THE FALL OF BABYLON.*

Tuts is the sort of book that we should like to see the Committees of Convocation, if they must revive the censorship of the press, beginning their labours upon. It is written by a clergyman, it is doubtless decidedly heretical, and its intellectual calibre, even where it rises to its highest point, would not in any way put to shame the reports of the orthodox adjudicators upon it, which some of the essays in "Essays and Reviews" certainly do. After reading Mr. Jowett's essay on the interpretation of Scripture,—an essay in which there is much from which we should differ, but much more to admire,—or Dr. Temple's on the education of the human race, to pass to the contracted and spiritless remarks of the Convocation Committees is but too likely to give a very severe blow to the orthodoxy of a raw student who only sees that some of the essays under condemnation are far above the intellectual standard of their judges. But there is no reason to fear anything of this kind with the Rev. Ribbed Newton, BA., officiating minister of St. Michael's Chapel of Ease to St. George the Martyr's, Southwark. He is clearly heretical in his views of prophecy and inspirution,—indeed he evidently regards himself as a prophet, and, as we shall see, adduces some very remarkable instances of unintentional prediction in his own verses,— and there is ample scope even for the zeal of Archdeacon Denison in fathoming the depths of his futile heresies. The Rev. Hibbert Newton begins his work with telling us that "this preface should be read," a needless statement if any of the book is to be read, for it is quite the most original and entertaining portion of his work. The interrogative apology which the reverend poet offers for his many cantos on the Fall of B.ibylon in the words "had Homer used Cicero's prose in condemning unrestrained passion or praising conjugal fidelity, would any one have ever heard of Homer and his Achilles and Penelope?" will give some measure of the intellectual calibre required to judge the work, to which we have no doubt the Committee of either House of Convocation would be com- petent. Wherefore, if Homer bad written in prose at all, he should be expected to write "in Cicero's Latin," the Rev. Hibbert Newton does not explain, but we suppose this must be an obscure indication that if the reverend gentleman had not written the Fall of Babylon in English verse, the prose language which it would have been most natural for him to choose would have been that in vogue many centuries hence among some accomplished nation now in its infancy. Nor is this entirely inconsistent with the reverend gentle- man's theme, as he assures us that the poem was sketched and in part written "while the subject and the materials were wholly in the future." To a mind so gifted that it can write "with its subject and materials wholly in the future" it must be an easy task to write also in a language " wholly • The Full of .Babylon. An Brio Poem. By the Her. Hibbert Newton, B.A. London; Charles Westerton, Hyde Park Corner.

in the future," and the word has reason therefore to con- gratulate itself that the Rev. Hibbert Newton in writing on the fall of Babylon did not follow the imaginary precedent which be set, himself in the original suggestion that if Homer had written "in Cicero's prose" we might never have heard anything of Achilles and Penelope.

But as it is, the English Congregation of the Index of the present day will be competent to sit upon it, which is perhaps-

unfortunate for the author, if it should chance that his or- thodoxy, like his " subject and materials," is "wholly of the future." He appears to have used the modern English tongue, even in that former great poem once called " Anti Christ,' and then re-baptized the "Resurrection of Israel," on which ho gives us an elucidative commentary in the preface to the Fall of Babylon. It argues by no means a despicable business inven- tion to write writings with little or no meaning in them at the time, and then make them the occasion for future writings, in which prophetic meanings shall be retrospectively assigned to them by the light of subsequent events. But we are sure that Convocation would object to this view of prophecy even more than to that of Dr. Williams. The difficulty one would have supposed would be to find readers for prophe- cies while they still remained in the blank stage of empty generalities waiting for their own author's interpretation.

But perhaps this is a difficulty not more felt with relation, to sacred and predictive poets than with relation to other

manufacturers of blank cheques on futurity. The Rey. Hibbert Newton certainly shows no little ingenuity and confidence in this process of pouring into words which, when written and published, merely expressed a "deep no meaning," a great fund of prophecy detected, of course, after the event. Thus he wrote, he says, in that poem called "Anti-Christ" alias "The Resurrection of Israel," these remarkable lines in 1848 ;—("Mad discord," we may observe by way of introducing the context, has just been "laughing with looks insane "—to whom in this dangerous and uncomfortable mood enter the "ships of Tarshish," as infra):—

"I hear along the ocean deep, where sail Yon ships of Tarshish, bound the echoed roar Of war's loud thunders, till through flashing sky In conflagration they explode, and o'er

The trembling waves in thousand fragments fly."

To which wonderful inspiration of 1848 the following instructive comment of 1864 supplies the key. It was, we find, really a pro- phecy—in blank—of an iron-plated navy, not foreseen then, but fully understood now. "The 'ships of Tarshish' were not casually named, quite the reverse ;—in Isaiah H. this designates the race noted for commercial enterprise and naval power 'when' the Lord cometh to shake terribly the earth.' The author only thought of ships, timber, and powder ; but a conflagration has already been kindled among 'the ships of Tarshish' on the other side of the Atlantic which has exploded' all our timber navy in a way that powder never could effect and poetry never imagined." This is certainly true, but it seems to be of the nature of a pun on the word " explode " by the Rev. Hibbert Newton of 1864, rather than a prophecy by the Rev. Hibbert Newton of 1848; just as it would be a pun if any one should impute to Shakespeare when he put into Hamlet's mouth "Angels and ministers of grace defend us," an unconscious pro- phecy of the ministries "of grace" and justice in some Con- tinental States. Is this sort of prophecy a less heretical use of the term than Baron Bunsen's, condemned by Committees of Convocation? Certainly it is a much more foolish one. Some- times the reverend gentleman takes credit, however, for more explicit prophecies. For example :—

" In February, 1856, at the close of the Crimean war, which broke up Peelism, and also effected something in favour of the Holy Land, I had occasion to say, in a lecture delivered in London on the Seven

Vials The question is now being discussed in certain journals, whether "Armageddon" be not that in Hebrew which "Sebastopol" is in Greek, the august city: and the gathering there, the closing event of the Sixth Vial. Let it be well marked that the event in prophecy before this is a most signal manifestation of demoniacal wonder-working powers ; and the event in point of fact is such as the world never witnessed before : books and tracts in unprecedented numbers have appeared on the subject, and just when the student would, on our hypo- thesis, look for such. Watch and see if the world's coming history and the events of the Seventh Vial will exactly correspond, viz., a world- wide political earthquake—a division of some great community into three parts, or parties, or both—a fall of the cities,' politics, of the nations, and a vanishing of existing establishments—a crushing disaster on the papacy—a war terribly destructive—if all this conies next, then we shall all know where we are."

As it is quite impossible to say whether any of these events, and which of them, have happened, we cannot profess "to know where we are," but we feel sure from the Rev. Hibbert Newton's quotation that he knows where we are, and believes us to be in the Seventh Vial, there or thereabouts, or rather in the distri- buted contents thereof,—but where that is, even the Rev. Hibbert Newton's attainments in spiritual geography do not fix with any nicety. Would it not be a good wearing subject for Committees of Convocation to discuss, whether it be heretical or not to hold that we are in the contents of the Seventh Vial? The reverend poet goes on to make a remarkably vague claim to prophetic powers evinced in 1858 with regard to the functions of the "Magician" or " Wand-fiend ":--

" In Part VI., canto EEL, titled The Magician,' the 'Wand-fiend' performs his part in necromancy : In Part X., canto. IL—both written In 1858, before there was any symptom of a gathering to baffle—he thus gets his commission from Moloch:—

"Runs before Moloch : when our range world-wide Shall be o'erswept with such a gory flood, That he, a prince to Moloch's throne allied, Wins title for all time; "the fiend of blood." ' "

Who is this unamiable person ? A reference on a previous page would appear to connect him in some way with Mr. D. D. Home, but whatever may be the faults of that gentleman it is impossible

to call him, on any evidence yet before the world "a fiend of blood." We suppose the fulfilment of prophecy consists in the 4` gathering to battle." "The Wand-fiend," we imagine, got up the Schleswig-Holstein question ; or did he manage in some way the bombardment of Fort Sumter ? It is new to us to know that

either of these events are the results of " mediumistic " per- formances. We need not quote more from this rubbish. The poem consists of 550 pages and above 12,000 lines of the most

silly doggrel,—with plenty of heresy, we doubt not, interspersed, as a great number of the silliest scenes are in "the Spirit-World." If the Committees of Convocation wish to begin condemning

books, they would do well to stop the cackling of these heretical

geese, whose every word is trash,—before they condemn en bloc what may have much in it that is good, although much, too, that is the reverse.