Cleve's theory hung together plausibly. It would have been gross folly to betray his jealousy of the attorney, whose opportunities with his uncle he had no means of limiting or interrupting, and against whom he had as yet no case. He was gifted with a pretty talent for dissimulation; Mr. Larkin congratulated himself in secret upon Cleve's growing esteem and confidence. The young gentleman's manner was gracious and even friendly to a degree that was quite marked, and the unsuspecting attorney would have been startled had he learned on a sudden how much he hated him. Ware-that great house which all across the estuary in which its princely front was reflected, made quite a feature in the landscape sketched by so many tourists, from the pier on the shingle of Cardyllian on bright summer days, was about to be re-habilitated, and very splendid doings were to follow. In the mean time, before the architects and contractors, the plumbers, and painters, and carpenters, and carvers, and gilders had taken possession, and before those wonderful artists in stucco who were to encrust and overspread the ceilings with noble designs, rich and elegant and light, of fruit and flowers and cupids, and from memory, not having read the guide-book of Cardyllian and its vicinity for more than a year, I should be afraid to say what arabesques, and imagery beside, had entered with their cements and their scaffolding; and before the three brother artists had got their passports for England who were to paint on the panels of the doors such festive pieces as Watteau loved. In short, before the chaos and confusion that attend the throes of that sort of creation had set in, Lord Verney was to make a visit of a few days to Ware, and was to visit Cardyllian and to receive a congratulatory address from the corporation of that ancient town, and to inspect the gas-works (which I am glad to say are hid away in a little hollow), and the two fountains which supply the town-constructed, as the inscription tells, at the expense of "the Right Honorable Kyffin Fulke, Nineteenth Viscount Verney, and Twentyninth Baron Penruthyn, of Malory." What else his lordship was to see, and to do, and to say on the day of his visit the county and other newspapers round about printed when the spectacle was actually over, and the great doings matter of history. There were arches of evergreens and artificial flowers of paper, among which were very tolerable hollyhocks, though the roses were starting, under these. Lord Viscount Verney and the distinguished party" who accompanied him passed up Castle-street to the town-hall, where he was received by the mayor and town-councillors, accompanied and fortified by the town-clerk and other functionaries, all smiling except the mayor, on whom weighed the solemn responsibility of having to read the address, a composition, and no mean one, of the Rev. Doctor Splayfoot, who attended with parental anxiety "to see the little matter through," as he phrased it, and was so awfully engaged that Mrs. Splayfoot, who was on his arm, and asked him twice, in a whisper, whether the tall lady in purple silk was Lady Wimbledon, without receiving the slightest intimation that she was so much as heard, remarked testily that she hoped he would not write many more addresses, inasmuch as it made him ill-bred to that degree that if the town-hall had fallen during the reading, he never would have perceived it till he had shaken his ears in kingdom-come. Lord Verney read his answer, which there was much anxiety and pressure to hear. "Now it really was be-autifulwasn't it?" our friend Mrs. Jones the draper whispered, in particular reference to that part of it, in which the viscount invoked the blessing of the Almighty upon himself and his doings, gracefully admitting that in contravention of the Divine will and the decrees of heaven, even he could not be expected to accomplish much, though with the best intentions. And Captain Shrapnel, who felt that the sentiment was religious, and was anxious to be conspicuous, standing with his hat in his hand, with a sublime expression of countenance, said in an audible voice-"Amen.” All this over, and the building inspected, the distinguished party were conducted by the mayor, the militia band accompanying their march-[air "The Meeting of the Waters" to the "Fountains" in Gannon's-lane, Mr. Pritchard now led the choir of the Llanwthyn Temperance Union, consisting of seven members, of various sizes, dressed in their Sunday costume, and standing in a row in front of fountain No. 1-each with his hat in his left hand and a tumbler of fair water in his right. Good Mrs. Jones, who had a vague sense of fun, and remembered anecdotes of the principal figure in this imposing spectacle, did laugh a little modestly into her handkerchief, and answered the admonitory jog of her husband's elbow by pleading-"Poor fellows! Well, you know it is odd-there's no denying that, you know;" and from the background were heard some jeers from the excursionists who visited Cardyllian for that gala, which kept Hughes, the Cardyllian policeman, and Evans, the other "horney," who had been drafted from Lluinan, to help to. overawe the turbulent, very hot and active during that part of the ceremony. Particularly unruly was John Swillers, who, having failed as a publican in Liverpool, in consequence of his practice of drinking the greater part of his own stock in trade, had migrated to "The Golden Posts" in Church-street, Cardyllian, where he ceased to roll his barrel, set up his tressels, and had tabernacled for the present, drinking his usual proportion of his own liquors, and expecting the hour of a new migration. Over the heads of the spectators and the admiring natives of Cardyllian were heard such exhortations as "Go it, Swipey," "There's gin in that," "Five shillin's for his_vorship, Swipey,' 'I say, Swipey Tom, pay your score at the Golden Posts, will ye?" "Will ye go a bit on the stretcher, Swipey ?" "Here's two "Here's two horneys as 'll take ye home arter that." And these interruptions, I am sorry to say, continued, notwithstanding the remonstrances which Mr. Hughes addressed almost pathetically to John Swillers of the Golden Posts, as a respectable citizen of Cardyllian, one from whose position the police were led to expect assistance and the populace an example. There was something in these expostulations which struck John Swillers, for he would look with a tipsy solemnity in Hughes's face while he delivered them, and once took his hand, rather affectionately, and said, "That's your sort." But invariably these unpleasant interpellations were resumed, and did not cease until this moral exhibition had ended with the last verse of the temperance song, chanted by the deputation with great vigour, in unison, and which, as the reader will perceive, had in it a Bacchanalian character, which struck even the gravest listeners as a hollow mockery: Refreshing more than sinful swipes, Who quaffs a can, That sparkling foams through leaden pipes. CHORUS. Let every man In brimming bumpers sparkling clear, And then came a chill and ghastly The party went on, after the wonders of the town had been exhausted, to look at Malory, and thence returned to a collation, at which toasts were toasted and speeches spoken, and Captain Shrapnel spoke, by arrangement, for the ladies of Cardyllian in his usual graceful and facetious manner, with all the puns and happy allusions which a month's private diligence, and, I am sorry to say, some shameless plagiarisms from three old numbers of poor Tom Hood's "Comic Annual," could get together, and the gallant captain concluded by observ ing that the noble lord whom they had that day the honour and happiness to congratulate, intended, he understood, everything that was splendid and liberal and handsome, and that the town of Cardyllian, in the full radiance of the meridian sunshine, whose golden splendour proceeded from the south-"The cardinal point at which the great house of Ware is visible from the Green of Cardyllian"-(hear, hear, and laughter)"there remained but one grievance to be redressed, and that set to rights, every ground of complaint would slumber for ever, he might say, in the great bed of Ware"-(loud cheers and laughter)—“and what was that complaint? He was instructed by his fair, lovely, and beautiful clients the ladies of Cardylliansome of whom he saw in the gallery, and some still more happily situated at the festive board"(a laugh). "Well, he was, he repeated, instructed by them to say that there was one obvious duty which the noble lord owed to his ancient name-to the fame of his public position-to the coronet, whose golden band encircled his distinguished brow-and above all, to the ancient feudal dependency of Cardyllian"-(hear, hear)-"and that was to select from his country's beauty, fascination, and accomplishment, and he might say loveliness, a partner worthy to share the ermine and the coronet and the name and the the ermine (hear, hear) of the ancient house of Verney (loud cheers); "and need he add that when the selection was made, it was hoped and trusted and aspired after, that the selection would not be made a hundred miles away from the ivied turrets, the feudal ruins, the gushing fountains, and the spacious town-hall of Cardyllian"-(loud and long-continued cheering, amid which the gallant captain, very hot, and red, and smiling furiously, sat down with a sort of lurch, and drank off a glass of champagne, and laughed and giggled a little in his chair while the "cheering and laughter" continued). And Lord Verney rose, not at all hurt by this liberty, very much amused on the contrary, and in high good humour his lordship said "Allow me to say-I am sure you will"-(hear, hear, and cries of "We will")" I say, I am sure you will permit me to say that the ladies of Cardyllian, a-a-about it, seem to me to have chosen a very eloquent spokesman in the gallant, and I have no doubt, distinguished officer who has just addressed the house. We have all been entertained by the eloquence of Captain Scollop" [here the mayor deferentially whispered something to the noble orator]-"I beg pardon-Captain Grapnell-who sits at the table, with his glass of wine, about it-and very good wine good_wine it is-his glass, I say, where it should be, in his hand"-(hear, hear, and laughter, and laughter, and "You got it there, captain.") "And I assure the gallant captain I did not mean to be severe-only we are all joking—and I do say that he has his handmy gallant friend, Captain Grabblet, has it-where every gallant officer's ought to be, about it, and that is, upon his weapon" (hear, hear, laughter, and cries of "His lordship's too strong for you, captain.") "I don't mean to hurt him, though, about it, (renewed cries of hear, and laughter), during which the captain shook his ears a little, smiling into his glass rather foolishly, as a man who was getting the worst of it, and knew it, but took it all pleasantly. "No, it would not be fair to the ladies, about it," (renewed laughter and cheering), "and all I will say is this, about itthere are parts of Captain Scraplet's speech, which I shan't undertake to answer at this moment. I feel that I am trespassing, about it, for a much longer time than I had intended," (loud cries of "No, no, Go on, go on, and cheering), during which the mayor whispered something to the noble lord, who, having heard it twice or thrice repeated, nodded to the mayor in evident apprehension, and when silence was restored proceeded to say, "I have just heard, without meaning to say anything unfair of the gallant captain, Captain Scalpel, that he is hardly himself qualified to give me " the excellent advice, about it, which I received from him; for they tell me that he has rather run away, about it, from his colours, on that occasion." (Great laughter and cheering). "I should be sorry to wound Captain Shat-Scat Scrap, the gallant captain, to wound him, I say, even in front." (Laughter, cheering, and a voice from the gallery "Hit him hard, and he won't swell," "Order.") "But I think I was bound to make that observation in the interest of the ladies of Cardyllian, about it;" (renewed laughter); "and, for my part, I promise my gallant friend-my captain-about it-that although I may take some time, like himself" (loud laughter); "yet although I cannot let fall, about it, any observation that may commit me, yet I do promise to meditate on the excellent advice he has been so good as to give me, about it." And the noble lord resumed his seat amid uproarious cheering and general laughter, wondering what had happened to put him in the vein, and regretting that some of the people of Downing-street had not been present to hear it, and witness its effect. ECCE DEUS. THE continual restlessness of scepticism is one of the greatest evidences of the unsatisfactory nature of that aberration of the human mind. Its votaries are never thoroughly satisfied or convinced of their own conclusions, but must continually agitate questions, and go over the old beaten tracks again and again, finding no rest for their souls, and no light for their darkness. They remind us of the wicked ones in the "Inferno struggling in the boiling pitch in that hellfire so terribly depicted by Dante. Ever and anon they are lifted out of their torture-gulph by the fork of some demon, held up to the world in momentary relief from their sufferings, and then plunged down again into the boiling gulph to shriek and struggle for ever. And yet, scepticism is made an instrument of doing good. We fear but for these people we should sink into a slumbering orthodoxy, fatally inactive, were it not that now and then the old war cry is raised, and we have to rouse ourselves, put on our armour, and plant the standard of the Lord of Hosts between us and the enemy. It is a very old war cry, for we may safely affirm that not a single argument or mode of presenting an argument against the subjects of Revelation has ever yet been submitted to our consideration, the counterpart of which we may not find in the heresies of the first three or four centuries of the Church. But this book which lies before us is a voice from the other side; it is the clash of the arms of a vigorous warrior under the standard before mentioned, and we hail him as a true soldier. Of this work we can only in our limited space give a general idea, touching as we advance upon salient points. It opens with an endeavour to combat the difficulties of the miraculous conception of Christ. The author justly observes tation more or less palpable towards a man "There has ever been a motion, a graviwho should be the complement of every other man, and who, by the perfectness of his manhood should be able to restore and preserve the equipoise which universal consciousness affirms to have been disturbed or lost. In other senses than that of the procreator of human life there have been miraculous conceptions in every ageconceptions by the over-shadowing of the of God among men, every struggle of the Holy Ghost too. Every foremost thought soul in the direction in which God is supposed to have gone, has been an effect of divine operation upon the ntind. In Jesus Christ alone have we a life which claims to have been produced immediately by a superhuman relation to the human body. Yet, though so produced, the 'holy thing human race as an unexpected antagonistic born of the Virgin did not collide with the human race as an unexpected antagonistic family by a process which, on one side was element, but took his place in the human fitted to awaken awe, and on the other, to excite sympathy. Intellectual history presents a succession of births quite in their degree, and according to their * Second Edition, T. & T. Clark, 38, George-street, Edinburgh. nature as inexplicable as any occurrence that could transpire in the merely material sphere. The Holy Ghost has come upon, and the power of the Highest has overshadowed' all who have wrought upon the springs of civilization, and enriched the resources of human life; poem and picture book, and statue that have touched the world's soul, have been, notwithstanding the apparent irreverence of the expression, miraculous conceptions-fruits of the Spirit's strife with the human mind. Moses hesitated not to say that the Lord had called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and had 'filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise curious works, to work in gold and in silver and in brass, and in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in the carving of wood to make any manner of cunning work.' Art is thus set among the miraculous conceptions, and civilization is robed as a worshipper in the outer court of the Temple. Still we have not a man who claims in a peculiar sense to have God's life in his veins. We have seen God in art, can we see God in blood ?" The whole history of the Pagan world, the results of Pagan history and Pagan philosophy, as they existed at the coming of our Lord, all go to prove that He and the Gospel were the only things then wanting to supply what they ycarned after most. The Alexandrine Fathers, who were the first fruits of Paganism to the Christian side, all believed that philosophy was to the Greek just what the law was to the Jew, an evangelical preparation, a leading up to the Gospel. But it has always struck our mind that the difficulties, scholastic and other, of believing in the Incarnation of the Godhead in Christ vanish if we can only recognise the fact of his co-existence and præ-existence with the Father; that before that before all worlds he was, that through him all things were made, and that every communication of the Godhead with man was made through him; so that the key to the difficulty of his marvellous birth lies in his præ-existence. If we can only comprehend that, the difficulties of the other are cleared, his pre-existence paves the way for his incarnation. sufficient proof of what we are going to say of his pre-existence, "Search the Scriptures" (that was the Old Testament), they are they which We are told by Christ himself, when speaking of the Father, "Ye have never heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape;" and he immediately adds, which will be a testify of me.' hath seen God, who is it that appears If this be so, if no man at any time throughout the Old Testament before men in the person of the "Lord?" Can it be any one else than the Son, who is coeval with the Father, through whom all things were created that were created. He was the medium of communication between God and man in all ages before the Incar nation. The idea of this pre-existence of Christ was clearly understood by all the early Christians, even by the Gnostic sects; and of them, most clearly by the Valentinians. In their peculiar diction, a compound of Platonism and Christianity, the Supreme Being, the fountain of all existence, or, as they called him, the Abyss (Bulos) existed in Silence and Thought (σιγη and εννοια): these were what they termed the two first æons. The Supreme was as yet unknown, but, as he wished to be known, emitted through the contemplation of himself- δια της ποθυμήσεως της εαυτου the Only Begotten. This old doctrine of the first century is now promulgated by the Tubingen school of Germany as New Light. But we appeal to the Bible-that is, the Old Testament-where Christ himself had directed us to search for testimonials of him. Rightly understood, the Old Testament is one long evidence to the pre-existence of Christ with the Father, and all the appearances mentioned there, all the personal communications made to men by the Father, have been through the Son, the Son, "the Lord." There is a marvellous significance in all Hebrew names, often a prophetic significance, which is lost in common use. We give one or two examples. Sh'mouel (Samuel), Hearkened to by God. Ya-a-kob (Jacob) "He will trip up the heels"-supplant. Moriy-yah (Moriah), Mount of the Lord; but the most expressive perhaps is Y'roushalayim (Jerusalem), shall pour peace on thee in floods." The word "Jehovah" means beyond any question simply "He will be," and is a form of the third person future of the verb "Hayah," to be, "He |