CORRIGENDA. At page 13, line 8.-For "cancel" read "chancel." 52, " 125, 128, " 8. The words "breaks not" have got out of place: they should follow immediately after the word "Error" in line 7. 1.-Add "in common," after "be anything." 21.-For "consequences" read "consequence." 336 (note). For the word "Lexicon " read "Sermon." UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA Introduction. THE DREAM.-AN ALLEGORY. A SERPENT, which had by some means crept into a house, had coiled itself up under a couch where a man lay down and slept, for a length of time, unaware of his danger. In his slumbers (such was the effect of the vital warmth of the serpent upon the brain of the sleeper) he dreamed a strange, at first pleasant, at length troubled dream, full of mystery. It opened upon him in the form of a vision. Ye who can discern the subtleties of error under the drapery of fiction, and gather lessons of truth from the picturings of fancy, read and understand. Our dreamer saw, or seemed to see, a rich and beautiful valley stretching out before him, shut in on both sides by a range of lofty mountains. This valley was so wide and extensive, that it looked at first sight like a vast plain, within the compass of which might lie several separate states. But the mountains which bounded it, dimly seen in the distance, and which were the battlements provided by nature to protect it against the incursions of foreign foes, closed it in, and constituted it a little kingdom by itself. Thicklypeopled towns and villages lay everywhere couching behind its woods and in its hollows, discernible only B by the thin light smoke which curled up in spiral volumes from them to the skies. The whole scenery was very fine and varied, the ground continually undulating in gentle slopes, and every higher ridge of it being tufted with trees: the soil bore the marks of the best tillage, so that green corn fields and meadows, and gardens blushing with every kind of fruit that can regale the taste, or minister to the wants of man, enamelled the surface. Here and there were seen peeping out neat looking houses, from which were heard to issue the voices of happy inhabitants. Signs of industry, cleanliness, order, and prosperity, indeed, appeared to pervade every department of this favoured region. Cattle of all kinds, and of the finest quality, from the solemn ox that chews the cud, to the frisking goat that bounded from hill to hill, with flocks of fleecy white sheep, reposed under its trees, or dotted its pastures. Rivers and streams of water glided and glistened in meandering currents, like threads of silver on a ground-work of green, through the vales and meadows, fertilising and refreshing every part through which they passed. The sun was just setting over this happy valley from a clear, bright, blue sky at the time of the vision, and this gave a softened loveliness to the whole scene. As the monarch of the skies slowly descended in the west, paling more and more his fiery lustre, and the light fell on every object in the mild beauty of departing day, it looked the very picture of paradise restored: but while our dreamer was rapt in admiration at the sight, a mist gathered over the valley, and in the mist "A fabric huge Rose, like an exhalation," realising, in effect, the Poet's idea, when he wrote, "Giant error, darkly grand, This fabric was a magnificent temple. For some time he could not distinctly catch the character of this huge building. Solid and vasty only appeared the structure, as it lay half hid in its own deep long cast shadows. But as the light of the moon, which was now ascending from the east in full orbed splendour, broke in its brightness over the stupendous pile, its imposing grandeur and artful finishing stood out in bold relief. With towers tapering up to the skies, and pinnacles wrought about on all sides with the most exquisite touches of architectural skill, it looked the work of angelic hands. Our dreamer, in the visions of his fancy, drew near to gaze more closely upon it, and to ascertain its use. From its outward features he could not determine whether it was built for a Christian, or a Pagan, a Popish, or a Protestant purpose. But, as he came nigh, he heard the sweetest sounds of choral music issuing from its portals. Perceiving the great west door to be open, he enters. A long stretching central aisle lies before him, through the distant east window of which the beams of the moon, passing through deep-stained glass, shed "a dim religious lustre" over the whole building. Every part of it, and every prominent feature, where the view was not obstructed by pillars, thus became softly visible, sleeping, as it were, in its own beauty. So overpowering was the impression made by its vastness and grandeur, that a soul-subduing feeling of awe came over him, and he involuntarily bowed himself down in adoration-though he knew not of what. When he has in some degree recovered from his awe-stricken bewilderment, with soft and silent footstep he treads the long drawn aisle towards the end where the worship is proceeding. At every step fresh objects of surprise open upon his view; piers, arch behind arch; windows, light behind light; arcades, shaft behind shaft: deep transepts cross his course and attract his sidelong glance: over his head strides the vaulted roof, from the corbels and cornices of which angel-faces gaze down upon him with fixed and passionless eye. On every hand, from niches and canopies, images and figures of saints, shrined in their own shadows, look out like spirits from the unseen world and startle him, as if he were walking in the catacombs of the dead, just erecting themselves out of their stiff, cold restingplaces into lithe life. With wistful wonder he pursues his way, eager to reach the part where the sacred solemnities are being celebrated, and from which the strains that he had heard from without were still pouring in floods of liquid melody,—now rising in fulltoned chorus, now dying down in softest cadence,sending a thrill of seemingly-devotional rapture through his whole frame, making him ever and anon |