have seen, subsequently degenerated. The true etymological meaning, therefore, of happy, is that given by Webster, namely, "receiving good from something that comes to us unexpectedly, or by chance, that is, fortunate, or lucky." The same lexicographer says afterward, that "he only can be called happy who enjoys the favour of God;" but this is an idea which was subsequently ingrafted on the pagan root by the Christian theology. The original Saxon word had nothing of the Tò delov or divine about it. XXXIX. Atheistic Argument against Providence drawn from the Prosperity of the Wicked. Plato's Language compared with that of the Scriptures. PAGE 43, LINE 3. Ἢ καὶ πρὸς τέλος ἴσως ἀνοσίους ἀνθρώπους ὁρῶν ἐλθόντας γηραιούς, κ. τ. λ. — When you behold men growing old, who continue unholy even to the very end of life, leaving children and children's children in the highest honours-then are you disturbed at the sight," &c. In what striking language is this same difficulty set forth in the Holy Scriptures, not only as perplexing the mass of mankind, but also as occasioning, at times, painful doubts even to the acknowledged people of God. Compare the complaint of Asaph in the lxxiii. Psalm: But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had wellnigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Wherefore his people backslide ;* * We prefer this rendering for the Hebrew, as it may mean to turn back, as well as to turn to, or return; although the latter is the most usual sense in this conjugation. It may also mean, they turn themselves with astonishment and perplexity, as to some wondrous spectacle; in which sense it would well correspond to the Greek Tαpárry, as used here by Plato. and they say, Doth God know? And is there a providence in the Most High? So, also, Job, with still more resemblance to the passage before us: Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job, xxi., 7. The sentiment may be frequently met with in classic antiquity. It has formed the constant complaint of the virtuous when desponding, and the standing objection of the skeptic. As in Cicero, De Natura Deorum, lib. iii., 33-36, where the doubting Cotta goes into a long enumeration of the virtuous men who had been neglected of Heaven, and of the impious who had been blessed, apparently, with the highest prosperity. Speaking of the tyrant Dionysius (sec. 35), he says, Hunc igitur nec Olympius Jupiter fulmine percussit, nec Esculapius misero diuturnoque morbo tabescentem interemit. Atque in suo lectulo mortuus, in rogo illatus est; eamque potestatem quam ipse per scelus erat nactus, quasi justam et legitimam, hereditatis loco, filio tradidit. In the same strain, sec. 32: Dies deficiat, si velim numerare quibus bonis male evenerit, nec minus si commemorem quibus improbis optime. And then he proceeds to relate the cases of Marius, Cinna, Dionysius, together with the saying of the snarling Diogenes respecting Harpalus : Diogenes quidem cynicus dicere solebat, Harpalum, qui temporibus illis prædo in Pamphylia felix habebatur, contra Deos testimonium dicere, quod in illa fortuna tam diu vive. ret. Cic., De Nat. Deor., iii., 34. Some minds, otherwise serious and thoughtful, have been almost driven to atheism by it; as is represented in those desponding lines with which Claudian commences one of his poems: Sæpe mihi dubiam traxit sententia mentem, Consilio firmata Dei Sed cum res hominum tanta caligine volvi But, while it has disturbed the pious in their desponding moods, it has formed the standing jest of the scoffer; as in the story of the atheist Diagoras, Cicero, De Nat. Deor., iii., 37: At Diagoras quum Samothraciam venisset, Atheos ille qui dicitur, atque ei quidam amicus, “Tu, qui Deos putas humana negligere, nonne animadvertis, ex tot tabulis pictis, quam multi votis vim tempestatis effugerint in portumque salvi pervenerint?" Ita fit, inquit. Illi enim nunquam picti sunt qui naufragia fecerunt, in marique perierunt. So, also, that malignant buffoon Aristophanes puts a similar profane jest in the mouth of the travestied Socrates: καὶ πῶς ὦ μῶρε σὺ καὶ κρονίων ὄζων καὶ βεκκεσέληνε, If either Xenophon or Plato are entitled to the least credit, nothing could be more directly opposed to his real and most cherished sentiments. XL. The Singular Word 'Aлоdιопоμжέouai, and the Remarkable Use made of it by Plato. PAGE 44, LINE 9. ̓Αλλ' ἐάν πως οἷον ἀποδιοπομπήσασOat. This is a very peculiar and significant word, used by Plato, in the few cases in which it occurs, to express the strongest abhorrence, and generally employed in reference to some wickedness of peculiar enormity. It signifies, to avert the Divine wrath by expiatory sacrifices or religious rites of the most solemn kind ; from ἀπό, Διός, and πομπή, α solemn religious procession. In accommodation to the language of a later age, it might be rendered, to exorcise; since this term also comes from another part of a similar ceremony, performed for a similar purpose, namely, to avert, or send away, evil. We may compare with this the derivative пoun, άлоdιолоμπηоεç, as used, Laws, lib. ix., 854, B., C. That passage is deserving of attention, as being, in some respects, one of the most deeply impressive, for its moral bearings, of any to be found in the Platonic dialogues. The subject is sacrilege, and during the discussion the legislator introduces a law against it with this most solemn προοίμιον, or preamble: "One conversing with, and exhorting the man, whom some evil desire, enticing by day and exciting by night, was tempting to the commission of this horrid crime of sacrilege, might thus say—O, sir, it is no evil merely human, nor any temptation sent from Heaven, that urges you on to this sin, but a certain innate phrensy which grows in men from old and unexpiated sins (οιστρός τις έμφυόμενος ἐκ παλαιῶν καὶ ἀκαθάρτων τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀδικημάτων), ever restless (περιφερόμενος ἀλιτηριώδης), and calling for vengeance on itself." He seems to have had in view a class of men who would be styled, in modern phraseology, given over—almost, if not wholly, past their day of grace, or the reach of any reforming means-men in whom sin had become an oloτpos, a raging disease,* or phrensy, urging them on by a sort of maddening impulse, without the ordinary inducements of gain or sensual pleasure-men under the goadings of a keenly-sensible, yet utterly-depraved conscience, which could only find ease in the commission of greater and still greater enormities drowning the recollec. * Such as, in the Gorgias, he styles novλos, namely, apparently healed upon the surface, but ulcerating in the bones below-an old and neglected sore. tion of the lesser, as though driven to wander about (άλιτη. ριώδης) by an ever-restless internal Erinnys. To such a one he gives this most earnest and solemn advice : Όταν σοι προσπίπτῃ τι τῶν τοιούτων δογμάτων, ἴθι ἐπὶ τὰς ̓ΑΠΟΔΙΟΠΟΜΠΗΣΕΙΣ, ἴθι ἐπὶ τῶν θεῶν ἀποτροπαίων ἱερὰ ἱκέτης, ἴθι ἐπὶ τὰς τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἀγαθῶν ξυνουσίας, τὰς δὲ τῶν κακῶν φεῦγε ἀμεταστρεπτί, κ. τ. λ. “When even such a thought should invade your mind, betake yourself at once to the most solemn modes of expiation (ἀποδιοπομπήσεις); go as a suppliant to the shrines of the wrath-averting divinities; resort, without delay, to the assemblies of the good; and fly, without turning or looking back, from all the associations of the bad ; if, peradventure, thy wretched disease may be rendered lighter." One is strongly reminded of the angel's urgent and alarming exhortation to Lot and his family, when he bids them fly from the impending doom of Sodom: Up! get thee out of this place; escape for thy life; look not behind thee; tarry not in all the plain ; haste to escape, lest thou be swept away. We may compare, in respect to this most impressive word, another passage in the ninth book, 878, A., where the legislator is speaking of a house that has been defiled with murder, and of the restoration of a family that has, in consequence, been rendered childless : τοῦτον πρῶτον μὲν καθήρασθαι καὶ ἀποδιοπομπήσασθαι τὸν οἶκον χρεὼν ἔστω κατὰ νόμον. See, also, the Cratylus, 396, Ε.: αὔριον δὲ ἀποδιοπομπησόμεθά τε αὐτὴν, καὶ καθαρούμεθα, ἐξευρόντες ὅστις τῶν ἱερέων τὰ τοιαῦτα δεινὸς καθαίρειν. It is applied by Plutarch to an obnoxious person whom they would wish to send away-to exorcise as a troublesome spirit. This strong language Cæsar is represented as using in reference to Cato : Κάτωνος μὲν οὐ παρόντος· ἐπίτηδες γὰρ αὐτὸν εἰς Κύπρον ἀπεδιεπομπήσαντο. Plutarch, Ces., 21. The verb άлолоμлéш has the same meaning, and from this we have a similar word, with the same solemn reli |