individuals are comparable, and that the history of a deceased body politic may offer lessons of experience to one existent.

We have been led to these considerations by reflection upon the extent to which divination is now prevalent, using that term in the sense of a searching into the unknown present and the future. Science has long manifested the glorious characteristic of prescience, and in this, as in every preceding age, we have witnessed examples of foreseeing sagacity the result of mature experience. But in addition to these, we have had unusual methods of divination made popular as well with persons of literary attainments and cultivated minds as with the ignorant and superstitious. Clairvoyante youth of both sexes have been used for all those purposes to which divination was formerly applied; and now, more recently, demonology and demoniacal possession have been widely studied and practised. The latter are interesting as a question of psychology, and we propose noticing them the more especially at present; not neglecting, however, those true and natural methods of anticipating the future which are based on philosophy, and therefore exclude the supernatural.

Mesmeric divination will probably be extinguished by this new folly; we need not therefore notice it here.

Mankind has sought in all ages to know its destiny as well in this world as in the next. Every available and conceivable means have been adopted for this purpose,-the most trivial and absurd, the most awful and mysterious. There is no impulse so strong as this instinctive inquiry into the future; none from which more pleasure is derived or by which more anxiety is created. The novel reader is the most familiar illustration of the one, the monomaniac who destroys himself to escape an imaginary future evil is an illustration of the other.

Now what is so general and universal a practice cannot in its nature be wrong. The search into the future may be defended by various arguments, and its propriety and practicability easily established. We might instance our daily experiences, and from the practice on a small scale defend it on the largest. Perhaps, however, the example of the All-wise Artificer of the universe is the most cogent argument in its favour. On every side we see the most manifest and beautiful proofs of that beneficent provision for the future which under the term Divine Providence, or foreseeing of and providing for the future, has been recognised as one of the greatest and most lovely attributes of the Deity, and has even become a name for the Deity himself. Looking abroad into the planetary or kosmic creation, we find how nicely balanced in relation to each other are all those mighty masses of matter which sweep through space with such terrific rapidity, and with what a perfection of adaptation to the future do those in more imme

diate relation to this earth attract and repel it. However certain we may feel as to the future stability of our planetary system, and however confidently we may expect the sun to arise in the morning, yet perfect certainty of the event was only attained in the days of old, after that terrible deluge of waters, by the declaration of God himself. In these later times it has pleased him so to enlighten men's minds that they are more able to comprehend the excellency of his wisdom in the order of his providence. A great and wise king, himself a great naturalist and moral philosopher (and we quote him in deference to the theologians who have entered the field of prescient knowledge), has left on record that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. By this "candle" we read that those great globes poised loosely in space, all move in their orbits in the direction most calculated to give them stability; that of all the innumerable arrangements which might have been made, not one could have led to this result more effectually. Laplace, noting this wise provision for the future, has calculated that it is above four millions of millions to one in favour of these motions having been directed by one original or first cause. Certain as we may feel that the sun will rise to-morrow, it is above two million times less probable than the truth of the position that the motions of our system were designed with a distinct reference to their future stability.

Coming to living organisms, we again find the example of an admirable foreseeing of and a provision for the future. The student of natural history or of natural theology cannot but be aware of those prospective contrivances for the well-being of living things which encounter him at every step. Long before lungs are required they are ready formed and adapted to future wants; eyes are developed before vision is necessary; ears before hearing; and for many years before it can come into play that most exquisite of all these prospective contrivances, the human brain, is elaborated and made ready for future use.

That which is seen in development, is seen also in the instinctive uses, so soon as the use is necessary, of the machines, instruments, and weapons thus wisely provided beforehand. Philosophers have long recognised the operation of the instinct in lower animals as being something little less than Divine, and perhaps nothing strikes the mind so much as that preparation for the future which marks the instinct for propagation of the species in every kingdom and division of nature, from the highest to the lowest. It is not in the domestic economy of insects only that this admirable regard for the future is manifested, although in these particularly, and the bee and other hymenoptera, it is most curiously shown. The principle pervades the whole series of animated existence, and is the most highly developed in man himself. The sciences and arts are, in fact, nothing more than the result of

the evolution of the instincts into reason and will. Every one and each has its counterpart in the animal economy. Science is nothing more than the knowledge of the necessary order of events; reason is the faculty which enables us to perceive and know this order; philosophy is the right use of this reason in determining such order. Hence, the greatest philosophers have not failed to perceive that man has a special relation to his Creator, inasmuch as he appears to be the only one of terrestrial beings capable of perceiving the wisdom of the Divine Providence, and of investigating the order of creation. It was when impressed with these ideas that Bacon, in his opening aphorism, declared man to be "the minister and interpreter of nature." So also, long anteriorly to Bacon, Epictetus observed-" God hath introduced man [into creation] as a spectator of Himself and His works; and not only as a spectator, but an interpreter of them." It is specially in his interpretation of God's counsel in the past and the future that man is pre-eminent; to divine is most emphatically the true characteristic of man's spiritual nature; to “look before and after" is the very essence of all his faculties; and the knowledge of that future existence for which his present is only the preparation, is the culminating point of his knowledge.

It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise that man, in all ages, in all climes, in every stage of political and social development, should follow the corporeal and intellectual instincts of his nature. In domestic life, in agriculture, and indeed in all arts, in politics, in all sciences, he descries and prepares for the future. That is the law of his nature; in following that law, under the guidance of sound principles, man fulfils his duty. The search into the future is therefore in itself laudable and necessary; it is only in the mode in which it may be conducted that

there can be error or sin.

Two principal methods of investigation have been adopted by mankind in all ages; namely, the natural and the supernatural. The natural was founded first upon observation and experience; then upon science, or general principles. A simple observer of the phenomena of nature is enabled to foresee the recurrence or occurrence of natural phenomena, although wholly devoid of scientific knowledge. Thus the seaman or shepherd knows well the indications of change in the weather; thus also the course of the seasons and of vital phenomena of an obviously periodic character is manifest to simple observation; neither meteorology, nor astronomy, nor physiology is needed. In morals and in politics, long-continued observation is the foundation of that sagacity which foresees the end of a series of events. It is by this that

"Old experience doth attain

To somewhat of prophetic strain."

The prediction of events by the aid of science has astrology for its basis; that is to say, astrology, in the true sense of the term, as designating the science of the universe. That at a very early period of history mankind had attained to a very accurate knowledge of the system of the universe is rendered very clear by recent historical researches. The ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans knew the exact length of the solar year, and founded several important periods on that know. ledge. In fact, they were not only as perfectly acquainted with the great principles of astronomy as the men of the present time, but appear to have had a much deeper insight into meteorology. As to the latter, they were both speculative and practical. Speculative to an extent moderns have not ventured, for they marked out great periods of time, within which cycles of changes would be completed of vast extent and importance. The Annus Magnus, or Great Cycle of the Egyptians, consisted of from 300,000 to 360,000 years. This being completed, the whole assemblage of celestial phenomena which are regarded as the influential causes of all changes in the sublunary world being restored to the same initial order, and proceeding in the same catenation as before, the whole series of events that depend upon them follow in their former connexion of place and time. The same individual men are doomed to be born again and perform the same actions as before; the same arts are to be invented, the same cities built and destroyed. This philosophical theory is probably referred to by the author of Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher, who applied his heart "to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things," when he remarks, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time which was before us." According to Mr. Cullimore, the Chaldeans represented the origin and destiny of the world as depending upon two grand astral conjunctions, on the occurrence of which, in a peculiar season of the year and point of the heavens, it was fated to perish by a deluge or conflagration. These doctrines were very widely diffused through the whole of the East, and appear to have passed from thence to Greece on the one side and South America on the other, having been traced in the mythology of the Aztecs. But, although our first convictions would lead us to consider these views as entirely speculative, yet as to the astronomical portion of them we are not without some indications of foundation in truth. First, as to the Annus Magnus of 360,000 years, we may remark that, knowing how much the number 7 was used by the ancient astronomers and philosophers, we resolved to try, by way of experiment, what astronomical cycles would produce, if multiplied by 7, an approximation to the

number of years constituting the Annus Magnus. Singular to say, the first cycle tried produced the number very nearly. The student of astronomy is well aware of what is termed the precession of the equinoxes; namely, a motion of the equinox on the ecliptic, by which it constantly travels backward or retrogrades, but at such a very slow pace that it requires 25,868 years to complete the tour of the ecliptic. Multiply this number by 7, and the result is 181,076, being the half (or a little more) of the great cycle of 360,000 years. We next looked for an astronomical cycle of which this might be the half, and which might (like the precession of the equinoxes) correspond to the Egyptian and Chaldean speculation. There is one of this kind of a very interesting character. The earth's orbit at present is elliptical, but in some far distant age it was circular, and in some far distant age it will be circular again; for it is so kept in a continual state of change by the action of the planets on the earth, that its eccentricity is, and has been from the earliest ages, diminishing, and this diminution will continue (there is little reason to doubt) until the eccentricity is annihilated and the earth's orbit becomes a perfect circle; after this it will again open out into an ellipse to a certain moderate amount, the eccentricity will again increase, attain a certain moderate amount, and then again decrease as before. The time required for these evolutions (Sir F. Herschel states), though calculable, has not been calculated farther than to satisfy us that it is not to be reckoned by hundreds or by thousands of years. Now it is by no means improbable that this cycle may be the Annus Magnus, as it presents its essential characteristics; namely, recurrence of identical planetary relations. It is a remarkable coincidence that the knowledge of this cyclical change was acquired indirectly through ancient Chaldean records of lunar eclipses. By comparing the times of their occurrence with those of the modern era, Halley discovered that which is known as the secular acceleration of the moon's mean motion. The explanation of this acceleration was a puzzle until Laplace discovered further that it was caused by this cyclical eccentricity of the earth's orbit. It is curious, too, that the embolismal period of the Egyptians, of 1440 years-a period during which the twelve months became intercalated in the calendar in succession-is a multiple of the cycle. The Chaldeans used another cycle of interest; namely, the soli-lunar period of 600 years, the square of which makes up the Annus Magnus. Now the solar year, which is the unit of this Chaldean period, is exactly 365d. 5h. 51m. 35s. 2th. long; it also contains exactly 7421 lunations, of 29d. 12h. 44m. 2s. 48th.-striking proofs of the refined mathematical as well as astronomical science of that wonderful people. How far they were acquainted with geology we know not; but it cannot but strike the mind that this science corroborates the Chaldean speculations, inasmuch as it distinctly points to the occurrence of vast changes in