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HERDER'S PARABLES.

JOHN G. VON HERDER was born at Mohrungen, in East Prussia, 25th August, 1744; son of a poor schoolmaster there, whose narrow views blew rather gruff and cold on the budding genius of the young poet. Led by an interesting, not always smooth path, he got to the University of Königsberg, where, under Kant and others, he lived in the constant intoxication of philosophic and theological study. After being this and that, he was called as court preacher, superintendent, &c. to Bückeburg (1770), where he remained six years, high in the friendship of Count William of Lippe-Schaumburg. From thence he went to exercise the same office at Weimar, in whose noble society—when Göethe, and Schiller, and Wieland, were there-he remained, himself a star of high magnitude and clear shining, till the time of his death (18th December, 1803). A man of constant activity, and of high philosophic and literary attainment, he hath achieved for himself one of the highest names among the Walhalla heroes of the German literature! In the faith his name is not so high. The deep mysteries thereof are to his eye not near so clearly manifested as to many whose names stand written in no book of earthly fame, written only in that great, unspeakable, ineffaceable book, which Jehovah Himself hath written. Yet of Herder, too, we trust that though dim, not bright, his perception of the Everlasting Light was true. In his parables you are not to expect, therefore, so much spirituality of tone and temper, but little fanciful legends rather and lively sketches-the shining sparks from a glowing imagination, throwing light on the place and duty of man in the world mainly. Some lesson in Christian morality is generally the object of his teaching, parabolic or other.

THE STRIFE OF THE HOLY HILLS.

When God descended on Sinai to give the law, the Spirits of the Mountains in the Land of Promise appeared before Him: "Wherefore," said they, "dost Thou despise us, the chosen ones, and select a foreign mount—a barren rock in the heathen waste-for the stool where Thy feet may stand?"

"Who are ye," spake Jehovah, "that ye should venture to become the footstool of my glory? Look around. My step was there, on yonder sunken mountains, on the now ruined hills of the old time; where is now the crown of their summits?

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"But upon you," continued the All-Gracious, "I will manifest my glory in milder form: Thou, smiling Tabor, shalt look upon the face of my Son, and hear my gentler voice in Him. Thou, Mount of God, thou, fruitful Carmel; on thee shall my servant Elias dwell, and with fire from heaven shall make known my name to men. Thou, Lebanon, shalt build my sanctuary; and thou, modest and silent Zion, upon thee, the smallest of the mountains, shall that sanctuary rest, the everlasting habitation of my Name. The Mount, where the house of Jehovah is, shall be higher than all the mountains of Earth, and shall be exalted above the hills."

Joyfully the Mountains left the presence of Jehovah : they envied Sinai no more; and the smallest of all, the lowly Zion, became in the future the greatest among the Mountains.

THE SUN AND MOON.

Daughter of Beauty, beware of Envy! Envy has thrown angels out of heaven: it hath darkened the beautiful Moon, the graceful form that adorns the night.

The creating voice went forth from the council of the

THE SUN AND MOON.

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Eternal: "Let two lights shine in the firmament as rulers to

determine the passing time." He spake, and it was so. The Sun, the first light, arose. As the bridegroom in the morning steps forth from his chamber, as the hero rejoices in the path of victory, so stood he, clad in his heavenly brilliancy. A garland of every colour enringed his head, the earth shouted for joy, the herbs sent forth their pleasant odour, the flowers adorned themselves right gaily.

And the other light stood full of envy, and saw how it could not surpass the glorious one in splendour. "What should two princes,” it said, "do upon one throne? Why am I the second, and not the first ?"

And suddenly, chased away by that inward grudge, its beautiful light evanished. Far away did it fly into the air, and was changed into the glorious host of stars.

Pale as one dead stood Luna there, confounded before all the heavenly ones, and wept. "Have pity on me, O Father of all," she cried; "have pity on me."

And the angel of God stood before the darkened one; he spake to her the words of holy destiny. "Oh, Unfortunate, because thou hast envied the light of the Sun, thou must from henceforth shine only from his light; and whenever yonder earth steps between thee and him, then must thou stand darkened as now, wholly or in part. But weep not, child of Error. The Compassionate has forgiven thee thy sin, and changed it into good. Go," he said, "speak comfort to the penitent one; let her, too, in her shining be a queen. The tears of her repentance shall be as balm, to refresh all that is languishing,—to quicken with new vigour that which the Sun's hot rays have made faint.”

Comforted did Luna turn her away ;-and behold! there fell around her that pleasant light in which yet she shimmers : she entered upon the still path, which yet she ever treads

the Queen of Light-the leader of the stars. Weeping over her own guilt, and feeling sympathy for every tear, she seeks whom she may quicken, she seeks whom she may comfort.

Daughter of Beauty, beware of Envy. Envy has thrown angels out of heaven: it hath darkened the Moon, the fair form that adorns the night.

THE RAT IN THE IMAGE.

(After the Chinese.)

Hoan-Kong once asked his minister, Koang-Chong, what it was of which one needed to be most afraid in a State ? Koang-Chong answered, "Prince, in my estimation there is nothing of which one ought to be more afraid than of what is called the rat in the image."

Hoan-Kong did not understand this comparison. KoangChong explained it to him thus:—

"You are aware, Prince, that there are erected in many places images in honour of the Genius of the place. Now, these wooden statues are invariably hollow, and outside they are painted. But a rat had made his way into one of them, and no one knew how to have him driven out. Fire they durst not make use of, lest it should kindle upon the wood of the image; and to put the statue under water would hardly do either, for fear the colours should be spoiled. And so the reverence in which they held the image was the means of covering and protecting the rat."

"And who are these rats in the State?" asked HoanKong.

"People who have neither merit nor virtue," said the minister, "and who, nevertheless, enjoy the favour of the monarch. They destroy all: people see and sigh over it, but one cannot tell how to attack or get at them. They are the rats in the image."

W. H.

LETTERS TO FRIENDS FAR AWAY.

December 24, 1855.

DEAR FRIENDS,-The year opened gloomily. After a boastful outset, Sir Charles Napier had in the previous autumn brought back his fleet with nothing but the meagre laurels of Bomarsund; and in the Crimea the victory of Alma had not been followed by that capture of Sebastopol which the imagination of the public had pictured as the instantaneous consequence. The fields of Balaklava and Inkermann, whilst exhibiting in British soldiers the dash of Troubadours and the nerve of old Romans, had yielded no positive advantage; and for dreary weeks and months the sympathy of an indignant nation was tortured by accounts of the privation and suffering to which heroes were subjected through the heartless routine or the horrible blunders of incompetent civil officials.

But the country was resolute.

Untrammelled by the

personal influences which may be felt in high circles, it only saw in Russia the enslaver of the nations-the Gorgon whose hard eye turns flesh and blood to stone. In Sebastopol it saw a "menace" to European civilisation; and it felt that the battle of London and Paris was fighting in the Baltic; and undismayed by enormous sacrifices, and undisgusted by grievous mismanagement, it demanded a vigorous prosecution of a war which it viewed as a sacred though mournful necessity.

And now things are better. Not only is South Sebastopol with its 7000 guns a possession of the Allies, but with the Russian navy annihilated in the South, there seems no immediate danger of a Mediterranean Muscovy; whilst a treaty of Norway and Sweden with the Allies promises such

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