arrangement of the whole and the subdivision of the parts, in the very words and images, in the main thoughts and intuitions of the Epistle, is the same. We recognise the handwriting, but no copy or imitation. The writer's character is the same. As in the Gospel he stands back hidden beneath the greatness of his treme, so in the Epistle he is reticent of himself; although he is no longer the calm historian, but a letter-writer, the mentor, teacher, apostle, the one surviving apostle to the Christian church, he upholds no statement by the mere weight of personal authority. There is throughout the same calmness and confidence, the same holy and elevated mind, as in the Gospel. And though he will not bend his readers to his words by command, or by the weight of his name, we never forget who he is; we feel that no other could so write; nor, when the subject requires it, does he conceal from us that he had once stood as near to Christ as possible, or refrain from telling us his own experience then, with a naturalness and sincerity which leave no room for doubting that the writer of the Epistle is the same as the writer of the Gospel,-St. John the apostle.

The immediate cause of its being written must be sought in the Epistle itself. Christendom was tried less by persecutions from without than by false teachers within. What the special errors were, and the date of the Epistle, are less easy to determine, because it contains no reference to the state of the contemporary world, and no systematic exposition of the errors themselves. "This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood” (v. 6), plainly alludes to the opinions of the Baptist's disciples; but it is the single passage of the kind. The danger, therefore, was not from that quarter. It came rather from those who taught within the church those Gnostic theories which have been already mentioned, and of which the ground-thought was, that Christ was merely an apparition, and something more than an angel (a philosophically embellished theory to avoid the scandal of the cross): and the same notions concerning unrestricted Christian freedom and the consequent sinlessness of Christian men. These men-the troublers of Christendom-had come into the apostle's near neighbourhood. No wonder that out of zeal to maintain Christian truth, to overthrow error, to save all who would be saved, to assert afresh the teaching of the Gospel, the voice of the aged man was raised. The language is that of a calm and elevated spirit which has experienced the highest spiritual blessing of which men are capable on earth, uttered with a simplicity and naturalness than which nothing can be more sublime. It is clear and brief without the least ornament and effort: intimating what has to be said rather than describing

it; and indicating the advanced age of the writer. It must not, however, be forgotten that there is a strict sequence of thought;that nothing is said too much or out of place.

The Epistle addresses itself to the inner wants of Christendom, and refers to no outward persecutions. In this it is like the Epistles of Jude, 2d Peter, 2d and 3d John; and it differs from the Epistles of James, 1st Peter, and Hebrews. With the destruction of Jerusalem and the complete overthrow of the Jewish nation, the heaviest persecution of Christians had passed away, and the rest which followed allowed of the freer growth of errors within the church. Hence we shall not widely err if we place the Epistle about A.D. 90, under Domitian, and ten years later than the Gospel.

The evidence that the apostle is the author of the two shorter Epistles is similar to that which proves him the author of the longer. The circumstances which called them forth have passed away, and yet do those Epistles remain of lasting interest, as explanatory of the position of the apostle towards single churches and individuals, and of his manner of addressing them. Every word, every thought, every turn of expression, point back to the apostle as their author. In one respect they have a special historical interest. They show that though Christians were enjoying comparative rest, yet that a thousand dangers were near, and that extreme caution was necessary. The language is allusive rather than direct. The Epistle to Gaius avoids the name of Christ: Christianity is called "the Truth;" Christ himself "the Name;" and in the second Epistle the church is designated by the title, only intelligible to the faithful, of the "Elect Sister."

Here we close our résumé of Ewald's valuable introduction to the Johannine writings. We have purposely omitted any comparison of his views, with those of other writers, because these last can be found in the prolegomena of late commentaries, and Ewald's will long (we fear) be inaccessible to the English reader. Whatever may be our opinions of his views, whether we consider him rash or needlessly conservative, there can be no question that he is most suggestive and helpful. And those who are indifferent to analysis of style and language, or to inquiry into the prevailing thoughts of the apostle's time which may have affected the apostle's language-who are only anxious to know the mind of their Lord, and to read the very words of Christ, written down by the beloved disciple-can be told that the critic who is most rarely gifted to appreciate every work of ancient, and especially of Hebrew, literature comes from the study of St. John with no less wonder and reverence than the simple-minded and devout.

ART. VII.-ACCLIMATIZATION AND PRESERVATION OF ANIMALS.

Catalogue of the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley formed by the late Earl of Derby, K.G., P.Z.S. Liverpool, August 1851.

List of Vertebrated Animals living in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London. London, 1862.

Bulletin de la Société Impériale Zoologique d'Acclimatation. Tomes I-VIII. Paris, 1854-1861.

Jaarboekje van het Koninklijk Zoologisch Genootschap "Natura Artis Magistra." Amsterdam, 1860.

Der Zoologische Garten. Organ der Zoologischen Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main, 1860.

First, Second, and Third Annual Reports of the Society for the Acclimatisation of Animals, Birds, Fishes, Insects, and Vegetables within the United Kingdom. London, 1860-63.

First Annual Report of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria. Melbourne, 1862.

Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Vol. XXIII. Article on "Destructive Insects, and the immense Utility of Birds." By Frederic de Tschudi. London, 1862.

As generally accepted, the term acclimatization' means the colonization of one country by the natural products-be they animal or vegetable-of another, with the view of rendering them subservient to the purposes, whether necessary or luxurious, of mankind. Acclimatization may therefore be justly considered the utilized application of the sciences of zoology and botany; and it follows almost as a natural consequence that what is to be learned from their study cannot be safely disregarded by those who wish to advance its objects and realize the expectations it holds out.

Bennet Langton tells us, that when Goldsmith announced his intention of going to Jericho, Aleppo, or some place still further in the direction from which the wise men came, Johnson exclaimed, "Sir, he would bring home a grinding-barrow, and think he had furnished a wonderful improvement." It seems to us that some of the advocates of the various schemes for acclimatization might take the hint which this anecdote conveys. Bacon, in a passage which has been often quoted, speaks of

"tryall places of beastes and birdes" among the institutions of the New Atlantis, considering the experience to be derived from them as a necessary means of complying with the ancient behest to mankind, to "replenish the earth and subdue it." And, indeed, a very small amount of reflection will show that acclimatization entails on the part of its promoters some knowledge of natural history. To take some extreme cases: it would be manifestly absurd to attempt the introduction of the musk-ox to the plains of India, or the camel to the tundras of Siberia; of the Scotch-fir to the llanos of South America, or the bread-fruit to our English forests. The definition we have above given of the term also limits its application to those species which are really of service to man, either directly as affording him food, clothing, and the like, or indirectly, by assisting him in obtaining these benefits from other species. It could, therefore, scarcely with consistency be said to comprehend the naturalization of the fox in Australia, even for purposes of sport, still less that of the tiger in the forests of Europe, or the nettle in the West-Indian sugar-islands; though all these may have their proper functions to perform in the countries of their birth. Further, acclimatization is not limited to those species only which seem to be capable of complete domestication, any more than it could be correctly extended to those which are induced to thrive and propagate their kind in an undoubtedly artificial mode of life. It is a sort of probationary process, which may possibly result in actual domestication, but more probably in the introduction of certain exotic species into a country, which, after a period of modified reclamation, will become as it were feræ naturá, share with its original inhabitants the same risks to which they are exposed, and yet finally increase and multiply without the immediate protection of man.

As our present object is to assist, if possible, the labours of acclimatizers, we think it advisable, before proceeding further, to consider our present position as regards the kinds of animals which have already been more or less subdued.

Easy as it might at first sight appear, it is in reality rather the reverse to enumerate with accuracy the different races which have been domesticated by man in one part of the world or another, even without taking account of the many isolated cases on record wherein certain individuals have been wholly reclaimed, but have not perpetuated a domesticated breed. We shall find, on looking into the subject more closely, so many different degrees of mansuetude, that it is difficult to draw the line between those species which seem to have succumbed to the influence of domestication, and those of which the conquest has not been entirely effected. Some there are known to us

only as the obedient slaves of mankind: either the wild races from which they have sprung have been entirely extirpated, or else it is now impossible for us to trace from what source they have been derived. These, of course, comprise some of the animals whose reduction to servitude is the most complete, and probably of the oldest standing. We need not dwell on the remote antiquity of the Arabian camel's domestication, for that is every where admitted. The pictured walls of Egyptian tombs and temples show us that the tame geese of the time of the Pharaohs were subject to the same variations in plumage,-evidence of a long period of antecedent domesticity, as the unhappy captives of Alsace who at the present day furnish the immortal pátés de foie gras, or as their less cruelly used English brethren who are yearly offered at the shrine of St. Michael. We find bones of the dog in the oldest Danish "kitchen-middens," those interesting monuments of a period when probably the most civilized inhabitants of Europe were not more advanced than the present limpet-eating savages of Tierra del Fuego. The curious relics of the ancient " pile-buildings" of Switzerland reveal the fact that the dog, sheep, goat, ox, hog, ass, and horse were domesticated by their builders; and even at one place, though belonging to a later epoch, a single bone of the barn-door fowl has been recognized. The vast remoteness of the periods at which the subjection of these animals took place prevents our even conjecturing the process by which it was brought about; and we are consequently unable to test the truth of the supposition, very strongly advanced by many naturalists, from Pallas to Professor Agassiz, that, probably in several instances, more than one wild species has contributed to the formation of our modern breeds; or, in other words, that these may be the result of a cross between two or more original species; and this adds to the difficulty of enumerating the latter accurately. But the following lists seem to be as comprehensive, with regard to the two highest classes of animals, as, in our opinion, any correct meaning of the term 'domestication' will permit:

In the summer of 1856, a friend of ours found a bone of this bird in an ancient burial-place in the island of Eland, in the Baltic; but we are not able to state what age may be, even approximately, assigned to it.