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It will, perhaps, be very sagely asserted on this subject, that the above is a very beautiful doctrine, except in one point, and that is, that it is not true. This, of course, is likely enough, and will be equally clear to us all when the reasons are given.

As far as the usual arguments for free agency are concerned, they are before our correspondent; we need not recapitulate them here, he is familiar with them already. To meet his inquiries, as well as those of his friends, and the public at large, we have stated part of what may be said on the other side. We make no decision on the matter. It is one of those questions which every man must decide by the light within him, and by his own experience. Such ideas will meet all thinking people, sooner or later, anyway, if they only think far enough; and they may just as well think about them to-day, and put them to flight if false, as at any other period. On the other hand, if there is a grain of truth in them, that grain belongs to our "Mormonism," for which cause we present them for examination.

In closing, we will say to all persons, on this and all other subjects: dare to think, and think freely. Never be afraid of the foolish saying that, perhaps you "will think so far that you may not be able to think your way back again." It is only those who think but seldom who are in danger of not finding their way back; just as little boys who seldom go from home are in danger of being lost on the very next street. Do not be afraid, either, that the truth will be endangered by your thinking. Depend upon it, the truth can take care of itself. It can stand inspection, and rough handling, if necessary. If not, it is not that glorious thing we have taken it to be, and we may as well be without it as

with it.

BIG MOONS AND LITTLE ONES,

OR PLAIN TALK ON THE SCIENCES.

No. II.

One of the delusions that a great many people labor under, is that there is but one globe in the universe that goes through such changes as our moon does. It would very much surprise such people could they watch some of the planets through a telescope, and discover that they go through all the phases of the moon from new to full. This is a fact that can be easily demonstrated. Even our earth does the same. To other worlds she looks at one time like a small new moon, appearing only as a faint streak of light; from this she increases gradually till she shines like a full round face, after which she again wanes till she disappears.

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Living in a dark world like this, it will be a great comfort to many of our readers when we tell them that things are not half as black as they look, for there has been a new moon every night since the moon was made. How," says "can that be? We only see a full moon every twentyeight days!" It will perhaps only increase the puzzle when we assert, that it can be for the same reason that there has been a new moon, a half moon and a three-quarter moon all shining at once, every night since the moon began its

one,

career.

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being unable to see any of the illuminated side would say that was all nonsense, for to them it looked like no moon at all.

Just in this way our moon is hung up in the heavens, and being shone upon, only it has the sun to illuminate it instead of the City Hall window. Except when the earth gets exactly between the sun and the moon and cuts off the light, one side of the moon is always illuminated—always shining like a full moon. All that is necessary to have a full moon any night is simply to get opposite to it so that you can see it. As the moon passes round and round our globe, about once every month we get squarely opposite her illuminated face, when, as we can then see the whole of the side that is lighted up, we say that it is full moon. By-andby passing on her great journey the moon gets a little on one side of us, and as we can't see quite so much of her bright side as we did we say "the moon is waning." It is nothing of the kind. It is still shining with a full round face of light, only we have passed a little to the right or left and cannot see the whole of it. Again the moon passes on around us, her illuminated face getting further and further out of sight, until, finally, it has disappeared from our view altogether; and we say, "there is no moon to-night;" simply because the dark side is turned towards us while its glorified face is shining away bright as ever, only looking in another direction. Could we at such times take a flight of a few hundred thousand miles till we stood just in a line between the moon and the sun we should discover our delusion at once. Could we still further follow the moon in its wanderings so as always to occupy the same kind of a position we could have full moon all the time. On the other hand, could we fly fast enough to go entirely round the moon in one night, we could have every change of the moon from new to full between the setting and the rising of the

sun.

If this is true of one globe like the moon, it must, of course, be true of all bodies like our earth, that get their light from a central luminary by revolving around it. No body of this kind can be illuminated except on one of its sides at one time. To all intelligences who are opposite these illuminated sides they will, of course, look like full moons. To those who are sideways to the illuminated face they will look like new moons; while to those who are entirely behind the bright side they will be totally invisible, and seem to have disappeared.

As many of the planets are attended upon by a variety of moons to illuminate their nights, each of which, of course, go through all the changes we have referred to, as well as going through all these phases themselves, our solar system must be full of "Little moons and big ones," shining away every night visible to somebody, and which would be visible to us did we only go where we could see them.

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JULY 24,

FRANCE AND ITS FOUNDERS.

THE WORLD'S HISTORY ILLUSTRATED IN ITS GREAT CHARACTERS.

France next comes in to play her part in the great drama of empires, Charlemagne was, in the world's history, what Julius Cæsar or Constantine was before him. An epic is in the very name of each, and they are also as historical links in the grand series. But, before taking up the biography of the family of Charlemagne, let us briefly sketch the founding

of the French Nation.

Among the barbarians, who poured into Europe carly in the Christian era, breaking up the Roman empire and changing the face of the world, were a people known by the name of Franks. They were of the great Teutonic family, and originally settled on the Lower Rhine and Weser. In their resistance to the Roman power they acquired their name (free-men). They were a confederation rather than a people. Under the name of Franks, Germans of every race composed the best troops of the Roman armies. They invaded Gaul as early as the year 254, during the reign of the Roman emperor Gallienus. They arose to importance in the empire and resisted the irruptions of others of the barbarians into Gaul, and, in 406. they opposed, though unsuccessfully, the great invasion of the Burgundians, Suevi, and Vandals. Of this invasion Gibbon says, "This memorable passage of the Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani and the Burgundians, who never afterwards retreated, may be considered as the fall of the Roman empire in the countries beyond the Alps; and the barriers, which had so long separated the savage and the civilized nations of the earth, were from that fatal moment levelled with the ground."

But, in our views of the Providence revealed in history, we have not dated this great remodeling of the world as from a fatal moment.”

At

About the year 486, a tribe of the Franks, under Clovis, invaded Gaul and defeated the Roman governor. This Clovis became the founder of the first French dynasty. this time, however, he was only chief of a petty tribe of the Franks of Tournai, but numerous bands of Suevi, under the designation of All-men (Alemanni), threatening to pass the Rhine, the various tribes of the Franks flew to arms to oppose their passage, and, as usual, they united under their bravest chieftain, who happened at the time to be Clovis, During the battle which followed, this famous founder of the French nation vowed to worship the god of his wife Clotilda if he gained the victory. This Clotilda was a Christian and the niece of the king of the Burgundians. Clovis, her pagan husband, did gain the day, embraced Christianity according to his vow, and three thousand of his warriors followed his example.

This important conversion of the warlike pagans caused great joy among the clergy of Gaul, and from that time the Christian hierarchy began to look upon the Franks as the St. germ of a new empire to give to Christ the dominion. Avitus, bishop of Vienne, wrote to Clovis "When thou fightest it is to us that victory is due." And St. Remigius in commenting upon his baptism said, "Sicamber, bow meekly thy head; adore what thou hast burnt, burn what thou

hast adored."

In the case of the founder of the French nation we have a striking parallel with that of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. The cross gave to each empire, and they were raised up to give the Church dominion. The Roman empire Ead once fitted the providence of the world, but Constantine and his successors had, by removing the seat of government to Constantinople, turned the grand problem back upon the East, when destiny had designed its march upon the West. The sequel showed the dominion was ordained to pass from

the emperors of the East, and the representation of the future Christendom from the hands of the successors of Constantine. But the French nation was to arise at this juncture to take the place of the Roman empire, and Charlemagne was brought up in his order in the divine drama, to consolidate a christendom which has stood till the present day. But when he came, Constantinople and Rome were divorced, and out of this division between the Popes and the eastern emperors, which we shall notice hereafter, grew the Greek and Latin churches. And thus we see, at every step, even when in the very chaos of the world, the harmonies of God's movements and the opportune comings of the great characters and revolutions of history.

In the rising of the French nation as a christian power, the unity of the church was brought down and society moulded into more modern states of civilization. The bishops of the Church, filled with the idea of that unity, sanctioned the acts of Clovis when he cut off the lines of the other petty kings of the Franks to establish the general supremacy of his own dynasty over his rising nation. Says Gregory of Tours: "He succeeded in everything, because he walked with his heart upright before God." We mark these treacheries of kings-we note these pious sophistries of priests, but we also reverently say that out of evil the Great God brings forth good to mankind-out of barbaric chaos He moulds better civilizations.

The dynasty of Clovis continued for several centuries, building up the French nation and the barbarians who overran Europe were leavened by the rude mission of Christianity, for rude it was in those fierce days. The Saxons were among the most stubborn of the Pagans, whom the French, (the first sons of the Church") for generations, sought to subdue; but Charlemagne ultimately completed their conversion with his mighty sword. Of the great drama performed in Christendom in the sixth and seventh centuries

a historian thus writes:

"The priest, in fact, was now king. The Church had silently made her way in the midst of the tumult of barbaric invasions, which had threatened universal destruction; and strong, patient and industrious, she had so grasped the new body politic as thoroughly to interfuse herself with it. Early abandoning speculation for action, she had rejected the bold theories of Pelagianism, and adjourned the great question of human liberty. The savage conquerors of the empire required to have not liberty but submission preached to them, to induce them to bow their necks in the place of the municipal government, left the city at the apto the yoke of civilization and the Church. The Church, coming proach of the barbarians, and issued forth as arbiter betwixt them and the conquered. Once beyond the walls, she took up her abode in the country. Daughter of the city, she yet perceived that the city was not all in all. She created rural bishops, extended her saving protection to all, and shielded even those she did not command with the protecting sign of the tonsure. became one immense asylum; an asylum for the conquered, for the Romans, for the serfs of the Romans. The latter rushed by crowds into the Church, which, more than once, was obliged to close her doors upon them-there would have been none left to till the land. No less was she an asylum for the conquerors; who sought in her bosom a retreat from the disorders of barbarian life, and from their own passions and violence, from which they suffered equally with the conquered. Thus serfs rose to the priesthood, the sons of kings and dukes sank to be bishops, and great and little met in Jesus Christ. At the same time the land was diverted from profane uses by the vast endowments which were showered on the men of peace, on the poor, on the slave. What they had taken, that the barbarians gave. They found that they had conquered for the Church. So was a right destiny

fulfilled."

She

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from that standard of excellence and divinity, represented in Jesus and his spiritual mission.

In opening the Latter Day dispensation, we elders of Zion have made this "great apostacy" one of our most important subjects of discourse. Upon no subject, perhaps, have we exhausted so much eloquence. We have been right; the Church did apostatize from its spirituality, and the kingdom of Heaven became very much the kingdoms of this world, even as the kingdoms of this world are, in turn, destined to become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. In those ages there was a might of civilization. They were indeed the dark ages. Arabia, not Christendom, represented civilization then; Mohammed, not Christ, was the light of the world. Even writers who attempt to deny this yet confess it. Say the famous Chambers Brothers, in their "Information for the People:"-

We are

"Perhaps the obligations of modern Europe to Arabia at this time have been overstated; but it is not to be denied that learning, almost totally excluded and extinct in Europe during the eighth and ninth centuries, found an asylum here. It has been a matter of dispute how the tastes of these fierce Arabians became thus first directed. They probably owed it to the Greeks; but it is certain that what they got they returned with interest. said to derive our present arithmetical figures from this strange people; and geometry, astronomy, and alchemy were their favorite pursuits. The graces of light literature were not neglected, as is shown by the One Thousand and One Nights' Entertainments,' a production of this period, which still continues to solace the hours of childhood and old age among ourselves, and attest the extent of fancy and the variety of genius of those that gave it birth. Haroun al Raschid, who flourished in the beginning of the ninth century, is celebrated as a second Augustus. He was contemporary with Charlemagne, and communications of a friendly nature are said to have passed between them."

Thus we see not only an apostasy in Christianity, but also a departure from the comparatively high state of civilization, represented in the polished Greek and the imperial Roman. From Europe civilization fled to take refuge in Arabia, and not until the rise of the new Western empire from Charlemagne, did Europe begin again to take lead in the world's destiny After him came the Saxon Alfred, and then England, as well as France, Italy and Germany, bounded into the new phases of civilization. But, while we note these ages of apostasy and night, let us philosophically consider the pit of races from which Christendom has been taken, and we shall find that those who to-day represent the Christian nations, have not gone back, but have advanced-not apostatized but have rather put on the beautiful garments of civilized man. Historical examples are better than theological views. Let our readers call to mind the play of Ingomar and his tribe of barbarians, which they have seen represented on the Salt Lake City stage. They were the Alemanni, a type of the people who overran Europe, breaking up the Roman empire. Now, let it be remembered, that from such races and out of such barbaric states, as the play of Ingomar presents, civilized Europe and America of to-day have sprung. Is it not wonderful that, from such a wilderness of humanity, Christianity has built up nationalities rivaling those of Greece and Rome-crecting a glorious fabric of civilization that culminates all which have gone before? A new world has been literally created out of the barbaric chaos of Europe that succeeded the fall of the Roman empire. Has not Christ then performed well his work of empire-founding, from our barbarian forefathers, who almost, to the very days of Charlemagne, emperor of the Franks, much resembled our American Indians? His work has always been "a marvellous work and a wonder" and now when his national superstructures are built up he has given a new dispensation through Joseph Smith to prepare the way for the establishment of Zion in all the earth! But first, like as our Apostles, High

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Whom they have endeavored to immortalize as the great law-giver of Sparta, is a very mythical personage. Some historians contend that he was contemporary with "Iphitus, the King of the Elis," who is supposed to have established the Olympic games," as early as six hundred and sixty years before Christ. Other historians assert that he was contemporary with Homer. Another rises up and says that there were two personages of that name-ages intervening between the birth and death of the one and the other. Even the parentage of one or both of them is a matter of contest.. All admit that no record was ever made of his laws until five hundred years after they were ordained-oral tradition being the only method of transmission in use in those early days. Troubadors, minstrels and poets, were the first compilers of tradition in every land. What would the world have ever known of Troy and her sad history, had it not been for Homer and his Iliad. The ideal world is the home of the facts. How often has the artful minstrel fed the vanity of a powerful chief by making, in his song, a hero of some chuckleheaded progenitor, whose only excellence, perhaps, was founded upon an irresistible self-will, with brute force enough to make it effective, by moving everything upon the principles of Dutch navigation-"main strength and awk

wardness."

The fertility of the Greek mind is finely illustrated in Xenophon's biography of Cyrus, the Persian hero. Rasselas was not more successful in his discovery of the happy valley than was Xenophon in his conceptions of a perfect man. Who, that has once witnessed the growth of a rumor in its journey from Salt Lake City to Ogden, would place implicit faith in the compilation of oral traditions that had been handed down from father to son, or from mother to daughter, for over five hundred years?

A man named Lycurgus, or a genius of his order with some other name, undoubtedly once flourished in Sparta. He was unquestionably a man far in advance of the age in which he lived; great in mental endowments, and gifted with a masterful spirit. One who left the impress of his genius on society, through a rude social code that was well suited to the needs of a rude and warlike people. But who is so simple as to believe that the laws forming the social code of Sparta at the time when authentic history began to be recorded, were the laws ordained by Lycurgus five hundred years before, and handed down by oral tradition intact? How much more reasonable to suppose that the prevailing social code of Sparta at the time when authentic history records and immortalizes them, was the result of the experience of ages; and that the old code had been vamped, revamped and changed, to meet new circumstances in later

times;

that the laws of Sparta at the date of authentic history were ordained by the Spartans of that age, and based only on the rude customs and habits of their progenitors. The fact is, the social code of Sparta in force at the time Greek historians recorded them, was an established reflex of the character, the manners and customs of the Spartans of that age.

Now, let us examine into the character of that famous code, and see if we can determine as to the extent to which the Spartans had advanced in the refinements of civilized life. A vigorous young Spartan in search of a wife seized upon the damsel of his choice by night, and carried her off with violence. His interviews with her for months after this rude introduction were conducted with the utmost secrecy. Cunning and stealth characterized all their intercourse, until the wife was near her confinement. Should the wife at any time prefer the secret embraces of a favorite lover, the husband was subject to ridicule if he made a fuss about it. Upon the birth of a child it was immediately taken from the arms of its mother and carried before the judges and wiseacres of the tribe for examination. If it was strong, healthful and endowed with symmetry of form, it was preserved and adopted by the tribe, but if it proved to be a weakly specimen of humanity it was thrown into a deep pit as worthless carrion-it was deemed unfit to live. Girls were left to the care of their mothers. The boys were entrusted to maternal control for the first few years of their life, after which they ate at the public tables, and lived in the society of the men, almost exclusively. To prevent the men becoming too much attached to home and its pleasures, and to place a barrier to the increase of the influence of the wife, it was ordained that the men should cat at public tables, and at night retire to their homes without lights. King Agis upon his return from one of his warlike expeditions, upon which he was eminently successful, had a desire to dine in company with his wife at home, and besought the "Polemarchs," or masters of the public tables, for the privilege of doing so, and was refused. The highest excellence in a youth was to be able to steal without discovery, and to hide successfully. That no young damsel should ever be able by the character of her dress to hide any personal defect or deformity, it was required of them that they should attend the public amusements from time to time in a state of perfect nudity, and dance before the public; that the youths, their future husbands, might be able to judge of their comparative excellence of form, and athletic proportions. The art of padding was evidently not developed in those days.

The checks upon the intercourse of the sexes were so few, that a renowned Spartan warrior, when questioned by a serious inquirer, declared it to be impossible to commit adultery in Sparta, there were no laws defining what adultery consisted of. The slave market of Sparta was always kept well supplied by captives taken in their warlike expeditions.

athletic sports.

No Spartan ever toiled with his hands-labor was degrading. The products of the labor of their women and slaves supported them. Men of Spartan blood were trained to endure the fatigues and hardships of war by a frugal diet and A dogged resolution, and a total absence of the sense of fear, were considered to be the noblest characteristics in a man born to be a soldier. To turn one's back upon enemies, however numerous, was not permitted by the Spartan military law. A man must die in his tracks-with his face to his enemy, rather than yield or run away.

The power of their kings was merely nominal, the Senate shared in all the powers of government, and both king and parliament were held in check by the "Ephori" anindividual elected by the suffrage of the people. Every man of Spar

tan blood was a freeman.

The Spartan civil polity, as well as that of all the estate of Greece, was essentially democratic in character. Rude and undeveloped as it was, it was the first step in advance toward the dethronement of kings, who ruled by divine right without the will of the governed. To go over the whole ground of Grecian history is not our purpose. Nor is it necessary to do so to carry out our design in showing "How the world has grown." Sparta was the chief for a time of the many petty governments that divided and segregated the Grecian nationality, and prevented her from conquering the world, and leaving her impress, in indelible characters upon its future history.

PROGRESS is written by the Divine hand on the front of the history of the human race. As soon as old nationalities settle down, become fixed, and run in grooves, younger and more vigorous nationalities spring up, overturn the old and engraft upon their roots new and more advanced forms of political and social life.

Thus has it ever been and thus must it ever be until "that which is perfect has come," and the world, not as nationalities, but as a whole, shall move onward and upward through unending ages.

The Drama.

CHARACTERS OF SHAKSPEARE.

MACBETH MEDIUMISTIC.

Pass now to the type and character of Macbeth, and sec the essence and theme of this epic drama unfolded in his action and person. He is born of the subject, and is not the parent to it. He is the chief instrument in the hands of the superhuman powers. He is a medium-a clairvoyant in his metaphysics; and from the time that he makes his entree to the close of his action, he is under the influence, and a son of supernatural solicitude. The potent managers of the play bring him on by their charms.

[Enter MACBETH and BANQUo.]
Mach. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
Bang. How far is't call'd to Forres?-What are these,
So wither'd and so wild in their attire;

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't?

Then follow the predictions of the witches concerning Macbeth's advancement:

1 Witch. All hail, Macbeth! all hail to thee, thane of Glamis! 2 Witch.-All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! 3 Witch.-All hail, Macbeth, that shall be king hereafter. It is temptation, not ambition.

Bang.-Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear

Things that do sound so fair?

Macbeth did not fear to be ambitious; did not fear to challenge immortal powers; did not fear to call them "black and midnight hags;" but he feared himself-feared the whirlpool of temptation into which he was hurled, like the archangel cast down from heaven upon the burning lake, lost and confounded by the fall; feared the direful warfare of the mighty elements of good and evil opening now their storm upon his soul. A moment, and the fiend need stay no longer to pursue their theme. Temptation has the mas

tery. ther.

More eager than they is he to open the matter far

broken, and our "Impressario" was obliged, much against his will, to halt. In a very ill humor, he set out for a promenade through the village, while the smith was repairing the coach. Sauntering listlessly along, he suddenly heard singing-and such singing! Never had he heard so sweet, so clear, so heavenly a voice. For a while transfixed with astonishment, he at length approached the house, and soon found himself in the presence of the songstress. She was a handsome Tyrolese maiden of uncommon grace and dignity, and was entertaining three children who were intently listening to her.

He apologised for his intrusion, and begged to know if the Fraulein understood music, or if what he had just heard was mere natural talent. She replied that she understood music. The director immediately drew from his pocket some sheets of "La fille du Regiment," which he chanced to have with him, and requested her to sing a few pass

did Dr. Johnson:

Bang.—That, trusted home,

Might yet, enkindle you unto the crown,

Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence.

Is this a commentary on ambition or on the great subject of human temptation? It is Shakspeare that thus interprets himself. He knew his theme. Out of this subject our immortal poet has worked more sermons for the pulpit than from any other of his plays, not excepting Hamlet. It also gave him the opportunity for some of his finest metaphysical touches, and in no play have we nobler passages than in that of Macbeth. He is more of the divine and moralist even than the dreamy, philosophical Dane, for he has more of the subject to be illustrated in his life. He holds their best argument the warfare of the good and the evil-the great play of man's soul passing through the fire of life's temptation. Here is a fine characteristic passage, which we beg to quote, to follow our dramatic master's great moral strain: Macb.Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme. *

This supernatural soliciting

*

Can not be ill; cau not be good:-if ill
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings;

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smothered in surmise; and nothing is
But what is not.

Here is murder already conceived, and the ecstasy of fear, that makes his "seated heart knock at his ribs against the use of nature," is the fear lest Macbeth will vanquish Macbeth and lose his own soul in his victory.

Music.

MADAME ALBONI.

When Madame Alboni was in Berlin, the director of the theater "Della Scala," in Mailand, resolved to engage her for a week or two. He accordingly set out post-haste for Berlin.

The Tyrolienne smiled and complied, with as much good nature as talent and ability. The director was enraptured.

"Mademoiselle!" he exclaimed, "I was on my way to Berlin to make an engagement with Mme. Alboni, the great European celebrity; but I have found you, and I will go no farther. Alboni could suit me no better than you do. I offer you two thousand francs per night, and engage you for twelve representations."

"I Listen, Monsieur director; you now know me; but as you were this morning so unwise as to resign me for the peasant maiden, I now decline entering into any engagement with you."

The director was in despair. He fell at her feet, but Alboni did not relent until after the most earnest solicitation and the promise of six thousand francs per night.

She accompanied him to Mailand, and after two weeks' labor, the children of her foster-sister received from her a gift of twelve thousand francs.