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effect, once rejected as the dreams of monks or the inventions of men delighting in the marvellous, are now admitted to be substantially correct. On an October night of the year 902 of our era, it is related, that " infinite number of falling stars were seen to spread themselves over the heavens from right to left, and this year was called 'the year of stars.'' A similar display marked the year 1095. According to one account, the stars seemed " falling like a shower of rain from heaven upon the earth ;" another describes the appearance, as if all the stars in heaven were driven like dust before the wind;" and a third adds to the like report, that "in this Kyng's time (William Rufus), divers great wonders were sene, and therefore the Kyng was told that God was not content with his lyvyng, but he was so wilful and proude of minde, that he regarded little their saying." In the October of 1202, several of the Arabic writers record, referring to Bagdad as the place of observation, that "stars shot hither and thither in the heavens, eastward and westward, and flew against one another like a scattering swarm of locusts." Again, in the Again, in the same month, in 1366, a Portuguese annalist states, that "there was in the heavens a movement of the stars, such as men never before saw or heard of; they fell from the sky in such numbers, and so thickly together, that as they descended low, the sky and the air seemed to be in flames, and even the earth appeared as if ready to take fire." These are meagre and unscientific relations, but they very definitely indicate an extraordinary spectacle of celestial glitter and turmoil; and we now know, from the

testimony of our senses, that the representations are not in the slightest degree over-coloured. Reference may be made to some modern exhibitions.

The last century was drawing to a close when the Moravian Missionaries settled on the bleak shores of Labrador, and amid "Greenland's icy mountains," were roused from slumber by the affrighted Esquimaux. It was the midnight of November the 12th, 1799; and from thence to the daybreak, fiery particles, thick as hail, crowded the concave of the sky, as though some magazine of combustion in space was discharging its contents on the snow-clad earth. This shower was seen over a wide area of the terrestrial surface, by the Franciscan

monks stationed at the mouth of the Orinoco, by the Capuchin missionary at San Fernando, on the plains of Venezuela; and by the naturalists, Humboldt and Bonpland, then travelling in South America. During four hours, the latter state, there was not a space in the firmament equal in extent to three diameters of the moon, which was not filled every instant with bodies or falling stars. All of them left luminous traces, or phosphorescent bands behind them, which lasted seven or eight seconds. Mr. Ellicott, sailing on the West Indian waters, was another spectator. Cloudy weather interfered with observation in England, but the display was seen by the Hartlepool fishermen at sea, also at Hull, and at Weimar, in Germany.

After the lapse of rather more than thirty-three years, on the 13th of November, 1833, the spectacle was again seen over a large extent of the North American continent; or southward from the Canadian lakes, to the centre of Mexico; but was not visible

in Europe, owing to intercepting clouds. Beautifully serene and clear was the Transatlantic night. The meteors were not only remarkable for their number, brilliance, and incessant play; but some were of considerable magnitude and peculiar form. One of the largest size shot out from the zenith, and remained stationary for some seconds over the falls of Niagara. The wild dash of the waters, in contrast with the storm of fire aloft, formed a scene of unequalled sublimity. In various districts the people were terror-struck, especially the ignorant

and excitable blacks in the slave states. Many thought that the day of doom had come at last, and some are reported to have died of fright. "I was suddenly awakened," wrote a South Carolina planter, "by the most distressing cries that ever fell upon my ears.

Shrieks of horror, and cries for mercy, I could hear from most of the negroes of three plantations. While earnestly listening for the cause, I heard a faint voice near the door calling my name. I arose, and taking my sword, stood at the door. At this moment, I heard the same voice still beseeching me to rise, and saying, 'O my God, the world is on fire!' I then opened the door, and it is difficult. to say which excited me most-the awfulness of the scene, or the distressed cries of the negroes. Upwards of one hundred lay prostrate on the ground; some speechless, and some with the bitterest cries; but with their hands raised, imploring God to save the world and them. The scene was truly awful, for never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell towards the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same." The more exact eye of science on this occasion,

noted order in the midst of apparent confusion, for all the meteors might be referred to a common centre of excursion, from which they radiated. This was a point near the star Gamma, in the constellation Leo. It remained stationary among the stars during the whole period of observation, or did not accompany the earth in its diurnal rotation eastward, and had, therefore, a position in space beyond terrestrial limits. An observer at Boston estimated the number of the intruders into our atmosphere at 10,000 for every quarter of an hour, making a grand total of 280,000 for the seven hours of the memorable night. No substance of celestial origin seems to have reached the ground; and no sound was with certainty known to have been heard.

Philosophy in this instance has done its duty as the interpreter of nature, examining with care; and with modest caution delivering an opinion, the general correctness of which has recently received the seal of sensible evidence. Be it our part to remember, that a starlet falls not from the sky, any more than a sparrow to the ground, "without your Father." A few conclusions may be stated.

It scarcely admits of a doubt that the solitary shooting-star, and the grand shower are identical phenomena in their nature and cause. Equally clear it is, that in outer space, but comparatively proximate to our motherearth, nay, verily, intersecting its path, there are myriads of minute outriders; "meteor-planets,” “starlets," or "bits of stars," as they have been styled; probably circulating with planetary velocity in loyal obedience to the sun, but in a direction opposite to that of the earth in its orbit. These

bodies, of unequal size and density, appear to be very irregularly distributed; here a great army; there a detachment; and, anon a single straggler, sentinel, or scout. Entangled at times in the meshes of the terrestrial atmosphere, they are fused and dissipated in traversing it, owing to the intense heat evolved by the sudden and powerful compression of the air consequent on their cosmical speed. It has been calculated, that a body moving through the most rarified air, at the rate of one mile per second, would extricate heat equal to 30,000° of Fahrenheit; and the meteors are supposed to enter our aërial envelope, with a velocity of thirty miles. per second. The months of August and November, chiefly the latter, are annual periods of special encounter with these specimens of celestial architecture, concerning which the bold and awful hypothesis has been started, that they are the minor fragments of an exploded world like our own. Once, also, in the lifetime of a generation, or thrice in a century, that is, after an interval of about thirtythree years, a collision with an innumerable company may be expected, with an imposing illumination of the heavens as the issue, when wondering men, insensibly or consciously, bow obedience to the adjuration of a prophet's voice, "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number! There may be extraordinary showers in at least two consecutive years. It has been computed, that the average height of these objects above the surface of the earth is roughly ninety-five miles on becoming visible, and sixty miles at their extinction.

Eleven instances of the maximum recurrence of a shower have been traced out of old records and chronicles, going back to the beginning of the tenth century. Another of the series became due in November last, by the completion of the cycle of thirty-three years since the date of the great North American visitation. Accordingly, those accustomed to take their stand, if not "in some high lonely tower," yet "Where they may oft outwatch the Bear,

With thrice-great Hermes,"

gave public note beforehand of lights aloft, on the night between Tuesday, the 13th, and Wednesday, the 14th of the month; even defining the precise time to be during the hours from midnight until sunrise.

The show foretold by science came, to the delight oftens of thousands, yet quite as much to their surprise; for the apparition was something so unusual in itself, so far beyond the range of ordinary ideas and observation, that though induced by curiosity to trench upon the hours devoted to slumber, it was with a misgiving on the part of many, that after all, disappointment might be grafted on mistake. A sky at times without a cloud, the atmosphere clear, and the moon absent, were favourable circumstances. But the wind blew strong, gusty, and cold, rendering the shelter of a plantation welcome, hard by a grassy mound chosen for a stand-point. By eleven o'clock, the irregular group of stars forming the constellation Leo, was well up from the horizon; and occasionally, from thence to midnight, a few brilliant meteors shot out from that quarter, leaving long, bright trains behind them, the heralds of the coming celestial pyrotechny-the vanguard of

an advancing legion. Beautiful, grand, and gorgeous, are terms equally applicable to the fully developed scene. Wonderful, also, it was in every phase, far too much so to be described. Recording simply an individual impression; the menacing aspect so generally ascribed by Transatlantic witnesses to preceding showers, was wholly wanting. But this might be owing to an advance of knowledge upon the subject. At intervals, the great dome of heaven wore a positively jubilant expression, as though some high festival was celebrated in the courts above, with a thousand torches kindled in honour of it, adding a new lustre to that of the stars of oldentime, the ordinary "street-lamps in the city of God."

Those who missed the spectacle lost one of the rarest sights of nature, for probably it will not be renewed, at least with such magnificence, till the present century is dying out, when most of the late spectators will be in their graves. "I was the more anxious to have a view of it," remarked old Lalande of a transit, as I shall never see it again." The thought is natural and wholesome, yet not a melancholy one, in view of the anti

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"Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." Quite as dark with mystery, as it was glorious to behold, was the short-lived meteoric vision. Nor was the scene a vanity. It brought the great truth to mind in all its reality and power, that we cannot, by searching find out God;" that, far as we may penetrate into the depths of space, there is a barrier over which no energy of ours, mental or physical, will ever be able to carry us ; and that if the things that are seen in a thousand points baffle our curiosity, and defy our interrogations, much more unsearchable is He, the " King eternal, immortal, and invisible,' whom "no man hath seen at any time," yet who daily and nightly surrounds us with the grandest expressions of His presence. True philosophy, with bended knee, downcast eye, and reverent voice, will never fail to unite with rustic devotion, in the testimony,

“We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord;

Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy Glory!"

with singular confidence that they have found the means of attracting the neglected and careless masses to the services of the Church once more. That they are at work in such districts with great earnestness is indisputable; that they may be able for a time to create an impression, which may be

mistaken for a real and lasting success, is more than probable; and it becomes us to consider closely the nature and the springs of that influence which they so boastfully put forth, that we may be able to estimate at their true worth the apparent results which may be secured.

We propose in this paper briefly to illustrate from their own authoritative statements, their conception both of the kind of success which a disciple of the Saviour should aim at in proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and of the kind of influence which the Lord in their judgment came to put forth in the world. We shall have some startling statements to lay before those who have not studied the literature of that so-called "Catholic revival," but they are deliberately and earnestly put forth, not by weakbrained enthusiasts, or half-educated priests, but by English gentlemen of the highest culture, the largest learning, the clearest understanding of the nature and working of their ecclesiastical principles, and, we are bound to add, of the most entire and highminded self-dedication to the work of establishing them as the dominant Church principles in our Protestant land. Our readers, when they have considered the nature of the influence which these men are seeking to put forth, must judge for themselves of the kind of success which they are likely to achieve.

We do not touch the legal question of the status of Ritualism, with regard to the articles and formularies of the Established Church. Those may be left to settle this question whom it directly concerns. As Nonconformists and as Independents we have but little hope that the law can do much

either to establish Ritualism permanently or summarily to put it down. It is a spirit, and not a mere custom; that is, all that is powerful and formidable in it springs out of the conviction of men's minds concerning it, and that conviction can only in our view be dealt with effectually by spiritual methods-that is by the power of the truth and the spiritual life which we can array against it, to convince men of its littleness, hollowness, and baseness, as a mode of Christian influence on men.

To an intelligent Nonconformist it seems well nigh incredible, that in the heart of this nineteenth century, in incomparably the freest country in the world, and among the most educated and accomplished Englishmen-born and nursed, too, in the midst of the stirring liberal movements which have given us Reform, Religious Liberty, and Free Trade-a movement should have originated which aims at the establishment of modes of Christian thought and influence, which in the twelfth century St. Bernard would utterly have scorned. But here it is, rampant in the midst of us; directed by thoughtful and able men, and infecting to a very serious, if not wide extent, all classes of society. And the men who lead the movement mean much by it. They see in it a great instrument of power, and they intend to make it, if they can, a mighty missionary influence in our land. And it is from this point of view that it is best worth our while to study it, that is, to make an honest effort to understand what its promoters mean by it, and what is the kind and the worth of the result which they hope to secure. And it appears to us that very able, scholarly, and high-minded