each other in fixing and maintaining their religious consciousness, even after their dispersion; and it was, without doubt, through the Shemites, who were capable by their constitution of receiving a higher degree of divine grace, that the Japhetites were sustained and preserved from straying. Through the exertions of these nations a divine service and a certain religious system were formed, through which not only was the connection between their gods to be sustained, but still more intimate relations were to be produced. The pious heathen did not alone care for a merely idle acknowledgment of his gods or an outlet for his fancy, but was rather deeply imbued with the desire of drawing still nearer to them, and of, as it were, being incorporated with them. It was on this account that such a power and activity lay in the means which the heathens made use of for this purpose.

The Almighty does not abandon his children, though they may endeavour to approach Him by circuitous ways, but manifests Himself to them by whatever way they seek or call on Him. The heathens were not capable of a spiritual intercourse with the Almighty. God, therefore, communicated with them through oracles, through their religious rites, prayers, and offerings, which were not merely produced by chance, but were the results of higher and vital laws. Through this, and particularly through the mysteries in which, as it were, the gods were divested of everything but the purest spirit, a rich and powerful influence spread itself over the heathen countries, and from it sprang security, respect for their rulers and the laws, and, in fact, the noblest virtues and capabilities of the human mind.

The descendants of Abraham, as is well known, were led by the hand of God into pagan Egypt, where they increased to a great people. Through the pressure of servitude, an apostacy from the God of their fathers was to be feared, which in several cases actually took place. Their faith, however, was to receive a determined form for future ages, and to unfold in a rich and glorious manner. For this purpose, God raised in Moses a great preserver and leader to Israel, and endowed him with wonderful powers and profound wisdom. The laws of nature were therefore subject to him and the miracles which the Lord wrought through him must have been glorious and immense compared with those of the

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heathens, as God determined to reveal Himself, not according to His outward, but His inward majesty. These miracles served to withdraw Israel from bondage; but the opposition to those laws, revealed so awfully from Sinai, was a proof of deeply-rooted sinfulness; and the children of Israel were condemned to a forty years' pilgrimage in the Desert, before they might behold the Promised Land. The laws served at first to raise them to a higher grade of cultivation and then, by sacrifices and festivals, to prepare them for the Saviour, towards whom the glorious line of Prophets pointed ever clearer and more distinctly: till at length Christ appeared among men to unfold the most hidden glories of God, and to reconcile the Almighty with humanity, at a time when notoriously all nations were steeped in the deepest night, under the shadow of death, and in the greatest need of God's grace. The Lord arose above them as the light of the world, as the sun of life, and with His disciples illuminated the whole globe. Through Christ, the most holy and majestic secret of His eternal love had been fully revealed, and man was enabled thereby to approach His glory; while the curtain which had hitherto separated the Jews and Gentiles was now raised. That which, up to this time, had been regarded on both sides as a secret knowledge, was now universally made known; and the doctrine of the threefold existence of God, and His holy teachings, were now to be preached to all the world.

As the appearance of Christ produced a reconciliation between sinful humanity and God, and, at the same time, a reunion of the nations who were wandering blindly in different directions; so was it necessary for man to regain his original connection with God and nature, between whom, as it were, he formed the mediator, and to be placed in a very high degree of mental perfection. For man possesses a susceptibility as well for the divine as for the natural, and also an inner spiritual, as well as outward organic, activity. Man," says Molitor, "is destined to connect created things with God, and God with created things, through the universal bond of love. Inwardly he should receive the overflowing influence of divine love and grace; and his outward activity should be directed to spread the divine influence through all spheres of creation, to rouse intelligent beings

to an eternal love, and magically to impart an everlasting harmony to the material world."

In how far this reunion through Christ has been carried into effect, or may be, according to the circumstances and conditions of future ages, does not belong to the province of this work.

If the first man lost his perfect harmony with God and nature, and, at the same time, also forfeited his active government, then must these have been restored after the restoration through Christ. He would then communicate with God, and the influences of nature would produce in him a disinclination to receive any impressions which could militate against the divine power of his mind. It was thus that through Christ the true penetrating vision, and the original power over nature, were restored; for, as God at the creation endowed the first man with dominion over all other creatures,-over the fishes in the sea, and the birds under the heavens, and over all animals upon the earth; and as Adam was able to give to everything its proper name, therefore the second man, the Son of God, brought back the power over nature, and imparted it, with the knowledge of all languages, to His disciples. The holy spirit radiating from Our Saviour illuminates every one who is born again through Jesus Christ; and as, at the first apostacy at Babel, the confusion of tongues became universal, so did the unity in heart and mind of the disciples, gathered together in obedience, restore the unity of language at Jerusalem; and to them was given the power of reclaiming men from sin and evil deeds, of healing sickness, blindness, and all diseases, of working miracles, and of leading humanity to the true God. If, however, the true unity of language consists therein, that the heart and soul are to act on the will of God, and, being open to its influences, seize at once upon the meaning; and that by word and deed it is then proclaimed for the glory of the Almighty; so must it be that the true magical sight, and the proper direction of the will, are restored, and then we may look forward to healing the sick by laying on of the hands, and prayer.

The meanings of dreams are to be valued according to the inner nature of the same. From the preceding observations we shall be able to judge whether dreams are always phantasms, and how much of truth or consistency their

symbols and allegories may contain. Although most dreams of the natural sleep are merely produced by the activity of the inner senses, yet all are not so; and there are few persons who have not occasionally had significant dreams which referred to themselves: that is, if they were inclined to and observed such things. If the blood and the mind of the sleeper were not agitated by any foreign and disturbing influences, if the outward impressions which produce dreams were known, if the remembrance of the dream were always perfectly distinct, and if we were perfectly acquainted with the language of dreams, we should often find our dreams very instructive.

Dreams with changing shapes and an unconnected confusion of ideas, arise, undoubtedly, from bodily uneasiness and the circulating fluids, and are always without meaning. A higher class is formed by allegorical dreams,-simple and easily understood pictures of a more durable character. Future and distant events are often indicated in these; scenes and incidents are beheld which are afterwards experienced. Divinatory dreams are of a still higher description, and, like magnetic clairvoyance, are not bounded either by time or place, but reveal the future, though generally without reference to the dreamer: here symbols are made use of, almost without exception, to indicate the events, and may be produced by higher influences.

The meaning of dreams has been in all ages very similar, as we have already mentioned, and was made the subject of a particular science. Since Artemidor, many writers have given explanations of dreams, but usually without much success, as the materials were in most cases wanting to the investigators, and the appearances of the dreams themselves extremely complicated: they, however, state, that to dream of great and troubled waters indicates sorrow and danger; thorns, difficulties; words mean tears; to dream of death predicts rain the following day; and of churches, sickness. Dreams, however, occasionally appear to be ironical, and to indicate their exact opposites; allegories and symbols are only frequent to those who dream much, and observe their meanings. We might produce innumerable examples of dreams from Cicero, and others;

but we shall content ourselves with mentioning one or two which have occurred in the present age.

Dr. X, a friend of Professor Sachs, of Erlangen, had the following dream one evening, after a conversation_on natural philosophy with the professor :-"I ascended a mountain, on the summit of which stood a temple: as I entered it I perceived a company of Freemasons sitting in a room which was hung with black. I heard a glorious inspiring funeral chant. To my inquiry for whom these ceremonies were being held, they replied, for brother Sachs. Three months afterwards I received the intelligence of Sachs' death, which had resulted from a dangerous illness produced by the ascent of a steep mountain. Half a year afterwards I was present at the ceremonies held in his honour in the Lodge at N."

Similar allegorical visions are occasionally described by magnetic clairvoyants, and have been recorded of the Oracles. When the cholera broke out in 1831 in Berlin, all Brandenburg was in alarm. K, a teacher, however, said, "I saw in a dream that a monster came towards Brandenburg from the East; but when near to it the monster sprang to the right and to the left: Brandenburg will escape." This proved to be the case.

Many interesting instances of allegorical dreams and visions are brought forward by H. Werner in his "Guardian Angels," and "Symbols of Language;" where single stages or even the whole course of a disease, and the proper treatment to be pursued, were stated; and also where future events are allegorically indicated.

Oberlin (Berichte eines Visionärs über den Zustand der Seelen nach dem Tode, 1837,) relates some singular instances of symbolical dreams which occurred to himself, with the remark, that many dreams lie deeper, and are enacted in a deeper stage, than is generally imagined. He says, "If I do not at the moment of waking transfer such a dream carefully, as it were, to the outer senses, so is the recollection of it lost to me until perhaps some future and similar state reveals it again. I beheld two young men who from mere ambition were striving to force themselves through the eye of a needle. They were exhausted, dripping with perspi