day, in the midst of which would be seen the figure of a virgin. But you, my children, will see its rising before all the nations. When, therefore ye shall behold it, go whither the star shall guide ye, and adore the child, and offer up to him your gifts, seeing that he is the WORD, which has created the Heavens."*

The second circumstance alluded to, and scarcely of less importance in the solution of this apparent difficulty, now remains to be explained. The Magi had long been accustomed to pay their annual visits to Bethlehem for the purpose of worshipping in the temple of Adonis on the 24th of December, at which time similar religious rites were celebrated throughout all the Mithratic caves of Persia in honour of the birth of their God Iao, who was supposed to have been born in a cave on the 25th of December, to have been put to death, and to have risen on the 25th of March.† Perhaps too we miss the spirit of the sacred text by taking it in too literal a sense. When it is said that the star went before the Magi, it is not to be understood that the light actually preceded them as the pillar of fire went before the Israelites. Any star would naturally seem to be moving before those who followed in its direction; and the Magi, who were astrologers even more than they were

"Hic Persas docuit de manifestatione Domini Christi, jubens eos illi dona afferre; indicavitque futurum ut ultimis temporibus conciperet virgo fætum absque contactu viri, cùmque nasceretur apparituram stellam, quæ interdiu luceret, et in cujus medio conspiceretur figura puellæ virginis. "Vos autem, o filii mei, ante omnes gentes ortum ejus percepturi estis; cum ergo videritis stellam, abeuntes quò vos [illa] dirigat, istum adorate, offerentes ipsi munera vestra; est siquidem ille verbum quod cælum condidit." GREGORII ABUL-PHARAJII HISTORIA DYNASTIARUM, p. 54, 4to. Oxon. 1663. The above is quoted from Pocock's Latin version of the Arabic.

Higgin's Anacalypsis, v. ii. p. 99. Admitting the facts to be as stated by this author, it by no means follows that we are to agree with him in his inferences.

VOL. I.

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astronomers, had read in his star* the birth of Christ as foretold in the prophecy of Zoroaster.

Other events too connected with the same fact have in like manner been prefigured by the circumstances of Mithratic history. Thus we have Chrishna conveyed over the Yamuna by Vasudeva in a miraculous escape from his uncle Cansa, the Herod of Hindoo Scripture history,† and many more might be enumerated would my limits admit of them. Of course the interpretation of these facts has varied, and ever must vary, according to the habits of the interpreters; and if by some they have been used as weapons of attack upon Christianity, by others they have been employed both as historical and inferential proofs of its truth,-so uncertain is human reason when applied to things celestial.

I have hitherto spoken of the Magi as being only three in number, and such is the generally received belief; but some authors have said that there were thirteen of them.‡

Saint Matthew expressly says his.

+ See MOOR'S HINDOO PANTHEON; plate 58. A long account also is given of this Hindoo Herod in Maurice's INDIAN SCEPTIC, (p. 102.) He had been warned by a mysterious voice on the marriage of his sister, Devaci, that her eighth son would be his destroyer, whereupon he seized her by the hair, and would have cut off her head, had not her husband, Vasudeva, promised to give up to him all the children she might bring forth. Six he slew; the seventh, Rama, escaped; and when for the eighth time Devaci became pregnant her beauty shone forth so resplendently, that it brightened her husband's face and illuminated the walls of her chamber. At length she brought forth a child, and the eyes of the parents being open for the moment they knew it was God himself. Again their eyes were reduced to a mortal state, when they saw only a human infant before them, but a divine voice directed Vasudeva to fly and secrete the infant. Cansa being thus baffled, ordered "all the young children throughout his kingdom to be slain." In this story we find not only the exact counterpart of Herod, but the prototype also of Saturn devouring his children lest any one of them should destroy him.

BAR BABLUL, as quoted by Hyde in his HIST. REL. VET. PERS. p. 377.

Their names too have been variously given, but the details are hardly worth repeating:* and even the opinion that they were Persians, though it seems the most credible, has met with some dissentients. One writer will have it that they were Jews, or Jewish legates rather, residing at the time in Persia or Syria; † while the Armenian Haitho, who lived in the fifth century, has left it on record, that they were the rulers of three provinces in Tartary, who chose to call themselves kings, and whose kinsmen are Christians at the present day amongst a people of heathens.§

Idem. Idem.

"Cum enim inde ab ultima creditum semper sit ætate hos Magos philosophos fuisse, ex Persia, sive, quod aliis placuit, Arabia oriundos ac a vero Dei cultu alienos, non dubitavit celeberrimus vir aliam complecti sententiam, ac Magos istos pro Judæis, aut Judæorum potius in Persia aut Syria commorantium legatis." DE MAGIS BETHLEHEMUM, STELLA DUCE, PROFECTIS. A Jac. Alb. Hanselmanno, p. 2, 4to. Vitembergiæ. 1716.

It seems strange that so sound a scholar as Hyde should have run into the mistake of calling Haitho, an Armenian king-Armeniæ rex(p. 376). In the preface to the very work from which Hyde quotes, Salconi expressly says that he was a monk and a relation of the king of Armenia. “Hæ sunt historiæ partium Orientis a religioso viro, fratre Haythono, Domino Curchi, consanguineo Regis Armeniæ, compilatæ." From this same authority we learn that the work was originally taken down in French by Salconi, from the dictation of Brother Haytho, and subsequently translated by the former into Latin. In a yet earlier edition of the work-1529,-he is styled a brother of the Premonstratensian order, and the title of the work runs somewhat differently, being Liber HISTORIARUM PARTIUM ORIENTIS, sive PASSAGIUM TERRE SANCTE; instead of Historia Orientalis, quæ eadem et de Tartaris inscribitur.

§ In regno Tarsæ sunt tres provinciæ, quarum dominatores se reges faciunt appellari. Homines illius patriæ nominantur Jogour; semper idola coluerunt et adhuc colunt omnes præter decem cognationes illorum regum, qui per demonstrationem stellæ venerunt adorare nativitatem in Bethlehem Judæ. Et adhuc multi magni et nobiles inveni. untur inter Tartaros de cognatione illa qui tenent firmiter fidem Christi."

the

This day was also called the EPIPHANY,* that is to say manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles; and by some writers, though more rarely, the THEOPHANY, or manifestation of the Deity. Lastly, it was termed BETHANIA, from a word compounded of Hebrew and Greek, namely Beth, a house," and paivav to show or to appear, "because he appeared in the house by the transformation of wine and water"—a singular derivation, but which is here given on the authority of Belethus. ‡

It may easily be imagined that so important a day in the Christian calendar would not be without its full share of ceremonies, either grave or farcical. These have gone through the usual routine; from pagan rites they have become christian solemnities, and from these again they have degenerated into popular customs, which have

HAITHONI ARMENI HISTORIA ORIENTALIS.-Cap. ii. p. 3. I should almost have doubted under all the circumstances whether by Tarsa Haitho really meant Tartary, had it not been for his subsequent description of its situation.

*

From the Greek paveia a rising as of the sun, the appearance of a God. But in the FESTA ANGLO-ROMANA, another reason is assigned, and another appellation given: "Or 'tis so called from the appearance of the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove at his baptism thirty years after, for this sixth of January was the day of our Saviour's baptism, and is celebrated as such by the Church, and therefore 'tis termed by Alcas Cyriacus, an Arabick manuscript of astronomical tables in the archbishop's archives in the library of Oxford, the Feast of Epiphanie or BENEDICTION OF WATERS. On this day also is commemorated the first miracle performed by our Saviour at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, where he turned water into wine." FESTA ANGLOROMANA, p. 9, 12mo. London, 1678.

From the Greek Otoç a God, and paiver to show or to appear. "Tertia denique nominata est Bethania nomine conflato ab Hæbreo et Græco; videlicet a BETH, quod domus est, quæ item alio anno eodem die contingit; apparuit ñ in domo per transformationem aquæ in vinum." Explicatio Divin. Officior. a Beletho, cap. 73, p.

grown fainter and fainter from year to year, and in all probability will be one day extinguished. Of those that still remain, the drawing for king and queen is the most important. In the olden time it was thus managed in our own country, and the same custom prevailed throughout the continent, with more or less variation in the details. "After tea a cake is produced, and two bowls containing the fortunate chances for the different sexes. The host fills up the tickets, and the whole company, except the king and queen, are to be ministers of state, maids of honour, or ladies of the bed-chamber. Often the host and hostess, more by design perhaps than accident become the king and queen. According to Twelfth-Day law, each party is to support his character till midnight."* There was however at one time another mode of electing their Twelfth Night Majesties, of which this seems to be only a corruption. The cake was made full of plums, a bean and a pea being mixed up amongst them; whoever upon the division of it got the bean, he was acknowledged for king; whoever got the pea, she was to be queen. Nothing can be more graphic than Herrick's poetical account of this ceremony.

"TWELFE NIGHT, OR KING AND QUEENE.

Now, now the mirth comes

With the cake full of plums,

Where Beane's the king of the sport here;

Besides we must know

The Pea also