REVIEW.

Southland Times, Issue 557, 10 September 1866, Page 3

REVIEW.

Zo tis Napoleon, the Destined Monarch oj the World and Future Personal Antichrist. By the Key Mr Baxteb. Melbourne : A. J. Smith. (From the ■' Argus.") Such is a small portion of the titlepage of a work which brings to our notice the alarming intelligence that. in seven 3e rs the "woeld Will came to an «nd. It 1b nob

our iPinl custom to introduce to out* readers books of a religious or controversial character, but we are tempted to make an exception in the case of this curious pamphlet It is no new b mk. !t has been prinel and circulated in England and America by thousands ; and even in Melbourne rival b >oksellers have taken advantage of the desire of the populace to experience a religious " sensation," and have issued no fewer than four local editions. Whereever we go we find that Louis's d stiny is the theme of converse. In the theatre and the gambling house, as well as in the church or the. schoolroom, among taproom drinkers as well as among Sunday-school teachers, prophetic students are discussing, with more or less credulity and folly, the wild statements of Mr B xter. After resisting for some time the temptation to lo>k at this b >ok, we at last took it up from motives of self-defence. Matters have ivtu-rllv come to this piss, that a man who does not know what Napole m will be doing in each month of the year 1H73 is voted behind his age. We have re d the book now for ourselves — reid it carefully, reverently, and patiently and have no hesitation in saying that a more absurd string of assumptions, errors, and painful travesties of religious truth, was never before published We are at a loss to understand how any sensible man coul i I lie en.-imoured of such rubbish, and h;>w s > mmy who exercise common sense in their ordinary opinions should part with it in giving any credence to this mad exhibition of illogical piety. The work has not a single excellence to recommend it. As a literary perform ance it is marked by historical errors, a bad style, and avowed p!ag:irism. As a controversial work, ie is characterised by unfairness, special plen !::>: r \ ! Md 1 )gic, and endless assumption. A* a, LacOloiic.il book, it deals in statements which outride piety, and reduce the Scriptures t-o the level of the last book of conundrums. Mr Baxter's divinity is a sort of theological thimble-rig, in the development of which, by the skilful manipulation of his text-*, he always makes to appear what a-*'o 1 Vies his readers. As we began to peruse the book we thought we would note how many assumptions could be counted, but we soon gave up 'he task as hopeless; and an argumentative b H)k can hav^ no more damaging enricisin levelled against it th m this choree of continually begging the question. The object of the book is to prove, from a collation of prophetic passages from Daniel, Ezekiel, Matthew, and John, that the end of the present order of 'things is to come in or about the year 1873 ; that prior to the end a great personal antichrist is to appear, who is to obtain univers il dominion as the revived head of tie great Roman Empire, and to wield his power in direct antagonism to '""hristimity ; that, during his reign, Judaism and P' pery are bo!;h to a'tain to c ninent authority as his slaves ; that, at "he expiration of his allotted time, there is to be a terrible conflict between the fo/ces of this hum in monster and the armies of Jesus Christ, when, of course, fhe former will fall , and that this individual, so honored or so to be pitied — we do not know which — is nona other than Lonis Napoleon, the present Emperor of Fra.n-.-b Many minor events, renera'ly of a very awful character, thou :h sometime* r ith< r comic, are to 0 cur as episode-, £ r cur author takes the symbols' of the Apocalypse as literally as he pleases, and the result is a curious medley. Twice before 1873 there is t~> be a great emigration of s lints heavenward, not by the natural processes of death, but by "translation," md odd pieti'res are drawn of how these food people will be missed. Napoleon is : .o have a great iinige set up in Ferusdem, more splendid than that of Nebuehadn -zzar, and this image is to ■ipeak, not like notorious winking virgins, out by Satanic miracle So awful will be the tempest of blood, fire and s.noke, hat there wdl be no safe place except in the backw > d : of A:nerici, unless it be, w'aer * Mr B ..xter has nob sent his 1 uaginauon, on the squatting stations iorth of the Murray. Of course, the nd of all this is to be, like the end of a crrible story, very pleasant and prope?, and in 1874 people will breathe freely •gain, but " under altered skies," for the new Jeusnle n is to be suspended over rhe earth, floating, like the island of. Liputa, in the air — so brig-it as to do away with the sun, so lirge as to blot out the stars. Nay, we are told that tis city will be exactly 1500 miles square, i>l. built of literal gold ; and that the more f.ivored mortals will be privileged to go up and down numerous Jacob's ladders between the square world above and the round world below. All these, and a hundred other absurdities, are set forth with much rare and patience, and a moral earnestness worthy of a better cause. The writer believes >oth in the truthfulness aid the importance of his position, and is anxious that nis readers should do the same. He imagines he hr.B got hold of sound Scriptural truth, and asserts his nonsense, as on the authority of Daniel and John. Whatever be the opinions of outauthor and his readers, all mus-t allow i hat he has been very bold in giving us sich short dates to count upon. We are already on the threshold of Louies temporal uopedom. The next mail ought to Mngus the first instalment of the fulfilment of Mr Baxter's prophecies. For ourselves we should feel greatly relieved, for our editorial labors would be i greatly lessened. As soon as the memorable seven years and two and a half months commences, we shall have nothing to do but consult this convenient handbook, and shall be able to furnish our readiw with mail intelligence as long before the mail arrives as they may desire. As an illustration of the reckless and absurd theorising wl.ich pervades Mr Baxter's book, we append an extract from a notice of the work which appeared in the Goehng Jlegfrsborx—

" Happening fco on°n thfi voiirne at the na^e whore Louis Napnl^on's nnmft is tvvfatad intothennmherof fcTiebeist (666^ in Hpbr-pw, G-rppk, and Lntin ... Tn Grppik " * Lois N'lpolpan/ iml 'L. N * Tn Latin, ' Lndovims ' and ' Nanoieoni tertio, rpdiv r vo rnxntffci,' also contain t"ho number : while ' Tom's Naioleon Bnomparre,' nrinted in Hebrew characters, is equally significant. To obtain these results, the name is shortened, lengthened, initiated, put sometimes in the Tiitive, cut down to initials, affixes appended, and the Vorrfa of one lansjuajje snelt Cand badly spelt) in the characters of another. Now all this is a meretrick, and we will undertalcp in the. same vrav to make the number of the beast out of any name in existence. L^t us see how our Australian magnates will stmd the test. To be impartiil,' we will take one from each side — say, Michie *»n<l Wood, and, to be prophetic, we will knight the one. and give a silk srown to the other. ' Archibauldus pques ' contains the fatal number, and so also does ' Denistoun Sylvanus. Q.C , or B. C, to make do*? Latin of it, Mit our Latin is not hilf so ban as Baxter's Hebrew. As a rival to Napoleon, and to please The A<-qm^ w will throw ii Sir Charles Dirlins;, exGovernor of Victoria, t^p nunibpr of thr bea-'t being contained in f C Darling, exGf.V .' and strange *r> say the letters mak' the number "DCLTVI. without requirin to be added toerptV'r. and that is mor» than the "Rev. Mr Baxter has miniged tr do with bis manipulations of Louis Napo leon Bonanarte's particularly flexibh name an'! titles. Tf there be any irreverence in this we wrest that it lies at th door of the author of the book, not ai ours." We have only to repeat an opinion o' the book formerly exnrpssed, that it is fi farrago of unmitigated trash.