signs and appearances to draw away the fowler from their young ones; the other, that in case, after all, some suspicion should arise, and the enemy again break in, there must be three or four barriers to storm before he can get to the stronghold in the centre."

Upon this principle all was arranged. First, for the name that was to disarm suspicion-what name could do that? Why, what was the suspicion? A suspicion that Christian embers were sleeping under the ashes. True: but why was that suspicious? Why had it ever been suspicious? For two reasons: because the Christian faith was supposed to carry a secret hostility to the Temple and its whole ritual economy; secondly, for an earnest political reason, because it was believed to tend, by mere necessity, to such tumults or revolutions as would furnish the Roman, on tiptoe for this excuse, with a plea for taking away the Jewish name and nation; that is, for taking away their Jewish autonomy, (or administration by their own Mosaic code,) which they still had, though otherwise in a state of dependency. Well now, for this sort of suspicion, no name could be so admirablyfitted as one drawn from the very ritual service of that very Temple which was supposed to be in danger. That Temple was in danger: the rocks on which it stood were already quaking beneath it. All was accomplished. Its doom had gone forth. Shadows of the coming fate were spreading thick before it. Its defenders had a dim misgiving of the storm that was gathering. But they mistook utterly the quarter from which it was to come. And they closed the great gates against an enemy that entered by the postern. However, they could not apprehend a foe in a society that professed a special interest in Israel. The name chosen, therefore, was derived from the very costume of the Jewish High Priest, the pontifical ruler of the temple. This great officer wore upon his breast a splendid piece of jewellery; twelve precious stones were inserted in the breast-plate, representing the twelve sons of Jacob, or twelves tribes of

"

Israel: and this was called the Essen. Consequently, to announce themselves as the Society of the Essen was to express a peculiar solicitude for the children of Israel. Under this masque nobody could suspect any hostility to Jerusalem or its temple; nobody, therefore, under the existing misconception of Christian objects and the Christian character, could suspect a Christian society.

But was not this hypocritical disguise? Not at all. A profession was thus made of paramount regard to Judea and her children. Why not? Christians every where turned with love, and yearning, and thankfulness the profoundest, to that "Holy City," (so called by Christ himself,) which had kept alive for a thousand years the sole vestiges of pure faith, and which, for a far longer term, mysti. cally represented that people which had known the true God, "when all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones." Christians, or they would have been no Christians, every where prayed for her peace. And if the downfal of Jerusalem was connected with the rise of Christianity, that was not through any enmity borne to Jerusalem by Christians, (as the Jews falsely imagine ;) but because it was not suitable for the majesty of God, as the father of truth, to keep up a separation amongst the nations when the fulness of time in his counsels required that all separation should be at an end. At his bidding the Temple had been raised. At his bidding the Temple must be destroyed. Nothing could have saved it but becoming Christian. The end was accomplished for which it had existed; a great river had been kept pure; that was now to expand into an

ocean.

But, as to any hypocrisy in the fathers of this indispensable scheme for keeping alive the fire that burned on the altar of Christianity, that was impossible. So far from needing to assume more love for Judaism than they had, we know that their very infirmity was to have by much too sectarian and exclusive a regard for those who were represented by the Temple. The Bible, which conceals nothing of any men's errors, does not conceal that. And we know that all the weight of the great intellectual apostle was necessary to overrule the errors, in this point, of St Peter. The fervid apostle erred; and St Paul "withstood him to his face." But his very error proves the more certainly his sincerity and singleness of heart in setting up a society that should profess in its name the service of Jerusalem and her children as its primary function. The name Essen and Essenes was sent before to disarm suspicion and as a pledge of loyal fidelity.

Next, however, this society was to be a secret society-an Eleusinian society-a Freemason society. For, if it were not, how was it to provide for the culture of Christianity? Now, if the reader pauses a moment to review the condition of Palestine and the neighbouring countries at that time, he will begin to see the opening there was for such a society. The condition of the times was agitated and tumultuous beyond any thing witnessed amongst men, except at the Reformation and the French Revolution. The flame on the Pagan altars was growing pale, the oracles over the earth were muttering their alarm, panic terrors were falling upon nations, murmurs were arising, whispers circulating from nobody knew whence that out of the East about this time should arise some great and mysterious deliverer. This whisper had spread to Rome-was current every where. It was one of those awful whispers that have no author. Nobody could ever trace it. Nobody could ever guess by what path it had travelled. But observe, in that generation, at Rome and all parts of the Mediterranean to the west of Palestine, the word "Oriens" had a technical and limited meaning; it was restricted to Syria, of which Palestine formed a section. This use of the word will explain itself to any body who looks at a map of the Mediterranean as seen from Italy. But some years after the Epichristian generation, the word began to extend; and very naturally, as the Roman armies began to make permanent conquests nearer to the Euphrates. Under these remarkable circumstances, and agitated beyond measure between the oppression of the Roman armies on the one hand and

the consciousness of a peculiar dependence on God on the other, all thoughtful Jews were disturbed in mind. The more conscientious, the more they were agitated. Was it their duty to resist the Romans? God could deliver them doubtless; but God worked oftentimes by human means. Was it his pleasure that they should resist by arms? Others again replied-If you do, then you prepare an excuse for the Romans to extirpate your nation. Many, again, turned more to religious hopes: these were they who, in Scriptural language, "waited for the consolation of Israel:" that is, they trusted in that Messiah who had been promised, and they yearned for his manifestation. They mourned over Judea; they felt that she had rebelled; but she had been afflicted, and perhaps her transgressions might now be blotted out, and her glory might now be approaching. Of this class was he who took Christ in his arms when an infant in the temple. Of this class were the two rich men, Joseph and Nicodemus, who united to bury him. But even of this class many there were who took different views of the functions properly belonging to the Messiah; and many that either through this difference of original views, or from imperfect acquaintance with the life of Jesus, doubted whether he were indeed the promised Messiah. Even John the Baptist doubted that, and his question upon that point, addressed to Christ himself, " Art thou he who should come, or do we look for another?" has been generally fancied singularly at war with his own earlier testimony, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." But it is not. The offices of mysterious change for Israel were prophetically announced as coming through a series and succession of characters-Elias, "that prophet," and the Messiah. The succession might even be more divided. And the Baptist, who did not know himself to be Elias, might reasonably be in doubt (and at a time when his career was only beginning) whether Jesus were the Messiah.

Now, out of these mixed elementsmen in every stage and gradation of belief or spiritual knowledge, but all musing, pondering, fermenting in their minds-all tempest-shaken, sorrowhaunted, perplexed, hoping, seeking, doubting, trusting-the apostles would see abundant means for peopling the lower or initiatory ranks of their new society. Such a craving for light from above probably never existed. The land was on the brink of convulsions, and all men felt it. Even amongst the rulers in Jerusalem had been some who saw the truth of Christ's mission, though selfish terrors had kept back their testimony. From every rank and order of men, would press in the meditative to a society where they would all receive sympathy whatever might be their views, and many would receive light.

This society-how was it constituted? In the innermost class were placed, no doubt, all those, and those only, who were thoroughly Christians. The danger was from Christianity. And this danger was made operative only by associating with the mature and perfect Christian any false brother, any half Christian, any hypocritical Christian, any wavering Christian. To meet this danger there must be a winnowing and a sifting of all candidates. And because the danger was awful, involving not one but many, not a human interest but a heavenly interest; therefore these winnowings and siftings must be many, must be repeated, must be soul-searching. Nay, even that will not suffice. Oaths, pledges to God as well as to man, must be exacted. All this the apostles did: serpents by experience, in the midst of their dove-like faith, they acted as wise stewards for God. They surrounded their own central consistory with lines impassable to treachery. Josephus, the blind Jew, blind in heart, we mean, and understanding, reporting a matter of which he had no comprehension, nor could have-(for we could show to demonstration that, for a specific reason, he could not have belonged to the society,)-even this man, in his utter darkness, telegraphs to us by many signals, rockets thrown up by the apostles, which come round and are visible to us, but unseen by him, what it is that the apostles were about. He tells us expressly, that a preparatory or trial period of two years was exacted of every candidate before his admission to any order;

that, after this probationary attendance is finished, "they are parted into four classes;" and these classes, he tells us, are so severely separated from all intercommunion, that merely to have touched each other was a pollution that required a solemn purification. Finally, as if all this were nothing, though otherwise disallowing of oaths, yet in this as in a service of God, oaths, which Josephus styles "tremendous," are exacted of each member, that he will reveal nothing of what he learns.

Who can fail to see, in these multiplied precautions for guarding, what according to Josephus is no secret at all, nor any thing approaching to a secret, that here we have a central Christian society, secret from necessity, cautious to excess from the extremity of the danger, and surrounding themselves in their outer rings by merely Jewish disciples, but those whose state of mind promised a hopeful soil for the solemn and affecting discoveries which awaited them in the higher stages of their progress. Here is the true solution of this mysterious society, the Essenes, never mentioned in any one record of the Christian generation, and that because it first took its rise in the necessities of the Epichristian generation. There is more by a good deal to say of these Essenes; but this is enough for the present. And if any man asks how they came to be traced to so fabulous an antiquity, the account now given easily explains that. Three authors only mention them-Pliny, Philo-Judæus, and Josephus. Pliny builds upon these two last, and other Jewish romancers. The two last may be considered as contemporaries. And all that they allege as to the antiquity of the sect, flows naturally from the condition and circumstances of the outermost circle in the series of the classes. They were occupied exclusively with Judaism. And Judaism had in fact, as we all know, that real antiquity in its people, and its rites, and its symbols, which these then uninitiated authors understand and fancy to have been meant of the Essenes as a philosophical sect.

WHEN, after his return from Mr Gammon's chambers, at Thavies' Inn, Titmouse woke at an early hour in the morning, he was labouring under the ordinary effects of unaccustomed inebriety. His mouth and lips were perfectly parched; there was a horrid weight pressing on his aching eyes, and upon his throbbing head. His pillow seemed undulating beneath him, and every thing swimming around him: but when, to crown the whole, he was roused from a momentary nap by the insupportable - the loathed importunities of Mrs Squallop, that he would just sit up and partake of three thick rounds of hot buttered toast, and a great basin of smoking tea, which would do him so much good, and settle his stomach-at all events, if he'd only have a thimbleful of gin in it-poor Titmouse was fairly overcome. He lay in bed all that day, during which he underwent very severe sufferings; and it was not till towards night that he began to have any thing like a distinct recollection of the evening he had spent with Mr Gammon; who, by the way, had sent one of the clerks, during the afternoon, to enquire after him. He did not get out of bed on the Tuesday till past twelve o'clock, when, in a very rickety condition, he made his ap. pearance at the shop of Messrs Dowlas and Co.; on approaching which he felt a sudden faintness, arising from mingled apprehension and disgust.

"What are you doing here, sir?You're no longer in my employment, sir," exclaimed Tag-rag, attempting to speak calmly, as he hurried down the shop to meet Titmouse, and plant. ed himself right in the way of his languid and pallid shopman.

"Sir!" faintly exclaimed Titmouse, with his hat in his hand.

"Very much obliged, sir-very! by the offer of your valuable services," said Tag-rag. "But-that's the way out again, sir-that!there!-good morn

ing, sir-good morning, sir!-that's the wayout"-and he edged on Titmouse, till he had got him fairly into the street - with infinite difficulty restraining himself from giving him a parting kick. Titmouse stood for a moment before the door, trembling and aghast, lookingin a bewildered manner at the shop: but Tag-rag again making his appearance, Titmouse slowly walked away and returned to his lodgings.-Oh that Mr Gammon had witnessed the scene-th scene thought he-and so have been satisfied that it had been Tag-rag who had put an end to his service, not he himself who had quitted it!

The next day, about the same hour, Mr Gammon made his appearance at Messrs Dowlas and Company's, and enquired for Mr Tag-rag, who presently presented himself-and, recognising Mr Gammon, who naturally reminded him of Titmouse, changed colour a little.

"What did you please to want, sir?" enquired Mr Tag-rag, with a wouldbe resolute air, twirling round his watch-key with some energy.

"Only a few minutes' conversation, sir, if you please," said Mr Gammon, with such a significant manner as a little disturbed Mr Tag-rag; who, with an ill-supported sneer, bowed very low, and led the way to his own little room. Having closed the door, he, with an exceedingly civil air, begged Mr Gammon to be seated; and then occupied the chair opposite to him, and awaited the issue with illdisguised anxiety.

" I am very sorry, Mr Tag-rag," commenced Gammon, with his usual elegant and feeling manner, "that any misunderstanding should have arisen between you and Mr Tit

mouse."

"You're a lawyer, sir, I suppose?" Mr Gammon bowed. " Then you must know, sir, that there are always two sides to a quarrel."

"Yes-you are right, Mr Tagrag; and, having already heard Mr Titmouse's version, may I be favoured with your account of your reasons for dismissing him? For he tells us that yesterday you dismissed him suddenly from your employment, without giving him any warn"-

"So I did, sir; and what of that?" enquired Tag-rag, tossing his head with an air of defiance. " Things are come to a pretty pass indeed, when a man can't dismiss a drunken, idle, impudent vagabond."

"Do you seriously charge him with being such a character, and can you prove your charges, Mr Tag-rag?" enquired Gammon, gravely.

"Prove 'em! yes, sir, a hundred times over; so will all my young men." "And in a court of justice, Mr Tag-rag?"

"Oh! he's going to law, is he? That's why you're come here-ah, ha! when you can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, you may get your bill out of Mr Tittlebat Titmouse!-ha, ha, ha!" laughed Tag-rag, hoping thereby to conceal how much he was really startled.

"Well-that's our look-out, Mr Tag-rag: to Mr Titmouse, his character is as valuable as Mr Tag-rag's is to him. In short, he has placed himself in our hands, and we are resolved to go on with the case, if it costs us a hundred pounds-we are indeed, Mr Tag-rag."

"Why-he's not a penny in the world to go to law with!" exclaimed Tag-rag, with an air of mingled wonder and contempt.

"But you forget, Mr Tag-rag, that if Mr Titmouse's account should turn out to be correct, it will be your pocket that must pay all the expenses, amounting probably to twenty times the sum which a jury may award to Mr Tit

mouse."

"Law, sir! It's not justice-I hate law-give me common sense and common honesty !"

"Both of them would condemn your conduct, Mr Tag-rag; for I have heard a full account of what Mr Titmouse has suffered at your hands-of the cause of your sudden warning to him, and your still more sudden dismissal of yesterday. Oh, Mr Tag-rag! upon my honour, it won't do not for a moment-and should you go on, rely upon what I tell you, that it will cost you dear."

" And suppose, sir," said Tag-rag, in a would-be contemptuous tone" I should have witnesses to prove all I've said-which of us will look funny then, sir?"

"Which, indeed! However, since that is your humour, I can only assure you that Mr Titmouse defies you to prove any misconduct on his part. We have taken up his cause, and, as you may perhaps tind, we shall not easily let it drop."

" I mean no offence, sir," said Tagrag, in a mitigated tone; "but I must say, that ever since you first came here, Titmouse has been quite another person. He seems not to know who I am, nor to care either-and he's perfectly unbearable."

"My dear sir, what has he said or done?-that, you know, is what you must be prepared to prove.

"Well, sir! and which of us is likely to be best off for witnesses? Think of that, sir - I've eighteen young men".

"We shall chance that, sir," replied Gammon, shrugging his shoulders; " but, again, I ask, what did you dismiss him for? and I request a plain, straight-forward answer."

"What did I dismiss him for? Haven't I eyes and ears? - First and foremost, he's the most odious-mannered fellow I ever came near-andhe hadn't a shirt to his back, when I first took him-the ungrateful wretch! Sir, it's not against the law, I suppose, to hate a man;-and if it isn't, how I hate Titmouse!"

"Mr Tag-rag"-said Gammon, lowering his voice, and looking very earnestly at his companion-" can I say a word to you in confidence-the strictest confidence?"

"What's it about, sir?" enquired Tag-rag, with an apprehensive air.

" I dare say you may have felt, perhaps, rather surprised at the interest which I-in fact our office, the office of Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, in Saffron Hill-appear to have taken in Mr Titmouse."

"Why, sir, it's your look-out to see how you're to be paid for what you're doing, and I dare say lawyers generally keep a pretty sharp look-out in that direction."

Gammon smiled, and continued"It may, perhaps, a little surprise you, Mr Tag-rag, to hear that your present (ought I to say, your late?) shopman, Mr Tittlebat Titmouse, is