the landlord of the village inn, to substitute it for the Red Lion' or 'White Hart,' or whatever may have been the sign the house then bore. And, accordingly, the Bear and Ragged Staff, by John Busby, late Giles Gostling,' now flourishes at Cumnor; whither all inquisitive tourists, desirous of becoming acquainted with the scene of the stirring incidents conjured up by the great magician, may go, and, as Mr. J. O. Halliwell wrote in The Times' of June 16th, 1847, Mine host of the Black Bear will tell you of unfortunate Amy, and speak of the evil doings of Tony Foster so "traditionally," that were we not aware the attractive sign had only been hoisted a few years ago, and that the epitaph in the church tells a very different tale to that related by the novelist, we might imagine "Kenilworth" to have been strictly founded on the traditions of the village.'

The legendary history of the Abbotsford bantling has of late received a further development. In a work published only five years ago, it is said, 'The Bear and Ragged Staff is still the sign of an inn at Cumnor, to which an historic interest is attached, owing to its connexion with the dark tragedy of poor Amy Robsart, who, in this very house, fell a victim to that stony-hearted adventurer, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Sir Walter Scott has introduced the house in the first chapter of "Kenilworth." The power the Warwick family once enjoyed gave this sign a popularity which has existed to the present day; though the race of old Nevil, and the kings he made and unmade, have each and all passed away.' And so this sign of the village inn, which did not come into existence till the year 1821, in consequence of Scott's fiction placing it in the time of Queen Elizabeth, is now in sober seriousness thrown back to the age of the Plantagenets!

In this we have an instance of the pretended restoration of what in truth never existed. The following is more curious, as

* The actual sign is not the 'Black Bear,' but the 'Bear and Ragged Staff.' The History of Signboards,' by Jacob Larwood and John Camden Hotten.

being an instance of the actual restoration of a local tradition which had been lost during ages.

In a work recently published*, Dr. Beke relates how he conceives that as the Jews during their captivity beyond the Euphrates became acquainted with the celebrated city of Haran, in Mesopotamia, they fell into the error of imagining this to be Harran, in Aram Naharaim, where Terah and his family took up their residence on quitting Ur Casdim, and whence Abram was called+;' whereas, he says, 'as I pointed out in my "Origines Biblica" seven and thirty years ago, and as I have since demonstrated by my journey thither, accompanied by my wife, at the end of 1861, the true Harran of the Patriarchs is a village near Damascus, still bearing the same name, and situated between the two rivers of Syria, namely, the Abana and Pharpar of 2 Kings, v. 12.' And he goes on to describe how, when at Harran, they discovered a very ancient well, which they 'named "Rebekah's well," as being, in their opinion, that at which the daughter of Bethuel was met by Abraham's steward‡, and as having at that time no designation whatever.' Notwithstanding this, Capt. Burton, our Consul at Damascus, reported a short time ago, 'I have known the Harran well to be called "Abraham's Well " by many Syrian Moslems, who have visited Harran, and who certainly never heard of Dr. Beke's visit to it in 1861.' To which this traveller has replied, in his said work, 'Nothing is more certain than that at that time not even the inhabitants of Harran themselves had given any such name to their well, or indeed entertained the remotest idea that their village had the honour of having once been the residence of El Khalil--the Friend of God. They appear, however, to have gladly availed themselves of my suggestion: the "tradition" was immediately set on foot; and we learn from Capt. Burton's statement that it has spread to the city of Damascus-and this all within nine years!'

A third instance shall be given, showing how a legend has + Gen. xi. 31; xii. 1.

*The Idol in Horeb.'

Gen. xxiv. 10-20.

originated in an ignorant attempt to account for an emblem, of which the meaning was not understood.

In the park at Weimar, writes Mr. G. H. Lewes, 'stands a stone monument, interesting as a witness to the growth of a mythos. It is an antique column, four feet high, round which a serpent winds, in the act of devouring the offering-cakes on the top. The inscription says, "Genio Loci." But the Weimar plebs, disregarding antique symbols, and imperfectly acquainted with Virgil, has a legend to tell; a legend sprung, no one knows whence, rapid and mysterious as the growth of fungi, like most legends, to satisfy the imperious craving for explanations; a legend which certifies how, formerly, a huge serpent dwelt in this spot, the terror of Weimar, until a cunning baker bethought him of placing poisoned cakes within the monster's reach; and when the greedy ignorance of the serpent had relieved Weimar of the monster, a grateful people erected this monument to an energetic and inventive baker. Et voilà; comme on écrit l'histoire '*.

In these three several instances the origin of the tradition' is positively within man's memory: in that of Abraham's Well' at Harran it actually dates back from only ten years from the present time! By bearing in mind such clearly authenticated facts, an idea may be formed of the very brief period of time required for the origination and growth of local 'traditions,' which 'the oldest inhabitant' will soon be ready to vouch for as being of indefinite antiquity, and which then serve as the foundation for legendary histories. And thus it will be seen in how very short a time the maxim of the Romish Church, that 'quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus, creditum est' must necessarily be true, may be made applicable in such cases as those of the Holy House at Nazareth-with its duplicate at Loreto-where the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary; the Holy Grotto at Bethlehem, where Jesus was born; Mount' Calvary at Jerusalem, where he was crucified; the Holy Sepulchre there, where he was buried; with all the other holy' sites that have been imposed *Life of Goethe.'

by a crafty and greedy priesthood on the ignorance and credulity of the superstitious laity.

CHAPTER V.

THE NAME AND TITLE OF JESUS THE MESSIAH.

ACCORDING to an opinion very prevalent at the present day, there was nothing supernatural in the life and mission of Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.' He was simply a young man of promise, popular among those that knew him, and appearing' to enjoy the Divine favour, the founder of a new school, the teacher of a system of ethics, which was not based on any religious belief, but was able to subsist and to spread itself without any such foundation,—a moral system far transcending those of all the schools of antiquity, with which however, somewhat inconsistently, it is regarded as being identical in its fundamental principles, and to which indeed it is supposed to be indebted in no small degree for those very principles. It was in this capacity alone that Jesus is imagined to have originated the society of persons of all nations known by the name of Christians, who are called on to practice the system of morals thus taught by him, and thereby to realize on earth the kingdom of heaven, which he and his disciples preached, without however its having any thing to do with a heaven apart from the earth.

It is scarcely necessary to say that notions such as these are totally inadequate to satisfy the wants of believers in Revelation, who have been taught to look upon our Lord Jesus as the Messiah, or Christ, of the promised seed of Abraham, in whom all nations of the earth should be blessed, and upon the Christian Dispensation as the fulfilment of the Law, the accomplishment

of prophecy, and an essential element of God's general scheme for the regeneration and salvation of mankind.

Even if such notions of the character of Jesus be regarded from a lower point of view, they will be seen to be diametrically opposed to the whole tenour of the history of the Jewish people, of which that of Jesus himself forms only a part, and from which it is against every principle of true criticism to attempt to detach it, by isolating it and treating it as if it were the history of any ordinary man. To think of discussing the history of Jesus Christ, that is to say, Jesus, the Christ or Messiah, the Anointed King of Israel,-for such is the literal meaning of his designation, without having special regard to the relation in which he stood to those to whom in the first instance his mission was addressed, and without alluding to the peculiar character in which he appeared on earth, would be to imitate the playhouse manager, who announced the performance of Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, with the part of Hamlet left out by particular desire.

Pious readers must not be shocked at this seeming levity when treating of a sacred subject. Why should not a homely simile be used when it is apposite and strikes home? Our Lord himself was in the habit of making use of the homeliest similes. Did he not compare the kingdom of heaven unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened?* Could any thing be more homely, and at the same time more impressive, on account of its very homeliness? The Imitation of Christ is inculcated by preachers in the pulpit, and in the writings of divines, especially in the celebrated work bearing the name of Thomas à Kempis. Why should we not imitate our Lord in his method of teaching by concrete examples and by simple figures of speech intelligible to the masses, rather than by abstract precepts and abstruse doctrines, that make little if any impression on the minds of humble hearers, and are often not altogether intelligible even to the educated.

In the present investigation of the history of our Lord Jesus, * Matthew xiii. 33; Luke xiii. 21.