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overgrown with wood and abounding with wild animals. On a small island near they killed a bear, and from the circumstance named the island Biarney (Bear-Island). Again proceeding in a south west direction, they reached a tongue of land upon which they found a ship's keel, and called the land Keel Cape, the same name which had been given to it by Thorwald three years before. Here were extended beaches and sand-banks. The beaches or strands they named Furdustrandir. When they had passed these they found the land indented with bays. Anchoring in one of these bays, they sent on shore two Scots, who were among the crews, and were very swift of foot, commanding them to explore the country in a south-west direction. They returned after three days, bringing, one of them a cluster of grapes, and the other a young blade of wheat. The company proceeded on their voyage, and entered a frith, at the mouth of which lay an island, past which on either side ran strong currents. On this island eyder-ducks were so numerous that it was impossible to walk without treading on their eggs. They called the island Straumey (StreamIsland), and the frith Straumfiördr (Stream-Firth). They unladed their ships, and prepared for spending the winter on the shore of this frith. They had brought with them all kinds of domestic animals. Here they wintered, enjoying a delightful country, supplied by the forest with abundance of game, with eggs from the island, and with fish from the bay. Their only care was to explore the country.

Thorhall afterwards wished to proceed in a north direction in quest of Vineland. Thorfinn chose rather to go the southwest. Thorhall set out with eight men, and sailed past Furdustrandir and Kialarnes (Cape Cod); but they were driven by westerly gales to the coast of Ireland, where, according to some accounts, they were made slaves. Thorfinn, with Snorre and Biarne, and their two ship's companies, in all one hundred and thirty-one persons [CXXXI], coasted along the land in a southerly direction for a long time, till they came to a river which flowed through a lake into the sea. 6 There were vast

sandy shallows,* by reason of which the river could not be entered except at high tides.' Into the mouth of this river they entered, and called the bay (æstuarium) Hópe ( Hópe). This word, we are told, signifies a small bay or recess, formed by a river from the interior falling into an inlet from the sea, or the land bordering on such a bay. In the low ground in the vicinity of the bay they found fields of wheat growing sponta

*According to the reading of one MS, "there were large islands opposite the mouth of the river."

neously, and on the gently elevated hills, vines. Every stream was filled with fish, and the forests abounded with wild animals of every species. Early one morning, while looking about them, they discovered a large number of canoes approaching. On a friendly signal being made, they rowed nearer and landed, the savages wondering at the men they saw there. These people were dark colored, ill-looking, had ugly heads of hair, with large eyes and broad cheeks. After remaining a short time, they rowed back and passed towards the south, beyond the cape. Thorfinn and his company constructed habitations near the lake, and passed the winter there.No snow fell, and their cattle sustained themselves without being fed. In the following spring the natives visited them in great numbers, and opened a traffic with them. They chose red cloth, which was sold to them in small strips, and for which they exchanged furs and squirril skins. Thorfinn forbade his companions selling them any arms, of which they seemed passionately fond. During this season Gudrida, Thorfinn's wife, gave birth to a son, who was named Snorre, the first child of European decent born in America, and ancestor of several distinguished personages* at the present day, whose descent may be traced back in a direct line to Thorfinn. After some encounters with the natives, in one of which one of his men was slain, being found with a flat stone sticking fast in his head, Thorfinn returned with his party to Greenland with specimens of the fruits and peltries they had collected. A grandson of Snorre, and great-grandson of Thorfinn, whose name was Thorlak, was raised to the Episcopal rank, and became of great repute for his learning. To him we are principally indebted for the oldest code of the ecclesiastical law of Iceland, first published in 1123, and now extant; and it is thought highly probable that the accounts of the voyages and adventures of which we have given a brief sketch, were compiled by him. The editor supposes Straumey, mentioned in the preceeding voyage, to be Martha's Vineyard, Straumfiördir to be Buzzard's Bay, and Hóp, the present Mount Hope Bay, in later times the seat of the famous Indian, King Philip. We think that this latter locality does not accord in every particular with the description given in the Latin translation of the old Saga (we do not understand the original). It is stated that they sailed a long time (diu navigarunt,) after leaving Staumfiórdir before they reached Hóp. This would not be required by the distance between the two places here supposed. Again

*

Among these may be mentioned Thorwaldson, the great sculptor, and Professor Finn Magnussen, of Copenhagen, one of the most distinguished Icelandic scholars and antiquaries of the age.

we are disposed to doubt whether there is any thing in the entrance to this river corresponding to the 'shallows' described, (ibi vasta erant brevia arenosa.) Another manuscript, however, as we have before remarked, differs slightly from the one, the translation of which we have quoted, and speaks of large islands in the mouth of the river, (ante fluvii ostium magnæ erant insulæ); but concurs with the other in representing it impossible to enter the river except at full tide, or the highest tides, (neque intrari fluvius nisi maximis æstibus potuit.) We merely suggest these as difficulties in the way of fixing upon Mount Hope Bay for the Hóp of the Northmen.

Our limits will not allow us to dwell longer on this important and interesting work. We are compelled to leave much that is interesting in the volume untouched; as the voyage made to Vineland in the year 1011, the missionary enterprise undertaken to the newly discovered country, by bishop Eric of Greenland, in 1121; and the interesting account of the "Inscription Rocks" in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, illustrated by excellent plates. For what relates to these inscriptions the Royal Society are indebted to the Rhode Island Historical Society, at present one of the most efficient associations of the kind in the United States. Some notice of these inscription rocks, and of the success with which the Danish society have endeavored to decipher the most celebrated one in the country, will be inserted in a succeeding number of the Messenger. We will merely add here, that the celebrated inscription on the rock in Taunton river, in the state of Massachusetts, as interpreted by the learned Icelandic scholars at Copenhagen, serves only to confirm the evidence of the Sagas in relation to the discoveries and settlement of Vinland by the Northmen.

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Surely our preachers should have warmth of soul,
And yet we hear of Unitarian coldness-

We have our Green-wood, Furness, Burn-ap, Cole,

And Flint and Sparks once blazed away with boldness, And now along with names so warm and zealous,

There's lately come to kindle us, a Bellows.

X.

PROGRESS OF THEOLOGY.

Ir would be difficult to decide, who have brought the more follies into the world--philosophers or theologians. Surely there is no absurdity, that has not at some time received the sanction of philosophy-no extravagance, that has not worn the garb of religion. Yet when we come to look at the different effects, which the follies of the theologian and the philosopher have had upon the world, there is no likeness between the two. The philosopher's follies have been confined chiefly to his own closet or academy: the theologian's errors have stamped themselves on the face of all society. Pyrrho and his sceptic band may deny the existence of the outward world, and doubt on all subjects, yet the mass of men will still believe they walk the solid earth, and will enjoy their bread and cheese none the less, because its reality has been questioned. The stoic may deny the reality of pain and evil, yet mankind will still grieve when they lose what is dear to them, and will groan when the pangs of disease come. The sceptic may deny the existence of virtue and of moral distinctions, but mankind will yet always believe in good and bad, right and wrong. One school of philosophy may deny the reality of matter—another may deny the reality of spirit, yet common sense will go on her way unchanged-the great instincts of humanity will still utter their oracles-man will still believe there is a world around him and a spirit within him.

ces.

But how different is the fact, when the theologian comes in, and appealing to supernatural sanctions utters his extravaganFrom his lips, the wildest theories of the philosopher are received by the people with unquestioning faith, since clothed in a supernatural garb. The common instincts of humanity have been silenced by the preacher's voice. The stoic's dream for instance has been made a fact of every day occurrence in the Christian world-the reality of bodily pain has been lost sight of, and the stern penitent has taken a greater delight in an emaciated frame and in flesh bloody with the scourge, than the worldly man enjoys in his bowers of ease or halls of revelry. The common ties of society have been sundered, and men have left wife and parent and child and brother and sister and all the delights of social life, and buried themselves in the monk's cell or hermit's cave. Millions of men have thus run into a practical folly, such as no error of philosophy could ever induce.

Although the days of monasteries and scourges are now over, much of the spirit still remains, and there are myriads in this enlightened age, whose minds are perverted by a false religion, who have no eye for this beautiful world-no relish for its manifold blessings, but are determined to behold nought but a vale of tears and an Universe groaning beneath the curse of the God of Universal Love.

Yet the power of the Theologians' extravagances has been in a great measure checked. Men are not so fond of mystery as in days of yore. The ancient Father's principle of faith "Credo, quia impossibile" is not in much repute in our day, even among those who are most fond of the marvellous. The age demands a scientific explanation of every doctrine that is proposed for its adoption. Even the noted quackeries of our time put on a show of reason, and find more votaries by basing their claims upon science, than by pretending to the aid of angels or demons. Theology, always last to follow in the progress of ideas, has finally shown some inclination to join the general current, and submit its claims to a philosophical examination. The student's chief speculative problem now is to reconcile science with theology, and to legitimate religion by philosophy. His most interesting question asks what effect will be produced upon religious and moral life and enthusiasm by the influx of scientific ideas.

Let us not be supposed to say, that until lately philosophy has been a stranger to theology. Far from it. The effect that philosophy has had upon religion appears in the history of every nation and in every state of Christianity. In the inner sanctuary of the Hindoo and Egyptian worship dwelt a philosophy that was imaged forth in symbols addressed to the senses of the vulgar. Hardly had Christianity appeared in the world, when the Gnostic philosophers laid hold of it, and wrested its history into types of their ideas and regarded its principles and spirit, as but an opening forth of that light, that had always dwelt in the souls of the faithful, and burst with divine effulgence into the mind of the true Gnostic. And then in the Augustinian theology and its offspring, modern Calvinism, we may see traces of oriental philosophy, and may recognise in the Calvinist's almost equal division of power between God and the Devil, a new version of ancient Manicheism. When finally Christianity appeared requisite in the Protestant church at the Reformation, it was not free from all traces of the philosophy of the schools of the dark ages.

No, theology and philosophy have never been kept actually separate. But the tables have been turned. In ancient times

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