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sumus omnes.' Many a lawyer avails himself of the profound jurisprudential lore of Mansfield; and still more frequently, many a strong politician admires the versatility and tact of the younger Pitt, and strives to be like him, in his lower but useful sphere, without ever suspecting whence their elements of power and superiority were originally and laboriously derived. Nay, many a stump orator, the genius of the hour, at a mass meeting or fourth of July glorification, reproduces the illustrations, of the "Rhetoric" of the Stagirite, and would be unfeignedly surprised, such are the mutations they have undergone in the lapse of time, if some retired student, whom he despises as belonging to the unproductive classes in political economy, would give him the veritable and ancient original. The student usually feels no temptation to interfere with his own quiet amusement in such a case, or clip the wings of the soaring and aspiring orator, by doing this thankless deed of constructive treason against the idol of the populace, or the mightier majesty of the people! "Dulce est desipere in loco." "In every age," says Schlegel, "and even in our times, there are many who, without being conscious of it, are firm adherents of Aristotle; of these, many are unacquainted with his writings, and some who have the appearance of deadly enemies." To trace in detail the illustrations of these two kinds of power exerted by Aristotle, over the tract of ages, and over these different classes, would lead us too far from our present aim, and yet without such specific illustration, the general fact, of which none who understand the subject have any question, loses much of its impressiveness.

It is surely worth while for all who believe the fact of Aristotle's immense influence on the world of thought, and who also believe in the uniformity of the laws of mental power in God's providence, to examine its philosophy. The noblest ambition after all, incomparably nobler than many that men so much indulge, is to exert lasting, mental and moral influence, to live after we die, and speak when mortal lips are scaled, to the generations that succeed, and when we "rest from our labors," to have "our works follow us." Oh! if some other Aristotle having his mental power, with all his energies "baptized in the pure fountain of eternal love," and interpene

trated thoroughly with "the mind of Christ," would arise or be raised up at these "ends of the world," this meeting-point of ages, there are many who would hail him as a blessing and a gift, though after "all his travail," and notwithstanding every right work, he might still be "envied by his neighbor," and unappreciated by the multitude.

We cannot turn from this part of our task without another thought. The elements of Aristotle's power we have seen are in his books. Are there not greater elements of power still embosomed in the book of books? Are there not works "sought out of them that have pleasure therein," where the mind of the author is designedly transcribed as far as it can be, and for all the purposes of our being "changed into the same image?" Aristotle towers above common minds immensely, as Himmaleh above the ordinary level of earth's geography. But as high as heaven is above the earth, are His thoughts above even the highest of ours. If we are amazed at the power of Aristotle, and trace along the past, the wonders of his direct and indirect power over our race; if we are fired with some noble ambition to enter into and possess the secret of his magic; if we should desire to achieve "something which the world would not willingly let die," shall we be contented only to be assimilated to Aristotle, or should we set before us the mark of the prize of a higher calling in Christ Jesus? If the civilian, and the politician, and the philosopher, give their nights and days to the Grecian models, should not the "meditations" of the Christian, especially of the Christian minister, be in the law of the Lord by day and by night? Should we not come even from Aristotle, and the analysis of his mind and power, to the "word which is true from the beginning," and those "righteous judgments" where eternal principles are inwrought like the decisions of the highest courts of the realm into special cases, "every one of which are forever," with a feeling like Moses, as he approached "the bush," whence the Eternal was pleased to speak? How distressingly low is our practical estimate of the Book" after all our eulogies! Yet many an one has said unpresumptuously, and many more might say, if they followed their example, "Thou, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine observers, for they are ever

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with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients," Aristotle and all, "because I kept thy precepts." The power of Aristotle is great, and greatly to be desired, and may be gained to some extent by diligent study, but there is a book, where we have "the Divine dynamics of salvation," which when personally experienced, become elements of incomparable power over our fellow men, to their "salvation" also.

We pause here. The Peripatetic philosophy is too extensive a subject to begin at this stage of our article.

ARTICLE IV.

1. Cretineau-Joly's History of the Jesuits. Histoire religieuse, politique et literaire de la Compagnie de Jesus. Par J. CRETINEAU-JOLY. In seven volumes. Paris, 1847.

2. Japan; an account geographical and historical, from the earliest period, &c. down to the present time. By CHARLES M'FARLANE Esq. Geo. P. Putnam & Co., New York, 1852. pp. 365.

3. Japan and the Japanese. By TALBOT WELLS, M. D. New York. J. P. Neagle, 1852. pp. 184.

AT the close of our last article, we left Romanism well introduced into Niphon by the labors of the "Alexander of missions," and in circumstances sufficiently promising. From this point it soars upward brilliant and brief as a rocket.

The two missionaries whom Xavier had left in Japan, were joined soon after his death by several brethren of the order from Malacca. These were distributed by Cosimo de Torres at the most hopeful points; at Kangosima, Funai, Amanguchy, Nagasaki, on the islands of Firando and Amakusa, and at other stations in the southern part of the empire. This reinforcement, and others that soon after arrived, appeared to decide the issue. The brethren began to take possession of the land by founding hospitals and schools. The king of Bungo, though not yet himself a convert, persisted in ex

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tending protection to them, notwithstanding a serious rebellion in his province. The kings of Omura and Arima, and several more of the petty sovereigns of Japan submitted to baptism. Their subjects readily followed their example; and now these fishers of men, throwing aside the angle, began to land converts in shoals with the net. The transition was so slight, the terms of conversion so easy, that when once the fashion was set, crowds hastened to follow it. It was only changing the Greek into a Latin cross, praying to Romish instead of Sintoo saints, and enjoying the éclat of a pompous public baptism. The missionaries were indefatigable, though the mere labor of baptizing, like Xavier's in India, must have been sufficiently fatiguing. Father Gaspard Coeglio baptized in and around the city of Cori, ten thousand converts, many of them bonzes. Fathers Villela and Cosimo received to the church nearly the entire population of several of the islands on the southern coast. Father Organtino baptized in the city and neighborhood of Meaco, eleven thousand idolaters in the space of a year, and great numbers afterwards. In two years, more than fifty thousand of the people of Omura received baptism. This was compensating at a pretty rapid rate for the losses the church was suffering at the same time by the progress of the Reformation in Europe.

In short, at the death of Cosimo de Torres in 1570, which was only twenty years after the commencement of the mission, Rome may well have regarded the Japanese islands as her own. Each year witnessed the baptism of fifteen, twenty, and even thirty thousand converts. More than fifty churches had been erected. Idol temples and images had been in many cases destroyed. The bonzes had been humbled in public debate, and some of their most learned doctors had embraced the faith. The Portuguese were extending their trade along the Japanese coast, and expecting with impatience the hour when the reverend fathers should have so far conquered the popular mind, as would warrant them in undertaking to seize the government of the country for themselves. Alternately traders and pirates, and quite ready to act in Japan the part of Cortez and Pizarro, it was not merely for commercial or for spiritual ends that Fernam Mendez Pinto and Edward De Gama lingered with their armed

ships in the Bungo channel. The Japanese, however, were a very different race from the feeble natives of Mexico and Peru; • a strong, fierce, military people, nursed by the rugged soil and climate which belongs to the eastern side of continents in that latitude, into heroic developments. There was nothing better than to wait, with their batteries hushed in grim repose, until the spiritual conquest of the islands had been effected; only a Catholic party in Japan itself could give the empire to the Portuguese. Towards this consummation of a spiritual conquest, which seemed now at hand, the course of political events had been influentially contributing. These events we must now briefly notice.

The Jesuits, on their first arrival, as we have already observed, found the country a prey to all the distractions incident. to that state of anarchy which had followed the downfall of its central government. Japan was afflicted with sixty-eight kinglets, but there was no king in the land, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Each fraction of sovereignty made war and peace on his own account; if any one got the upper hand and wore the title of cubo for a while, by absorbing half a dozen or more of the neighboring kingdoms, he lost it sooner than he had won it, by invasion or by revolution.

It was not long, however, after the commencement of the Jesuit mission, before several remarkable men arose, whose civil and military genius began to consolidate the political fragments of Japan into an empire.

The first of these was Nobunanga, hereditary king of the little principality of Voari; a man who, for his military and administrative talents, and some of the features in his successful career of ambition, may be not inaptly called the Napoleon of Japan. He arose during a fresh access of anarchy and blood, consequent on the violent death of the last Cubo-sama. This individual, the titular Sjogun of Japan, recognized as such by the Daïri-sama, perished in a revolution at Meaco in the year 1565, soon after he had given an imposing and favorable reception to fathers Froes and Villela. The assassins, who were his own ministers and favorites, taking him by surprise, surrounded and set on fire the palace; the usual method in Japan, where all buildings, on account of the prevalence of earthquakes, are

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