delivered, as we have just said, at the close of the first of these circuits. The account of this circuit is given by the evangelist Matthew. "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them all. And there followed him great multitudes from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan." Then, at the close of this journey of mercy, seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain and taught them. And this leads us to notice the place. It is said by the evangelist to have been a mountain. It was chosen by our Lord for convenience. He wished that the multitudes who followed him might both see and hear; he therefore went up to a mountain, and sat on an eminence which commanded a view of the assembly, and taught them. It is the person, the purpose which he cherishes, the work in which he is engaged, that makes a place holy or the reverse. To the impure and the profane no place is holy, he contaminates whatever he touches; but to the Son of God every place was hallowed; to him the prow of the ship and the mountain-side, on which he sat and from which he addressed the multitudes who thronged around him, were alike holy. upon that which was at once a large inheritance and a desolate world; there he erected his altar, and gathered his family around it, and presented those sacrifices, the fragrant incense of which encircled the throne of God, and filled heaven with delight; there stood the cradle of the human race. On Mount Moriah, Abraham, after a journey of three days, built an altar and presented to God, in obedience to his own command, "his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved." On Mount Sinai the law was delivered, amidst the most solemn tokens of the divine presence. The blessings were pronounced on Mount Gerizim, and the curses on Mount Ebal, as the children of Israel entered the promised land; while on Mount Carmel the great controversy between Elijah and the prophets of Baal was decided, the people exclaiming as with one voice, "The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God." Many of the most memorable events in the history of our Lord took place on mountains. When about to choose the twelve apostles, "he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God; and when it was day, he called unto him his disciples; and of them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles." When he was transfigured in the presence of three of his apostles, and of two heavenly witnesses, it was on a mountain; took Peter, and John, and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistening. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias; who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.” When he wept over Jerusalem it was as he was descending the Mount of Olives. When he foretold the destruction of the city and temple, he was sitting with He It is interesting to remark, without being fanciful, how many extraordinary events recorded in sacred history, and bearing directly on the highest interests of men, have occurred on mountains. On Mount Ararat the second parent of the human family first stood when he left the ark; thence he looked abroad | some of his disciples on the same moun VOL. X.-FOURTH SERIES. tain. When he showed himself alive after his passion to above five hundred brethren at once, it was on a mountain in Galilee. When he ascended to heaven it was from the Mount of Olivet. And thus also in the instance before us, seeing the multitudes, he went up to a mountain and taught them. As the law was delivered on a mountain, amidst scenes of terror, on a mountain it was explained in all its purity, but in the milder spirit of the gospel. The mountain on which this discourse was delivered is supposed by many to have been Tabor, which, indeed, is called, traditionally, "the mount of the beatitudes." But the order of the narrative leads us to fix on some mountain in the immediate neighbourhood of Capernaum; it was from thence he started when he commenced his first circuit of Galilee, and there he tarried for a while after he had completed it. When he had finished this discourse, our Lord came down from the mountain, and immediately we find him in Capernaum, healing the servant of the centurion. The audience. It did not consist of the apostles; for, as yet, these were not chosen. Many of our Lord's hearers, on this occasion, were not even disciples. Some parts of the discourse are indeed peculiarly applicable to Christians, and still more emphatically so to the ministers of the gospel; but it is evident that the whole was addressed to the mixed multitude who then attended our Lord's ministry; and we may consider it as addressed to ourselves. Some of his hearers, it is probable, received the words of Jesus and lived by them, while others "rejected the counsel of God against themselves." Hence he concludes the sermon in a manner the most solemn and affecting, anticipating the different results of his ministry, and the destiny of his hearers, according as his words were received, or practically neglected. "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand : and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell and great was the fall of it." The occasion. During the circuit of Galilee which he was just completing, as he travelled from city to city, and from village to village, teaching in every synagogue, preaching in every place, and healing all manner of disease amongst the people, the fame of Jesus spread exceedingly; it went, not only throughout all Palestine, but throughout all Syria. The multitudes who followed him increased as he proceeded on his journey; and now, as he had nearly completed it, they were greater than ever. He was about to enter into Capernaum; and they must depart to their own homes. But his heart yearned over them, and he knew not how to let them go. He had compassion upon them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. He resolved, before he left them, to instruct them once more fully in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God; he therefore went up to a mountain and delivered to them this discourse, so full of wisdom, truth, and grace. Before we leave this subject, it may be proper just to remark, that there is another discourse delivered by our Lord, in many respects like this, recorded by the evangelist, St. Luke, in the sixth chapter of his gospel. These two discourses have been considered by many commentators as one; and they suppose that they were delivered on the same occasion. It were useless to enter at any length into the subject; but we may be permitted to remark, that our impression is decided that these discourses were delivered on two distinct occasions; and the evidence in favour of this is very considerable. According to the order of the respective narratives, it appears that the discourse recorded by Matthew was delivered, as we have already observed, during the first year of our Lord's ministry, and at the close of the first circuit of Galilee, while that recorded by Luke was delivered during the second year of his ministry, and on the very day on which he had chosen the twelve apostles. To deliver the sermon which Matthew gives us, our Lord went up into a mountain; to deliver that which Luke records, he came down from a mountain into the plain. To deliver the first, he sat on an eminence; to deliver the second, he stood in the midst of his disciples. In the commencement of the former, the statements are general; in the latter, they are personal: in that Jesus said, 66 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" but in this, “Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." According to Matthew, our Lord, having pronounced the beatitudes, passed on to the beneficial influence of Christian character; but according to Luke, the order varies; having pronounced blessings on the poor and the hungry, Jesus proceeded to denounce woes against the rich and the full. Finally, if there is much recorded by Matthew which we find also in Luke, there is more recorded by the former which is entirely omitted by the latter. Still some of our readers may be surprised to find the two discourses, if they were delivered on different occasions, so much alike. But a careful examination of the four evangelical narratives will convince any candid mind that our Lord was in the habit of repeating, not only the same maxims and general principles but also the same illustrations the same * 1 The parables, the same discourses. parable of the talents was delivered twice within four days; first, in the house of Zaccheus, and next on the Mount of Olives, though the hearers on the latter occasion must also have been present on the former. Consider able portions of the sermon on the mount are recorded by Mark as having been delivered on various occasions, all of them perfectly distinct from those mentioned either by Matthew or by Luke. The beautiful model of devotion called the Lord's prayer, is given by Matthew as a part of the sermon on the mount; but the same prayer is recorded by Luke as having been presented to the disciples two years later, and under circumstances of peculiar interest. And some of the observations designed to encourage them to prayer which our Lord addressed to his disciples at this time, are given by Matthew as a part of the sermon on the mount.+ In conclusion, we may advert to an opinion which has been advocated by some, that the whole discourse, as recorded by Matthew, was never delivered by our Lord; but that the evangelist has collected together, and presented in one body, observations which were delivered by him on various occasions, That the sentiments and illustrations contained in this discourse were delivered on various occasions, we have not the slightest doubt; but, at the same time, we think it undeniable that the idea conveyed to us by the sacred historian is the true one, namely, that the sermon on the mount was delivered as a whole, on the occasion of which he speaks; and not only so, but that we have here little more than the outline of the discourse which was then delivered. Happy they who heard it! Still more happy we if our minds should be imbued with the spirit of it! Compare Luke xix. with Matt. xxiv. xxv. HEREDITARY PROPENSITIES. BY GEORGE MOORE, ESQ., M. D. We acknowledge the operation of undeviating general laws, but at the same perceive that the combined action of various forces cannot create a new conscious being, however necessary they may be towards the construction of a proper abode for it. There is something accommodated, something which seems to be present in an inscrutable manner amidst the vital, chemical, and mechanical forces, at work from the first organized cell in which the body of man is designed, to its maturest development. But with this profound subject is connected a secret which peculiarly belongs to the Omniscient. The holy of holies is before us, where the Highest reveals his glory. We cannot lift the veil. Let us bow in reverent awe, and wait for fuller knowledge. Such facts relating to creation and procreation, however, as are important to our conduct, are sufficiently manifest to our understandings, although we still find ourselves unable fully to explain them,-such is the hereditary transmission of peculiar tendencies, both moral and physical. Here matter and mind unite in a point which science acknowledges to be beyond the reach of her microscopic vision. That impressions received by the mind of the parent are, in their influence, transmitted to the offspring, is undeniable, since experiments on animals have demonstrated the fact in the clearest manner. Thus Mr. Knight, who investigated the subject for a series of years, tells us, "that a terrier, whose parents have been in the habit of fighting with polecats, will instantly show every mark of anger when he first perceives merely the scent of that animal. A young spaniel brought up with this terrier showed no such emotion, but it pursued a woodcock the first time it ever saw one. A young pointer, which had never seen a partridge, stood trembling with anxiety, its eyes fixed, its muscles rigid, when conducted into the midst of a covey of those birds." Yet each of these dogs is but a variety of the same species, and to none of that species are these habits given by nature. The offspring of the shepherd's dog in active service instinctively follows the flock; while, if his father or grandfather have been taken away from this occupation, he will have lost the art, and be difficult to teach. A pup of the St. Bernard's breed, born in London, when winter came and the snow was on the ground, took to tracing footsteps, after the fashion of his ancestors. It is important to observe that training counteracts propensity, even in a dog; and although the education of a human being does not destroy bodily temperament, yet, so long as the faculties are clear, it may always be subdued by superior motives. It is only the brutal part of man's nature that seems to be derived. Truth, knowledge, religion, are not propensities, but they are the correctors of all error. With their aid alone can we restrain and guide impulse to right ends; but, of course, the mind that is not amenable to moral law, must be altogether subject to brute instincts, and ought to be treated accordingly-by physical restraints, and the removal of excitants. Our education also, may be said to begin with our forefathers. The child of the morally-instructed is most capable of instruction; and intellectual excellence is generally the result of ages of mental cultivation but degeneracy is most marked at both extremities of society; the highest and lowest classes are those worst educated, both morally and physically speaking. It appears from the examination of juvenile delinquents at Parkhurst by Mr. Kay Shuttleworth, that six-sevenths of all the cases admitted that the majority were found deficient in to that institution are hereditary; but physical organization, and this, no doubt, yet these, it appears, are not more difwas traceable to the parent stock. S. T. ficult of cure than other forms of inColeridge said that the history of a man sanity. Now these records have been for the nine months preceding his birth, derived, principally, from public chawould probably be far more interesting, ritable institutions. It will be granted, and contain events of greater moment, that the patients of such charities are not than all that follow it. Southey fancied the most likely to suffer from mental Coleridge was not in earnest in uttering cultivation. The facts, at least such as this startling sentence, but perhaps the have come within my own knowledge, words convey too profound a truth for rather tend to demonstrate that spiritthe doctor's former vision. Their mean- drinking, debauchery, excess of all sorts ing will shine out, if we reflect on the in the parents, and occasionally the deinfluence which the mother's, and even bility of privation and the abuse of merthe father's habits, exert on the constitu- curial medicine, have been the principal tion moulded in utero, There the ground- causes of the lamentable increase of the work of all history is laid in embryo, diseases of the brain in children; and the seeds of evil there begin to take but these are rendered more intensely root, and to vegetate in a genial soil, mischievous to the offspring by the long before they open their leaves to the misery of mind which accompanies bad sky. The soil, indeed, alters not the habits, and depresses the moral being nature of the seed, but vast is its effect into reckless despondency. on development; and no one can doubt that the state of the parent determines, in a large measure, the predisposition of the offspring-for predisposition, in fact, signifies only bodily aptitude. It has been said that excessive mental cultivation, on the part of parents, has caused a vast increase of inflammation and dropsy of the brain in children. The late Dr. Davis of London stated that eight out of forty-five deaths in the Universal Dispensary, were produced by dropsy of the brain; and Dr. Allison states, that forty out of a hundred and twenty patients die of this disease in the New Town Dispensary, Edinburgh. Nearly a thousand per annum die of this disease in the metropolis alone. Dr. Comdet says, that twenty thousand deaths occur annually in France from the same malady. Other diseases of the brain are proportionably destructive, especially in children; and those who escape death in childhood continue throughout life morbidly disposed. Dr. Burrow, physician of Bedlam, observes, That the acquired peculiarities of mankind are hereditary we have, then, constant evidence. Can we explain this marvel? No. We may suppose that mental habit alters the structure of the brain, and gives a new tendency to the nervous system, and that the peculiarity thus produced in the parents is carried on to the offspring. But these are words without knowledge; merely an attempt to hide ignorance-the confused echo of a truism. Yet, still worse, some assert that the brain changes its own habits. The body surely cannot alter itself. We cannot imagine that mental education is merely the result of matter acting on matter. Mind (soul) must be at work. We must presuppose consciousness and volition; the operation of a being which perceives, wills, and acts; which cannot be predicated of any combination of the elements. Everything that can be classed with chemical agents must be material; but feeling, perception, memory, and, will, are not in the list of elements. If, therefore, that which perceives and wills |