EL

has done herself the honour to refuse me!'

She will be much too wise to do anything of the kind; she has sense enough to know that if she did so, you would inform a Christian populace what conditions she offered you, and, with all her contempt for the burden of the flesh, she has no mind to be lightened of that pretty load by being torn in pieces by Christian monks: a very probable ending - for her in any case, as she herself, in her melancholy moods, confesses.'

1

6

What will you have me do,

then?'

Simply nothing. Let the prophetic spirit go out of her, as it will, in a day or two, and then-I know nothing of human nature, if she does not bate a little of her own price. Depend on it, for all her ineffabilities, and impassibilities, and all the rest of the seventh-heaven moonshine at which we play here in Alexandria, a throne is far too pretty a bait for even Hypatia the Pythoness to refuse. Leave well alone is a good rule, but leave ill alone is a better. So now another bet before we part, and this time three to one. Do nothing either way, and she sends to you of her own accord before a month is out. In Caucasian mules? Done? Be it so.'

Well you are the most charming counsellor for a poor perplexed devil HES F of a Prefect! If I had but a private zi fortune like you, I could just take the money, and let the work do itself.'

Spes and red-hot

2 stake her, sive; and
Tbe of one whatsoeve
wine she will be of great v
Carl'
How?

He will be most ha
make the whole story a
unst you, give out that she
virgin-martyr, in defence d
holy catholic and ap
th get miracles worked
b. and pull your palace
ears on the strength tha
Cyril will hear of it
's another dilemma iste
have brought me, you
1! Why this
lover Aler
1 her m

Which is the true method of successful government. Your slave bids you farewell. Do not forget our bet. You dine with me tomorrow?'

And Raphael bowed himself out. As he left the Prefect's door, he saw Miriam on the opposite side of the street, evidently watching for him. As soon as she saw him, she held on her own side, without appearing to notice him, till he turned a corner, and then crossing, caught him eagerly by the arm.

Does the fool dare ?'
what P

what I mean. Do Miriam carries care to know Will he

apostatize? Tell me. I am secret as the grave!'

The fool has found an old wormeaten rag of conscience somewhere in the corner of his heart, and dare not.'

'Curse the coward! And such a plot as I had laid! I would have swept every Christian dog out of Africa within the year. What is the man afraid of?'

6

'Hell-fire.'

Why he will go there in any case, the accursed Gentile!'

So I hinted to him, as delicately as I could; but like the rest of the world, he had a sort of partiality for getting thither by his own road.'

'Coward! And whom shall I get now? Oh, if that Pelagia had as much cunning in her whole body as Hypatia has in her little finger, I'd seat her and her Goth upon the throne of the Cæsars. But

'But she has five senses, and just enough wit to use them, eh?'

'Don't laugh at her for that, the darling! I do delight in her, after all. It warms even my old blood to see how thoroughly she knows her business, and how she enjoys it, like a true daughter of Eve.'

'She has been your most successful pupil, certainly, mother. You may well be proud of her.'

The old hag chuckled to herself awhile; and then suddenly turning to Raphael

See here! I have a present for you;' and she pulled out a magnificent ring.

Why, mother, you are always giving me presents. It was but a month ago you sent me this poisoned dagger.'

Why not, eh ?-why not? Why should not Jew give to Jew? Take the old woman's ring!'

'What a glorious opal!'

Ah, that is an opal, indeed! And the unspeakable name upon it; just like Solomon's own. Take it, I say! Whosoever wears that need never fear fire, steel, poison, or woman's eye.'

Your own included, eh ?'

Take it, I say!' and Miriam caught his hand, and forced the ring on his finger. There! Now you're safe. And now call me mother again. I like it. I don't know why, but I like it. And

Raphael Aben-Ezra-don't laugh at me, and call me witch and hag, as you often do. I don't care about it from any one else; I'm accustomed to it. But when you do it, I always long to stab you. That's why I gave you the dagger. I used to wear it; and I was afraid I might be tempted to use it some day, when the thought came across me how handsome you'd look, and how quiet, when you were dead, and your soul up there so happy in Abraham's bosom, watching all the Gentiles frying__and roasting for ever down below. Don't laugh at me, I say; and don't thwart me! I may make you the Emperor's prime minister some day. I can if I choose.'

'Heaven forbid!' said Raphael, laughing.

Don't laugh. I cast your nativity last night, and I know you have no cause to laugh. A great danger hangs over you, and a deep temptation. And if you weather this storm, you may be chamberlain, prime minister, Emperor, if you will." And you shall be-by the four archangels, you shall!*

And the old woman vanished down a by-lane, leaving Raphael utterly bewildered.

Moses and the prophets! Does the old lady intend to marry me? What can there be in this very lazy and selfish personage who bears my name, to excite so romantic an affection?

Well, Raphael Aben-Ezra,

thou hast one more friend in the world beside Bran the bull-dog; and therefore one more trouble-seeing that friends always expect a due return of affection and good offices, and what not. I wonder whether the old lady has been getting into a scrape kidnapping, and wants my patronage to help her out of it. ... Three-quarters of a mile of roasting sun between me and home! ... Ï must hire a gig, or a litter, or something, off the next stand... with a driver who has been eating onions. ... and of course there is not a stand for the next half mile. Oh, divine æther! as Prometheus has it, and ye swift-winged breezes (I wish " there were any here), when will it all be over? Three-and-thirty years have I endured already, of this Babel of knaves and fools; and with this abominable good health of mine, which wont even help me with gout or indigestion, I am likely to have three-and-thirty years more of it. . . . . I know nothing, and I care for nothing, and I expect nothing; and I actually can't take the trouble to prick a hole in myself, and let the very small amount of wits out, to see something really worth seeing, and try its strength at something really worth doing-if, after all, the other side of the grave does not turn out to be just as stupid as this one ...When will it be all over, and I in Abraham's bosom-or any one else's, provided it be not a woman's?'

the fate of Marie-Antoinette, and an unreverend crowd came to see. At last he killed his goose by publishing the lectures, and, content with his goodly treasure of golden opinions, lapsed into retirement and silence. Age and infirmity formed an apology only too valid. The place became vacant in 1849, and the Premier conferred it upon Sir James Stephen, whose admirable essays in one department of history, Ecclesiastical Biography-themselves the Tapeрya of a laborious life-sufficiently indicate what he is capable of effecting with undivided energies in the wider field. To logical acumen, whetted by an early training

in the law, he has superadded the diligent habits and practical knowledge developed by official toil. And so the fruits of immense research are set forth in the most methodical order and the most perspicuous style. Last, not least, his delivery is clear and impressive. It was fortunate for the University that the minister found all these qualities united in the person of a faithful partisan; one, too, having still a claim upon his gratitude, and gratitude is eminently a Whig virtue. For, if we are rightly informed, after Mr. Stephen had been to several successive colonial ministers what Colbert was to Louis-chief in all but nameand had spent his best years and strength in that arduous service, he was unceremoniously supplanted, and insufficiently compensated by the cheap gift of a tinsel star and a yard of red ribbon.

Whig nominations seldom have the good fortune to satisfy the clergy, and the present case was no exception to the rule.

In the Epilogue to his collected Essays, Sir James had divagated into the question of Eternal Punishment, and had ventured to deny both the essential justice of, and the Scripture warrant for, the doctrine. No sooner was he appointed to the Cambridge chair, than a resident clergyman, in a well-written pamphlet, unearthed and triumphantly hunted down the heresy. Sir James took the matter au grand sérieux; and in a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, expressed his readiness to submit his private judgment to the teaching of the Church. Even this concession did not satisfy all his opponents, and some of the less scrupulous even circulated, anony. mously, charges against him and his creed-a gross violation of fair play which changed the indifference of the inert majority into active sympathy. Indeed, we believe that there is no place in England where society is more tolerant than at Cambridge, no place where harmless heterodoxies live together on more comfortable terms. For one person who is ready to light the fagot of persecution, there are ten ready to throw cold water on the flame. Cambridge is more open to the charge of apathy than of bigotry.

Gallio has more imitators there than Saul. The Professor, therefore, was quit of the whole affair for a little annoyance. No doubt he intended, in the following words, to administer a rebuke to his would-be persecutors:—

No man is really free amongst us to avow his disbelief of the religion of his age and country; nay, hardly of any one of the commonly received articles of it. With whatever seriousness, decorum, and integrity of purpose, such an avowal may be made, he who makes it must sustain the full force of all those penalties, civil and social, which more or less attend upon all dissent, or supposed dissent, from the received standard of orthodoxy. I acknowledge and lament that this is so. I think that they who inflict such penalties are entitled to no praise and to no gratitude. They give to disbelief a motive and an apology for a dishonest self-concealment. They give to the believing a painful mistrust that there may possibly be existing, and yet concealed, some potent reasons, which, if men could speak their minds with real impunity, would be alleged against their own most cherished convictions. No infidel ever did, or can do, so much prejudice to our faith as has been done by those zealous adherents of it, who labour so strenuously, and so often with such unfortunate success, to terrify all objectors into silence.-Vol. i. p. 253.

We quote this emphatic protest against intolerance with cordial assent. Intolerance, which puts on the livery of truth, and professes to be her zealous servant, is in fact her bitter enemy. It is not the clergy so much as the people who are chargeable therewith; and this selfimposed servitude is as complete a bar to moral, as the despotism of a Nicholas is to political, progress. In the present case, however, we cannot but regret that Sir James Stephen should have gone out of his way to incur the heat and bitterness of controversy on a subject which has no practical bearing whatever. It is surely enough for practice to acknowledge and to feel our absolute responsibility to God for all our words, thoughts, and actions; and we shall do well to leave the question of Eternity and Retribution to the All-wise and All-just Being who alone can comprehend the one and apportion the other.

The new Professor delivered his first series of lectures in the Easter term of 1850, and his second in the

following year-always to a crowded and attentive audience. Those who went at first because they had not heard him, went afterwards because they had. These two courses are now before us, in the more available shape of two octavo volumes. Contrary to our general custom of reviewing books briefly and summarily, we propose to devote a couple of articles to the work in question. In the first, we shall contine ourselves to certain preliminary general topics. such as professorial lectures and the scientific methods applicable to History, and other matters which are either treated of or alluded to in the Dedication, which, in fts letter addressed to the Master of Trinity (Dr. Whewell, and serves as preface to the work.

In 1849, I discovered that not w those ancient under-graduate liberis were overthrown, but that even the a dition and memorial of them had pa away. They had given place to in tions which would have made the har stand on end on those venerable v which were worn by the 'bab bucses' in my time. All the old tr books in science and in literature ba been superseded. All the public ex nations had altered their chance Stadies unheard of in the first decade i the present century, were either

ring or conten ing for a forest ple in our system of instruction Al academical statutes had undergste were minging, revision. Reformaty ensctiments had succeeded each other: soch zumber and with such rapidity & to exercise severely the sI of the as practised interpreter of the law Eng prince of education, however Fi estatusted, and every habit of wat berase, had been faries? questomed and not seldom hd æt And preading over all this mat I fund me bass and ace by such an accvanasia of barwisy she crvenience as is he been 3 and yes and by poseda ka

315

་་་ ་་་ ན་་་ ན ་

gainst the Cambridge authorities— hat of hasty innovation-and, like true Whig, he only half likes the forms which he has to help in arrying out.

Before considering his objections, -e must refresh the recollection of ur readers by stating briefly what hese reforms were.

Two or three years ago, there was great outcry for the enlargement of the university curriculum. Why,' t was said, 'should we confine our tudies to mathematical science, and he two dead languages? Many Many sciences, moral and natural, are just is deserving of cultivation and more practically useful, as, for instance, aw and jurisprudence for the future lawyer, history and political economy for the born legislator, anatomy and physiology for our youthful Galens, and so forth. The age is essentially practical; there is no resisting its ..imperious Je marche, suivez moi; we are slaves made for our time, and must move with it. Besides,' it was argued, by the introduction of these new studies, we may turn into intellectual channels a vast amount of youthful energy, which now, for want of a better, finds its field of operation on Parker's Piece or SixMile-Bottom. Many a genius has no taste for demonstrative reasoning, and it is not everybody who can get the knack of Greek Iambics-non cuivis homini, &c. ; yet these poor neglected intellects, properly cared for, might develope into prodigies of morality, and jurisprudence, and

what not. Look at the German universities,' &c. &c.

A committee-or as they call it at the university-a syndicate, was appointed to consider the question. In due time its report appeared, recommending the establishment of two new annual examinations, one in the moral, the other in the natural sciences, to be held in the spring, and open to all who had passed an examination for the degree of B.A. the preceding January.

The moral sciences are defined to comprise moral philosophy, English law, general jurisprudence, modern history, and political economy. In the term 'natural sciences' are included physiology, comparative anatomy, geology, chemistry, mineralogy, and botany. A fine opening

VOL. XLV. NO. CCLXVI.

for a young man of talent and ambition, for both examinations are available to him if he pleases. The lazy class, on whom force acts more powerfully than persuasion, were provided for by a new regulation, that every candidate for the degree of B.A. should have attended at least one course of professorial lectures, and have passed an examination on the subject to the satisfaction of the professor.

The new proposals, when put to the vote, were carried; a large minority, however, protesting their

displeasure,' on the ground that these new sciences, excellent in themselves, were not definite enough to be made subjects of general education. There followed on the same side a large reinforcement of 'cautious Eld' taking the general ground that there was no such nonsense when they were lads.' Sir James, it seems, had he been present, would have voted with the minority. He expresses, in concise and forcible language, objections which were, more or less vaguely, felt and acknowledged by most even of those who were for trying the experiment. Young men of one or two-andtwenty are to be examined in halfa-dozen sciences at once, each of which may, or rather if any progress is to be made therein, must be the study of a whole lifetime. You will get a delusive semblance of knowledge instead of knowledge itself; you will encourage a shabby superficiality, which, so far from developing the intellectual powers, conceals their defects from oneself and from others, and so prevents their cultivation and improvement.

If these fears be realized, then the new regulations will prove not merely useless, but positively noxious, and the sooner they are repealed the better. Their most sanguine advocate will scarcely deny that there is this peril ahead; how to steer clear of it, is the question. Our immediate concern at present is with the moral sciences, and it is of these only that we are going to speak, although, mutatis mutandis, our observations would apply also to the natural sciences.

Speaking generally, each of the moral sciences is so wide in extent, so indefinite in limits, and so various

M