ten, and therefore no notice is taken of them or their authors by ancient historians. Pious frauds however have not been neglected to supply the deficiency of history in this respect, as appears by the following interpolation in Josephus' history of the Jews, which is not to be found in the early copies of that work, not indeed till long after the death of the author. This fact has been so fully established by doctor Priestley and other learned men, that it is not now disputed by any man of information; altho' many who feel an interest in deceiving mankind, may still insidiously attempt to palm the fabrication in Josephus, upon the ignorant and credulous. The passage is as follows:

"It being the usual custom of the Roman governors to advise the senate and people of such material things as happened in their respective provinces, Publius Lentulus being president in the days of Tiberius Cæsar, the Emperor, wrote the following epistle to the senate concerning the description of the person of Jesus Christ."

"CONSCRIPT FATHERS,

"There appeared in these our days a man of great virtue, named JESUS CHRIST, who is yet living among us, and of the Gentiles is accepted for a prophet of truth; but his own disciples call him the Son of God.-He raiseth the dead, and cureth all manner of diseases. A man, of stature somewhat tall and comely, with a very reverend countenance, such as the beholders may both love and fear; his hair of the colour of a filbert fully ripe, plain to his ears, whence downward it is more orient of color, somewhat curling and waving about his shoulders. In the midst of his hair, is a seam, or partition of his hair, after the manner of the Nazarites; his forehead plain and delicate, his face without spot or wrinkle, beautified with a comely red; his nose and mouth exactly formed, his beard thick, the colour of his hair; not of any great length but forked; his look innocent, his eyes grey, clear and quick-in reproving, terrible-in admonishing, courteous-in speaking, very modest and wise,

-in proportion of body, well shaped.-None have seen him laugh; but many have seen him weep-a man, for his singular beauty surpassing the children of men."

Reader do you not see imposture and fraud stamped upon the face of this record? With what sang froid the writer speaks of a man's raising the dead? A thing never known or heard of before or since.* Would not such a circumstance have made some noise in Rome? If true, would not the Emperor have sent for Jesus Christ to Rome to raise some of his deceased friends, or himself in case of death? This is reputed to be an official letter from a governor to the Roman senate; and it is to be presumed that he would not have dared to write to that wise body of legislators what was not true; and yet we find no notice is taken of it by the Conscript Fathers; none of their celebrated orators render this important discovery immortal by their speeches. The story died a natural death, without gaining, that we know of, a single convert in Rome. And what is more extraordinary we do not hear that this governor was ordered home by the Emperor as too weak and credulous to retain the command of a Roman province; which doubtless would have been done had he written such a letter. The probability is that this minute description of the person of Jesus Christ was written by some Pope, or Roman Catholic priest, to serve as a guide for their painters.

*The story of the Witch of Endor's raising Samuel cannot we think with propriety be cited in contradiction to what is here asserted, as we believe the most orthodox divines agree that it was a mere representation of Samuel that the witch conjured up, by the aid of the Devil, to satisfy Saul's curiosity. At any rate it does not appear that Samuel continued many minutes in existence, whilst those here reported to be raised by Jesus Christ must be supposed to have lived years afterwards, else the raising of them would have been to no purpose, altho' we have no more account of their subsequent lives, than we have of those who are said to have risen at the crucifixion.

CURIOUS PAINTER'S BILL.

THE following are verbatim, the items of a painter's bill lately sent for payment to a noble lord, who considers himself one of the greatest connoisseurs of the age, and who has a very large collection of both sacred and prophane pictures. To filling up the chink in the Red Sea and repairing the damages of Pharoah's host.

To a new thief on the cross.

To cleansing six of the Apostles and adding an entire new Judas Iscariot.

To a pair of new hands for Daniel in the lion's den and a set of teeth for the lioness.

To new varnishing Moses' rod.

To repairing Nebuchadnezzar's beard.

To mending the pitcher of Jacob's daughter.

To a pair of ears for Balaam and a new tongue for the ass. To cleaning the whale's belly, varnishing Jonah's face and mending his left arm.

To cleaning the picture of Sampson in the character of a fox hunter and substituting the whip for the fire brand.

To a new broom and bonnet for the Witch of Endor.
To painting twenty one new steps to Jacob's ladder.
To adding some Scotch cattle to Pharaoh's lean kine.
To mending the net in the miraculous draught of fishes.
To painting a new City in the land of Nod.

To cleaning the garden of Eden, after Adam's expulsion. To painting a shoulder of mutton and a shin of beef in the mouths of two of the ravens feeding Elijah.

To an exact representation of Noah, in the character of a general reviewing his troops preparatory to their march, and the dove dressed as aid-de-camp.

To painting Noah dressed in an Admiral's uniform. Sampson making a present of his jaw bone to the proprietors of the British museum.

To repairing Solomon's nose, and making a new nail to his middle finger.

Eng.Mag.

1

To Men of Science.-The late bad weather began after Christmas day, when the moon changed in Perigee, and in maximum of latitude and declination, but of different names; and in a quadrature, or 90 degrees from the Nodes; and terminated in a storm on the night of the 31st ult. blowing hardest about 11 o'clock, at the very time when the moon was bisected by the plane of the Ecliptic, or exactly in the descending Node, which at this time is in the Vernal Equinox. The like circumstance will not happen again in less time than 8 years and 224 days; but will take place in the Autumnal Equinox, in half a revolution of the Nodes, or about the 20th of April, 1820. This incident is mentioned in confirmation of the Newtonian system of philosophy; and it is dedicated to the memory of its illustrious founder. Charleston, Jan. 3. W. NORTH.

Titles.-Lord Wellington is more likely to bend beneath his titles than his laurels. As every defeat brings a new title, he may soon vie in the length of his string with any Spanish Don on the peninsula. He is now, it seems, dubbed the Earl of Busaco, or Buss-a-cow-probably on account of the bull he made in mistaking a defeat for a victory!

Earl Buss-a-cow may probably soon salute John Bull-on his return from the glorious expedition to deliver the peninsula from the tyranny of Bonaparte, and restore it to the liberty of being governed by kings and nobles-monks and friars-superstition and bigotry-torture and the inquisition. T. T. Amer.

English Literature.-Over the door of a school in Piccadilly, (London) is painted the following scientific notice : “Reeding, righting, and Mathew Mattocks tawt hear."

No. 7.

"Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, "But looks through Nature up to Nature's God."-POPE.

LETTER V.

ON POLITICAL EVILS.

BY SOAME JENYN'S.

[Continued from page 209.]

[The American reader will not expect from a ministerial member of the British Parliament, sentiments on government in perfect unison with his own. Education and interest generally bear supreme sway over even philosophic minds on this subject. But, notwithstanding, Mr. Jenyns gives the preference to a limited monarchy over absolute despotism and democracy, he candidly states the evils resulting from each. And it must be observed that the democracies, with which he was acquainted, were very different from the governments of the United States, none such having existence at the time he wrote. He seems, however, to be possessed with an idea, that the evils gene-· rally, even of oppressive governments, ought to be patiently borne, as, in his opinion, they are unavoidable. That they may in some measure be modified, but can by no means be wholly removed. It is certain that absolute perfection in government, or a state of existence free from all evil, can never be expected in this world. America, however, is now in the full tide of successful experiment upon those