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LESSON LXXXVI.-SCENE AT THE DEDICATION OF A HEATHEN
TEMPLE.-WILLIAM WARE.

As we drew near to the lofty fabric, I thought that no scene of such various beauty and magnificence, had ever met my eye. The temple itself is a work of unrivalled art. In size, it surpasses any other building of the same 5 kind in Rome, and for the excellence of workmanship, and purity of design, although it may fall below the standard of Hadrian's age, yet for a certain air of grandeur, and luxuriance of invention, in its details, and lavish profusion of embellishment in gold and silver, no temple nor other 10 edifice of any preceding age, ever perhaps resembled it.

Its order is Corinthian, of the Roman form, and the entire building is surrounded by its slender columns, each composed of a single piece of marble. Upon the front is wrought Apollo surrounded by the Hours. The western 15 extremity is approached by a flight of steps, of the same breadth as the temple itself. At the eastern, there extends beyond the walls, to a distance equal to the length of the building, a marble platform, upon which stands the altar of sacrifice, and which is ascended by various flights of 20 steps, some little more than a gently rising plain, up which the beasts are led that are destined to the altar.

When this vast extent of wall and column, of the most dazzling brightness, came into view, everywhere covered, together with the surrounding temples, palaces, and thea25 tres, with a dense mass of human beings, of all climes and regions, dressed out in their richest attire,-music, from innumerable instruments, filling the heavens with harmony, -shouts of the proud and excited populace, every few moments, and from different points, as Aurelian advanced, 30 shaking the air with its thrilling din,-the neighing of horses, the frequent blasts of the trumpet,-the whole made more solemnly imposing by the vast masses of cloud, which swept over the sky, now suddenly unveiling, and again eclipsing, the sun, the great god of this idolatry, 35 and from which few could withdraw their gaze; when, at once, this all broke upon my eye and ear, I was like a child who before had never seen aught but his own village, and his own rural temple, in the effect wrought upon me, and the passiveness with which I abandoned myself to the 40 sway of the senses. Not one there was more ravished by the outward circumstance and show. I thought of Rome'

thousand years, of her power, her greatness, and universal empire, and, for a moment, my step was not less proud than that of Aurelian.

But after that moment,-when the senses had had their 5 fill, when the eye had seen the glory, and the ear had fed upon the harmony and the praise, then I thought and felt very differently; sorrow and compassion, for these gay multitudes, were at my heart; prophetic forebodings of disaster, danger, and ruin to those, to whose sacred cause I 10 had linked myself, made my tongue to falter in its speech. and my limbs to tremble. I thought that the superstition, which was upheld by the wealth and the power, whose manifestations were before me, had its roots in the very centre of the earth,--far too deep down, for a few, like myself, ever 15 to reach them. I was like one whose last hope of life and escape, is suddenly struck away.

LESSON LXXXVII.-SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.-ID.

I was roused from these meditations, by our arrival at the eastern front of the temple. Between the two central columns, on a throne of gold and ivory, sat the emperor of the world, surrounded by the senate, the colleges of au5 gurs and haruspices, and by the priests of the various temples of the capital, all in their peculiar costume. Then Fronto, the priest of the temple, when the crier had proclaimed that the hour of worship and sacrifice had come, and had commanded silence to be observed,-standing at 10 the altar. glittering in his white and golden robes, like a messenger of light,-bared his head, and lifting his face up toward the sun, offered, in clear and sounding tones, the prayer of dedication.

As he came toward the close of his prayer, he, as is so 15 usual, with loud and almost frantic cries, and importunate repetition, called upon the god to hear him, and then, with appropriate names and praises, invoked the Father of gods and men, to be present and hear. Just as he had thus solemnly invoked Jupiter by name, and was about to call 20 on the other gods in the same manner, the clouds, which had been deepening and darkening, suddenly obscured the sun; a distant peal of thunder rolled along the heavens, and, at the same moment, from the dark recesses of the temple, a voice of preternatural power came forth, proclaim

ing, so that the whole multitude heard, the words,—“ God is but one; the King eternal, immortal, invisible!"

It is impossible to describe the horror that seized those multitudes. Many cried out with fear, and each seemed 5 to shrink behind the other. Paleness sat upon every face. The priest paused, as if struck by a power from above. Even the brazen Fronto was appalled. Aurelian leaped from his seat, and by his countenance, white and awestruck, showed that to him it came, as a voice from the 10 gods. He spoke not, but stood gazing at the dark entrance into the temple, from which the sound had come. Fronto hastily approached him, and whispering but one word, as it were, into his ear, the emperor started; the spell that bound him, was dissolved; and recovering him15 self-making, indeed, as though a very different feeling had possessed him, cried out, in fierce tones, to his guards, "Search the temple! some miscreant, hid away among the columns, profanes thus the worship and the place. Seize him, and drag him forth to instant death!”

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The guards of the emperor, and the servants of the temple, rushed in at that bidding. They soon emerged, saying that the search was fruitless. The temple, in all its aisles and apartments, was empty.

LESSON LXXXVIII.—SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED. -ID.

The heavens were again obscured by thick clouds, which, accumulating into dark masses, began now nearer and nearer to shoot forth lightning, and roll their thunders. The priest commenced the last office, prayer to the god, to 5 whom the new temple had been thus solemnly consecrated. He again bowed his head, and again lifted up his voice. But no sooner had he invoked the god of the temple, and besought his ear, than again, from its dark interior, the same awful sounds issued forth, this time 10 saying, "Thy gods, O Rome, are false and lying gods; God is but one!"

Aurelian, pale as it seemed to me with superstitious fear, strove to shake it off, giving it, artfully and with violence, the appearance of offended dignity. His voice 15 was a shriek, rather than a human utterance, as it cried out, "This is but a Christian device; search the temple, till the accursed Nazarine be found, and hew him piecemeal!- "9 More he would have said; but, at the instant,

a bolt of lightning shot from the heavens, and, lighting upon a large sycamore, which shaded a part of the templecourt, clove it in twain. The swollen cloud at the same moment burst, and a deluge of rain poured upon the city. 5 the temple, the gazing multitudes, and the kindled altars. The sacred fires went out, in hissing darkness; a tempest of wind whirled the limbs of the slaughtered victims into the air, and abroad over the neighboring streets. All was confusion, uproar, terror and dismay. The crowds 10 sought safety in the houses of the nearest inhabitants, and the porches of the palaces. Aurelian and the senators, and those nearest him, fled to the interior of the temple. The heavens blazed with the quick flashing of the lightning; and the temple itself seemed to rock beneath the 15 voice of the thunder. I never knew in Rome so terrific a tempest. The stoutest trembled; for life hung by a thread. Great numbers, it has now been found, in every part of the capitol, fell a prey to the fiery bolts. The capitol itself was struck, and the brass statue of Vespasian, in the forum, 20 thrown down, and partly melted. The Tiber, in a few hours, overran its banks, and laid much of the city and its borders under water.

LESSON LXXXIX. - -HAMILTON AND JAY.-DR. HAWKS.

It were, indeed, a bold task to venture to draw into comparison, the relative merits of Jay and Hamilton, on the fame and fortunes of their country,— -a bold task,-and yet, bold as it is, we feel impelled, before closing, at least 5 to venture on opening it. They were undoubtedly, “par nobile fratrum," and yet not twin brothers,-"pares sed impares,"—like, but unlike. In patriotic attachment equal, for who would venture therein to assign to either the superiority; yet was that attachment, though equal in 10 degree, yet far different in kind: with Hamilton it was a sentiment, with Jay a principle,-with Hamilton enthusiastic passion, with Jay duty as well as love,—with Hamilton patriotism was the paramount law, with Jay a law "sub graviori lege."* Either would have gone through 15 fire and water to do his country service, and laid down freely his life for her safety,-Hamilton with the roused courage of a lion,-Jay with the calm fearlessness of a man; or rather, Hamilton's courage would have been that

* Under a weightier law

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of the soldier,-Jay's that of the Christian. Of the latter
it might be truly said,―

"Conscience made him firm,
That boon companion, who her strong breastplate
Buckles on him that fears no guilt within,

And bids him on, and fear not."

In intellectual power, in depth, and grasp, and versatility of mind, as well as in all the splendid and brilliant parts which captivate and adorn, Hamilton was greatly, 10 not to say immeasurably, Jay's superior. In the calm and deeper wisdom of practical duty,-in the government of others, and still more in the government of himself,—in seeing clearly the right, and following it whithersoever it led, firmly, patiently, self-deniedly, Jay was again greatly, 15 if not immeasurably, Hamilton's superior. In statesmanlike talent, Hamilton's mind had in it more of “constructive" power, Jay's of "executive."-Hamilton had GENIUS, Jay had WISDOM. We would have taken Hamilton to plan a government, and Jay to carry it into execution; 20 and, in a court of law, we would have Hamilton for our advocate, if our cause were generous, and Jay for judge, if our cause were just.

The fame of Hamilton, like his parts, we deem to shine brighter and farther than Jay's, but we are not sure that 25 it should be so, or rather we are quite sure that it should not. For, when we come to examine and compare their relative course, and its bearing on the country and its fortunes, the reputation of Hamilton we find to go as far beyond his practical share in it, as Jay's falls short 30 of his. Hamilton's civil official life was a brief and single, though brilliant one. Jay's numbered the years of a generation, and exhausted every department of diplomatic, civil, and judicial trust. In fidelity to their country, both were pure to their heart's core; yet was Hamilton 35 loved, perhaps, more than trusted, and Jay trusted, perhaps, more than loved.

Such were they, we deem, in differing, if not contrasted, points of character. Their lives, too, when viewed from a distance, stand out in equally striking, but much more 40 painful, contrast. Jay's, viewed as a whole, has in it a completeness of parts, such as a nicer critic demands for the perfection of an epic poem, with its beginning of promise, its heroic middle, and its peaceful end. and par

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