Classical Theology.—Xliii.

at the grave , either on or after funereal occasions . Likewise there was a description of evocation called NeKvonavreia , or Necyomantia , whose efficacy was to be shown by the restoration of the dead to life . Some say , on this account , partieukn : places acquired the same name ; for instance , in Thesprotia , as we read in the Metamorphosis and the AryonaulicaEurydicethe wife

, , of Orpheus , after her death from the bite of a serpent , was brought back to life by the magic of her husband's lyre . The Lake Avemus , so celebrated by Homer and Virgil in their respective histories of Ulysses and iEneas , and by Byron in his eloquent tragedy of Manfred , was another locality of similar fame .

D'Herbelot ( p . 396 ) and Bailly , Sur VAtlantite ( p . 147 ) , speaking of the reign of Gian Ben Gian over the Peris , or otherwise Genii , say that the Orientals believe it continued to a period of 2000 years , when Eblis was instructed by the Almighty to expel them , on account of their rebellious and disorderly conduct , and confine them

within the remotest and most secure depths of the earth ; yet they contrived , after some lapse of time , to work for themselves a way upward to the newly-peopled world , but not again to resume the dominion which they had previously exercised there before the time of Adam . We find also some remarks in Bryant ' s Observations ( pp . 279-300 ) , which are substantially similar with one of the notes to Beckford ' s VatheJe .- — "

Amongst the infatuated votaries of the powers of darkness , the most acceptable offering was tho blood of their children . If the parents were not at hand to make an immediate offer , the magistrates did not fail to select those u-lio were most fair and promising , that the demon might not be defrauded of his due . On one occasion hco hundred of the prime nobility were sacrificed together .

Consequent to this , we find in D'Herbelot ( p . 374 ) and others , the words Ginn , Genn , Genie , signify a G-igas , Genius , or Demon , that is to say , super-mundane beings of a more subtilised existence and higher intelligence than the race of man ; which Genii , according to Oriental mythology , possessed the world ages before the creation of Adam . In the East they have been intermediately ranked between angels and men . We read that Mahomet averred and revealed a commission to convert them .

When the administering prophet of Alia stood up to supplicate him , it required little else to induce the Genii to flock in crowds to listen to his rehearsal of the Koran . — AI Koran , Ixxii . GenGenieGriffffiand Giants may most probably be

, , , derived from the same roots as r ?; , the earth , and ray , to beget ; that is to say , rl-yas , giant . Furthermore , it has been considered , that the ° " " or nvres , and EavTei of Plato closely approximate to these intermediate creatures between the supreme Creator and man after his kind . Such investigations induced the belief that a subtle

intelligency of distinct formation not only ruled the destinies and dynasties of men , but had of old possession and government of this world and the planets , and these beings were , therefore , thought to be afterwards still exercising , by their superior knowledge and intellect , an invisible influence over mundane affairs . Hence they obtained

from the Greeks the title of &< unov < = s _ from Aa-hpav , ( dcemon ) , which means skill , science , and knowledge . The Hebrew word pronounced Wephilim , and translated " giants , " in the fourth verse of the sixth chapter of Grenesis , may claim , as some say , the same etymon with Ne < pe \ n , a cloud , though we surmise " it might with as much sense claim an etymology with Nephele , the wife

Classical Theology.—Xliii.

of Athamas iEolus , or with Ni p he , one of Diana ' s companions . At all events , they are , or have been , all more or less involved in systems of magic . And the Genii and giants have given rise to innumerable fables , allegories , fairy tales , and mystical poems , founded on the traditions of preternatural history , with all their incidents of

enchanted castles , enchanted knights , and enchanting and enchanted dames , heroes , heroines , princes , princesses gods and goddesses . Among these legends , it is recorde that the Peris and the Djinn of the Medians and Per sians and Arabians were the famous masons that built the palaces of the sandy solitudes and shifting deserts

, erected the wondrous pyramids of Egypt , designed the astonishing Moorisian lake , excavated the stupendous temples ancl rock-hewn sepulchres of Lybia , and in Spain and Morocco constructed the renowned and prodi gious fortresses of the remotest mountains .

Sir Christopher Wren And His Times.

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN AND HIS TIMES .

LECTURE AT THE ABCHITECTUBAL EXHIUITI 0 X , BV 3111 . Tv . KEEK . Iii laying out an hour ' s gossip about Sir Christopher AVren and his times , let our point of departure be the middle of the seventeenth century' —say the year 1650 . In public history , tho previous year marks the execution of King Charles I ., and the establishment of the Puritan

ascendancy . In the history of our particular art , the year following marks the close of tho career of Inigo Jones . This year 1650 itself finds the individual who was destined to be the moro illustrious successor of Jones , a youth of eighteen , studying- at Oxford . I need not tell you that the England of that daj' was not the England of this , and London then a very different

thing from London now . The population of the kingdom in 1650 was not more than double that of its metropolis in our clay—not , perhaps , more than five millions . Pull half the surface of the country lay waste as forest , moor , and fen ; and wild doer in thousands roamed within ten miles of where ive are now assembled . Loudon , although , as at presentthe largest city in Europeheld but one-fifth of its

, , present population . Amsterdam was its rival . The second cities of England were Bristol and Norwich , each containing about 25 , 000 inhabitants . York and Exeter followed , with about 10 , 000 ; while Liverpool , Birmingham , Leeds , and Manchester , were little towns of from four to six thousand souls . Tho metropolis itself ivas chiefly a collection of

timber houses , with a dilapidated Gothic cathedral in the midst , and one solitary bridge spanning tho Thames in the form of a row of houses . Westminster Abbey stood at a distance , ancl marked where tho Court resided , out of town . The aristocracy dwelt in the Strand , Lincoln ' s-inn-fields , and Covent Garden . Chelsea was a country village , Maryle-bone and Finsbury pasture fields , Islington a solitude , St .

James ' s vacant , and tho spot at present beneath our feet a pleasant meadow , which contained a famous spring or conduit . The shops of the citizens were distinguished , not by modest numbers ranging along the streets , but by tho grotesque signs at present appropriated by taverns , and these not inscribed in words , but painted in effigy , or no one could have read them but the learned . Street-lihting ivas

g a thing to be wondered at . The refuse of the town waited patient !} ' in heaps till a rainy day enabled it to sail composedly down the gutters to tho river . Newspapers there were none , nor post office , except in embryo ; nor even coffee houses , where the citizens of another generation used to chat over public affairs . The goods of commerce were carried on packhorses . The first stage-coach in England

had not yet sob out by twenty years . Tho days of Queen Bess were scarcely half a century bygone , ancl another halfcentury carried back well remembered traditions to the time of bluff King Harry , which lay beyond the reign of Bloody Mary . Well-remembered traditions we may well say ; for the blood , which was the life of them , still flowed in the