mental fact upon which the quaternal structure of the prophetic allegory is based.

In Zechariah, ch. vi., we find a direct reference to the winds in this sense of agents, not, however, in the natural but in the political world. In his prediction of the Four Chariots, ch. vi., which unquestionably represent the four great world-empires of Daniel, the angel interpreting the chariots by another symbol, says: "These are the four spirits (i. e., winds, for the Hebrew word signifies either 'wind' or 'spirit,' and the sense here certainly requires winds) of the heaven which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth," that is in effect, for the meaning can be nothing else; these are the four dominions of the political world which exist under the providence of God and fulfil his purposes, even as the winds move and blow upon the earth. It is a matter well worthy of attention that the same symbol which is employed to close this prophecy of Zechariah is employed to open the precisely corresponding one of Daniel, ch. vii. This prophet says: "I saw in my vision by night, and behold the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another," vs. 1, 2. The two prophecies thus describe, in so far as the symbol is concerned, a perfect circle, the one prophecy commencing and the other terminating with the same symbol, which correspondence, on the ground of that unity of conception which pervades symbolic composition, may justly be held to be evidence of their unity in subject. This circle,

which is thus performed by the common symbol, may also be held to enclose and to consecrate four, the central point in the representation, as the special number of dominion, since this is the subject here in hand. There can be little doubt, indeed, that one, if not the sole reason, for this association, which is a very marked one throughout Scripture, of "four" with dominion, lies in the fact, that the winds of the heaven are four.

Daniel casts his two prophecies or rather his double prophecy of the Four Empires in the fourfold form, chs. ii. and vii. It cannot be said that this quaternal structure which he has given to it, rests on the fact that the empires are four. The number of the dominions is in truth five. Yet he constructs his prophecy with a four-fold group in it, and he keeps the fifth dominion separate and distinct from the four. He thus preserves the quaternal form. It cannot be said that this disposition of his subject is made for the reason that the fifth dominion is of a different character from the preceding four; that it is the kingdom of God, while the four are world-dominions. John, who is also a prophet of God, and with whom this reason, had it really existed, must have weighed, represents dominions that are antagonistic and hostile to the Kingdom of God with the very same kind of symbols and combined with it in the same group. Thus he represents the false ecclesiastical dominion of his book by a whore, the true church by a woman, the false church by a false prophet, the true church by two witnesses, the false church by a two-horned wild

beast, the true church by a lamb, the false church by the city Babylon, the true church by the New Jerusalem, and the kingdom of God triumphant, claiming and achieving universal temporal authority on earth, in accordance with Dan. vii. 27, by a horseman on a white horse; he gains a complete victory over three enemies, whom he casts into a lake of fire; these are represented by the second, third, and fourth horsemen, and by the dragon, beast, and false prophet. It is evident, then, that John mixes up the kingdom of God with the world-dominions. It thus appears that Daniel's modelling his prophecy in the fourfold form cannot arise from the fact that his dominions are four, for they are really five. Yet he so manages his representation of the five by placing the fifth, which he does not even name the fifth, externally to the fourfold group, that he preserves in effect the fourfold structure of his prophecy. We can hardly regard this handling of his subject in any other light than as evidence that the fourfold is the normal form of representing the subject. The structure of his prophecy, as we find it, appears totally inexplicable, except on the ground of a rigid adherence on his part to the quaternal as the normal mode of representation.

Zechariah, however, gives a more striking exemplification of Quaternal Structure in his prophecy, ch. vi., above referred to, and which we have every reason to regard as delivering the same prediction as that of Daniel just considered. He constructs his prediction in such a way that not a breath of sus

picion can be cast on the purity of its quaternal form. He confines his allegory to four chariots, and predicts solely of the four great world-empires. He excludes the kingdom of God from the representation which he here makes altogether, although he predicts largely of this kingdom in other places. Why does he leave it out of the representation here? It will be difficult to find any other reason for his doing this, and it is to be presumed that he had a reason, except that the fourfold is the normal form of representation.

In the double allegory which Zechariah delivers in ch. i., he displays the quaternal form twice over, although there appears to be no other reason for his adoption of this form except that it is the normal one. It is true, that in the first allegory the horses are not enumerated, and their number can only be inferred. Still, the conclusion is a legitimate one, that the quaternal number is preserved here also, since in the second copy of the prediction which he delivers below it is found. We shall not, for this reason, however, found any argument upon it. But in the second allegory which follows, we find the fourfold structure in a distinct form accompanied by the reduplication of it. The political power hostile to the kingdom of God is represented by four horns, and the Jewish nation by four carpenters, and the one quaternary is placed in opposition to the other, the first representing the enemy of the kingdom of God oppressing it, by endeavoring to prevent the restoration of the Jews, as the interpretation clearly shows, v. 19, and the second representing this kingdom triumphing over the hostility.

What reason can there be here for determining the representation of the hostile power as fourfold, and the Jewish nation as fourfold, except that which is founded in the prevalence of the law of the quaternary? The quaternary, it is true, is a double one, but this results from the nature of the prediction. The dominions of which the prophet had to predict were two in number. Had he represented these in a single form, he would have violated the law of the quaternal structure; had he represented each of them by the number 2, he would have still broken it; by representing them by 4, he preserves the quaternal principle entire and unbroken. The operation of the law, then, is, in this prophecy, not only very distinctly perceptible, but, as it appears, its influence has actually wrested the representation into the quaternal form.

The prophecy of Daniel, ch. viii., exhibits a double quaternary likewise. The symbols here are eight horns, which are thus made up, 2 horns upon the ram, 1 upon the he-goat, 4 which spring up out of it, and a little one which makes the eighth. It can hardly be said that the subject has determined this number; we are much rather justified in saying, that the number, on the ground of its prevalence, has determined the subject, and that the dominions predicted of are eight, because eight forms a double quaternary.

A glance thrown upon the Revelation will be sufficient to discover the prevalence of the quaternary in it. Thus the four living creatures call upon the prophet to "Come and see" four horsemen, ch. vi.