| 520 examination, and then, after making a detour by Castellamre, where we dined, returned to Naples. I went to Herculanium by the railway from Naples. The principle wonder there is an immense amphitheater, which was discovered buried in lava, as hard as granite, whilst digging for a well. On the ceiling of a chamber underneath I saw the exact impression of a marble statue, which had been removed, washed down, and there rested by the volcanic torrent. In another part of the ruin, the streets and houses, prison-walls and bars, may be seen as at Pompeii; and at the edge of a well the marks formed by the cords or chains in pulling up the buckets remain to this day. During the time of its destruction, lava must have descended from Vesuvius in a perfectly liquid state, as the lowest cellars are frequently as neatly filled as if the lava had been chiselled [chiseled] for the purpose. A visit to these buried cities cannot fail to suggest the most solemn reflections. O race of man! what awful materials for a chapter in the history of the Providence of God.-Scamper through Italy.
THE JEWS.
The present physical, moral, and social condition of the Jews must be a miracle. We can come to no other conclusion. Had they continued from the christian era down to the present hour in some such national state in which we find the Chinese, walled off from the rest of the human family, and by their selfishness as a nation, and their repulsion of alien elements, resisting every assault from without, in the shape of a hostile invasion, and from an overpowering national pride forbidding the introduction of new and foreign customs, we should not see so much a miracle interwoven with their existence. But this is not their state-far from it. They are neither a united nor an independent nation, nor a parasitic province. They are peeled and scattered into fragments; but broken globules of quicksilver, instinct with a cohesive power, ever claiming affinity and, ever ready to amalgamate. Geography, arms, genius, politics, and foreign help do not explain their existence; time and climate and customs equally fail to unravel it. None of these are, or can be, springs of their perpetuity. They have spread over every part of the habitable globe; have lived under the reign of every dynasty; they have used every tongue, and lived in every latitude. The snows of Lapland have chilled, and the suns of Africa have scorched them. They have drank of the Tiber, the Thames, the Jordan, the Mississippi. In every country, in every latitude and longitude, we find a Jew.
It is not so with any other race. Empires the most illustrious have fallen, and buried men that constructed them; but the Jew has lived among the ruins, a living monument of indestructibility. Persecution has unsheathed the sword and lighted the faggot; Papal superstition and Moslem barbarism have smitten them with unspeakable ferocity; penal rescripts and deep prejudice have visited on them the most ungenerous debasement; and, notwithstanding all, they survive.
Like their own bush on Mount Horeb, Israel has continued in flames, but unconsumed.-They are the aristocracy of scripture-let off coronets-princes in degradation. A Babylonian, a Theban, a Spartan, an Athenian, a Roman, are names known to history only; their shadows alone haunt the world and flicker its tablets. A Jew walks every street, and dwells in every capitol, traverses every exchange, and relieves the monotony of the nations of the earth. The race has inherited the heirloom of immorality, incapable of extinction or amalgamation. Like streamlets from a common head, and composed of water's peculiar nature, they have flowed along every stream without blending with it or receiving its flavors, and traversed the surface of the globe amid the lapse of many centuries distinct-alone. The Jewish race at this day is, perhaps, the most striking seal of the sacred oracles. There is no possibility of accounting for their perpetual isolation, their depressed but distinct being, on any ground save those revealed in the record of truth.-Frazer's Magazine.
For the Times and Seasons.
Mr. Editor:-Sir: Having been absent from our beloved city some four months on a mission to proclaim the pure principles of the everlasting gospel; and as some incidents occurred in the course of my travels, which may not be uninteresting to the readers of your very valuable paper, I am induced to forward you this letter, which you can dispose of as you think proper.
After I closed my ministerial labors in Iowa Territory, which were crowned with success it was thought best that I should visit the upper counties in this state. Accordingly, on the 5th of December last, I left here for the above place. On my way I preached at Macedonia, Burnadotte, and Washington. At the latter place, after I had closed my second discourse on the first principles of the gospel, I received a challenge from the Rev. Mr. Phelps, to discuss the subject of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and our principles in general. He said that he intended to investigate
(page 520) |
