Finally, in rites and ceremonies science sees a gradual development, -the purifications, sacrifices, and other such forms of ceremony of the savage tribes, being but perpetuated and elaborated in the Jewish system, and in such Christian ordinances as Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

One marked distinction, however, between the arguments now adduced and the broad tracing of historic fact before given is, that while the one is incontrovertible, the other is at best but a series of more or less likely guesses or suggestions towards the filling up of a theory; some of the suggestions shining in the likelihood of truth (those anent language, for example, and arithmetic), while others are as clearly equivocal, and their basement of fact capable of quite a different setting. But does not the convergence of the whole towards one result prove the right placing of the facts and the truth of the interpretation? It would do so, or might, providing no other rendering of the facts could be given, and especially providing there be no clearly markable distinction in the nature, and hence of the class, of facts so grouped together. Such a distinction would vitiate the whole performance; and it is precisely this assumption of the facts being one in kind that we strongly controvert. Because the facts of religion are in human nature, it by no means proves that they are wholly of human nature; and, as it happens, there is on the very face of the facts themselves that distinction commonly called spiritual which marks them off as different in kind from those of language and arithmetic, otherwise called natural. I do not say that this distinction of itself proves anything as to the origin of religion, but I contend for its preservation as, in the first place, true to the facts of the case, and as, secondly, pointing with great probability to a different classing of the facts, and hence to a different origin for them. Clearly there is here an open door for another theory:-Whether, the history of religion being witness, the true interpretation of human life be not this, that the spiritual facts speak for declension as do the natural facts for progress; or, in other words, that man has progressed naturally, but "fallen" spiritually, and that here lies the reconcilement between the apparently incompatible positions of theology and science. If this be so, those who contend for progress only to the exclusion of a "fall" are as much in error as those who contend for pure declension. If this be so! and we can imagine we hear some scientist laughing outright at the bare mention of the attempt to read the facts of religion as other than a progress from savagery, through barbarism, to civilization. From savagery, through barbarism, to civilization; from fetishism, through polytheism, to monotheism; and yet

we

can be blandly told that the facts may speak for a spiritual "fall"! So crass will a theory make men, says the scientist! For the present, then, we leave him to laugh, and admit without reserve that the facts speak for the natural development of man, but contend that the spiritual development is as yet unaccounted for. This brings us to the second question, in which religionists only are directly concerned, Does the genuine interpretation of Scripture warrant the belief in a "fall" in the early history of the race?

The genuine interpretation is of course not the literal one, and I assume that you could not believe it to be so I speak here, of course, to those who acknowledge the interpretation given in the New Church, which in brief is that the early chapters of Genesis are descriptive of man's spiritual development. The description runs that man at first lived in a state of spiritual darkness, the earth of his mind being "vacuity and emptiness;" that from this condition, in which thus, according to Scripture and science, he "lived like a wild beast," the Spirit of God gradually led him into higher states of spiritual progress until he became a fully developed spiritual man; and that this is the meaning of the first chapter of Genesis. So, too, in the second chapter, we have the further process from the spiritual to the celestial state detailed. "Whereas man from being dead is made spiritual, so from being spiritual he is made celestial." This further reach involves, of course, as the other did, a gradual process of development through long ages, and equally, of course, the development essentially of his spiritual nature, but not, except indirectly, remotely, and as a consequence, of his natural powers, of which not a word is said. In the third chapter and thereafter, a different story is told: man is represented as declining from the high spiritual estate he had in long years attained, and that by slow and gradual steps, generation by generation, until he became spiritually corrupt and steeped in mere natural loves; in which state of moral degradation he would, we are also assured, have died off the earth bodily if the Lord had not come through the Jewish nation to redeem him. Or to put part of the matter in Swedenborg's own words when commenting on the third chapter: "This and the preceding chapters treat of the Most Ancient people and of their generation: primarily of those who had lived like wild beasts, but at length became spiritual men; then of those who became celestial men and constituted the Most Ancient Church; afterwards of those who fell away, and their descendants, detailed in regular order through the first, second, and third posterity and their successors, down to the Deluge."

Here is a rational interpretation of an otherwise unintelligible story; and yet we are told by some who themselves accept the interpretation, that they can find no evidence in Scripture or in Swedenborg of a "fall." It is difficult to realize such a position, and I will not discredit those who hold it by inventing fictitious reasons for their belief. If I accept gladly such light as I can get from themselves, Mr. Rodgers, I am sure, will not refuse to lend the oil; and even if I should pronounce the light to be darkness, he will blame my eyes, I trust, and not my heart. Mr. Rodgers, in the preface to his "Microcosm," says, In the Arcana, No. 286, he" (the author) "found that mankind originally lived like wild beasts, and to him it appeared that however degenerate man might become in after years he could never do more than live like a wild beast, and that, as this was the original condition of man, therefore to fall was impossible;" which to me is very like saying that because a reservoir is on the level of the town which it

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supplies with water, therefore for the water to fall from a hill between the reservoir and the town is impossible! Mr. Rodgers forgets that the water might be taken to the hill-top and from thence fall to the level of the town. Plainly, Mr. Rodgers seems not to see the alternative that man might rise and fall; that though originally he might have lived like a wild beast he might also become spiritually developed, and from that height descend to a merely natural condition. It is not a question (which would be simply a theological catch) of whether man fell from his first condition, but whether he fell from any condition of life to which he may have attained,-whether a great spiritual declension has ever been a marked and telling human fact. By this issue I for one abide, and I reject utterly every side-move from it. It may be said that man's then highest spiritual attainment is not to be compared with ours at this day,—that it is different in kind, degree, and level, and altogether lower, though the steps of it were as just interpreted. In that case, how comes it that the heaven of the Most Ancient Church is above the heavens of Christians? that they have "beautiful habitations and delightful auras"? that they are "in the highest light"? that on earth they "enjoyed perception almost like the angels," the gift of the celestial in the very fullest sense? that they had "the law written on them"? "had perfect knowledge of all things thence derived"? that they had the Word "revealed to them? that had they read the historical or the prophetic Word they would have seen the internal sense without any previous instruction? that they were informed concerning the things relating to eternal life by immediate communion with the angels of heaven? that they had "goods and truths inseminated into the will," and that their internals were open? that the period in which they lived was called "the golden age"? and that "the ancient, especially the most ancient times were more acceptable to the Lord than those which succeeded"? One wonders how all this and much more is accounted for if their best attainments were merely some form of "the natural," and that we are consequently better than they. Put it to the test: is there a man of the Christian world at this day who dare claim a fraction of these high privileges as his own? Take the one item alone of the will being moved to good, and who that knows the meaning of the words could predicate them of any now? It has at least never been my experience to recognize a celestial or fully-regenerated man. That their good" was of a specific kind, to wit, a perfect simple good, I believe ; and this explains to me clearly enough what Mr. Rodgers finds so awkward,”—that "the most ancient times were more acceptable to the Lord than those which succeeded." Certainly it is awkward if they were in no sense better than we are; but that the good Lord should delight in their unsophisticated, unmixed good, a good which had never known transgression, will commend itself at once to every simple heart unmuddled by metaphysical questions of the benefit of an evil experience. That their natural minds were imperfectly developed I not only admit but demand; that their spiritual minds were fully opened" seems to me to be as clear as words can make it; and Ï

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opine that the non-observance of this distinction is the real root of some confused thinking about them.

But it is still said that the last Church is to be better than all those which have been before it, for that none of those before it have been in the knowledge and acknowledgment of one God, and that the Most Ancient Church itself worshipped an invisible God with Whom there can be no conjunction: the meaning of which reasoning, stript bare, is that because the last church is to be the best, therefore man has never fallen-a wondrous syllogism, in which the conclusion has about the same relation to the premiss as the appearance of the comet and the Irishman's broken leg! Man shall reach a higher state in the future than ever he has done in the past: therefore his past has known no decline! A palace is one day to receive a marble front, which abundantly proves that it has never been burnt down! A man is one day to become a merchant prince and Member of Parliament : therefore he has never been a prosperous trader who once became bankrupt! Surely the question is not whether any mortals are ever to reach beyond the state attained by the first celestials, but whether those who succeeded these celestials actually did descend or fall to a lower state than they. I suppose we all believe that our race is improving the only question is, what is it improving from? from the state in which it was created or the state into which it fell? the answer is that the facts of a spiritually-interpreted Scripture show a decline or fall from a high spiritual state, which, in the course of ages, our race had reached in its long ascent from an original condition of savagery.

And

This brings us to our third question, the answer of which must be left for another time. If development be scientifically true, and a “fall” theologically assertible, how are the scientific truth and the theological assertion to be harmonized? THOMAS CHILD.

SPAIN.

NO. I. THE CARLIST COUNTRY.

LYING out of the popular routes of continental travel, Spain is much less familiarly known than France, Switzerland, Germany, or Italy, and therefore, having recently visited that country, some of the observations I made, and the scenes I noticed on the journey, may not be without interest to your readers.

Physically, Spain is a noble land, nearly square, almost 600 miles long and 600 miles broad. It comprises every variety of country : seven great ranges of mountains, six important rivers, wide and extensive plains-some arid as deserts, some fertile as gardens, with every kind of soil, and a climate sunny and luxurious; a coast washed by seas on three sides, and indented with goodly harbours: it was evidently intended by Providence to be the magnificent home of a great and happy people.

The Spaniards are good-natured, courteous, and obliging; and now that railways are extensively introduced, travelling in Spain is agreeable, and not more expensive than in other continental lands.

I entered Spain from the pleasant French city of Bayonne, and in about an hour and a half reached Hendaye, the last town of France before one enters Spain. Hendaye is on the banks of the Bidassoa, the river that divides the two countries, and on the opposite side is Irun (pron. Eeroon), which is the first town in Spain. There luggage is inspected, to prevent too much trade being encouraged. The traveller is detained three-quarters of an hour at Irun; and, on his return, the same time at Hendaye, but not much troubled if he has not much luggage.

The train then starts again, and goes through the Pyrenees; and the inmate beholds a succession of vast mountains, quaint valleys, immense rocks, tunnels, picturesque towns, and scenery the most magnificent. Here and there one sees new forts on the hills, built lately (some hardly finished), to keep the recently-pacified country in awe and in check.

In about two hours you arrive at Vittoria, a bright, active-looking town, where Wellington had his last battle with the French under Marshal Soult, whom he was driving before him out of Spain. In Spain generally, verandahs, balconies, and means of enjoying the sun and air outside the houses are very common, but at Vittoria every window of every storey has its outlet for walking or sitting; and the builders have so joined these together with glass frames, that they have the effect of glass houses, covering the houses inside. On bright sunny days, which in Spain are the rule, these houses have a brilliant, glittering effect, at least in the distance. In about four hours after leaving Vittoria the train arrives at Miranda, after passing, of course, many smaller stations; and if you wish to enter the heart of the Carlist country, you must take the train which joins here and leads down to Bilboa, on the Bay of Biscay-a four-hours' journey.

At Miranda, one has a striking illustration of the improving influence of railroads. Before the railway was constructed Miranda was one of the most dirty and miserable of the small towns of Spain. Now it looks considerably enlarged, well-ordered, and neat, and there are two large hotels close to the station for the accommodation of travellers; one, it is said, having ninety beds, and the refreshment dining-room at the station was set out on a grander scale and more splendidly than anything of the kind I had ever seen before. My object being at this portion of my journey to visit Bilboa and the adjacent country, I left the main line to Madrid, and took the route to Bilboa, which I reached at six in the evening.

The line is made among the Pyrenees, was constructed by English engineers, and is a magnificent specimen of engineering skill and constructive ability. At one portion near Orduna the line needed to change its level and descend about 600 yards, which is done by taking a round about twelve miles, when you attain the level you