vision, denoting the kingdom of Persia ; and the less elevated side, like the lower horn of the ram, denoting the kingdom of Media.

2. The three tusks are of somewhat more difficult explanation : yet we need not altogether despair of ascertaining their import.

Since the bear typifies the whole Medo-Persian Empire, we must, as I have just observed, seek his characteristic members partly in Media and partly in Persia. Hence, as his two sides represent the two dominant kingdoms which constituted the main ·body of the Empire, and as his head (agreeably to the invariable usage of symbolical imagery) represents the form of government by which that Empire was administered; his three tusks must represent certain modifications of the polity, which presided over the Empire. Now, had those modifications been represented by three heads instead of three tusks, the hieroglyphic would have been inaccurate: because the Medo-Persian Empire, whether separately or conjointly, was never acquainted with any form of government save one, namely the despotic; it was ignorant of those numerous different forms, which, under the image of seven successive heads, characterised the great Roman beast of the Apocalypse. Hence, as the modifications, represented by the three tusks, are all equally despotic forms of government; bearing the same relation to the head, that species does to genus : I see not what they can reasonably be thought to denote, except three

the son of Zay: and it was succeeded by the Caianian Dynasty, which is said to have been founded by Cai-Kobad the nephew of Gurshasf. Cai-Kobad is described as being the great-grandfather of CaiKhosru, who is undoubtedly the Khoresh of Scripture and the Cyrus of the Greek historians : and the dynasty, which he founded, after it had been continued by Gushtasf or Darius-Hystaspis and CaiArdeshir or Artaxerxes-Longimanus, is incongruously made to terminate, not with its ninth king Dara or Darius-Codomannus as it ought to have been, but with Secander Zul-Karnein or Alexander the horned; for so the Macedonian was called allusively to the horns which he wore on his helmet. The reason of such a deviation from historical truth was doubtless the vanity of the Persians, who were unwilling to acknowledge their subjugation by the Greeks. Hence they feign, that, by the daughter of Philip king of Greece, Secander was the son of Darab, who was himself the father and predecessor of Dara ; thus making him the younger brother of Darius-Codomannus, and thus exhibiting him as the regular successor to the crown on the death of his elder brother

3. While Daniel was contemplating the bear, he heard an invitation given to him, that he should arise and devour much flesh.

In the language of symbols, flesh denotes temporal possessions: whence the devouring of flesh im

Tarikh Jehan Ara, sect. ii, chap. 1.

ports the greedy appropriation of the temporal possessions of those who are exposed to such an exaction'. On fixed hieroglyphical principles, therefore, the invitation given to the bear will naturally relate to the introduction of a rapacious fiscal system, by which the dominant Persian Monarchy should swallow up the wealth and revenue of the subject pro

vinces.

This part of the prediction was accomplished, when Darius-Hystaspis, having divided his Empire into twenty satrapies, introduced a regular system of such grinding exaction, that the very Persians themselves, though specially exempted from its operation, bestowed upon him the disparaging appellation of a greedy and tricking huckster.

III. The form of the third beast was that of a leopard but it had four wings upon its back, and four heads growing out of its neck.

This beast is, with good reason, unanimously pronounced by commentators to be the symbol of the Grecian Empire; which, under Alexander the great, subverted that of the Medes and Persians:

'See above, book i. chap. 1. § I. 18. II. 5. (1.)

' For an account of the system introduced by this prince, through the medium of which the bear was invited to devour much flesh, see Herod. Hist. lib. iii. c. 89-97. The invitation, to arise and devour much flesh, Jerome specially applies to the decree, in the reign of Ahasuerus, that all the Jews should be put to death. Esther iii. 6-15. The bear, he says, was only invited: but the menace, contained in the invitation, was never carried into effect. Hieron. Comment. in loc. Such an exposition is untenable on hieroglyphical principles.

but, so far as I can judge, neither its wings nor its heads have as yet been quite properly interpreted.

Bishop Newton thinks, that the four wings merely denote the rapidity of Alexander's victories, and that the four heads are the four Greek kingdoms which sprang up after his death : while Sir Isaac Newton supposes, that the four kingdoms are alike typified both by the four wings and by the four heads.

Of these two opinions, the first is incongruous ; for, as heads never denote separate kingdoms, so wings bear a much more definite signification than that of mere swiftness : and, with respect to the second, it is both incongruous and tautological; for (as I have just observed) separate kingdoms are never symbolised by heads, and if the wings and the heads be alike made typical of the four Greek kingdoms we shall have a palpable and superfluous repetition. Some other less objectionable interpretation must, therefore, be attempted.

1. As the two wings, then, of the Babylonian lion have been identified with the two kingdoms of Babel and Ashur; so, on the same principle of exposition, I would identify the four wings of the Grecian leopard with the four kingdoms which sprang up after the death of Alexander. Hence the four wings of the leopard answer to the four horns of the he-goat in a subsequent vision”: and

Jerome notices only the four heads, which he makes the four Greek kingdoms. Hieron. Comment, in loc.

· Dan. viii. 8.