Para; and a garrison of twenty men, with a dilapidated fort without a gun, is maintained for the protection of the post. The Madeira is the next immense river that falls from the southward into the Amazon-which is now become more like a sea than a river. The last tributary stream we shall mention, flowing in from the same quarter, is the Tapajos, which is said to be navigable as high up as 12° 10' S. lat., where it receives the waters of the Preto, whose source is within six leagues of a branch of the great river Paraguay; and thus, with the exception of this small interval of land, a communication by water may be said to exist between the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Rio de la Plata. How deplorable it is, then, that this magnificent country, unparalleled in the world for the grandeur of its mountains, teeming with mineral wealth, with noble rivers intersecting it in every direction, with extensive plains clothed with the finest woods, and offering spontaneously the most valuable productions, with a climate, even in its neglected and uncultivated state, not insalubrious -how deplorable, we say, is it that this finest portion of the earth's surface should have fallen into such hands as those of Spain and Portugal, and still worse, into those of its present possessors, the revolutionists, brigands, and assassins, who disgrace even the blood and name of these two fallen nations! It is painful to reflect on its present condition, and on what it might now have been, had it come into the hands of our countrymen, even at so late a period as that when they first established themselves on the northern portion of this great continent;-but regrets are unavailing and what changes within the range of hope are likely to produce much amendment? On the banks of the Tapajos stands the town of Santarem, the largest by far near the shores of the Marañon, containing from five to six thousand inhabitants. It is about 150 miles from what may be called the mouth of the main channel, but 500 from Para, the sea-port town on a separate branch of the Marañon. Last year the revolutionists and the brancos got possession of this city, as it is called, seized the English merchant brig Clio, and murdered every soul except a boy, who effected his escape. The Belvidere frigate, commanded by Captain Strong, was sent by Sir George Cockburn to demand the murderers; he found there a Portuguese admiral with a small squadron lying off the mouth of the river, far from the town, and taking no steps to recover it from the rebels; the admiral entreated the captain not to go up, as the river was full of shoals; but Captain Strong proceeded, anchored before the town, landed his men, got possession of the insurgent governor of Salinas, one Manuel Maria Montura, who had ordered the massacre, and also of the principal assassin, John Priest, a native of of the United States, and sent them both to be delivered over to the Brazilian President of Para, then on board the Brazilian ship Campestra, to be dealt with as he or his government might see fit. Though the crew of the English frigate could with ease have dislodged the whole of the insurgents, we believe the place still remains in their possession. What hope can be entertained from such a wretched government, and its subjects in every way so worthy of it? But we must conclude. The undertaking this journey across South America by a route so little frequented, and the manner in which the business was gone through with in either case, cannot but reflect lasting credit on the two officers whose works we have been examining. They have both, moreover, given us their curious information in a lively and interesting manner; and we should not omit to mention that Mr. Smyth has produced a map of the Amazon, which we have reason to believe delineates the line of that mighty stream with far greater accuracy than any one previously drawn. ART. II.-1. Der Fall des Heidenthums. Von Dr. H. G. Tschirner. (The Fall of Heathenism. By Dr. H. G. Tschirner.) Leipsig. 8vo. 1829. Ou 2. Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme en Occident. vrage couronné par l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres en l'année 1832. Par A. Beugnot, de l'Institut de France. 2 tomes. Paris. 1835. No O argument for the divine origin of Christianity has been urged with greater force or frequency than the rapidity and extent of its propagation. We are of yesterday,' exclaims the vehement Tertullian towards the close of the second century; yet we have filled your cities, your islands, your towns, your municipalities, the camp, the senate, the forum.' Paley admits, with his usual candour and judgment, that these expressions are loose and declamatory;' but he adds that even declamation has its bounds,' and that Tertullian himself would not have ventured upon this public appeal, unless it had been both true and notorious, that great multitudes of Christians, of all ranks and orders, were to be found in most parts of the Roman Empire.' The menacing tone assumed in this apology of the fiery African appears to us even more conclusive evidence as to the strength of the Christian party. If our religion did not prohibit revenge, how easily, either as secret conspirators or as open enemies, might we exact retribution for our wrongs! How dangerous might we become become to society, if it were possible to oppress us beyond our forbearance!' Such is the tone of more than one passage in Tertullian's address to the heathen. 'S' il mondo si rivolse al Christianesmo, E tal, che gl' altri non sono l' centesimo.' This argument, compressed into the pregnant verse of Dante, may be traced in every defender of Christianity, from, if not before, Augustine, down to the splendid amplification of Bossuet, and the nervous simplicity of Paley. But this argument, irresistible when urged with the patient and candid spirit of true knowledge, has sometimes been pressed beyond its legitimate bearing. It has been thought of infinite importance to fix as early as possible the period at which Christianity obtained a numerical superiority at least in the Roman world;-as though the world had not always been governed by a minority, whether of brute force, or of activity and intelligence; and, in this case, the command of the active and intelligent minority were not sufficient to attest the inherent persuasiveness, the moral energy, the heaven-designed dominion of the Evangelic religion. For, after all, the extraordinary and convincing fact is the commencement rather than the completion of this great scheme of moral conquest. It is the attempt, prophetically intimated by Christ himself, and openly announced, at least before the close of the New Testament, by his Apostles; the immediate success of those who, if they had not the consciousness of the divine warrant, and were not manifestly avouched by the direct interposition of the Deity, adventured on a course equally inconceivable in its original attempt and in its eventual triumph. The more extensive the sphere of Christianity, the more, of course, human motives and the ordinary principles of action began to operate in its favour. At what time it was left to its inherent strength; how soon the visibly protecting power of the Almighty ceased to operate in its behalf-in common language, when miracles ceased-will remain among the contested points of Christian history. But it is quite clear, that after a certain time it was abandoned, if we may so speak, to its own resources; it had to work out its triumph, under the ordinary care of Divine Providence, by its own inherent energy; and from the fact of its gradual and tardy development, the Christian student of history will conclude, that it was the design of Divine Providence, not to effect a complete and immediate revolution in the moral condition of mankind, but to instil the slowly working principles of a change, not yet, we conceive, arrived at its perfect consummation. It becomes then an unimportant question at what period and from from what motives the great mass of the subjects of the Roman empire passed over to Christianity. It must be admitted that even when the gospel became the established faith of Europe, it was so far modified by the various elements which it had encountered; it had already so far departed from the primitive simplicity with which it had been promulgated by its first apostles; there was so much compromise, necessary perhaps according to the genius and character of the times, with the outward observances, the sensible and imaginative forms of heathenism, that it becomes still more While heathenism difficult to define the period of transition. in some respects expanded towards Christianity, Christianity descended to heathenism; until the latter remained only as a dim and nameless influence, while Christianity, in name at least, if not in its pure and essential nature, absorbed the whole of the civilized world. Of this great change the history remains to be written; the mind which shall combine that high philosophy and that pure Christianity, which may do justice to this mighty theme, has not yet assumed its historic function. The authors, whose works we have placed at the head of our article, have attempted a task, if more limited, of singular interest. Instead of tracing, as has been the case with most writers who have approached the subject, the progress of Christianity, they have endeavoured to develope the gradual extinction of heathenism. Instead of waiting in flattering triumph on the chariot of the conqueror, they have watched the expiring struggles of the vanquished. Independent of all other interest, Paganism is the only religion which we are enabled to follow in its slow and gradual process of decay and extinction. ८ of progress The influence of time,' observes M. Beugnot, and the the human mind have destroyed more than one religious system, but history has preserved no accurate record of these changes. We know in a vague manner that many forms of worship, having undergone a How were the integradual process of decay, have become extinct. rests, the passions, and the manners, which struggled in their favour, disarmed? What alternations of success or adversity marked the duration of these intellectual crises? Who were the promoters, the enemies, the victims, of these revolutions? We are ignorant-history has condescended to assist at the funeral of Paganism alone.'-Beugnot, p. 1. The work of Professor Tschirner is of a higher order than that of the French scholar, but unfortunately it remained unfinished at the time of the author's death. The first volume, and that apparently not having received the last revisal from his hand, is all that has been published. Tschirner was a pupil of Schröck, the German ecclesiastical historian, and the continuator of his great work. If the author had lived to fulfil his design, he would pro bably bably have left little to be done by succeeding historians. We know no work in which the genius of the conflicting systems, Paganism and Christianity, is portrayed with a happier union of calm philosophy and zeal for true religion. While the ineffable superiority, the divine dignity, of Christianity is nowhere compromised, the examination both of the heathen religion and the heathen philosophy, disdains that blind and indiscriminating invective, with which Christian writers for a long time seemed to consider themselves bound to denounce ‘idolatry.' Without colouring the sunset of polytheism with the gorgeous hues by which Gibbon delighted to contrast it with what he regarded as the dull and melancholy dawn of Christianity, Professor Tschirner has shown both the strength and the weakness of that faith and those opinions which were supplanted by the gospel. He has altogether discarded the polemic spirit, and, in his work, history has assumed, as its rightful domain, that which has so long been possessed in almost undisputed sovereignty by theology. But his work, unhappily, has not advanced far beyond the preliminary matter, and the first development of the great conflict. He has followed out, indeed, the gradual expansion of Christianity, from an influence secretly working within the social system, into an antagonist power, fairly and openly contesting the dominion over the human mind. He has introduced her apologists gradually changing their tone, from that of humble and submissive subjects pleading for toleration, and gently expostulating against the severity with which they were treated by the imperial government, to that of bold orators arraigning the whole system of the established religion, as a monstrous scheme of folly and licentiousness. He has explained, with great judgment and comprehensive knowledge of the philosophic writings of the period, the reaction of Christianity upon heathenism itself-in other words, the gradual refinement of Paganism from an incoherent and multifarious polytheism, into a kind of theism, with an infinitely numerous yet subordinate dæmonology. This we conceive to be the most valuable part of Tschirner's work, and to this we propose hereafter to direct the reader's attention. But he has left the two religions, as it were, committed in this new strife. His history breaks off before Christianity, become dominant, began to commit reprisals against heathenism for its long hostility; he has left to other hands the singular spectacle of Paganism, clinging, as it were, to its sole support, the ancient political institutions of Rome, attempting to rally its decaying energies, at the summons of patriotism, still identifying itself to the last with the proud reminiscences of Latin glory, and finally swept away by that complete re-organization of society, which followed the extinction of the Roman empire. The |