shows that the reason which thus acts has not received the spirit of interpretation, nor the mission to teach the truth to the world. The riddle is true, but the interpreters are wrong; and there is not a more perfect synopsis than Calvinism in existence if you take the text alone, without the Calvinistic spirit. The Calvinistic spirit, like the Roman-Anglican, and every other partial, local, sectarian, material, sectional spirit, is bad. But the five points of Calvinism, like the five acts of the Divine drama, the five mountains on which society will rest for ever, are mythologically correct.”

"The dramatic five are beautifully represented in the nobility of England, who are the types of the new generation. There are only five orders of nobility-baron, viscount, earl, marquis, and duke: two of these are double, like two of the five senses. These duplicates make two spiritual orders-bishop and archbishop; the first being the duplicate of the first of the five, and the other of the last. The sovereign, being a unit, is not reckoned amongst the collective orders. This organization of the aristocracy, or elect, is perfect. But it is very evident that men did not ordain it upon any intelligible principle, or in pursuance of any system. It is the result of what is called accident. But this accident is merely the slow and sure growth of ages under the inspiration of God, who regulates every minute particular of the great drama with the nicety of a skilful artist to whom trifles are of immense importance. The utility of these trifles lies in this; that man at last discovers through their instrumentality the elements of eternal truth, the principles of that wisdom by means of which he becomes partaker of

the Divine nature, and governs the world in conjunction with God-no longer defying, resisting and counteracting Divine Providence, but co-operating with it for the perfection of all things."

"The energy of man would be wonderfully increased," said Edward, "were this unanimity of mind to be effected. But it never can be effected by means of abstractions like these. Such things are for the few. The people at large can never take an interest in them. But so soon as such abstract ideas harmonize with concrete reforms which the people can comprehend and appreciate, then the work of reformation will go on right merrily; and methinks they do go hand in hand with moral and religious regeneration of no mean import. The idea of the dramatic government of society points out a time of universal regeneration, in which both Church and State will be thoroughly reorganized; and if your time calculations be true, or even approximating the truth, there seems to me to be but little time for the work that is to be done. Men, and women and children too, will have to work like engines. There is all the filth of Church and State to be removed, the dead carcases and old bones and relics to be taken out of the churches and chapels, and the sanctuary cleansed and reconsecrated over all the land; the graveyards to be dug up and ploughed up, and the gravestones and monuments of death to be destroyed; the houses to be purified, the person to be cleansed, and the garments to be renewed; good-manners to be taught to rich and poor; private pride and extravagant sensuality to be converted into public magnificence; the house of God to be decorated

for the people at large with the works of art, which are now secreted by the wealthy, who live in palaces of cedar whilst the tabernacle of God is dwelling in tents."

"All this, and more than this," said Benjamin, "must be done, or I should not be satisfied. But I make ample allowance for extravagance of hope on my own part; and even though in interpretation I do go a little to excess, I do not on that account go wrong, but merely go too fast, leaping too hastily to conclusions which are substantially just, and sure to be realised in the end. You and I may talk a little extravagantly when we understand the language of mystery; but vulgar minds take everything materially in doctrine, although they themselves are in the constant habit of using metaphor in common conversation."

CHAPTER LXXX.

ADAM WITHOUT EVE.

"IT certainly is a very strange thing," said Edward, "that all the Churches of Christendom, speaking on the average, are merely a species of rag-shops and catacombs-rags and bones, rags and bones wherever you go. There must be some meaning in this, some typical, analogical meaning, hitherto overlooked by the Christian world. These things would have polluted the Jewish Temple. Our manifold Gentile Temple seems full of corruption.

"It is a Divine metaphor," said Benjamin, "speaking a great truth to the poetical mind, but as usual nothing at all to the vulgar mind, which cannot read symbolical language. Rags have long ago been compared to selfrighteousness, a righteousness peculiar to all the Churches, for they ever praise themselves and condemn their opponents; they are tattered Churches, torn to pieces with conflicting opinions, most intolerant prejudices, and unhallowed and uncharitable antipathies. They have not yet found the fifth, or universal translation of the Bible, which reconciles all differences, and, as the sea embraces all the rivers, receives into its comprehensive bosom all the streams of the Spirit, however apparently

contradictory they may be. The sea never says to a river, 'I will not receive you; your waters are not orthodox, they are apocryphal; they are not divinely inspired, they are full of anachronisms, interpolations, and heresy.'-No; the sea is not a bigot; it opens her bosom to all the rivers, for they are her children. Such is the great Bible-the Bible of nature and charity. It comprehends all revelations, mythologies, and sciences; it is written by the finger of God from beginning to end; is all inspired to him who has the spirit of interpretation to read it. But to him who has not that spirit of inspiration, there is no inspired book in existence.

"When men have this spirit of inspiration they see Divine truth everywhere, but especially in those universal departments of thought which have been instrumental in forming the character of nations, or which have run down the stream of time from generation to generation, as if marching on under Divine guidance to the great consummation of the universal drama. Such is revelation, Jewish and Christian. Such also is Grecian mythology, the apocryphal divinity and prophetic character of which is to me self-evident. And even if we fail in applying it to individual cases, it is sure to apply to a principle at last. Thus, for instance, the fable of Andromeda (the ruler of men) on the rock exposed to the sea monster is as perfect an analogue of the Protestant Church, and therefore of Victoria, its representative, as a modern painter could devise. Victoria is bound to a rock in more senses than one. She is the head of the Protestant Church, which is the spiritual Peter-that is Paul, whose basilica in London stands in the centre of the habitable world, the