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male and female sprung from under his arm during his sleep, and a son from his feet, and these begat the race of the Giants of the frost, who multiplied, and were all wicked like Ymir their father. At the same time that Ymir was produced, the same liquefaction gave birth to the cow Oedumla, by whose milk, which flowed in rivers, the giant Ymir was fed. From the cow there sprung a man gifted with beauty and power; he was the father of Bore; and Bore marrying the daughter of a giant, begat Odin and his two brethren, between whom and Ymir there was enmity.

These brethren were gods; they slew Ymir, and the blood which issued from his wounds drowned all the giants of the frost, except one wise giant and his family, who escaped in a bark, and perpetuated the race of the giants. The three brethren then dragged the body of Ymir into the midst of the abyss, and of it they made the heaven and the earth. They made the water and the sea of his blood, the mountains of his bones, and the rocks of his teeth; the firmanent they made of his skull, and placed four dwarfs, called East, West, North, and South, to support it at the four corners where it rested upon the earth; they tossed into the air his brains, which became clouds, and from his hair they made the herbs of the field. They then seized fires from Muspelsheim, and placed them in the upper and lower parts of the sky, to enlighten the earth. The earth which they made was round; round about it was the deep sea, and the shores were given to the giants; but they raised a fortress, called Midgard, against the giants, which, with its circumference, surrounds the world; and in the middle of the earth they built Asgard, which is the court of the gods. There Odin had his palace, called Lidskialf, the Terror of the Nations, from whence he beheld all places and all things. He and his brethren one day, as they were walking upon the shore, found two pieces of wood floating upon the waves, and taking them they made of the one a man, and a woman of the other; the man they named Aske, and the woman Emla, and these were the parents of the human race.

But Odin took Frigga, who is the earth, his daughter, to wife, and from that marriage the Ases, that is to say, the Gods, proceeded. Their sacred city is in heaven, under the ash Ydrasil, which is the greatest of all trees, for its roots cover Nifleheim, and its branches spread over the whole earth, and reach above the heavens. The way from heaven to earth is by a bridge, which is the rainbow; and at the end of that bridge, Heimdall, the sentinel of the gods, hath his station to watch the giants. He sees an hundred ́leagues round him by night as well as by day; his hearing is so acute that he hears the wool grow on the sheep's back; and when he blows his trumpet it is heard throughout all worlds. The souls of all who were slain in battle were received in heaven, in the palace of Odin, called Valhalla, which had five hundred and forty gates. There they passed their lives in continual enjoyment, fighting and cutting each other to pieces every morning, then returning whole to dine upon the boar Serimner, who was hunted and eaten every day, and restored to life every night that he might be ready for the morrow; their drink was ale out of the skulls of their enemies, or mead, which a she goat produced every day, instead of milk, in quantity sufficient to inebriate them all. But this life of perfect enjoyment was not to endure for ever; for, mighty as the gods of Valhalla were, they had enemies mighty as themselves, and who were destined to prevail over them at last.

DANISH SUPERSTITIONS.

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The most remarkable of these was Loke; he was of the race of the giants; handsome in his person, of extraordinary ability and cunning, but wicked and malicious, and of so inconstant a temper, that he often associated with the Gods, and on many occasions extricated them from great dangers. This Loke had three dreadful offspring by a giantess. The wolf Fenris was one, the Great Serpent was the second, and Hela, or Death, the third. The Gods knew from many oracles what evils would be brought upon them by this accursed progeny, and to defer a destiny which was not to be averted, Odin sent for them from the country of the Giants. Hela he placed in Nifleheim, and appointed her to govern the nine dolorous worlds, to which all who die of sickness or old age are fated. Grief is her hall, and Famine her table; Hunger her knife, Delay and Slackness her servants, Faintness her porch, and Precipice her gate; Cursing and Howling are her tent, and her bed is Sickness and Pain. The Great Serpent he threw into the middle of the ocean, but there the monster grew till with his length he encompassed the whole globe of the earth. The wolf Fenris they bred up for a while among them, and then by treachery bound him in an enchanted chain, fastened it to a rock, and sunk him deep into the earth. The Gods also imprisoned Loke in a cavern, and suspended a snake over his head, whose venom fell drop by drop upon his face. The deceit and cruelty which the Gods used against this race, could not, however, change that order of events, which the oracles had foretold. That dreadful time, which is called the Twilight of the Gods, must at length arise; Loke and the wolf Fenris will then break loose, and, with the Great Serpent, and the Giants of the Frost, and Surtur with his fiery sword, and all the powers of Muspelsheim, pass over the bridge of heaven, which will break beneath them. The Gods, and all the heroes of Valhalla, will give them battle. Thor, the strongest of the race of Odin, will slay the Great Serpent, but he himself will be suffocated by the floods of poison which the monster vomits forth. Loke and Heimdall will kill each other. The wolf Fenris, after devouring the Sun, will devour Odin also, and himself be rent in pieces by Vidar, the son of Odin; and Surtur, with his fires, will consume the whole world, Gods, heroes and men perishing in the conflagration. Another and better earth will afterwards arise, another Sun, other Gods, and a happier race of men.

Such is the brief outline of that mythology which is detailed in the Edda. It had grown up in the interval between the Saxon conquest and the first Danish invasions. The deified progenitors of the Anglo-Saxon kings were here converted into beings, wholly mythological; and, except in their names, there appears to have existed little or no resemblance between the earlier and latter religion of these kindred nations. How much of the fabulous superstructure was intended to be believed by those who framed it, or how much was actually believed, cannot at this instant of time, be determined. Possibly, as among the Greeks, and as perhaps was the case with many Monkish legends, tales which were invented in mere sport of fancy, obtained a credit that had neither been designed or foreseen, but which was allowed to prevail by those who found advantage in its prevalence. There were some daring spirits who disbelieved such Gods, and openly defied them; but such doings arose from the excess of that ferocious spirit which the system itself produced and fortified; for, monstrous as the mythology is, it had a dreadful effect upon the national character.

CHURCH AND TEMPERANCE NOTES.

THE Young Abstainers Union now numbers 7,000 members.

UPWARDS of £20,000 has been already subscribed for the Manchester Cathedral Restoration Fund.

THE centenary of the establishment of the Church in the United States was celebrated in May last.

THE Rev. Canon Farrar has been appointed Archdeacon of Westminster in succession to the late Archdeacon Jennings.

Two of the candidates at a recent confirmation held by the Bishop of Glasgow were 73 years old.

MR. DILLWYN, M.P., has prepared a Bill for introduction into the House of Commons moving for the disestablishment of the Church in Wales. It will not be brought forward till next session.

A PROJECT for a Church School Board has, owing to the threatened closing of three Church day schools in Nottingham caused by a lack of funds, been floated. The Bishop of Lincoln is taking an active part in the matter.

At a recent meeting in Exeter Hall, Mr. S. Morley, M.P., stated that the working classes of England received £300,000,000 annually in wages, of which £25,000,000, perhaps £30,000,000, were spent in drink.

A PARLIAMENTARY return issued recently, shows that there were 38,377,820 gallons of proof spirits distilled in the United Kingdom during 1882, of which 19,206,802 gallons were distilled in Scotland, 10,124,461 in England, and 9,046,461 in Ireland. The number of gallons of proof British spirits consumed was, however, 16,811,494 in England, 6,502,955 in Scotland, and 5,239,815 in Ireland.

THE REV. Canon Anson, for eight years Rector of Woolwich, near London, has resigned his living to take part in mission work in North West Canada. The rev. canon is about to proceed to the West to examine the field of work, and will then return to England in the autumn to organize a band of workers to assist him in his undertaking.

A KNIGHT-TEMPLARS CHURCH.-The church at the villlge of Temple, near Bodmin, after existing in a state of ruin for a century, has been restored, and re-opened by the Bishop of Truro, who preached to a large crowd in the open air, the church being found too small to accommodate the people. Temple Church was undoubtedly built in the first place by the Knight Templars, and it is first mentioned in ecclesiastical records 1288-1291. At one time this church was as nortorious as Gretna Green for the peculiar kind of marriages which took place in it, as, not being under diocesan supervision, its curates exercised the right to marry without banns or licence. That the edifice has been in ruins for a very long time is testified by the fact that a very large ash-tree flourished, until recently taken down, within the ruined walls.

FOR relieving the poor clergy and their families there are no less than 81 general institutions, besides 168 clerical charities, connected with the various dioceses. Of these institutions, five are societies with a total income of £50,000 a year. Last year help was given by them to 680 of the poorer clergy and to 1,742 widows and children.

"Cases for binding Volumes of this Magazine will be issued at the end of the year.