philosophy can offer, I might as well seek to find my happiness in the pleasures of life." "And why cannot you find your happiness in them?" said his companion. 66 "I scarce know why I cannot," said Rutilius: perhaps it is the effect of early disappointment. Certainly the things of this life pall upon me: I have riches, which many want, yet find in them no comfort; and I perceive already the truth of that saying of Aristotle, that men in general desire nothing but external goods, whereas they ought to desire that such external goods as they possess may be blessed to their benefit." "The old philosopher speaks truly," said Pamphilus, "and with his usual wisdom; but have you tried his other rule, to free yourself from earthly adhesions, to follow the guidance of your immortal part, and lead such a divine life as superior beings must approve. "Alas," said Rutilius, "this is what Porphyry says to me. But it is too cold and cheerless; I cannot grasp it. I doubt my ability to lead that elevated sort of life to which you refer; and even if I could, I see no satisfaction which would follow. I want the sympathy of beings who can enter into my warts. And yet what I read of our popular gods rather disgusts than attracts me. But even our philosophers confess that affection is a necessary part of man's being. Does not Aristotle say that the best part of friendship consists in loving others, and that our love grows stronger the more we exercise it?" 66 "You want, then," said Pamphilus, some object higher and more lasting than this world can give, but of a kind worthy of your affection?" 66 "This is what I want, yet despair to find." 66 Say not so," said the other. "I have before now experienced your feelings; but at present I have learnt where to seek such an object as you desire. I can tell you of such a home for your thoughts as you seem to need-of a comfort which is at once practical and sublime, true, yet inspiring. But it is too late, neither is this the place, to enter upon so sacred a subject." CHAPTER VII. The Christian Philosopher. Souls are not Spaniards too. One friendly flood CRASHAW. HAD Pamphilus rudely proclaimed himself a Christian, the young man would probably have thought no more of his words. But as his companion stopped short of this point, Rutilius called upon him next morning to renew the conversation. "Tell me," he said, "what secret of happiness is this which you possess." He heard with surprise an avowal of Pamphilus's faith in Christ. "I thought," he said, "that this profession belonged only to unlearned men. And what Porphyry has told me of the Gnostics shews that your doctors are not free from the wildest and most fanciful reveries." "The Gnostics are no doctors of ours," said Pamphilus. Rutilius. "How? do they not call themselves Christians?" Pamphilus. "Many assuredly do; but they have H left that one fold of the Catholic Church to which all the benefits of which I have spoken belong. You must know well, stranger though you be to our institutions, that in every quarter of the Roman empire, ay, and beyond it, our system extends; and it is to those only who are thus in union with one another that we give the name of Christians." Rutilius thought of Viriathes the Armenian, who, though the subject of another king, had yet professed that he was one in faith with the Christians of the empire; and he replied, "Indeed, you Christians do seem to me to make up a kingdom of your own, which has its own laws, while it extends its ramifications through various nations; just as our midland sea extends its arms and branches among the most barbarous as well as the most civilised countries." Pamphilus. "Your comparison is most exact; for, as some philosophers tell us, that in all these seas the water stands at the same level, so our widely scattered brethren, by being united into one body, retain the same rules, and continue members one of another. Perhaps you are not aware that our being thus a kingdom within a kingdom, a separate people, having our own government- an empire, in truth, though not offering any disloyalty to our earthly rulers, is exactly one of those things which were long ago predicted, and to the complete fulfilment of which we look with confidence. Did you ever hear of the prophecies of Daniel?" Rutilius. "I heard Porphyry speak of his pre dictions respecting Antiochus and the Ptolemies, which seemed to him, he said, so exact, that he felt persuaded they must have been uttered after the incidents they speak of." "We have historical evidence," said Pamphilus, "that his suspicion is ill-founded. Independently of the testimony of the Jews, who are not inclined to overrate Daniel's prophecy, because it refers so plainly to the Messiah, we have a proof of the antiquity of the book in the Greek version of the Old Testament, which was made at least 550 years ago; and the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, you know, did not take place till at least 100 years afterwards. And if Porphyry can in this way get rid of the earlier fulfilments of Daniel's prophecy, what does he say to the later ones?" As Pamphilus spoke, he unrolled a parchment volume of the Septuagint which lay on the table, and read the vision of Nebuchadnezzar from Daniel's prophecy ;-he paused upon the latter portion: "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things : and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. . . . And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings |