customs of Colchis were when I was in Egypt.

ment was of great antiquity, and the ancient ceremonies of the country were observed with the most scrupulous exact{ness.

Pythagoras, when travelling among the Egyptians, was obliged to be circum"These inhabitants of the shores of the cised, in order to be admitted to their Euxine sea stated themselves to be a mysteries. It was, therefore, absolutely colony founded by Sesostris. As for my- necessary to be circumcised, to be a priest self, I should think this probable, not in Egypt. Those priests existed when merely because they are dark and woolly-Joseph arrived in Egypt. The governhaired, but because the inhabitants of Colchis, Egypt, and Ethiopia, are the only people in the world who, from time immemorial, have practised circumcision: for the Phenicians, and the people of The Jews acknowledge, that they rePalestine, confess that they adopted the mained in Egypt two hundred and five practice from the Egyptians. The Sy-years. They say that, during that period, rians, who at present inhabit the banks of they did not become circumcised. It is Thermodon, acknowledge that it is, com- } clear, then, that for two hundred and five paratively, but recently that they have years, the Egyptians did not receive circonformed to it. It is principally from cumcision from the Jews. Would they this usage that they are considered of have adopted it from them after the Jews Egyptian origin. had stolen the vessels which they had lent "With respect to Ethiopia and Egypt, them, and, according to their own acas this ceremony is of great antiquity in count, fled with their plunder into the both nations, I cannot by any means as-wilderness? Will a master adopt the certain which has derived it from the principal symbol of the religion of a robother. It is, however, probable, that the bing and runaway slave? It is not in Ethiopians received it from the Egyp-human nature.

tians; while, on the contrary, the Phe- It is stated in the book of Joshua, that nicians have abolished the practice of cir- the Jews were circumcised in the wildercumcising new-born children since theness. "I have delivered you from what enlargement of their commerce with the { Greeks."

From this passage of Herodotus it is evident, that many people had adopted circumcision from Egypt; but no nation ever pretended to have received it from the Jews. To whom, then, can we attribute the origin of this custom; to a nation from whom five or six others acknowledge they took it, or to another nation, much less powerful, less commercial, less warlike, hid away in a corner of Arabia Petræa, and which never communicated any one of its usages to any other people?

constituted your reproach among the Egyptians." But what could this reproach be, to a people living between Phenicians, Arabians, and Egyptians, but something which rendered them contemptible to these three nations? How effectually is that reproach removed by abstracting a small portion of the prepuce? Must not this be considered the natural meaning of the passage?

The book of Genesis relates, that Abraham had been circumcised before. But Abraham travelled in Egypt, which had been long a flourishing kingdom, governed by a powerful king. There is nothing to The Jews admit that they were, many prevent the supposition that circumcision ages since, received in Egypt out of cha-was, in this very ancient kingdom, an rity. Is it not probable that the lesser people imitated a usage of the superior one, and that the Jews adopted some

customs from their masters?

Clement of Alexandria relates, that

established usage. Moreover, the circumcision of Abraham led to no continu{ation; his posterity were not circumcised till the time of Joshua.

But, before the time of Joshua, the

Jews, by their own acknowledgment, ¿ Apella,"—"curti Judæi," never apply adopted many of the customs of the such epithets to the Egyptians. The Egyptians. They imitated them in many whole population of Egypt is at present sacrifices, in many ceremonies; as, for circumcised, but for another reason than example, in the fasts observed on the eves what operated formerly; namely, because of the feasts of Isis; in ablutions; in the Mahometanism adopted the ancient circustom of shaving the heads of the priests; cumcision of Arabia. It is this Arabian in the incence, the branched candlestick, circumcision which has extended to the the sacrifice of the red-haired cow, the Ethiopians, among whom males and fepurification with hyssop, the abstinence males are both still circumcised. from swine's flesh, the dread of using the kitchen utensils of foreigners; everything testifies, that the little people of Hebrews, notwithstanding its aversion to the great Egyptian nation, had retained a vast number of the usages of its former masters. The goat Azazel, which was despatched into the wilderness laden with the sins of the people, was a visible imitation of an Egyptian practice. The rabbis are agreed, even, that the word Azazel is not Hebrew. Nothing, therefore, could exist to have prevented the Hebrews from imitating the Egyptians in circumcision, as the Arabs their neighbours did.

We must acknowledge that this ceremony appears at first a very strange one; but we should remember that, from the earliest times, the oriental priests consecrated themselves to their deities by peculiar marks. An ivy leaf was indented with a graver on the priests of Bacchus. Lucian tells us, that those devoted to the goddess Isis, impressed characters upon their wrist and neck. The priests of Cybele made themselves eunuchs.

It is highly probable that the Egyptians, who revered the instrument of human production, and bore its image in pomp in their processions, conceived the idea of offering to Isis and Osiris, through whom everything on earth was produced, a small portion of that organ with which these deities had connected the perpetuation of the human species. Ancient ori

It is by no means extraordinary that God, who sanctified baptism, a practice so ancieni among the Asiatics, should also have sanctified circumcision, not less ancient among the Africans. We have already remarked, that he has a sovereignental manners are so prodigiously different right to attach his favours to any symbol that he chooses.

from our own, that scarcely anything will appear extraordinary to a man of even but little reading. A Parisian is excessively surprised when he is told that the Hottentots deprive their male children of one of the evidences of virility. The Hottentots are perhaps surprised that the Parisians preserve both.

CLERK-CLERGY.

As to what remains since the time when, under Joshua, the Jewish people became circumcised, it has retained that { usage down to the present day: the Arabs, also, have faithfully adhered to it: but the Egyptians, who, in the earlier ages, circumcised both their males and females, in a course of time abandoned the practice entirely as to the latter, and at last THERE may be something perhaps still applied it solely to priests, astrologers, remaining for remark under this head, and prophets. This we learn from Cle- even after Du Cange's Dictionary and the ment of Alexandria, and Origen. In fact, Encyclopedia. We may observe, for init is not clear that the Ptolemies ever re-stance, that so wonderful was the respect ceived circumcision. paid to learning about the eleventh and The Latin authors, who treat the Jews twelfth centuries, that a custom was inwith such profound contempt as to apply {troduced and followed in France, in Gerto them in derision the expressions, many, and in England, of remitting the "curtus Apella," -"credat Judæus punishment of the halter to every con}

demned criminal who was able to read. So necessary to the state was every man who possessed such an extent of knowledge.

William the Bastard, the conqueror of England, carried thither this custom. It was called benefit of clergy-"beneficium clericorum aut clergicorum."

priests of Diana; of the Pythia of Delphos; and, in more remote antiquity, of the priestesses of Apollo, and even of the priestesses of Bacchus.

The priests of Cybele not only bound themselves by vows of chastity, but, to preclude the violation of their vows, became eunuchs.

Plutarch, in the eighth question of his "Table-talk," informs us that, in Egypt, there are colleges of priests which renounce marriage.

The first Christians, although profess

We have remarked, in more places than ɔne, that old ages lost in other countries are found again in England, as in the island of Samothrace were discovered the ancient mysteries of Orpheus. To this day, the benefit of clergy subsists amonging to lead a life as pure as that of the the English, in all its vigour, for man- Essenians and Therapeuta, did not conslaughter, and for any theft not exceeding sider celibacy as a virtue. We have seen a certain amount of value, and being the that nearly all the apostles and disciples first offence. The prisoner who is able were married. St. Paul writes to Titus : to read demands his " benefit of clergy," Chuse for a priest him who is the husband which cannot be refused him. The judge of one wife, having believing children, and refers to the chaplain of the prison, who not under accusation of dissoluteness." presents a book to the prisoner, upon which the judge puts the question to the chaplain," Legit?" "Does he read?" The chaplain replies, "Legit ut clericus." He seems to deem so highly of marri"He reads like a clergyman." After age, that, in the same epistle to Timothy, this, the punishment of the prisoner is re- he says:-"The wife, notwithstanding stricted to the application of a hot brand-her prevarication, shall be saved in childing iron to the palm of his hand. bearing."

Of the Celibacy of the Clergy. It is asked, whether, in the first ages of the church, marriage was permitted to the clergy, and when it was forbidden?

It is unquestionable, that the clergy of the Jewish religion, far from being bound to celibacy, were, on the contrary, urged to marriage, not merely by the example of their patriarchs, but by the disgrace attached to not leaving posterity.

He says the same to Timothy :-"Let the superintendant be the husband of one wife.'

The proceedings of the council of Nice, on the subject of married priests, deserve great attention. Some bishops, according to the relations of Sozomen and Socrates, proposed a law commanding bishops and priests thenceforward to abstain from their wives; but St. Paphnucius the Martyr, Bishop of Thebes, in Egypt, strenuously opposed it; observing, "that marriage was chastity;" and the council adopted his opinion.

Suidas, Gelasius, Cesicenus, Cassio dorus, and Nicephorus Calistus, record precisely the same thing.

In the times, however, that preceded the first calamities which befel the Jews, certain sects of rigorists arose: Essenians, Judaites, Therapeuta, and Herodians The council merely forbade the clergy in some of which-the Essenians and from living with agapeta, or female assoTherapeuta, for examples-the most de-ciates besides their own wives, except their vout of the sect abstained from marriage. mothers, sisters, aunts, and others whose This continence was an imitation of the age would preclude suspicion. chastity of the vestals, instituted by Numa Pompilius; of the daughter of Pythagoras, who founded a convent; of the

After that time, the celibacy of the clergy was recommended, without being commanded. St. Jerome, a devout re

countries, who would thus have no other family than the church.

This law was not established without great opposition.

It is a very remarkable circumstance, that the council of Basil, having deposed, at least nominally, Pope Eugenius IV. and elected Amadeus of Savoy, many bishops, having objected against that prince that he had been married, Eneas Sylvius, who was afterwards pope, under the name of Pius II. supported the

cluse, was, of all the fathers, highest in his eulogiums of the celibacy of priests; yet he resolutely supports the cause of Carterius, a Spanish bishop, who had been married twice. "Were I," says he, "to enumerate all the bishops who have entered into second nuptials, I should name as many as were present at the council of Rimini."-" Tantus numerus congregabitur ut Riminensis synodus superetur." The examples of clergymen married, and living with their wives, are innume-election of Amadeus in these wordsrable. Sydonius, Bishop of Clermont, in Auvergne, in the fifth century, married Papianilla, daughter of the Emperor Avitus, and the house of Polignac claims descent from this marriage. Simplicius, Bishop of Bourges, had two children by his wife Palladia.

St. Gregory of Nazianzen was the son of another Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzen, and of Nonna, by whom that bishop had three children,-Cesarius, Gorgonia, and the saint.

"Non solum qui uxorem habuit, sed uxorem habens, potest assume."-"Not only may he be made a pope who hus been married, but also he who is so."

This Pius II. was consistent. Peruse his letters to his mistress, in the collection of his works. He was convinced, that to defraud nature of her rights was absolute insanity, and that it was the duty of man not to destroy, but to control her.

However this may be, since the council of Trent there has no longer been any dispute about the celibacy of the Roman Catholic clergy; there have been only desires.

All protestant communions are, on this point, in opposition to Rome.

In the Greek church, which at present extends from the frontiers of China to

In the Roman decretals, under the canon Osius, we find a very long list of bishops who were the sons of priests. Pope Osius himself was the son of a subdeacon Stephen; and Pope Boniface I. son of the priest Jocondo. Pope Felix III. was the son of Felix, a priest, and was himself one of the grandfathers of Gregory the Great. The priest Pro-Cape Matapan, the priests may marry jectus was the father of John II.; and Gordian, the father of Agapet. Pope Sylvester was the son of Pope Hormisdas. Theodore I. was born of a marriage of Theodore, Patriarch of Jerusalem: a circumstance which should produce the reconciliation of the two churches.

once. Customs everywhere vary; discipline changes conformably to time and place. We here only record facts; we enter into no controversy.

of Clerks of the Closet (Clerks du Secret), since denominated Secretaries of State and Ministers.

At length, after several councils had been held without effect, on the subject Clerks of the closet, clerks of the king, of the celibacy which ought always to more recently denominated secretaries of accompany the priesthood, Pope Gre- state, in France and England, were origory excommunicated all married priests;ginally the "king's notaries." They ether to add respectability to the church, were afterwards called "secretaries of by the greater rigour of its discipline, orders"-(sécrétaires des commandémens). to attach more closely to the court of This we are informed of by the learned kome the bishops and priests of other and laborious Pasquier. His authority

CLIMATE.

is unquestionable, as he had under his
inspection the registers of the chamber of
accompts, which, in our own times, have
been destroyed by fire.

reason and investigate, goes still farther
than Fontenelle, when speaking of Per
sia. "The temperature of warm cli-
At the unfortunate peace of Chateau well as the body, and dissipates that fire
mates," says he, "enervates the mind as
Cambresis, a clerk of Philip II. having which the imagination requires for in-
taken the title of secretary of state, vention. In such climates men are in-
L'Aubepine, who was secretary of or- capable of the long studies and intense
ders to the king of France, and his no- application which are necessary to the
tary, took that title likewise, that the production of first-rate works in the li-
honours of both might be equal, what-beral and mechanic arts," &c.
ever might be the case with their emolu-

ments.

In England, before the reign of Henry VIII., there was only one secretary of the king, who stood while he presented memorials and petitions to the council. Henry VIII. appointed two, and conferred on them the same titles and prerogatives as in Spain. The great nobles did not, at that period, accept these situations; but, in time, they have become of so much consequence, that peers of the realm and commanders of armies are now invested with them. Thus every thing changes. There is at present no relic in France of the government of Hugh Capet, nor in England of the administration of William the bastard.

CLIMATE.

Chardin did not consider that Sadi and
collect that Archimedes belonged to Si-
Lokman were Persians. He did not re-
cily, where the heat is greater than in
three-fourths of Persia. He forgot that
Pythagoras formerly taught geometry to
the Brahmins.

veloped, as well as he was able, the
The Abbé Dubos supported and de-
opinion of Chardin.

them, Bodin made it the foundation of
One hundred and fifty years before
his system, in his " Republic" and in his
"Method of History" he asserts that
the influence of climate is the principle
both of the government and the religion
of nations.

Diodorus of Sicily was of the same opinion long before Bodin.

The author of the "Spirit of Laws,"

Ir is certain that the sun and atmos-without quoting any authority, carried phere mark their empire on all the pro- this idea farther than Chardin and Bodin. ductions of nature, from man to mush-A certain part of the nation believed him

rooms.

In the grand age of Louis XIV. the ingenious Fontenelle remarked :

to him as a crime. This was quite in to have first suggested it, and imputed it luded to. There are everywhere men character with that part of the nation alwho possess more zeal than understand

"One might imagine that the torrid and two frigid zones are not well suited to the sciences. Down to the presenting. day, they have not travelled beyond Egypt and Mauritania, on the one side, climate does everything, why the EmWe might ask those who maintain that nor on the other beyond Sweden. Per-peror Julian, in his Misopogon, says, haps it is not owing to mere chance that that what pleased him in the Parisians, they are retained within Mount Atlas and was the gravity of their characters and the Baltic Sea. We know not whether the severity of their manners; and why these may not be the limits appointed to these Parisians, without the slightest them by nature, or whether we may ever change of climate, are now like playful hope to see great authors among Lap-children at whom the government punlanders or negroes." who themselves, the moment after, also, ishes and smiles at the same moment, and

Chardin, one of those travellers who