an extraordinary manner, to answer the various conditions of the prophecy of Rev. xvii. 8-112." So all might come right.

But alas! for the interpretation and the interpreter-the young Duke of Reichstadt, like his father, died without being Emperor of Rome, or indeed Emperor of anything. It was necessary to put forth something to patch up the system, which, after a reprieve of ten years, was so seriously endangered by the loss of the septimo-octave head of the beast. Accordingly, Mr. Frere published the pamphlet, to which we have already alluded in a note, by which it appears that the effect produced on his own mind by these failures was anything but a diminution of self-confidence. We have looked in vain for anything like a penitent acknowledgment, and apology to his fellowChristians, whom, for so many years, he had been labouring to bring into a misunderstanding of God's Holy Word, and a wrong belief respecting His purposes—whom, in short, he had been working with all his might to bring under what now turned out to be a manifest delusion. He seems only to have made it a ground for renewed and increased exertion, and to have felt the incredulity with which his speculations

"Three Letters on the Prophecies, on the true place of the Seventh Seal, the Infidel Individual Antichrist, and Antiochus Epiphanes, as a supposed subject of Prophecy; being in continuation of Eight Letters published in 1831. By James Hatley Frere, Esq. Though the vision tarry, wait for it: because it will surely come, it will not tarry.' Habak. chap. ii. v. 3." London: Hatchard, 1833. 8vo.

had been met (and which was not likely to be diminished by recent failures), as a reason-not for doubting whether God had really given him a talent for expounding the prophecies, but-for making a more constant and vigorous use of that which he supposed, notwithstanding appearances, really was such a talent. In the first of these three Letters 3,-which appears to have been originally addressed to the Editor of the Christian Herald, in Nov. 1832, and inserted in the December number of that work,-the writer says:

"As you have done me the favour of inviting my correspondence, I will state that I see no impediment to my supplying you occasionally with such expositions of the various parts of the Apocalypse, as result from this chronological arrangement; provided you will allow me to aim at nothing further in my papers than to make myself intelligible. In truth, I have a much higher motive to actuate me than could be supplied by desire of literary distinction, even were that within my reach; for finding, after twenty years, that this my one talent, which, as I must believe, has been committed to me for the benefit of the Church, has been hitherto unproductive; it becomes of vital importance that it should be made clear that this result has not been owing to any indifference on my part; but to the apathy of others, to whom I have vainly laboured, during the long period above referred to, to make known the character and meaning of this portion of the sacred volume."

Again he concludes the second of the letters by saying

It seems to have been the ninth of a series, of which we have not the pamphlet containing the former eight at hand.

"I would also vindicate the subject of prophecy by testifying, that painful and discouraging as have been my few attempts to communicate to the church whatever knowledge of it I may possess, it has of itself ministered to me nothing but satisfaction and delight; and so certain do its results appear to me, that, not even at, or since the death of Buonaparte, (as I desire to record with thankfulness,) has one flitting cloud of doubt or unbelief ever for a moment passed across my mind; and to any, if such there be, who feel a due interest in these divine revelations, I would say, The vision is certain, and the interpretation thereof, as far as it has been fulfilled, is sure; and wait yet but for a little, and that of the future shall be equally so."

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It seems very clear that the writer of the letter did not exactly know what to say just then; but it is worth while to quote part of a note which he appended to this letter, partly for the view which it gives us of his mind and feelings, and partly because he makes a particular reference to it in his new publication. He says:

"Having stated in the preceding note the various instances in which I have correctly interpreted unfulfilled prophecy, I must now confess, that I originally expected all these events to be crowded into a much shorter space, and to take place before the year 1823. The cause of which was, &c."-Three Letters, p. 28.

The causes, however, by which Mr. Frere supposed himself to have been misled (for that they were not the real ones seems to us beyond all question) we need not extract, and we only quote the foregoing lines for the sake of what occurs in a subsequent part of the

same letter, and which we cannot lay before the reader without expressly saying that we do most sincerely give the writer as full credit for honesty and good intention, as we do for an almost incredible self-complacency, and an immovable conviction that he had a special talent for a work in which he was so eminently unsuccessful.

"I would now also be equally forward to discover and make known any farther error; entertaining a just confidence, founded alone upon the perfection of the subject which I have undertaken to discuss, that if ever events shall hereafter call upon me to do so, (though this in my estimation is rendered highly improbable by the scheme of prophetic interpretation being now so complete,) it will be upon intelligible grounds; and with a result which, as in the former instance, will rather entitle me to the thanks, than expose me to the censure of those who are interested with me in the rational, scientific, and reverential investigation of the prophetic Scriptures."-Ibid., p. 29.

This letter and note Mr. Frere published in 1832 and 1833. What he wrote afterwards we only know from the pamphlet which he has just issued; and

4 The italics are the author's. Why he used them we know not, unless it were as a hit at some of his opponent interpreters; who no doubt deserve it. Whether any of them may retort that what is considered "intelligible" by Mr. Frere, seems otherwise to them, is another matter. He should remember, too, that even what is quite intelligible may be quite untrue and absurd. We should not charge a man with being unintelligible if he were to come back from the East, and tell us that he had renounced his old opinion on the subject, and now firmly believed that two and two made five, because he had heard the Caliph of Bagdad affirm it.

which, as the reader may see by its title at the head of this notice, contains a reprint of some former publications. One of these is a letter to Dr. Wolff, which will shew how the system had been altered and repaired after its failure. This might perhaps be briefly stated by saying that it was somehow, but very satisfactorily, discovered that what had been expected to happen in 1822 was really to happen in 1847; but the letter is so characteristic and curious, and the fact of its republication by the author now, is so singular, that we must give some extracts from it. It is dated 15th July, 1845, and entitled "On the expiration of the 'Times of the Gentiles,' A.D. 1847." In the course of it the writer says:—

"You mentioned in a letter you were so kind as to write to me dated 14th May, 1835, stating some further particulars relating to these manuscripts, that the Jews of Bokhara on being informed by you that such a result of the examination of Dan. viii. 14, in their most ancient copies of the Scriptures had been anticipated in England, 'on the ground of simple calculations,' replied, that we Gentiles in Europe must be a very wise people.'

"Now we are, doubtless, a very wise people, capable of any investigation, and of making any discovery or advance in science; but we are also, at least in England, a very busy people, and where every one is occupied in his own pursuits, and probably also by his own prepossessions, it is often difficult to gain attention to any truth, or to any discovery however important in its results, so that it may be long before it makes its way and becomes generally admitted, if it be not, peradventure, lost for ever. It becomes therefore desirable