utmost limits of their belief in stating, as they did, those doctrines especially which stood opposite to some gross error on the Romish side. If, therefore, the circumstances of the case are duly considered, the frequent expressions of respect for the interpretations of the fathers which are every where met with, not in formal confessions only, but in private writings, are deeply significant, and must always be allowed to modify their expressions with reference to the sole authority of the Divine Word. Hence when we read in the Bohemian Confession, (Art. I.) "Scripta autem Doctorum ecclesiae, praecipue veterum itidem pro veris fideque dignis haberi, utiliaque esse ad instituendam plebem dicunt," it should be considered, as it really is, a caution against supposing that, because the false witnesses of the Papacy were discarded, they wholly despised the authority of the Past. Instead of interpreting this class of passages by those which hold up the divine sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures, as is usually done, the latter should be explained by the former. That such expressions as: "attamen in quibus a divinis Scripturis non dissident," should be used, whenever the opinions of the earlier Church are referred to, creates no difficulty to those who consider that Luther rejected the epistle of James for the same reason, and who themselves would not assent to a passage of Scripture which stood in flat contradiction to all its other teaching, but at once pronounce it an interpolation or typographical mistake.

Whilst the evangelical doctrine of the Church thus assumed a more definite and complete form, that of the Papacy could not be permitted to remain in its undetermined state. For whatever sanction the Romish view had from long custom, it had never ripened into an established canon. To bring it to this, was part of the difficult work of the Council of Trent. This Council aware of the necessity of great caution, seems to have been anxious to hide its true meaning under a multitude of oracular terms. The substance of the whole, however, is summed up in the following words: "ut nemo contra unanimem

• Also quoted in the Principle of Prot., by Dr. Schaf, and from which, in the absence of a copy of the Decrees of Trent in the original, the above sentence is taken.

consensum Patrum ipsam scripturam sacram interpretari audeat," which, in proper English, means, that whoever dares to interpret scriptures contrary to those traditions of the Fathers, which the Romish Church approves, and in that sense of these traditions which it determines, shall be anathema. And to this decree the Church of Rome to this day responds, amen!

As it is our intention to review this dogma of Rome, in connection with others now maintained, in a future article, nothing farther is added now.

EASTON, PA.

J. H. A. B.

ART. IV. THE APPLE AS A CRITERION OF TASTE.

I own that I am sometimes distressed at the manner in which, during these latter days, we are too prone to look upon our fruits. By this last appellation I would, of course, comprehend at present not all vegetable productions, but only those variously tinted, rounded, succulent, and, in many cases, redolent esculents which are dependent from our trees. Among their manifold qualifications we are too apt to overlook the highest, thinking them to be addressed to merely one of our senses, and that not the most refined. We regard them, therefore, not with full appropriate affections. When placed before our visions, the orgasm of our palates after them do become so inordinate, it seems to me, that we lose sight, in a great measure, of their outward superior beauties, and certainly all sensation of their fragrance.

The apple, considered as a nosegay merely, without any refe

rence to its edible contents, every person, one would suppose, who had his senses in proper harmony, should acknowledge to be most delectable. The flute, of all musical instruments, is allowed, I believe, to be the most charming to the ear, on account of the striking consonance of its tones to those of the human voice. The apple, with equal propriety, I would think, should be regarded, not only of all fruits, but also of all flowers, as the most pleasing object to the eye, on account of the striking resemblance of its contour and complexion to the human cheek. Into what varieties too, considered as a species, it is divided, to suit every taste! Divesting yourself, if you can, of all prejudice on account of their profusion, just cast your eye on one of those "mellow hangings," as Shakspeare calls them, in the month of October. What plumpness of shape! What richness of tints! What deliciousness of breath! How much has it improved on its own blossomage! How far superior to the rose ! The most expressive emblems of our affections certainly are those things which, by their striking resemblance in hue and shape to the outward manifestations of the feelings themselves, as seen on the human countenance, seem to sympathise with them. What fruit or flower then is better qualified for being the most eloquent interpreter of even our tenderest emotions, than the mellow, plump, healthful, blushing-cheeked apple? But who, nowadays, can understand its language? Apples with us have lost the best half of their significance. We no longer present them to our dear friends for the sake of awaking up kindred feelings. It is only for being manducated.

I would, by no means, have it supposed, however, that I am utterly opposed to the eating of apples at all. It is their ultimate design and consummation. Their prosaical destiny. It is what they must all come to in the course of nature, if not to some worse end. But before this, I maintain they have important duties to perform. Their principal mission into this world, is to give satisfaction and inspiration to our imaginations, through the media of our olfactories and visual organs. I love not their smack the less, but their odor and aspect more.

How superior to ours were the notions of the ancients respecting them! How did they dote on the form, complexion and fragrance of apples! What renders this the more surprising too, is, that whilst, in the course of ages, horticulturists, have, by means of propagation and peculiar cultivation, been adding to the species almost innume

rable varieties, for the sake of improving them as esculents, nature has no doubt, at the same time, been endowing them with additional beauty and fragrance; yet so far as we are concerned, all this remains in a great measure, unseen or wasted on the desert air. Some persons here will perhaps suggest that it is not unlikely, during the earliest ages, apples had advanced but a few removes in taste from their original progenitor, the wild crab, and therefore the ancients deserve not to be extolled so highly for having feasted their eyes and noses on them in preference to their mouths, inasmuch as, had they attempted to regale the latter, "the biter bitten," it would have been with a vengeance. But this rests altogether on a false hypothesis. Fewer varieties there were, it is true; but some of these, as the melimelon, for instance, or honey-apple, and the amerinum or winter sort, among the Greeks and Romans, were, in all likelihood, equal in relish to the choicest of our own. It is well known too, that, of the latter people, this fruit was the principal dessert-usque ad mala-wishing to have its flavor lingering about their palates after eating, as being the most delectable.

That this taste too, was not acquired by them artificially, from highly wrought civilization, but that it is natural to humanity, is evident from our meeting with some of the most striking instances of it among the most unsophisticated classes. Shepherds, surely, cannot be charged with over refinement, and yet it was among these especially, that, we find in ancient times, the apple was properly appreciated. Open any of the Idyls of Theocritus, the best delineator of rustic manners among the ancients. In almost any one of these you will discover some allusion to the fruit. Not to its saporosity, forsooth, but to its beauty and fragrance. Maidens he calls applecheeked. The Loves he likens to blushing apples. His robust young serenaders he describes, when sallying forth of nights, as bearing in their bosom-folds, well-chosen apples; which were more eloquent offerings than even their music. Should their mistresses accept of these, they would thereafter be placed in predicaments bordering very closely on betrothments. Polyphemus, I confess, is eccentric in this particular. Being a man of immense proportions, perhaps he could not find fruit large enough to express his affections. In those lamenting, unfortunate, unrequited addresses of his to his scornful, bewitching Galatea, he thinks proper to employ nothing but his roar of mouth. He is represented as doing everything in his own uncommon way. Roses and apples and ring

lets, the poet tells us, he did not choose to make use of. By telling us this, however, the poet, at the same time, unweetingly lets us know that, in his day, undoubtedly all sane wooers did make use of these things. The Cyclops he cites as a most extraordinary exception.

The silent eloquence of this fruit, however, was not peculiar to pastoral life. It was felt also in urbane society. It was not a dialect of shepherds merely, and confined to Sicily. It was used also by the polished and erudite, and understood throughout all Greece. "Love and cherish," says Aristophanes in his Wasps, which were presented before the refined people of Athens-" Love and cherish only those poets, my friends, who are fresh and original in their inventions; and be sure to preserve the thoughts of such, treasuring them up in your chests, with your apples; which if ye do," he adds, "an odor of cleverness, throughout the year, will be issuing from your garments." Here apples and poetry are placed in their proper conjunction. They are both recommended for imparting an air of gentility to clothes. This fruit with the ancients, was redolent of literary associations. How well could it be otherwise to a truly Grecian nose? In most of the old heroic tales of Greece, we find it employed as the principal instrument. Need I refer the classical reader to those trees of the Hesperides, of whose golden fruit, to obtain a specimen, occasioned some of the most difficult labors of Hercules? Need I mention to him those apples of Meilanion, which he threw down before his swift-footed cousin Atalanta, which while she stooped to gather up, he escaped her spear and won from her the race, and in consequence her beautiful hand? Need I remind him of the fruit which Paris gave to Venus, causing the ten years' siege and ultimate destruction of Troy? These to him are all familiar as household words. He remembers besides, the story of Acontius, how coming from his native Cea to Delos, for sacrificing to Diana, he fell in love with the beautiful Cydippe; but that on account of her high rank and his own poverty, he could not expect, by fair means, to obtain her hand. He therefore had recourse to stratagem. It was a sacred law in Delos, that whatever was promised in the temple of Diana, must inviolably be performed. Having written therefore on an apple, he cast it before her as she stood in the temple; which her maid having taken up and handed to her, she read aloud: "By Diana, I will marry Acontius." Of course, she was no longer at liberty to become another's, even had she so inclined.