Emanations appear to have been inferior each to the preceding; and their existence was indispensable to the Gnostic scheme, that they might account for the creation of the world, without making God the author of evil. These ons lived through countless ages with their first Father: but the system of emanations seems to have resembled that of concentric circles; and they gradually deteriorated, as they approached nearer and nearer to the extremity of the Pleroma. Beyond this Pleroma was Matter, inert and powerless, though co-eternal with the supreme God, and like him without beginning. At length one of the Eons passed the limits of the Pleroma, and meeting with Matter, created the world after the form and model of an ideal world, which existed in the Pleroma or in the mind of the supreme God. Here it

is, that inconsistency is added to absurdity in the Gnostic scheme. For let the intermediate Æons be as many as the wildest imagination could devise, still God was the remote, if not the proximate, cause of creation. Added to which, we are to suppose that the Demiurgus formed the world without the knowledge of God, and that, having formed it, he rebelled against him. Here, again, we find a strong resemblance to the oriental doctrine of two principles, Good and Evil, or Light and Darkness. The two principles were always at enmity with each other. God must have been conceived to have been more powerful than Matter, or an emanation from God could not have shaped and moulded it into form: yet God was not able to reduce Matter to its primeval chaos, nor to destroy the evil which the Demiurgus had produced. What God could not prevent, he was always endeavouring to cure: and here it is that the Gnostics borrowed so largely from the Christian scheme. The names indeed of several of their Eons were evidently taken from terms which they found in the Gospel. Thus we meet with Logos, Monogenes, Zoe, Ecclesia, all of them successive emanations from the supreme God, and all dwelling in the Pleroma. At length we meet with Christ and the Holy Ghost, as two of the last Æons which were put forth. Christ was sent into the world to remedy the evil which the creative Æon or Demiurgus had caused. He was to emancipate men from the tyranny of Matter, or of the evil Principle; and by revealing to them the true God, who was hitherto unknown, to fit them by a perfection and sublimity of knowledge to enter the divine Pleroma. To gain this knowledge was the end and object of Christ's coming upon earth: and hence the inventors and believers of the doctrine assumed to themselves the name of Gnostics.'

M. Matter finds great beauty in these wild fancies: he speaks of the bold and brilliant' inventions of Gnosticism, and sums up its essential elements in somewhat specious terms. • Ema'nation from God of all spiritual beings, the progressive degeneration of those emanations, redemption and return towards the purity of the Creator, re-establishment of the primeval harmony of all existences, the happy and truly divine life of 'all, in the bosom of God: such,' says Matter, are the funda'mental principles of Gnosticism.' Without acknowledging the fairness of thus stripping a system of its absurd and tawdry

drapery, that it may be displayed in a simple and attractive form, we are willing so far to adopt this representation, as to found upon it an exposure of the entire want of originality in the Gnostic hypothesis. Had we no other evidence than appears in the schemes of the Oxford and Strasburg Professors, we should be quite sure of the syncretism of the sect; and it thus presents itself to our view under the aspect traced out at the commencement of this article, as the expiring effort of Philosophy, rallying her sinking energies in the attempt to concentrate and combine the last and most impressive of the inventions of her disciples, grafting upon them the reveries of the Jewish Cabbala, and striving to make them harmonize with the sublime truths of the Gospel. The opinion was, we believe, first broached by Mosheim, that the germ of Gnosticism was to be found in the systems of the East; but the oriental philosophy was then, and is even now, involved in too much obscurity to allow of distinct definition. Blessig, as quoted by Matter, (Ecole d'Alexandrie, Vol. I. p. 277,) after having examined the subject, comes to the conclusion, that a great deal has 'been said about the philosophy of the East; but no one has 'ever yet been able to form distinct notions concerning it; and ' after all our labour, our knowledge apparently amounts only 'to this, that we know nothing at all about it. And Walch, who devoted an essay to the Inquiry, 'de Philosophia Orientali Gnosticorum systematum fonte et origine,' sums up the result in three particulars: 1. That the first principles of Gnosticism were known among the Orientals before its connexion with Christianity 2. That therefore the Gnostics are not to be accounted the inventors of their own system: but 3. That no historical testimony can be assigned for the eastern origin of their doctrines. It is, in fact, probable after all, that this philosophy of the East amounted to little more than a confused jumble of magic, astrology, and mystical notions respecting the Divine nature and the moral constitution of the universe. Such as it was, however, this wisdom of the Orient, this Xandainn σopia, appears to have suggested to the Jews, not a few of the extravagancies of their Cabbala; and a close relationship seems to exist between the Eons of the Gnostics, and the Cabbalistic Sephiroth, or superior splendours, inhabiting the Aziluthic world, or region of emanations. Dr. Burton has made it clear, that the Jews, on their return from Babylon, brought with them many of the eastern notions and customs, and that they continued to maintain a constant intercourse with the countries where the Magian superstitions had been recently reformed by Zoroaster.

In one sense,' he observes, the Jews had greatly profited by their

1 captivity in Babylon; and we read no more of the whole nation falling into idolatry. The Persians indeed were not idolaters; and it was from them that the greatest effect was produced upon the opinions of the Jews. It seems certain, that their notions concerning angels received a considerable tincture from those of the Persians; and the three principal sects, of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, shew how far religious differences were allowed among them, and yet the unity of faith was considered to be maintained. The Cabbala ..... contains many doctrines concerning angels and other mystical points, which can only have come from an Eastern quarter; and the secondary, or allegorical, interpretation of Scripture, with which the Cabbala abounds, began soon after the return from captivity.'

Enough has been stated, in the course even of these brief observations, to shew the probable connexion of the Cabbala, or traditionary system of the Jews, with the superstitions of Chaldæa, and the possible derivation from both, of some at least of the Gnostic fancies; but the most abundant source still remains to be described, the very fountain-head of Gnosticism. 'What,' asks Beausobre, 'was the origin of the system of ons? I ' answer, that it must be sought for in the philosophy of Pythagoras, and in that of Plato, which was in many respects the 'same with that of Pythagoras.' Professor Matter carries this resemblance almost to entire identity. This remarkable coin'cidence,' he observes, between Plato and the Gnostics, lies not only in scientific definitions, but in the very things them'selves. The dominant doctrines of Platonism may in Gnos'ticism be distinctly traced. Such are those of the emanation ' of intelligences from the bosom of the Divinity; of the errors and sufferings of spiritual existences, so long as they are at a 'distance from God, and imprisoned in matter; of the long and ' vain efforts which they make to attain the knowledge of truth, and to resume their original union with the Supreme Being; of the alliance of a pure and divine soul with an irrational 'soul which is the seat of evil desires; of the existence of angels 'or demons which inhabit and govern the planets, having but an imperfect knowledge of the ideas which regulated the work ' of creation; of the universal regeneration by the return of all 'existences to the xooμos vonтos and its head, the Supreme Being; 'the only possible way in which the primal harmony of nature can be wholly restored.' In this representation, our readers will perceive a little of that tendency to exhibit in their fairest light, the speculations of heathen philosophy, of which there is rather too much in M. Matter's writings. Dr. Burton's brief statement is more distinct and business-like.

The Gnostics agreed with Plato in making matter co-eternal with God. They also believed that the material world was formed after an eternal and intellectual Idea. This peculiar and mystical notion is

the very soul of Platonism; and we learn from Irenæus, that it was held by all the Gnostics. Both parties also believed in an intermediate order of beings between the Supreme God and the inhabitants of the earth these beings were supposed by both to have proceeded from the Mind or Reason of God; and it may furnish a clew to much of the Gnostic Philosophy, if we suppose the Eons of the Gnostics to be merely a personification of the Ideas of Plato: or we may say, generally, that the Gnostics formed their system of ons by combining the intellectual beings of the Platonic philosophy with the angels of the Jewish Scriptures. We shall also have occasion to see, that the Gnostics believed in a transmigration of souls: and this is one of the doctrines which Plato appears to have taken from Pythagoras.'

We have now gone through the main particulars connected with the origin and peculiar character of Gnosticism, divested of those incidental circumstances which, though they may occasionally give partial illustration to the subject, and though their collation is absolutely necessary to its thorough investigation, are of little interest to the general reader, and tend to divert his attention from main points. Thus, the question whether Simon Magus was the parent of Gnosticism, might be agitated through half a volume; and perhaps the examination might throw some light on the habits of thinking and modes of expression common to the early Fathers; yet, excepting with the theologian 'all compact,' the discussion would hardly command attention. Again, the various shades of difference which distinguished the Gnostic schools would require to be specified, before it could be fairly ascertained in what points they all agreed; yet, such an investigation would be far more curious than either instructive or interesting. From these excursions, then, we abstain, and shall now dismiss Dr. Burton's volume with the further observation, that, although Gnosticism is its prominent subject, it will be found to take a much larger range in its connected elucidations of Christian doctrine and ecclesiastical history. The notes contain more than three hundred pages of close print, and they will be found to comprise much that is valuable and weighty. To some of Dr. Burton's views, we cannot, of course, assent; but we cordially wish that more among those who are of his way of thinking, would imitate his fair and courteous manner of expressing his opinions.

Art. II. 1. Juridical Letters; addressed to the Right Hon. Robert Peel, in Reference to the present Crisis of Law Reform. By Eunomus. Letters I. II. and III. 8vo. London, 1830.

2. The American Jurist and Law Magazine. No. IX. Jan. 1831. (Art. 2. Written and Unwritten Systems of Law; and, Review of Eunomus's Letters on British Law Reform.) Boston, U.S. 1831.

3. The North American Review.

No. LXXII. (Arts. vii. and x. The Prospect of Reform in Europe. Life and Character of Henry Brougham.) Boston, July 1831.

IT is not a little singular, that the first critical notice which, we believe, has been taken of the Letters of Eunomus, notwithstanding the popular interest attaching to the subject of law reform, and the great ability and extensive juridical knowledge with which the subject is treated by the present Writer, should appear in a Transatlantic periodical. But it is a fact, that our American brethren, whether because they have more leisure, more assiduity and enterprise, or less contempt for what is foreign, than ourselves, or whatever explanation may be given of the circumstance, are very much more attentive to what is passing and publishing in England and all parts of Europe, than Englishmen are to either the literary or the political transactions of countries in immediate juxta-position with their own. This is not exactly the way for a nation to grow wiser; for, though knowledge and wisdom are far from being one', cleverness and sagacity without knowledge will never attain the character, or supply the place of wisdom. The English are admitted to be the most sagacious people, perhaps, in the world; and their characteristic good-sense is, under a proper direction, invaluable. But our learned men are few; and of them, but very few are very learned. Our professional men, speaking generally, whether lawyers, physicians, or divines, would not, we fear, stand a comparison with those of Germany, in the literary attainments appropriate to their several functions. Eunomus goes so far as to complain of the peculiar 'condition of ignorance in which the English alone among mo'dern nations exist, of the real truths of judicial and jurispru'dential science', and of the state of the learning of the Bar as most infelicitous'. The same discreditable ignorance may be predicated with equal truth of the English public, in respect to the real truths of political science. Our medical literature is valuable and creditable to the professional character in every respect save that of learning. As to divinity, the whole collective learning of Oxford and Cambridge would hardly stock a Nonconformist minister of other days.

'

Useful' and entertaining knowledge' is being widely diffused among the British population, and every body is becoming a politician per force. But, while the average character of the people of this country, as a reading, thinking, calculating, mechanical race may thus be raised, the aristocrasy of learning are, we fear, going into deterioration and decay. Now, in literature, as in civil government, it is our firm opinion, that the true interests of the entire community require the maintenance