derstandings. Even the discovery of those characteristics themselves; the seizure of those bearings on which the whole map is essentially constructed; the delving down into those depths where the true springs of action, the mighty heavers of the surface, are alone to be seen at work, is seldom more the prize of diligence than of good fortune.

No event of European annals has been represented under so many contradictory points of view as the French Revolution. From the recency which has made all its historians doers or sufferers, and from the magnitude which has awed and bewildered the general mind; all its histories are still unworthy of the name. The pen is still dipped in the passions.

To the partizans of popular rule it still stands forth a bold and necessary effort of human nature to shake off the weight of an intolerable oppression:-to the partizans of the ancient monarchy, it is still a Fiend; a new and fierce creation of Evil, without cause or parentage in the land; a sudden shape of embodied rebellion, starting up from that gulf of fire and blood into which the virtues, glories, and religion of France were to be plunged; and then going forth on its mission to lay waste the world.

A sketch, divested of the prejudices of both sides, shall now be given. It divides itself naturally into the three parts of, The Republic, The Empire and the Overthrow.

THE REPUBLIC.

"The corruption of religion in France had produced corruption of morals. From this corruption had gradually arisen contempt of all rule and all religion. A burst of popular vice swept away the government, the throne was sacrificed, the religion was abjured. The national spirit rose in desperate hostility against universal Europe. Abroad a succession of wars was

ted the Continent. At home, an unbroken continuance of horrid slaughters consumed the nation. Life was of all things the most insecure. Atrocious tyranny was the spirtt of the government, unequalled misery the portion of the people."

THE EMPIRE.

"A great change suddenly arrived. A democracy, of all others the most squalid and wild, was supplanted by the most stately, splendid, and rigid monarchy. The civil discords were instantly suppressed. The power of France was thrown into foreign conquest on the largest scale. The half-naked and bandit armies of the Republic became the most brilliant, disciplined, and formidable force that the world had ever seen.

"The army of a nation which had extinguished all titles, became full of titled leaders, and was commanded by sovereigns. And at the head of the King-hating nation and army, moved, supreme Lord of the whole, a King! himself an abstract of the Revolution, born in democracy, and its destroyer, yet even upon the throne, still the Infidel and the Jacobin; a man of military prowess, and fortune, unrivalled; the very announcement of whose march was dreaded as equivalent to ruin; whose name, beyond that of any conqueror on record, was 'Destruction.""

THE OVERTHROW.

"Four monarchies, never actively combined before, at length made war upon the Infidel Empire. They attacked it, not by conspiracy nor civil change, but in the field. They crushed its sovereign. He was finally extinguished; and his empire reduced to the bounds of the ancient kingdom. Yet this triumph was but a great political subversion; it left the land to Popery, as of old. The immorality, the suppression of the scrip

tures, the image worship, the whole ancient tissue of superstitions that had stifled the truth of God, and made the land guilty before Heaven, survived unchanged."

This sketch unquestionably contains the substance of the French Revolution. Yet it is the work of no living pen. It is seventeen hundred years old,-The Ninth Chapter of the Apocalypse.

THE PROPHECY OF THE REPUBLIC.

CHAPTER IX.

Ver. 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

3. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

4. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the Seal of God in their foreheads.

5. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

6. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

This chapter allowing of a more circumstantial interpretation than any of the former, the verses are explained separately.

INTERPRETATION.

Ver. 1. A star falls from heaven; the emblematic fall of a church. It is observable, that this star is des titute of the character of "shining as a lamp," which

belonged to the Protestant church previously abolished.* It is another church, and of an inferior rank of

purity.

Ver. 2. This star opens the bottomless pit, Hell; this church is instrumental in letting loose infidelity and its consequent corruption of morals. Hell is a frequent scriptural emblem of direct hostility to God and his religion. The Pharisees, blasphemers of Christianity, are called by our Lord, "The children. of Hell." He pronounces that the "gates of Hell" shall not prevail against it. Infidelity, the denial of God, is the most decided work of Hell.

From the opening of the bottomless pit, a great smoke bursts forth; smoke is a natural and scripturalt emblem of obscuration and tumult. From the spreading of infidelity and corruption arises a vast public

confusion.

The Sun is darkened by this smoke; the throne is abolished in this confusion.

Ver. 3. A new shape of power appears in the tumult. Its emblem is a flight of locusts, a proverbial name for merciless devastation. The emblem may go still deeper, and imply anarchy. It is the Scripture character of the locusts that "They have no king."‡

To this power a quality of evil, even beyond that of the locust, is attributed. It has a sting, as the torment of the scorpion, when he striketh a man.”

Ver. 4. But it is appointed, not to destroy, like its emblem, the trees and surface of the soil, but to commit cruelties against "the men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads;" the seal of God is the token of the Church of God. § Those cruelties are to be exercised on the subjects of the corrupt religion. Ver. 5. In another point the office of this power

*

Apoc. viii. 10.

+ Prov. xxx. 27.

† Joel ii. 10. Prov. ii. 13, &c.

§ Apoc. vii. and xiv. 1.

differs from that of the natural locust; it stops short of utter destruction. Its appointment is the continued misery and torment of those exposed to its tyranny.

Ver. 6. This verse sums up the character of the Atheistic power.-Such is the agony of living under its government, that life becomes valueless; and death is looked upon as a fortunate refuge. Its reign is emphatically, a Reign of Terror.

It comes to a close; its time is "five months."

THE EMPIRE.

Ver. 7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wing's was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle.

10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

11. And they had a King over them, which is the Angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. (The Destroyer.) 12. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

INTERPRETATION.

Ver. 7. This portion of the prophecy presents a remarkable change in the aspect of the infidel power; its express and peculiar purpose in the beginning of the chapter, had been to make men miserable, and agonize the adherents of a corrupt faith, &c.

But its new form is pre-eminently martial; the locusts are "prepared for battle," they spread before the prophet's eye a mighty host, headed by crowned leaders.

Ver. 8. The aspect of its former state is now changed, the human countenance, "the face of man and