a falling star! The " Periplus" of Hanno, a few coins, a score ' of lines in Plautus, and, lo! all that remains of the Carthaginian 'world!'

The fifth decisive battle of the world in Professor Creasy's list, is the victory of Arminius over the Roman legions under Varus, A.D. 9. Mighty events have intervened; and Rome, the fourth great empire of prophecy, has become mistress of the world. The very change we now make in our chronological computation,-looking back upon that event to which we have hitherto been looking forward,-forcibly reminds us, in connexion with our present subject, of that great prophecy, The greaves of the warrior, his weapons, and his garments rolled in 'blood-these shall be a burning and fuel of fire. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government 'shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace !'

Some centuries were, indeed, to pass, before the legs of iron and the feet of clay, seen by the king of Babylon in prophetic vision, were to be broken to pieces, and carried away like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, by the stone cut out of the mountain without hands; but the defeat of the Roman legions, in the reign of Augustus, by Hermann the Cheruscan,-a lineal ancestor of the Anglo-Saxon race,-foreshadowed that doom. It was, moreover, the dawn of a new principle of political life. It secured at once and for ever, at the earliest stage of modern history, the independence of the Teutonic race; and prepared the way for the introduction into the civilization of the commonwealth of Europe, of the vital and determining element of personal liberty. To Rome the element of legality is due, under the majestic form of Civil Law, together with the tradition and inheritance of Grecian intellect; to the Catholic Church, the element of morality impersonated in the living Gospel of Jesus; while to the Germans we are indebted for the restless spirit of individual freedom, expanding at all risks, and mpelling the entire mass of modern society in the direction of progressive improvement. After the victory of the great Cheruscan,-whom Tacitus confesses to have been liberator haud dubie Germaniæ," and who, as time passed on, received divine honours from the gratitude of the German tribes,'-the

Annales, ii. 88.

2 The Irmin-sul, or the column of Hermann, near Eresburg, the modern Stadberg, was the chosen object of worship to the descendants of the Cherusci, the old Saxons; and in defence of which they fought most desperately against Charlemagne and his Christianised Franks.'-i. 247.

Rhine became the acknowledged boundary of the two nations. 'Hac clade factum,' says Florus, ut imperium quod in litore 'Oceani non steterat, in ripa Rheni fluminis staret.'

We now come down to the battle of Châlons, A.D. 451. The year 445 of our era completed the twelfth century from the foundation of Rome; when twelve vultures, it was said, appeared to Romulus, signifying the duration of the Roman power for that period. Add to these six lustra of five years each, for the six birds that appeared to Remus, and we have precisely the year 476, when the Western Empire was finally extinguished by Odoacer. Hence we can readily imagine the consternation of the Romans when Attila, that ruthless Hun, embattled his Asiatic forces against the decaying empire. The battle of Châlons was the final victory of the City of the Seven Hills.

The victory which the Roman general, Aetius, with his Gothic allies, then gained over the Huns, was the last victory of Imperial Rome. But among the long Fasti of her triumphs, few can be found that, for their importance and ultimate benefit to mankind, are comparable with this expiring effort of her arms. It did not, indeed, open to her any new career of conquest,-it did not consolidate the relics of her power,-it did not turn the rapid ebb of her fortunes. The mission of Imperial Rome was, in truth, already accomplished. She had received and transmitted the civilization of Greece. She had broken up the barriers of narrow nationalities among the various states and tribes that dwelt around the coasts of the Mediterranean. She had fused these and many other races into one organized empire, bound together by a community of laws, government, and institutions. Under the shelter of her full power the true faith had arisen in the earth, and during the years of her decline it had been nourished to maturity, and had overspread all the provinces that ever obeyed her sway. For no beneficial purpose to mankind could the dominion of the seven-hilled city have been restored or prolonged. But it was all-important to mankiud what nations should divide among them Rome's rich inheritance of empire. Whether the Germanic and Gothic warriors should form states and kingdoms out of the fragments of her dominions, and become the free members of the commonwealth of Christian Europe; or whether pagan savages, from the wilds of Central Asia, should crush the relics of classic civilization, and the early institutions of the Christianized Germans, in one hopeless chaos of barbaric conquest. The Christian Visigoths of King Theodoric fought and triumphed at Châlons, side by side with the legions of Aetius. Their joint victory over the Hunnish host, not only rescued for a time from destruction the old age of Rome, but preserved for centuries of power and glory the Germanic element in the civilization of modern Europe.'-Vol. i. pp. 259, 260.

We now approach that battle which led to Mr. Hallam's note. Among those signal deliverances which have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind, a foremost place must be assigned to Charles Martel's victory over the Saracens, A.D.

732. This critical conflict between the Crescent and the Cross changed, says Gibbon, the history of the world.

The more we test its importance, the higher we shall be led to estimate it; and though all authentic details which we possess of its circumstances and its heroes are but meagre, we can trace enough of its general character to make us watch with deep interest this encounter between the rival conquerors of the decaying Roman empire. That old classic world, the history of which occupies so large a portion of our early studies, lay, in the eighth century of our era, utterly inanimate and overthrown. On the north, the German, on the south, the Arab was rending away its provinces. At last the spoilers encountered one another, each striving for the full mastery of the prey.'-Vol. i. p. 289.

Subject to one Caliph, who ruled from the Pyrenees to the Oxus-believers in one prophet-holding the Koran in reverence as the one book of their law,-a veteran Saracen army, under Abderrahman, one of their ablest commanders, advanced to the conquest of Europe north of the Pyrenees, eager for battle, and fanatically confident of success. "A victorious line of march,' says Gibbon, had been prolonged 'above a thousand miles, from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would 'have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or the Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might 'have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might 'demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of 'the revelation of Mahomet.' Vainly did Eudes, the bold and warlike Duke of Aquitain, endeavour to arrest the progress of the invaders. Onward rolled the overwhelming torrent to the very centre of France, between Tours and Poitiers. There it was met, to the surprise of Abderrahman, by Karl, Duke of the Austrasian Franks.1 'The nations of Asia, Africa, and Europe 'advanced with equal ardour to an encounter which would 'change the history of the world." For seven days the fortunes of mankind hung in doubtful balance. At the end of that time victory declared for the Christian hosts, and Europe was rescued from the deadly grasp of all-destroying Islam. The battle of Tours re-established the old superiority of the IndoGermanic over the Semitic family of mankind, and maintained the supremacy of the Cross over the invading Crescent.

1

2

Surnamed Martel-the hammer: the favourite weapon of Thor, the war-god of Scandinavian mythology, though this has been controverted in Notes and Queries.'

The foregoing battles possess a certain unity of interest; they are intimately connected with the rise and fall of the Four Great Empires of prophecy. And now the Fifth Empire has been set up; that kingdom which shall never be destroyed,' but shall break in pieces and consume' other kingdoms, and 'shall stand for ever.' It is not of this world; its victories are moral, its administration is divine. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts,' shall this kingdom be established and maintained immoveable and everlasting. 'Wherefore we, receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God ac'ceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.'

217

ART. IX.-1. A Plea for the Education of the Clergy; in a Letter addressed to the Lord Bishop of Exeter, and the Clergy of the Diocese, lately assembled in Synod. By the Rev. PHILIP FREEMAN, M.A. Principal of the Theological College, Chichester. London: Rivingtons, 1851.

2. Credenda a Summary Paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed, from Bishop Pearson. London: Parker, 1851.

3. Delle cinque Piaghi della S. Chiesa. Di ANTONIO ROSMINI. Perugia, 1849.

It is very fitting in Mr. Freeman that he addresses the admirable pamphlet which gives rise to our present article to the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese of Exeter. In the recent Synod of Exeter-recent, but ever new to our respect and thankfulness-at least three-fourths of the proceedings were occupied with the subject of education. Had time permitted, doubtless, as Mr. Freeman suggests, (p. 6,) the Synod would have formally considered the topic of clerical education: as it is, Mr. Freeman commends his observations to that body who, if any, have given to the subject of education a practical consideration. We have to thank him for more constructive services; but had he done no more than dispel our ordinary vague talk on the subject of clerical education, he had done much. One of the Exeter speakers alluded, as it seems with approval, to the ordinary device of ordaining schoolmasters: against this suggestion, one of the keenest and most sensible men of the day, Chancellor Harington, immediately, and almost with warmth, protested, chiefly on the ground of the great evil which would thence accrue to the college.' (Acts of the Synod, p. 114.) He might have gone further, and specified the evils incident to the Church from this scheme. A schoolmaster's education is as a clerical education mischievous, because it aims at a completeness which is precisely not the completeness suitable to the priest. Here we avail ourselves of Mr. Freeman's remarks. He points out that what the Church of England needs is a sacerdotal education. We want to realize the clerical calling to educate up to it, to prepare for the cure of souls, and the stewardship of the Gospel mysteries.

'The thing needed, then, is a systematic training, theoretical and practical,formation, ethical and theological,-for our future Clergy during the period immediately preceding their offering themselves for Holy Orders. The means proposed for effecting this, the establishment of Theological Colleges such as have already for some years existed at Wells and Chichester.-P. 13.