expanding, progressive movement shall take place. It is safer to worship the true God in formality, and with some mixture of error, (for in this case there may be amendment,) than deities whose only existence is a name; for as all is formality, all error, amendment never can be. We have thought it right to introduce the narrative with these observations, as our constant design is, not merely to amuse our readers, but, even while amusing, to instruct them, to point out the way in which they are to make their own reflections on the facts which may be placed before them.

We ought to observe that the Olaf (Olave) here mentioned, reigned from about 1015 to 1030. He was sainted after his death. There is a St. Olave's church in London: there may be more in other parts of the country.—ED. Y. I.]

WHEN the King was seated, the King (Olaf) stood up and said that the people Lessö, Loar, and Vaage, had received Christianity, broken down their houses of sacrifice, and believed now in the true God who had made heaven and earth, and knows all things.

Therefore the King sat down, and Gudbrand (the Heathen Chief) replies, "We know nothing of him whom thou speakest about. Dost thou call him God, whom neither thou nor any one else can see? But we have a god who can be seen every day, although he is not out to-day, because the weather is wet, and he will appear to thee terrible and very grand ; and I expect that fear will mix with your very blood when he comes into the Thing. But since thou sayest thy God is so great, let him make it so that to-morrow we have a cloudy day but without rain; and then let us meet again.'

The King accordingly returned home to his lodging, taking Gudbrand's son as a hostage; but he gave them a man as a hostage in exchange. In the evening the King asked Gudbrand's son what their god was like. He replied, that he bore the likeness of Thor; had a hammer in his hand; was of great size, but hollow within; and had a high stand on which he stood when he was out. Neither gold nor silver are wanting about him, and every day he receives four cakes of bread, besides meat. They then went to bed, but the King watched all night in prayer. VOL. XI. Second Series.

S

When day dawned, the King went to mass, then to table, then to the Thing. The weather was such as Gudbrand desired. Now the Bishop stood up in his choir-robes, with Bishop's coif upon his head, and Bishop's staff (his crosier, pastoral crook) in his hands. He spoke to the bonders of the true faith, told the many wonderful acts of God, and concluded his speech well.

Thord Istromaga replies, "Many things we are told of by this horned man with his staff in his hand, crooked at the top, like a ram's horn; but since ye say, comrades, that your God is so powerful, and can do so many wonders, tell him to make it clear sunshine to-morrow forenoon, and then we shall meet here again, and do one of two things, either agree with you about this business, or fight you." And so they separated for the day.

There was a man with King Olaf called Kolbein Sterki, (the Strong,) who came from a family in the Fiorde district. Usually he was so equipped, that he was girt with a sword; and besides carried a great stake, otherwise called a club, in his hands. The King told Kolbein to stand nearest to him in the morning; and gave orders to his people to go down in the night to where the ships of the bonders lay, and bore holes in them; and to set loose their horses in the farms where they were: all which was done. Now the King was in prayer all the night, beseeching God of his goodness and mercy to release him from evil. When mass was ended, and morning was grey, the King went to the Thing.* When he came there, some bonders had already arrived, and they saw a great crowd coming along, and bearing among them a huge man's image glancing with gold and silver. When the bonders

* Of course we see much to censure and lament in many of these saints; but do we not often see striking evidences of a sincerity, in the midst of their ignorance, which we cannot doubt would be acceptable to God? Here we see this Olaf, beginning the day, before sunrise, with God. First, the mass, then the table, and then public affairs. All night, too, we find him watching unto prayer. We have a far better opinion of many of these canonized ones, than we have of their canonizers. The first knew little, but meant well. The second often knew much more, and only employed their knowledge (their church-craft) for their own aggrandizement.

who were at the Thing saw it, they started up, and bowed themselves down before the ugly idol. Thereupon it was set down upon the Thing-field; and upon the one side of it sat the bonders, and on the other the King and his people.

Then Dale Gudbrand stood up, and said, "Where now, King, is thy God? I think he will now carry his head lower; and neither thou, nor the man with the horn, whom ye call Bishop, and sits there beside thee, are so bold to-day as on the former days; for now our god, who rules over all, is come, and looks on you with an angry eye: and now I see well enough that ye are terrified, and scarcely dare raise your eyes. Throw away now all your opposition, and believe in the God who has all your fate in his hands."

The King now whispers to Kolbein Sterki, without the bonders perceiving it, "If it come so in the course of my speech that the bonders look another way than towards their idol, strike him as hard as thou canst with thy club." The King then stood up and spoke. "Much hast thou talked to us this morning, and greatly hast thou wondered that thou canst not see our God; but we expect that he will soon come to us. Thou wouldst frighten us with thy god, who is both blind and deaf, and can neither save himself nor others, and cannot even move about without being carried; but now I expect it will be but a short time before he meets his fate; for turn your eyes towards the east; behold our God advancing in great light."

The sun was rising, and they all turned to look. At that moment Kolbein gave their god a stroke, so that the idol burst asunder; and there ran out of it mice as big almost as cats, and reptiles, and adders. The bonders were so terrified that some fled to their ships; but when they sprang upon them, they filled with water, and could not get away. Others ran to their horses, but could not find them. The King then ordered the bonders to be called together, saying he wanted to speak to them; on which the bonders came back, and the Thing was again seated.

The King rose up and said, "I do not understand what your noise and running mean. Ye see yourselves what your god can do, the idol ye adorned with gold and silver, and

brought meat and provisions to. Ye see now that the protecting powers who used it were the mice and adders, reptiles, and paddocks; and they do ill who trust to such, and will not abandon such folly. Take now your gold and ornaments that are strewed about on the grass, and give them to your wives and daughters; but never hang them hereafter upon stock or stone. Here are now two conditions between us to choose upon, either accept Christianity, or fight this very day; and the victory be to them to whom the God we worship gives it.

Then Dale Gudbrand stood up, and said, "We have sustained great damage upon our god; but since he will not help us, we will believe in the God thou believest in." And so they all received Christianity. The Bishop baptized Gudbrand and his son. King Olaf and Bishop Sigurd left behind them teachers; and they who met as enemies, parted friends. Gudbrand also built a church in the valley.—Laing's Chronicles of the Kings of Norway, vol. ii., p. 161.

MEMOIR OF SOCRATES.

(Continued from page 371.)

It

BOTH Plato and Xenophon state the charges on which Socrates was tried and condemned in the same words. The latter, however, states them somewhat more formally, so that we seem to have given us by him, the very bill of indictment which was preferred against the ancient sage, and on which, being found guilty, his Judges sentenced him to death. will be seen that, applying to it modern language, though one charge, it contained two separate offences; the latter perhaps, being the extension of the former, as the cause gives rise to the effect:-"Criminal is Socrates, because the gods, whom the city acknowledges, he does not acknowledge, but would introduce foreign deities. Criminal is he also, for that he corrupts the youth." Such was the actual charge. It has been intimated, however, and even in the present day, and by writers of very opposite classes, * that this was only put

* In Knight's "Penny Cyclopædia," Art., Socrates: and in "The Quarterly Review," June, 1847, Art., Pantagrudism.

forward ostensibly; and that the real ground of opposition and condemnation was altogether political. The Athenian constitution was, at this time, purely democratical; but among the citizens there were some who wished to correct the errors of this, by an admixture of the aristocratical element; and to this opinion Socrates is said to have been inclined, so that the upholders of the existing system deemed it necessary to make a public example of him. Reasoning a priori, from the well-known principles and character of Socrates, it is not improbable that, speculatively, such might be his views. Whatever may be said for a pure democracy in a state where all are truly enlightened and truly virtuous, in judging of Socrates, did he think thus, we must view him in relation to actually existing circumstances. As the Athenians were, as he knew them to be, and as he saw they were likely to continue to be, he might think that a form of government would be preferable, in which some check would be imposed on the unlimited power of such a people. He saw that they both dreaded and envied the influence of justice itself, and that thus they had not long before honoured Aristides the Just, by ostracising him for no other crime than that of being just. He knew their versatility, their facile submission to impassioned orators, and their tendency, while under such influence, to rush on to courses of action undeniably wrong, and deeply, widely, and permanently injurious. Knowledge and virtue were by no means extensively diffused among them. They loved ingenious verbal disputations far beyond wisdom. The Sophists were far higher in public favour than Socrates. Their love of splendour and amusements was much stronger than their patriotism. It is therefore by no means improbable that the sage of common sense, matter of fact, and morality, might think it desirable that popular will should have some efficient weights and checks; that, in the madness and rapidity of excited passion, the state might not be ruined before there was time for cool reflection. He might think so. But there is no proof that he said so; no positive proof that he even thought so. The whole course of his teaching was ethical and practical, not political. Its tendency was to lessen the evils of the existing democracy, and to bring the