as tranquil as that of a person in a peaceful sleep." Thus true to his individuality, John Foster died, leaving the best memory in those who knew him most intimately; and by the impression made by his works, recalling to many souls with new force, the admonition, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

H. B-N.

ART. IX.

The Millennium; or the Golden Age to come.

1. A Treatise on the Millennium; in which the prevailing Theories on that subject are examined; and the true Scriptural Doctrine attempted to be elicited and established. By George Bush, A. M., author of 'Questions and Notes upon Genesis and Exodus.' New York: &c. 1832. 12mo. pp. 277.

2. A concise Exposition of the Doctrine of Association, or Plan for a Re-organization of Society, which will secure to the Human Race, individually and collectively, their happiness and exaltation. (Based on Fourier's Theory of Domestic and Industrial Association.) By Albert Brisbane, &c. &c. Fourth Edition. New York: &c. &c. 1843. 8vo. pp. 80.

EVERY one must be aware that several of the inspired writers appear, according to the literal import of their language, to look forward to a blessed period, even in the present world, when all oppression, violence, and wrong shall be done away, and when there shall be no more want, nor hardship, nor suffering, among men. Such is at least the form of representation given by some of the prophets of the Old Testament, and especially by Isaiah, -more frequently by him, perhaps, than by any of the rest. We may take the following as a specimen: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them, And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the

OX. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Here he foretells, if taken strictly to the letter, a time when there should be nothing to hurt nor destroy, in all the earth; when the wild beasts themselves should lose their natural ferocity, and dwell together in perfect harmony.

If we look into the context, however, and compare what goes before the passage, and what follows it, we shall see, at once, that, in all this, Isaiah is prophesying only of the introduction of the gospel into our world, in the days of Jesus Christ; though it is not improbable that he, at the same time, takes into view the gradual diffusion of Christianity down to the period when it became prevalent. But it is plain that this is all which he actually refers to, by these glowing descriptions, and that the scene, which he paints in such strong colors, is to be regarded only as so much imagery. In other passages, that are scattered through his prophecy, he represents the same period as a time when the nations should beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruninghooks, and learn war no more; when a hundred years should be but the age of a child; when the people should never grow old, but live as long as the trees of the forest; every one dwelling in the house he had built, and enjoying the harvest he had planted; when there should be no more laboring in vain, no more trouble, nor sorrow; when the sound of weeping should never be heard, but all be . universal joy. Such is the highly figurative manner in which the prophets represent the times of the gospel, from the birth of Jesus Christ, onwards. We need not particularize farther, as a great many passages of the kind, will readily occur to every one familiar with the Old Testament, and with the Apocalypse. Other periods, too, of general prosperity, are presented in similar colors, according to the usual style of the prophetic writings. The several images are woven together into one splendid tissue, by Pope, in his gorgeous poem of the Messiah. They bring before our imaginations, a state of things like that which the poets have fabled of the Golden Age, or

which fancy has ascribed to the Garden of Eden, in the morning of time.

Now, by these glowing representations, many have been ed to look for something answering to them, not figuratively, in the past and present, where they obviously belong, but literally, and in some future generation, where they obviously do not belong. Many expect a period, perhaps not a great while ahead of us, at all events here on earth, when the state of men and of society shall correspond with the literal import of those descriptions: when there will be no diversity of personal interests, no contention, no more hardship, toil, nor anxiety; no more sorrow; nor scarcely any more old-fashioned death. People will live, we are told, some four or five hundred years, or even a thousand; and then fade away, as the flame on a lamp expires, without pain to themselves, or grief to their friends. Every thing will be changed into uninterrupted pleasure, so as to become perfectly agreeable to us, leaving no occasion to restrain our natural tendencies, nor to accommodate ourselves to our condition. Our condition, on the other hand, will be thoroughly accommodated to our likings. The seasons of the year will all turn bland and soothing. Not a breeze will be suffered to blow, till it has first been attempered down exactly to our senses. The world will be full of unmixed comfort, without want, or poverty, or even temptations to try us. We shall grow up great, and good, and pious, without any painful effort, but spontaneously, and as unconscious of opposing forces as the plants grow.

Religious people, or rather those Christians, who cherish these expectations, usually call this period the Millennium, or the thousand years' reign of Christ upon earth, and regard it as a special dispensation from Heaven. But some of the more independent and unrestricted speculatists, of our day, look for this condition of things to be brought about, at length, by what they call Human Progress, or the Progress of Society. They flatter themselves that mankind are improving so rapidly, increasing so fast in knowledge, reforming their vices at such a rate, and grow. ing so spiritual and refined, that they will, ere long, become angelic, as we might say; at all events, that they will, of themselves, work out this happy condition of hu

manity, that they will grow up to it, in the natural course of their developement. Both classes, however, the religious enthusiasts on the one hand, and the speculatists on the other, agree in the general traits of the picture which their imaginations paint of the approaching Golden Age, whether they call it the Millennium, or the result of human perfectibility.

For ourselves, we look for no such state of things ever to take place, here on earth, and among mortal men. Desirable as it might seem, at the first glance, and as pleasant as it may be to contemplate it in the mood of poetic revery, most bitterly should we rue it, were it unfortunately to come, in this life, so that we were obliged to make trial of it, as a reality. It would unstring every noble faculty of our nature. The toil-braced nerve, and the strength of soul that triumphs over difficulties, would yield at once. We should be dissolved, as it were, into utter impotence and mawkish sentimentality. But, happily, there is no danger. The entire picture is nothing but a doting vision, that can never be realized in the present world; and God forbid that it ever should be. As to the fond expectations of religious enthusiasts, founded on certain texts of Scripture, we have already intimated that they misinterpret the passages, taking what is manifestly figurative, for literal. They apply, to an imaginary Millennium, what referred to the gospel in all ages; they explain, of outward circumstances, what was meant of the internal moral kingdom only. Let any one follow out their mode of understanding the prophetic language, on other subjects, and he would make the wildest work of the Scriptures, and of common sense, too. As to the other class, whom we have distinguished as the specu-latists, it is easy to be seen that their course of philosophizing, or of fancying, runs directly against all the laws and essential demands of human nature, in our present state of being. They are imagining a state of earthly blessedness, founded on complete exemption from toil, and care, and danger, and from every thing that thwarts our will, or crosses our affections. They place it in boundless gratification. But no such thing is possible with us, in our present constitution; because our desires and caprices always multiply so fast, with indulgence,

that they outrun it in the ratio of Geometrical Progression. Nor, indeed, is free, unpurchased gratification the element for which man is adapted, even were it attainable. Man was made for an active, laborious, pains-taking creature; to get his strength from hardships endured, and to develope all his noblest powers by the experience of trial, suffering, privation, and exposure to danger. In his present mode of being, he cannot do without these rough and severe schoolmasters, to discipline him, to give him consistency, and to bring out his latent capabilities. What else did God place them here for? If we wish to see in what way human nature would actually work, in the condition supposed, let us take it in its simplest form, and try the experiment on a small scale. Take the little child, that is about to walk; subject him, as fully as possible, to the kind of experience that has been imagined for man. Save him from all necessity to exert himself. Do not put him to the effort of walking by his own strength and skill; move his limbs for him, hold him up; expose him to no danger of pain or inconvenience. Temper every thing just to his liking; gratify all his wishes, as soon as they are discovered; humor all his caprices, so that he shall feel no want, and have no care. Make it thus our business to teach him self-indulgence, and never give him a lesson of self-denial. Pursue this course, till he has grown up, and what will he be? A fool and the most wretched of all fools; a creature of boundless caprices, which he could no more control than he could control all the winds of heaven, but which the whole Universe could not satisfy, were it his; himself utterly helpless, the slave and victim of them. This, we know, is the way that human nature would work, in such a condition; and men and women of maturer age, if subjected to it, would only verify the same results on a larger scale.

It has always been the case, that people have loved to amuse themselves with trying to conceive of a better arrangement of things, here, than God has actually made. No doubt, if our fond, languor-loving, sickly, sentimental taste had been originally consulted, in the fashioning and ordering of nature, we might have had a very delicate, genteel little world of our own, here, all flowers and sunshine, like a picture without shades, as fair as a smile, and