forward the era whence their computation should proceed, and reckoning 1260 years from the failure of Julian's attempt to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, from hence (as is said) at the Hungary meeting held in 1650, derived their hopes of a restoration of their nation to be in a few years. Sir Isaac Newton again, towards the close of this century, fixed on a still later æra, viz. the time when out of the destruction of the Roman empire, ten kingdoms had arisen, and the papal, now a secular kingdom, had formed the eleventh. This scheme has been generally embraced through the last century, only Wetstein has followed Grotius and Hammond. At the beginning of the present century, we observe among the students of prophecy, a new field of thought opened out. The temporary triumph of Atheism in France, has made it necessary to introduce it into their system. Hence, the hypothesis of a three-fold Anti christ, a Papal, a Mahometan, and Atheistic has been introduced, in order to solve all the phenomena of history. Faber supposed the infidel power to have arisen in revolutionary France, in the last times of the 1260 years, and to be prophesied of Dan. xi. 36. Frere and Irvine have varied his system in dating the rise of that power after the 1260 years had concluded, and in considering him to be described Dan. xi. 21. sense, II. I shall proceed now to what was proposed in the second place, to attempt to offer such arguments as may tend to persuade men to re turn to the ancient, literal principles of exposition. A few rules will render that purpose clearer.-1st, Hieroglyphical words having no literal signification, are to be understood figuratively, but in many instances the literal explanation is afforded by the Prophets; beasts are not only declared to mean kingdoms, but the very kingdom intended is frequently pointed out. Babylon, Persia, and Græcia, are plainly exhibited. Horns are expressly said to signify kings, a woman on a beast a city, and waters people.-2dly, Proper names of places are sometimes abstracted from their original and become generic denominations of places of a similar character; so Isaiah speaks to Jerusalem when fallen into wickedness. "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, listen to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah;" but such generalizing of proper names, and such transfer of them from their first application should not be used without some Scriptural ground. Thus, if the Jews have since their desolation understood Rome by Edom, and have given no satisfactory reason for doing so, we are not to follow them and speak of a mystic Edom, as the sense in which the Prophets intended it to be understood.3dly, Plain language should be received in its literal and genuine meaning. Of such kind, surely appear at first view, day, month, and year. And in respect to such language, the rule laid down by every sound and wise critic is, that it be literally understood, unless the strongest reasons can be assigned for departing from such signification. The general arguments for what are called prophetic days, are taken from the meaning of week in Daniel, and the change of day to year in Num. xiv. 34. The phrase "one years)” yiv 78 Dan. ix. 27, may ind to intimate the change of seven days years, but such conclusion would not had we English words to translate the exactly, could we say one seven of tacit transition from day to year coul posed. The word y having a r the last radical is a Chaldee word, a in this place only in the Hebrew E Mr. Maitland of Gloucester,* in a lat tion, has shewed us in what sense th Jews used it, and has proved that its nification was seven years at least a seven days. The seven year period tinually in the common converse and of the Jews, the Sabbatical year bei which slaves were to be released, important matters to take place. T of day to year in the book of Numb context be examined, will appear to h version of time actually passed in in searching the land into forty year time to come, of forty days spent by dured in the wilderness; but if a per days is thus made to point the mind cannot authorize us in any case to milar use of mere language, the fo sition having been made (as has physicé non grammaticé. But the strongest arguments agaicient system, are deduced from the impossibility of the Apocalyptic eve within the times literally mentioned. explanations, however, may be suffic move the objections-they have do in the mind of the writer of these he, therefore, begs to submit them to your readers. He knows at the that they who have been accustom out these events over many centuri first revolt against the idea, that th fined within a few years. On this a only close attention and patience are but forbearance is earnestly solicit first place, it is contended by Med account of the witnesses cannot be a literal sense. He refers particula xi. 8, 9, " and they of the people, ar and tongues, and nations, shall see bodies three days and a half, and sh their dead bodies to be put in grave that dwell upon the earth shall them." In reply, I have in the f produce a similar passage from D is admitted to be a literal represe local fact-"All the people, the nat languages, fell down and worshippe image that Nebuchadnezzar the I up;" (Dan. iii. 7) but it is also to b that the accurate translation speal the people, kindreds and tongue λαων και φυλων γλωσσων και εθνών, when it is said, "they that dwell o we can very consistently underst land of Judæa. That this whole account of the literal, appears from the care taki See his publication on the sup of 1260 years cred writer to mark the place where these things were transacted: it is described in two ways; first, as the place which is generally called Sodom and Egypt, but accurately as the city where our Lord was crucified. Here we may take occasion to observe, that the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt before the end of this world; that wickedness will grow up there in the last days, and two Prophets be sent to preach to them, to warn them of the Lord's speedy coming, and to exhort them to repent. At what time it may please God in the course of his providence, to permit this re-establishment of some portion of the nation, and for what time, and how far their character may be faithful before their final depravation we are not informed. After the two witnesses have prophecied three and a half years, the Apocalyptic beast shall slay them, but their ascension to heaven, and a subsequent earthquake lead the people to repentance, and "they glorify the God of heaven." Here let us observe that Armageddon being a compounded word, may have a peculiar meaning, and may denote a besieged place where mourning and repentance have commenced. (Zech. xii. xiv.) The city which was called Sodom, when the witnesses began to prophecy, now obtains this new name. An objection to the history of the beast taken literally, and to his final and short reign, naturally arises from Dan. vii. Is not the fourth kingdom the Roman Empire, and how can it be supposed yet future? The Roman Empire may incipiently and partially fulfil the character of the fourth beast, but the vision in which it appeared to Daniel, is separate from the other beasts, and may belong to the last days, as the vision of the Son of Man does. (See Dan. vii. 7 & 13.) It may also be asked from our Lord's discourse on Mount Olivet, how could he say of the last days, when ye shall see the abomination of desolation? We may answer, that he spake to these disciples as representatives of all, in the same manner as he did to the Jews, when he said to them, "hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven; and when he says, this generation shall not pass till all these things are fulfilled,"-it may surely be understood of the entire nation of the Jews. The appearance of the Son of Man, and the exhibition of the sign of the Son of Man, toge ther with the overthrow of the beast and bind The slaying of the witnesses, is the first act of the persecuting reign of the beast, I say of his persecuting reign, because it appears from Daniel, that he has reigned at least three and a half years antecedently; first, he destroys the people by policy and pretended peace, and then by open persecution (Dan. viii. 23, 25-ix. 26, 27.); his whole reign is given in that of the vile person, (Dan. xi. 21-45), his persecutions commencing at verse 31. To the literal acceptation of the history of the Apocalyptic beasting of Satan, will be the means of establishing Mede first objects, that " power was given to him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." (Rev. xiii. 7.) But this may be accounted for, if we consider Antichrist to come to the throne after some powerful monarch has preceded him; let us suppose, that Alexander the Great, had reigned twenty years longer, and, as he proposed, had built the temple of Belus, and spread idolatry over his realm, and that afterwards a persecuting and infidel king, ascended the same throne, and reigned three and a half years; or let us imagine such a king as Caligula, who succeeded to an extended empire, and who threatened the Jews with having his image worshipped at Jerusalem. The next objection of Mede, is to the account of the vials taken literally; he asks, how can they all be brought into three and a half years? for solving this difficulty, let us compare the vials with the plagues of Egypt. The first is manifestly similar to the boils inflicted on the Egyptians and the magicians, described (Exod. ix. 8), which cannot be supposed to have lasted for any length of time. The second and third vial, are very like to the plague which was first sent against the Egyptians (Exod. vii.), but which lasted only seven days. The darkness which under the fifth vial, shall prevail over the kingdom of the beast, may not differ from that which was in Egypt (Exod. x. 22.), which continued only three days, and of the the kingdom of the Son of Man over the earth The Apocalypse, which I suppose, from chapter the 4th, to relate to events yet future, is not therefore inapplicable to our times. It appears abundantly by comparing the New Testament with the prophecies of the Old,* that those exhortations and spiritual promises which directly refer to the last times, whether to the final conflict of the Church of Christ, or to its triumphant state, are all the portion of the church militant, i. e. of believers therein in every age. Hence the warnings of this book are in every time to be applied to the infidel and to the persecutor of God's neonle while the true believer is here taught to derive con- From the Amulet. BY MARY HOWITT. THOUGHTS of Heaven! they come when low form When o'er the dark rocks curl the breakers And the terrible lightnings rend the night- II. They come where man doth not intrude, Where nature reigns in her deepest rest, They come as we gaze on the midnight sky, And the soul, on the wings of thought sublime, time; Till the mental eye becomes unsealed, Thoughts of Heaven! from his joy beguiled, And in silent chambers of the dead, From the Imperial Magazine. THE PELICAN ISLAND AND There is something in the name this poem-"The Pelican Island," t to require explanation. In this lig peared to Mr. Montgomery, who in t has given the necessary informati readers, which we copy for the bene "The subject of The Pelican I suggested by a passage in Captain Voyage to Terra Australis. Deseril those numerous gulfs which indent t New Holland, and are thickly spo small islands, he says:-Upon tw we found many young pelicans un Flocks of the old birds were sittin beaches of the lagoon, and it appear islands were their breeding places so, but, from the number of ske bones there scattered, it should se ages these had been selected for Certa scene of their existence. more likely to be free from dist every kind could have been chosen, islets of a hidden lagoon of an island [called by Captain F. Kanga situate upon an unknown coast, ne podes of Europe: nor can any consonant to their feelings, if pe any, than quietly to resign their t rounded by their progeny, and in spot where they first drew it.'"-F thi From the pelicans that inhabit tered spot, the poet proceeds to inv island itself; and without making tions as to the fact, he, with the li the votaries of the muses know h has availed himself of Captain description of a coral reef, in his v island of Loo Choo, in the C These two circumstances form th furnish the principal incidents, i from which branch forth episodes, ramifications, and the creations of the luxuriance and playfulness of so that we become alternately tran remote antiquity, wafted into dist and "rapt in future times." The Pelican Island contains which occupy one hundred and six and from the ample field in whi tors, wrought New and amazing changes:-these I sing. "Sky, sun, and sea were all the universe; The sky, one blue, interminable arch, Without a breeze, a wing, a cloud; the sun Sole in the firmament, but in the deep Redoubled; where the circle of the sea, Invisible with calmness, seem'd to lie Within the hollow of a lower heaven. "I was a Spirit in the midst of these, All eye, ear, thought; existence was enjoyment; Light was an element of life; and air the vicissitudes of darkness, light, refreshing From this region we are conducted through breezes, time, lightnings, tempests, calms, southern constellations, dolphins, and leviathans. The second canto leads us through the mysterious caverns of the ocean, where we gaze upon their hidden recesses, strange productions, and varied inhabitants, and are alternately charmed with their pastimes, and terrified with their ferocity. In these strange abodes, "Where down ten thousand fathoms from the day, Springs the great fountain mother of the sea," we perceive the coral worms, laying the foundation of their pile, which in process of time is destined to lift its summit to the surface of the ocean, where, expanded into an island, it mocks the proudest works of art. In the third canto, the poet "exhausts old worlds, and then imagines new." At his call the creations of imagination appear in regular succession before us. Like the exhibitions of the Kaleidoscope, which presents us with pictures ever variable and ever new, imaginary worlds rise, shine, disappear, and give place to others, furnishing in rich variety the complicated beauties to which invention, vision, reverie, and fancy, give birth. But not having time thus to follow the distinct characteristics of each canto, we must proceed to furnish some specimens of the composition. The coral island having reached the surface of the water, the poet thus proceeds to clothe it with earth, with vegetable productions, and animal life. "Nine times the age of man, that coral reef Had bleach'd beneath the torrid noon, and borne The thunder of a thousand hurricanes, Whales stranded in the shallows, hideous weeds Hurl'd out of darkness by th' uprooting surges; Of meanest substance but in course was turn'd All seasons were propitious; every wind Fell on the sterile wilderness as sweetly "Such time had past, such changes had transfigured The aspect of that solitary isle, Assumed mute watch above it. Slender blades Of grass were shooting through the dark brown earth, Like rays of light, transparent in the sun Unlock'd their treasures, and let flow their fra Some barely visible, some proudly shone, Those lived deliciously on honey-dews, And arm'd with stings for vengeance or assault, In the sixth canto we have a lively but melancholy picture of savage life, setting forth human nature in all its degradation. From this we select the following, as a true but gloomy feature in the loathsome portrait.— "Woman was here the powerless slave of man; Thus fallen Adam tramples fallen Eve, nom Turns pure affection into hideous lust, And wrests the might of his superior arm Till limbs, by beauty moulded, eyes ness, And the full bosom of confiding truth, Made to delight and comfort him in t And change care's den into a halcyon -Are broke with drudgery, queno stagnant tears, Or wrung with lonely unimparted wo Man is beside himself, not less than fa Below his dignity, who owns not wom As nearer to his heart than when she A rib within him,—as his heart's own "He slew the game with his unerrin But left it in the bush for her to drag Home, with her feeble hands, already With a young infant clinging to her s Here she fell down in travail by the w Her piteous groans unheard, or hea swer'd; There, with her convoy, she-mot child, And slaughter'd deer, became so beast's prey; Though spoils so rich not one could joy, Soon the woods echoed with the huge Of savage throats contending for the Till not a bone was left for farther qu -He chose the spot; she piled the w |