct the attention of our readers. Of Syria itself it has been truly said,

On Syria's plains, though plenty fills her
horn,

And Smyrna's fruitful fields abound in corn,
Deem not those happy in the peaceful shade,
Whom earthquake, fire, and pestilence in-
vade,

Whose freeborn souls to haughty despots
bow,

And for tyrannic pachas hold the plough.”

If Syria and the Syrian Christians were unhappy under the domination of Turkey, they are not less so under that of Ibrahim. If the Druses encouraged the Sultan in his attempt to regain Syria, they did so with sincerity; and the whole of Syria is now prepared to rise up against their Egyptian oppressors. Alas! for poor Sy ria, the land of so many marvels in

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