heathens, as God determined to reveal Himself, not according to His outward, but His inward majesty. These miracles served to withdraw Israel from bondage; but the opposition to those laws, revealed so awfully from Sinai, was a proof of deeply-rooted sinfulness; and the children of Israel were condemned to a forty years' pilgrimage in the Desert, before they might behold the Promised Land. The laws served at first to raise them to a higher grade of cultivation; and then, by sacrifices and festivals, to prepare them for the Saviour, towards whom the glorious line of Prophets pointed ever clearer and more distinctly: till at length Christ appeared among men to unfold the most hidden glories of God, and to reconcile the Almighty with humanity, at a time when notoriously all nations were steeped in the deepest night, under the shadow of death, and in the greatest need of God's grace. The Lord arose above them as the light of the world, as the sun of life, and with His disciples illuminated the whole globe. Through Christ, the most holy and majestic secret of His eternal love had been fully revealed, and man was enabled thereby to approach His glory; while the curtain which had hitherto separated the Jews and Gentiles was now raised. That which, up to this time, had been regarded on both sides as a secret knowledge, was now universally made known; and the doctrine of the threefold existence of God, and His holy teachings, were now to be preached to all the world.

As the appearance of Christ produced a reconciliation between sinful humanity and God, and, at the same time, a reunion of the nations who were wandering blindly in different directions; so was it necessary for man to regain his original connection with God and nature, between whom, as it were, he formed the mediator, and to be placed in a very high degree of mental perfection. For man possesses a susceptibility as well for the divine as for the natural, and also an inner spiritual, as well as outward organic, activity. Man," says Molitor, "is destined to connect created things with God, and God with created things, through the universal bond of love. Inwardly he should receive the overflowing influence of divine love and grace; and his outward activity should be directed to spread the divine influence through all spheres of creation, to rouse intelligent beings

66

to an eternal love, and magically to impart an everlasting harmony to the material world."

In how far this reunion through Christ has been carried into effect, or may be, according to the circumstances and conditions of future ages, does not belong to the province of this work.

If the first man lost his perfect harmony with God and nature, and, at the same time, also forfeited his active government, then must these have been restored after the restoration through Christ. He would then communicate with God, and the influences of nature would produce in him a disinclination to receive any impressions which could militate against the divine power of his mind. It was thus that through Christ the true penetrating vision, and the original power over nature, were restored; for, as God at the creation endowed the first man with dominion over all other creatures,-over the fishes in the sea, and the birds under the heavens, and over all animals upon the earth; and as Adam was able to give to everything its proper name, therefore the second man, the Son of God, brought back the power over nature, and imparted it, with the knowledge of all languages, to His disciples. The holy spirit radiating from Our Saviour illuminates every one who is born again through Jesus Christ; and as, at the first apostacy at Babel, the confusion of tongues became universal, so did the unity in heart and mind of the disciples, gathered together in obedience, restore the unity of language at Jerusalem; and to them was given the power of reclaiming men from sin and evil deeds, of healing sickness, blindness, and all diseases, of working miracles, and of leading humanity to the true God. If, however, the true unity of language consists therein, that the heart and soul are to act on the will of God, and, being open to its influences, seize at once upon the meaning; and that by word and deed it is then proclaimed for the glory of the Almighty; so must it be that the true magical sight, and the proper direction of the will, are restored, and then we may look forward to healing the sick by laying on of the hands, and prayer.

The meanings of dreams are to be valued according to the inner nature of the same. From the preceding observations we shall be able to judge whether dreams are always phantasms, and how much of truth or consistency their

symbols and allegories may contain. Although most dreams of the natural sleep are merely produced by the activity of the inner senses, yet all are not so; and there are few persons who have not occasionally had significant dreams which referred to themselves: that is, if they were inclined to and observed such things. If the blood and the mind of the sleeper were not agitated by any foreign and disturbing influences, if the outward impressions which produce dreams were known, if the remembrance of the dream were always perfectly distinct, and if we were perfectly acquainted with the language of dreams, we should often find our dreams very instructive.

Dreams with changing shapes and an unconnected confusion of ideas, arise, undoubtedly, from bodily uneasiness and the circulating fluids, and are always without meaning. A higher class is formed by allegorical dreams,-simple and easily understood pictures of a more durable character. Future and distant events are often indicated in these ; scenes and incidents are beheld which are afterwards experienced. Divinatory dreams are of a still higher description, and, like magnetic clairvoyance, are not bounded either by time or place, but reveal the future, though generally without reference to the dreamer: here symbols are made use of, almost without exception, to indicate the events, and may be produced by higher influences.

The meaning of dreams has been in all ages very similar, as we have already mentioned, and was made the subject of a particular science. Since Artemidor, many writers have given explanations of dreams, but usually without much success, as the materials were in most cases wanting to the investigators, and the appearances of the dreams themselves extremely complicated: they, however, state, that to dream of great and troubled waters indicates sorrow and danger; thorns, difficulties; words mean tears; to dream of death predicts rain the following day; and of churches, sickness. Dreams, however, occasionally appear to be ironical, and to indicate their exact opposites; allegories and symbols are only frequent to those who dream much, and observe their meanings. We might produce innumerable examples of dreams from Cicero, and others;

but we shall content ourselves with mentioning one or two which have occurred in the present age.

Dr. X—, a friend of Professor Sachs, of Erlangen, had the following dream one evening, after a conversation on natural philosophy with the professor :-"I ascended a mountain, on the summit of which stood a temple as I entered it I perceived a company of Freemasons sitting in a room which was hung with black. I heard a glorious inspiring funeral chant. To my inquiry for whom these ceremonies were being held, they replied, for brother Sachs. Three months afterwards I received the intelligence of Suchs' death, which had resulted from a dangerous illness produced by the ascent of a steep mountain. Half a year afterwards I was present at the ceremonies held in his honour in the Lodge at N

Similar allegorical visions are occasionally described by magnetic clairvoyants, and have been recorded of the Oracles. When the cholera broke out in 1831 in Berlin, all Brandenburg was in alarm. K, a teacher, however, said, “I saw in a dream that a monster came towards Brandenburg from the East; but when near to it the monster sprang to the right_and_to the left: Brandenburg will escape." This proved to be the case.

Many interesting instances of allegorical dreams and visions are brought forward by H. Werner in his “Guardian Angels," and "Symbols of Language;" where single stages or even the whole course of a disease, and the proper treatment to be pursued, were stated; and also where future events are allegorically indicated.

Oberlin (Berichte eines Visionärs über den Zustand der Seelen nach dem Tode, 1837,) relates some singular instances of symbolical dreams which occurred to himself, with the remark, that many dreams lie deeper, and are enacted in a deeper stage, than is generally imagined. He says, "If I do not at the moment of waking transfer such a dream carefully, as it were, to the outer senses, so is the recollection of it lost to me until perhaps some future and similar state reveals it again. I beheld two young men who from mere ambition were striving to force themselves through the eye of a needle. They were exhausted, dripping with perspi

ration, and so red in the face that they appeared to be on the verge of apoplexy. It was said to me, if these peril life and everything belonging to it, wife and children, to attain an empty shadow, what should you not do to gain the great promise? Another time the interior of a temple was opened to me, into which I went with fear and deep veneration. It was dark around me, but I could perceive a grandeur and majestic simplicity such as I had never before seen. A person met me who appeared to be the sacristan, and reproved me earnestly but with kindness for having entered where it was not permitted to me. The temple was situated in a glorious island; and the place was called in the language of the inhabitants by a name resembling" Forest-stream," but was at the same time associated with the word "Philadelphia." In going out I saw a cradle containing eight well-formed but very small children. The mother, who sat near them, was a slender, light form, and replied to my question whether they were of the same age, that they were born one after the other, but that, to her great sorrow, not even the eldest could yet walk. Upon this I understood inwardly that this referred to me. This is the consequence of hasty actions which are born before they are matured. Flower-pots were also shown to me containing a dark green substance of the consistency of treacle, but of a dangerous and noxious nature, and covered over with soft glass. I was told that this was produced by the so-called wits and men of letters. At another time the streets of a town were shown to me, so entirely cleared of the mud and dirt that the foundations of the houses were laid bare. I understood from this picture that I was now purified from many vices, but that I must provide myself with the necessary virtues, or else the edifice might be injured at its foundations." When he felt a great desire to die, fire and water were shown to him, as being incompatible with each other, and shortly after he saw a half-finished building, where a well-known and skilful sculptor was chiselling at a stone which had long been built into the wall. He thought this absurd, but it was explained to him thus-that if any one desired to enter upon eternal life before his time, he would, like the stone, require chiseling and cutting afresh.

Dreams are occasionally so vivid that they become poetic,