The lower horn, like the left arm of the image and the depressed side of the bear, represents the kingdom of Media : which, during the early period of its alliance with Persia, held the more elevated rank; but which, during the later period of it, was overtopped and eclipsed by the sister kingdom.

The higher horn, like the right arm of the image and the loftier side of the bear, represents the kingdom of Persia : which, at first, acted only a subordinate part to Media ; but which, afterward, when the two kingdoms were joined together by Cyrus under one sovereign, was raised up from behind it, so as to become its decided superior both in rank and in power.

It is not unworthy of observation, that, as the scene of the vision is laid at Shushan the capital of Persia ; so the symbol of a ram has been chosen, with singular poetical decorum, to represent the Medo-Persian Empire. That symbol was, in fact, the hieroglyphic of their sovereignty, as adopted by the Persians themselves : much on the same heraldic principle, as in modern times an eagle is the symbol of Austria and a lion of England, Travellers have observed, that rams' heads with horns, the one horn higher and the other lower exactly as they are described in the vision of Daniel, may still be seen sculptured on the pillars of Persepolis ?. The purport of this hieroglyphic is made

Bp. Chandler's Vindic, chap. i. sect. 4. p. 154. Wetstein in Rey. xii, 11.

abundantly clear by the prophecy: while, on the other hand, the existence of the hieroglyphic shews the reason why the good Spirit of God has thought fit to symbolise the Medo-Persian Empire by a ram with two unequal horns.

2. The Medo-Persian ram was seen by Daniel to push westward and northward and southward from his own proper station or platform, the territorial dominions of the two dominant kingdoms of Media and Persia and the special characteristic of his victorious pushing is, that no beasts could stand before him, and that none could deliver his foes out of his hand; insomuch that he did according to his will, and became great.

By the pushing of the ram is meant, as all are agreed, a series of conquests: but there has been some difference of opinion, as to what series of conquests is intended. Some believe, that the conquests of Cyrus, by which the Medo-Persian Empire was erected, are the conquests alluded to: others maintain, that the conquests of Darius-Hystaspis and his successor Xerxes, by which the Medo-Persian Empire was enlarged, are rather to be understood by the ram's allegorical pushing.

(1.) Let us begin with considering the claim of the conquests, which were made by Darius and Xerxes.

As for the conquests now under consideration, I will venture to say, that it is both improbable and impossible that they should be the conquests of the ram alluded to in the prophecy.

The improbability of such a circumstance will

immediately appear to any person, who bestows a moment of thought upon the litigated question.

It was in the third year of Belshazzar or in the year before Christ 553, that Daniel saw the vision of the ram and the he-goat. Now, at this epoch, the Medo-Persian career of aggrandisement was just commencing. If, therefore, we refer the pushings of the ram to the conquests of Darius and Xerxes, we shall be obliged to suppose, that the all-wise Spirit of God totally overlooked the conquests of Cyrus, by which the Medo-Persian Empire was erected, as a thing of no moment; and that he rather chose exclusively to describe the conquests of Darius and Xerxes, by which the MedoPersian Empire was augmented, as a thing infinitely more deserving the notice of prophecy. But is this probable ? If it be, then on the same principle we ought to conclude, that the victories of the Roman beast in the preceding vision do not relate to the victories achieved before the time of Augustus, but that they ought to be exclusively referred to the transdanubian and transeuphratic conquests of Trajan.

Thus destitute of probability is the interpretation, which would totally shut out the vast conquests of Cyrus, and which would altogether identify the pushings of the ram with the later conquests of Darius and Xerxes.

But improbability is not the sole objection to this arrangement: to improbability we must add impossibility.

the Ionians invaded the Persian Empire with so much success, that they burned Sardis. In the year 497, victory inclined to the side of Darius : and the Ionians were reduced. In the year 495, the Persians were still successful : for they subjugated the Hellespont and the Thracian Chersonesus. In the year 494, the scale turned against Darius : for Mardonius, whom he sent to attack the Greeks, miscarried in the expedition, and returned with great loss. In the year 491, the Persians were totally defeated in the battle of Marathon. In the year 487, Egypt revolted from Darius. In the year 484, Xerxes succeeded in reducing the revolted province of Egypt. In the year 480, the Greeks completely defeated him in the naval fight of Salamis. In the year 479, the Persians were vanquished at Platèa and Mycalè on the same day. In the year 470, Cimon gained, in one day, two victories over the Persians near the river Eurymedon ; the first by sea, the second by land. In the year 469, he made from the Persians various conquests on the Hellespont and in other quarters. And, in the year 468, Xerxes, discouraged by so many defeats, gave up the hopeless project of subjugating Greece.

I have now simply detailed, in the form of annals, the operations of the Medo-Persian ram during the period, which some commentators have supposed to be the period of the uniformly successful and resistless pushings described in the vision. Let the cautious inquirer decide, how far the supposed ac