before our bewildered eyes with such rapidity that they pass away in months, or it may be even in weeks, instead of years? Have not the currents of public opinion ceased to originate merely in the schemes of a few princes and statesmen, and is not every country torn by antagonistic factions which drag the State, now in this direction, now in that? Nay, are there not also multitudes of private individuals, who have each his own nostrum for divers ills, ever agitating the surface of society by thrusting themselves into notice?

*

Doubtless one chief cause of all this confusion has been that very thing which the world regards as a cure for every evil-the spread of knowledge. For many of those who acquire a little learning-and the majority of mankind can do no more-are not slow to give proof that in very deed "shallow draughts intoxicate the brain ;" and are wont, by a confident and persistent setting forth of their opinions, to lead astray those whose ignorance exceeds their own, and in this manner to confound the counsels of wiser and more experienced guides.

* In a speech delivered at Aylesbury, Sept. 20th, 1876, the late Lord Beaconsfield thus alluded to another formidable element of distraction: "In the attempt to conduct the government of this world, there are new elements to be considered with which our predecessors had not to deal. We have not to deal only with emperors, princes, and ministers, but there are the secret societies -an element which we must take into consideration-which at the last moment may baffle all our arrangements, which have their agents everywhere, which have reckless agents, which countenance assassination, and which, if necessary, could produce a massacre."

Education of a certain kind has indeed become general; but, alas! not with the expected result, since morals seem at the same time to be degenerating in inverse ratio. For how common is the lack of truthfulness, and that not merely in commercial life, but in all ranks of society! And this evil does not only exist, but is recognized as at least a venial fault, if not an absolute necessity. The law, "Swear to thine own hurt and change not," has no popularity in the present age, and he who breaks it will find many advocates and defenders.

Meanwhile, the growing impatience and irritability of men, arising from the indulgence of generations, the abuse of stimulants and narcotics, and the painful pressure and excitement of modern life, are beginning to manifest themselves in deeds of recklessness and violence, such as may be found in the records of any newspaper; while lawlessness and crime of every description are increasing, and, which is worse, often assume shapes difficult to detect or punish..

And over all this sin and misery the giant forms of still more terrible woes are projecting their advancing shadows. Europe is armed to an extent hitherto unknown, and has been converted into a vast camp through the jealousy of the great Powers, which are simply waiting for an opportunity of carrying out their aggressive schemes. The most cruel and bloody war of our days has lately terminated in a peace which can be no more than a lull in the storm; for the dreaded Eastern problem is still un

solved.

Few are those who expect more than a brief respite before the air is again tormented with the rush of shot and shell, and polluted with the smoke of burning villages and homesteads. And even during the short armed truce in Europe, wars have been raging in parts of Asia, Africa, and America.

Yet again, the rapid spread of Socialistic principles among all the nations of Christendom, and the numerous secret leagues organized for their propagation, are giving statesmen grave cause to apprehend a revolutionary outburst which may shatter the whole framework of society.

Nor are physical commotions wanting to heighten the excitement. The last few years have been unusually prolific in violent storms and inundations destructive to life and property. Earthquakes are frequent; and the shocks, though at present comparatively slight,* seem by their ubiquity to betoken a widespread disturbance in the bowels of the earth which may culminate in some appalling catastrophe. Famines, too, have occurred in divers places; in different parts of India, in Persia, in China, in Morocco, and in several other countries; while various kinds of sickness and disease seem to be more than usually prevalent. And there are scientific men who suppose that impending astronomical events will render the next few years dismally memorable, and,

* But since the above was written the protracted disturbance at Agram has occurred, and Europe has been startled by the terrific catastrophes of Casamicciola and Chios.

by vitiating the atmosphere, cause an outbreak of epidemics and pestilence like the frightful visitation of the times of Justinian, or the murderous "Black Death" of the fourteenth century, which, as it swept through Europe, is said to have slain five and twenty millions of souls, and to have deprived this island of more than the half of its inhabitants.

Now all these things, and many others which might be mentioned, do indeed forbode disasters and widespread distress, but not necessarily the last tribulation, the final throes of the world. For earth has had her times of convulsion, suffering, and change, in former days. God's sore plagues, war, famine, pestilence, and the beasts of the earth, have often desolated her lands in past years, and yet the end has not followed. Nay, were we to feel the solid ground trembling beneath us, and behold the mountains lifted up and cast into the sea, even such a sight would not in itself prove that the great day of the Lord had come.

Men have often forgotten this, and, when appealing to Scripture, have too frequently drawn their inferences from an exaggeration of one or more detached texts, instead of carefully considering all that the prophets have spoken. Hence there have been many false alarms and panics.

A remarkable instance occurred at the close of the sixth century. At that time men had become so accustomed to the domination of Rome that they believed her power could only perish with the world

itself. And so, when they saw her apparently in the

pangs of dissolution, with her lands wasted by war, famine, and disease, to such a degree that many once populous places had become pestilential through neglect; * when they beheld her supplies cut off, and not a few of her buildings destroyed by storms and inundations, they imagined that the world also had run its course, and that the last dread judgment was near at hand.

Gregory the Great was strongly imbued with this idea, and, in a letter to King Ethelbert, he thus expresses it: "We know from the word of Almighty God that the end of the present world is now at hand, and that the reign of the saints, which can never be terminated, is about to commence. And now that the end of the world is approaching, many things will take place which have not happened before. For there will be atmospheric changes, terrors from heaven, deranged seasons, wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." †

And since there was an Antichrist required for the last days, Gregory was sure he had detected him in the Patriarch of Constantinople, John the Faster, who had just irritated the See of Rome by proclaiming himself Universal Bishop.

Again, in the tenth century, there was a still more

See Gregory's sermon on the plague, and Gibbon, chaps. xliii. and xlv. From a passage of Procopius (Anecdot. cap. xviii.), quoted by the latter, it appears to have been calculated, in regard to the times of Justinian, that no fewer than 100,000,000 of human beings "had been exterminated under the reign of the imperial demon."

+ Bede, "Eccles. Hist." i. 32.