titioned its territories, and then they quarrelled among themselves for the possession of them. The feet of the image, agreeably to the prophecy recorded by Daniel, were composed of iron and of clay, partly strong and partly brittle : and, in the conflict of these heterogeneous materials, the clay was speedily ground to powder. After a short reign of sixteen years, Odoacer was attacked and slain by Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths: the Ostrogothic monarchy was, in its turn, subverted by the lieutenants of the Eastern Emperor : and Italy was, afterward, a prey alternately to the Lombards and the Franks. If from Italy we cast our eyes over Gaul, we shall behold the same spectacle of war and discord in the contests of Clovis with the Alemanni, the Burgundians, and the Visigoths. Nor were Gaul and Italy the only western regions, which the fall of the mystic Hesperus tinged with bitterness. At that unhappy period, the Saxons fiercely struggled with the natives for the possession of Britain : and Africa was exposed to the cruel persecution of the Vandals and the savage insults of the Moors. All the subjects of the Empire, who by the use of the Latin language more particularly deserved the name and privileges of Romans, were oppressed by the disgrace and calamities of foreign conquest: and the victorious nations of Germany established a new system of manners and government in the western countries of Europe'.

Hist, of Decline, vol. vi. p. 404.

IV. And the fourth angel sounded: and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; in order that the third part of them might be darkened, and that the day might not shine as to the third part of it and the night likewise '.

The three first trumpets severally introduced the three plagues of the north-wind, the south-wind, and the west-wind: hence the plague of the eastwind alone remains to be introduced by the fourth trumpet. Accordingly, this arrangement, which follows of necessity from the arrangement of the three former plagues, is no less required by the imagery of the oracle, than it is established by the voice of history.

1. By the extinction of the Western Empire, the Eastern was left as the sole representative of Roman greatness. During the period, therefore, of the fourth trumpet, the third part of the Roman World, which is affected, can only be the Eastern Empire.

Now the mode, in which it is affected, is described by the figure of a great eclipse. The entire sun is the Imperial Power operating throughout the whole Empire: the entire moon, or the allegorical wife of the sun, is the right of sovereignty exercised over all the Roman territory; and the entire host of heaven denotes all the civil authorities by which the whole undivided Empire is administered. Hence the third part of the sun and of the moon and of

the stars will signify the Imperial Dignity and the right of sovereignty and the collective magistracy of only one third part of the Empire: which third part, during the period of the fourth trumpet, must, for the reasons already given, bé the eastern third part or the Greek Empire of the East.

Such being the case, the prophecy declares, not merely that the sun and the moon and the stars should be defalcated of two parts out of three ; but that the third part itself of those luminaries, after shining with a brilliant though diminished lustre in the East, should experience so great an eclipse that an almost total darkness should be the consequence of it. In other words, the prophecy does not foretell an extraordinary diminution of light by the res duetion of the heavenly bodies to only one third part of their natural dimensions : but it foretells an eminent eclipse of the third part itself, to which the heavenly bodies had been previously reduced. When to this we add, that the plague, which brings on the eclipse of the third part of the heavenly host, is the plague of the east-wind; the sum and substance of the prediction, if translated from the language of symbols into the language of common life, will be to the following effect. The Greek Empire, or the Eastern third part of the Roman Empire, is destined, during the period of the fourth trumpet, to experience some great political defalcation, which will be produced by calamities coming from the east : but, as the image employed to represent this visitation is only an eclipse which in its nature is

not permanent, the political defalcation alluded to will soon be repaired.

2. In order to ascertain the event intended by that plague of the east-wind which brings so marked a calamity upon the Greek Empire, we must obviously follow the stream of history as it rolls downward from the year 476 or 479 when the brilliant western star of the third trumpet was precipitated from the political heaven.

The reigns of Zeno and Anastasius and Justin, which jointly extended from the year 474 to the year 527, offer nothing worthy of our particular attention but the reign of Justinian, which commenced in the year 527 and which terminated in the year 565, may be deemed a peculiarly brilliant period of Byzantine history. While Belisarius and Narses, the two consummate generals of this prince, overturned the kingdoms of the Vandals and the Ostrogoths, curbed the ambition of Persia, and reannexed Africa and Sicily and Italy to the Empire; the eastern third part of the heavenly bodies shone out with an unusual degree of splendour: hence it is self-evident, that the predicted time of their eclipse could not have arrived during the reign of Justinian. As little can we discover any thing, which corresponds with the imagery of the fourth trumpet, in the reigns of the younger Justin and Tiberius and Maurice, which extended from the year 565 to the year 602: but, immediately after this last epoch, the east-wind began to blow, and the threatened eclipse commenced.

(1.) In the year 602, the unfortunate Maurice was deposed and murdered by the usurper Phocas: and, in the year 603, Chosroes invaded the Eastern Roman Empire.

According to the friendly and equal forms of the Byzantine and Persian courts, Phocas announced his exaltation to the throne : and his ambassador Lilius, who had presented him with the heads of Maurice and his sons, was the best qualified to describe the circumstances of the tragedy. But, however it might be varnished by fiction or sophistry, Chosroes turned with horror from the assassin, imprisoned the pretended envoy, disclaimed the usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his father and benefactor.

Thus commenced a war, which brought the Byzantine Empire to the very brink of ruin : for, though it was begun by the Persian under the pious pretext of avenging the death of Maurice, it was ambitiously and successfully prolonged far beyond the deposition and execution of Phocas. Between the years 603 and 616, Chosroes subdued Syria and Palestine and Egypt and Asia Minor: a Persian camp was maintained above ten years in the presence of Constantinople : and, from the longdisputed banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, the reign of the grandson of Nushirvan was suddenly extended to the Hellespont and the Nile, the ancient limits of the Persian monarchy. The Emperor Heraclius, who had succeeded Phocas, was reduced to the lowest pitch of distress and des