scarcely possessed anything of territory, and who, at the present day, consist only of a band of ignorant slaves, a hundred times less numerous than the Jews, and deprived of all but their name, yet bear away the palm from Roman power, by their ancient reputation, which triumphs at once over time and degradation.

Europe has seen a republic, ten times smaller than Athens, attract its attention for the space of one hundred and fifty years, and its name placed by the side of that of Rome, even while she still commanded kings; while she condemned one Henry, a sovereign of France, and absolved and scourged another Henry, the first man of his age; even while Venice retained her ancient splendour, and the new republic of the seven United Provinces was astonishing Europe and the Indies, by its successful establishment and extensive commerce.

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This almost imperceptible ant-hill could not be crushed by the royal demon of the south, and the monarch of two worlds, nor by the intrigues of the Vatican, which put in motion one half of Europe. It resisted by words and by arms; and with the help of a Picard who wrote, and a small number of Swiss who fought for it, it became at length established and triumphant, and was enabled to say, "Rome and I." She kept all minds divided between the rich pontiffs who succeeded to the Scipios,-Romanos rerum dominos, and the poor inhabitants of a corner of the world long unknown in a country of poverty and goitres.*

The main point was, to decide how Europe should think on the subject of certain questions which no one understood. It was the conflict of the human mind. The Calvins, Bezas, and Turetins, were the Demostheneses, Platos, and Aristotles, of the day.

The absurdity of the greater part of the controversial

The Holy Alliance is another experiment to do that which the demon of the south, that black-hearted assassin and mur derer, Philip II. and the executioner Alva, could not accomplish. The result remains to be seen; but we trust that the "demons" both of the south and of the north will ultimately fail in their atrocious conspiracy.-T.

questions which bound down the attention of Europe, having at length been acknowledged, this small republic turned her consideration to what appears of solid consequence-the acquisition of wealth. The system of Law, more chimerical and less baleful than that of the supralapsarians and the sublapsarians, occupied with arithmetical calculations those who could no longer gain celebrity as partisans of the doctrine of crucified divinity. They became rich, but were no longer famous.

It is thought that at present there is no republic, except in Europe. I am mistaken if I have not somewhere made the remark myself; it must, however, have been a great inadvertence. The Spaniards found in America the republic of Tlascala perfectly well established. Every part of that continent, which has not been subjugated, is still republican. In the whole of that vast territory, when it was first discovered, there existed no more than two kingdoms; and this may well be considered as a proof that republican government is the most natural. Men must have obtained considerable refinement, and have tried many experiments, before they submit to the government of a single individual.*

In Africa, the Hottentots, the Caffres, and many communities of negroes, are democracies. It is pretended that the countries in which the greatest part of the negroes are sold, are governed by kings. Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers, are republics of soldiers and pirates. There are similar ones in India. The Mahrattas, and many other Indian hordes, have no kings; they elect chiefs when they go in their expeditions of plunder.

Such are also many of the hordes of Tartars. Even the Turkish empire has long been a republic of janis

"Le premier roi fut un soldat heureux." War clearly led to sovereignty; power, in that case, must be intrusted to individuals, and the step to despotism is of course, or at least such has been the case; it is for improved human nature to prevent its remaining so.-T.

saries, who have frequently strangled their sultan, when their sultan did not decimate them.

We are every day asked, whether a republican or a kingly government is to be preferred? The dispute always ends in agreeing that the government of men is exceedingly difficult. The Jews had God himself for their master; yet observe the events of their history.* They have almost always been trampled upon and enslaved; and, nationally, what a wretched figure do they make at present!

DEMONIACS.

HYPOCHONDRIACAL and epileptic persons, and women labouring under hysterical affections, have always been considered the victims of evil spirits, malignant demons, and divine vengeance. We have seen that this disease was called the sacred disease; and that whilst the physicians were ignorant, the priests of antiquity obtained everywhere the care and management of such diseases.

When the symptoms were very complicated, the patient was supposed to be possessed with many demons-a demon of madness, one of luxury, one of avarice, one of obstinacy, one of shortsightedness, one of deafness; and the exorciser could not easily miss finding a demon of foolery created, with another of knavery.

The Jews expelled devils from the bodies of the possessed by the application of the root barath, and a certain formula of words; our Saviour expelled them by a divine virtue; he communicated that virtue to his apostles, but it is now greatly impaired.

A short time since, an attempt was made to renew the history of St. Paulin. That saint saw on the roof of a church a poor demoniac, who walked under, or

It may be remarked, also, that God himself declared against monarchy, through his holy prophet Samuel, at least he describes the forthcoming consequences. See 1 Samuel, chap. viii. v. 10 to 17.

rather upon, this roof or cieling, with his head below and his feet above, nearly in the manner of a fly. St. Paulin clearly perceived that the man was possessed, and sent several leagues off for some relics of St. Felix of Nola, which were applied to the patient as blisters. The demon who supported the man against the roof instantly fled, and the demoniac fell down upon the pavement.

We may have doubts about this history, while we preserve the most profound respect for genuine miracles; and we may be permitted to observe, that this is not the way in which we now cure demoniacs. We bleed them, bathe them, and gently relax them by medicine; we apply emollients to them. This is M. Pome's treatment of them; and he has performed more cures than the priests of Isis or Diana, or of any one else who ever wrought by miracles.

As to demoniacs who say they are possessed merely to gain money, instead of being bathed, they are at present flogged.

It often happened, that the specific gravity of epileptics, whose fibres and muscles withered away, was lighter than water, and that they floated when put into it. A miracle! was instantly exclaimed. It was pronounced that such a person must be a demoniac or a sorcerer; and holy water or the executioner was immediately sent for. It was an unquestionable proof that either the demon had become master of the body of the floating person, or that the latter had voluntarily delivered himself over to the demon. On the first supposition the person was exorcised, on the second he was burnt.

Thus have we been reasoning and acting for a period of fifteen or sixteen hundred years, and yet we have the effrontery to laugh at the Caffres!

In 1603, in a small village of Franche-Compté, a woman of quality made her granddaughter read aloud the lives of the saints in the presence of her parents; this young woman, who was in some respects very well informed, but ignorant of orthography, substituted the

word histories for that of lives (vies). Her step-mother, who hated her, said to her in a tone of harshness, "Why don't you read as it is there?" The girl blushed and trembled, but did not venture to say anything; she wished to avoid disclosing which of her companions had interpreted the word upon a false orthography, and prevented her using it.* A monk, who was the family confessor, pretended that the devil had taught her the word. The girl chose to be silent rather than vindicate herself; her silence was considered as amounting to confession; the inquisition convicted her of having made a compact with the devil: she was condemned to be burnt, because she had a large fortune from her mother, and the confiscated property went by law to the inquisitors. She was the hundred-thousandth victim of the doctrine of demoniacs, persons possessed by devils and exorcisms, and of the real devils who have swayed the world.+

DESTINY.

Or all the books written in the western climes of the world, which have reached our times, Homer is the most ancient. In his works we find the manners of profane antiquity, coarse heroes, and material gods, made after the image of man, but mixed up with reveries and absurdities; we also find the seeds of philosophy, and more particularly the idea of destiny, or necessity, who is the dominatrix of the gods, as the gods are of the world.

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When the magnanimous Hector determines to fight the magnanimous Achilles, and runs away with all possible speed, making the circuit of the city three

The word with a slight variation in the spelling, and a perfect similarity in sound, conveys a meaning which, in the passage she was reading, might to the unhappy girl appear obscene.-T.

This simple tale in itself is sufficient to prove the existence of the worst of all demons-those of hypocrisy, oppression, fraud, and priestcraft. Attending to the history of the world, ancient and modern, the latter word is more synonimous with murder than any other in the general vocabulary of mankind.-T.