Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

in the epic poet Statius. This writer has improved on both his masters. Homer and Virgil had certainly drawn a picture of the head and fore parts of the horses, but it was reserved for Statius to make them properly marine horses, whose bodies should terminate in the form of a fish. In this way he made the contour of the animal approach still nearer to the type of the wave. Statius' horses lift up their necks high in the air, but taper away behind, into the broad, flat tail of a fish. Thus in the first book of the Achilleis, he states that the horses of Neptune, "while pawing the sea in front, yet scull themselves along with tails behind, and these broad tails floating on the water, level and smooth the sea behind them." It is apparent that he alludes to the smooth gulf, which follows in the wake of an enormous billow. In another poem, the Thebais, Book Second, he relates that Neptune drives his wearied steeds into a harbor. This is in itself a happy conception, to pretend that the waves throw themselves on the strand, because they are tired of racing together over the deep. He then goes on to describe them, in a passage which is somewhat elliptical and obscure, and which we cannot render so well, as it is paraphrased in the French translation of Achaintre. "Ces immortels animaux creusent profondement l'arène avec leurs pieds de devant, tandisque la partie posterieure de leur corps, terminée en queue de poisson, se joue sur la surface des flots."

But perhaps the most convincing evidence to be adduced from the writings of this author, is afforded by a single epithet applied to Neptune's horses in the first book of the Achilleis. Thetis, foreseeing the "woes unnumbered" which are to result to Greece, in case Paris succeeds in carrying away Helen across the sea, resolves to appeal to the ruler of the ocean, to sink the hateful ships. She approaches Neptune's chariot and, in the language of the poet, casts herself before the "cerulean horses." Too much importance cannot be attached to the epithet "cerulean." Was there ever a horse seen that was blue, or green, or cerulean? If these horses had been ordinary animals, and not waves, Statius would never have exposed himself to derision, by inventing an epithet, so fit to describe the color of a wave, but so singularly inappropriate for any other purpose.

These are, we believe, the only allusions bearing on this subject, to be found in ancient literature. The Greek and Roman artists have, in their rilievos and intaglios, that have descended to modern times, represented the horses of Neptune after the model furnished them by Statius. The paucity of materials is here a bar to any extended research. But in the learned work of Spence, entitled Polymetis, on the correspondence between the works of the ancient poets and artists, occurs this paragraph. "The make of the sea horse, as described by Statius, is frequent on gems and reliefs." A fine example of sea horses, so delineated, may be seen in Spillsbury's engravings, after antique gems in the possession of the Earl of Percy and others. Raspe's catalogue of the principal gems in the public and private cabinets of Europe, contains an enumeration of nine compositions, where Neptune is represented with his horses; and what is remarkable, a description of upwards of twenty gems, representing Amphitrite, the queen of Neptune, guiding her chariot drawn by horses. This seems to indicate that the horse was associated with Neptune, not arbitrarily, but with him, as with any deity, to whom had been given power over the watery element. As regards all those other allusions to Neptune, as the creator of the horse and the inventor of horsemanship, it is easy to imagine that they arose out of Homer's original conception.

With respect to the form of Neptune's chariot, it is commonly said to be a sea shell. But no authority in classical literature is to be found that will prove such an assertion. It may have been an original idea of the ancient artists, who in this way alluded to the shell-like appearance of the space between two waves. Worlidge's Gems contains a fine engraving after a carnelian, where Amphitrite is thus represented gliding over the sea on a shell.*

*The writer of this Article was not aware, until after it had left his hands for publication, that the same general view in reference to the Horses of Neptune has been expressed in the recent German works of Preller and Gerhard on Greek Mythology. As the theory here offered is the result of an entirely independent investigation, he still allows the Article to appear, partly because he believes that it will be new to many readers, and partly because the evidence in the case is presented with much greater fullness than in the works of those distinguished writers.

ARTICLE VII.-CHRIST DYING FOR THE SINS OF MEN THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHRISTIAN SUPER

STRUCTURE.

EACH system of religion that has appeared among men,—and there have been many,-has claimed for itself superiority over every other. What one has magnified, another has depreciated. In some cases, what one has exalted as its chief excellence, another has condemned as a radical defect.

In this claim of self-superiority, the Christian religion, as set forth in the Christian Scriptures, presents no exception. While it is not blind to the many excellencies of other systems, it yet claims for itself superiority-infinite superiority-over them all.

In what does this superiority chiefly consist? Wherein does the Christian religion essentially differ from and excel all others?

It is conceded, that the Christian system holds many facts. and truths in common with other and opposing systems. All religions embrace within themselves much that is true and good. Underneath the rubbish that superstition and selfishness have accumulated, there lies a granite foundation, the intuitions of moral consciousness, common to them all. Only in one respect, but that one, grand and glorious,-can we fairly claim that the Christian religion is fundamentally different from, and superior to all others. But so momentous is that one distinction, that the system which incorporates it must stand apart and alone, like some solitary mountain range towering aloft in its sublimity, or, like the sun in the heavens eclipsing the stars by its superior brightness, and shedding as a benediction upon this world of ours the blessings of light and heat and life.

This grand characteristic of the Christian system does not consist in its claim to be of Divine origin and authority. It

does indeed claim this, and supports its position by unanswerable argument; as its successful vindication of itself, amidst obloquy and opposition, for more than eighteen hundred years, triumphantly proves. But other religions, with scarcely an exception, have claimed the same. They all profess to have descended from Deity. Their several books, such as the Zendavesta, the Shaster, the Koran, and the Talmud, profess, we do not say with how much evidence, to be divinely inspired. It is not then the claim to Divine authorship that distinguishes the Christian system from all others.

Nor is its great feature this; that it unfolds such doctrines. as the being and attributes of God, the soul's immortality and accountability, and the fact of future award. These are the inculcations of natural religion; and they are incorporated into Paganism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity alike. The Christian Scriptures always assume and assert their truth, and draw inferences accordingly; but they never attempt to prove them true, or to teach them as a new revelation.

Nor yet does its grand characteristic lie in the superiority and completeness of its moral code. The morality of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament, is beyond the reach of criticism. The Decalogue of Moses and Christ's Sermon on the Mount are conceded by all religionists, for their comprehensiveness, purity, and value, to be matchless. Some of the precepts in the Mosaic Code are indeed censured as defective, or at best, only adapted to an undeveloped race; and it is conceded that the New Testament teaches a loftier morality than is contained in the Old, and better suited to an advanced state of society. But the Scriptures are not alone nor peculiar in teaching lessons of morality. There is scarcely a moral precept in the Bible which has not its counterpart in the teachings of such old philosophers as Confucius, Socrates, and Plato, not to mention the writings of modern skeptics who reject the Christian system.

Nor does the glory of the Christian religion lie in the originality and perfection of its Author's life and teachings, nor in the prominence that is given to these in the Scripture record. The Christian and the skeptic are equally eloquent in their

praises of the life of Jesus, considered merely as a man and a religious teacher. His character, viewed on its negative side, is acknowledged to be faultless; and in its positive aspects, it is great and noble beyond precedent. As a teacher, it is conceded that he had deeper and clearer perceptions of moral and spiritual truths, and knew better how, and in what proportions, to unfold them, than had yet been attained by mortal man; and that it was both natural and right that his character and teachings should hold the prominence in his system, and excite the admiration of his disciples, and of the world, which they have actually done. But, it is contended, and justly, that besides Jesus, other great and good men have lived and been the discoverers of new and valuable truths.

Nor does the Gospel peculiarity consist in the tendency inherent in the system to promote the general elevation of society. It certainly has this tendency, and has it in a higher degree than can be claimed in behalf of any other religion. But every religion, the worst that ever existed, has something in it that is elevating. As the worst of civil governments is better than absolute anarchy, so the worst of religions is better than absolute atheism. And it must be conceded that under other systems than the Christian, individuals and nations have arisen to a high state of civilization. While Christianity does not overlook nor undervalue the general elevation of man, it has for its chief end another and higher aim, one that concerns more directly the soul-the soul as it stands related to God and eternity.

Nor yet does the crowning glory of the Gospel lie in the measures that have been employed to establish, extend, and perpetuate its influence in the world. We refer to such agencies as the gift of prophecy, the power of miracle, the special influence of the Divine Spirit, and the self-denying, almost superhuman exertions of its loving, trusting advocates. All these agencies, if the system be, as it claims, of Divine origin, we should expect to find in active operation. Even those religions which we know are not from God, claim for themselves the same kind of support. But what are prophecies and miracles, and Sabbaths and ordinances, and spiritual communica

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »