gious observances, by the manners and regulations of her court; and her influence was added to that of the king in the higher ecclesiastical preferments. The royal feelings on this subject descended to the ministers, and hence the Church of England acquired a dignity, purity, and eminence of character such as had never before been realized. Indeed to the House of Hanover, generally, the national Church is indebted in the highest degree ; the greater number of her meme bers which were under their auspices being un equalled in talent, in virtue, integrity and learning. The names ofChandler, Gibson, Hoadley,Sherlock, Hurd, Butler, Secker, Pearce, Warburton, Lowth, Newton, Markham, Porteus, Fisher, Wilson, Horne, Watson, justify this assertion; and no equal period of the history of the Christian religion affords such a display of men, who in every sense illustrated the Christian character by the living example of the Christian virtues. Nor were the honours of the episcopal church of England, confined to England and Wales, for in Scotland the example was reflected by the life and writings of Dr. Hugh Blair, and in Ireland by Berkeley, Barnard, Percy, Newcome, and Law. Nor do these names stand alone in their respective countries: we have selected only a few from the bright galaxy which

shone in this the most brilliant period of our history We may add, that what Royalty did for the bench, the bench did in regard to the in-ferior dignities, and although the spirit of toleration afforded full scope to the zeal of sectaries, and these increased with the population, yet at: the death of our late revered monarch; the church suffered no other inconvenience than want of room to accommodate parishioners, and supplies of public money for new erections to enable it to keep pace with the sectaries in af-> fording similar accommodation. We doubt not that the example which was set in the reign of George the Third, will be followed in that of his present, and of every other successor; and that while the most exalted virtue is found upon the throne, its image will be reflected in every mem ber of the Church, from the highest dignitaries to the least of her ministers.

PAGAN.

There has been much controversy about the origin of this word. Prætereis, Brissonius, Benecius, Hormasenus, Calinus de ver. jur. verb Paganus. Beda in Cantic. l. 6. c. 30. et in Luc dicl. l. 6. e, 23. et homil, in Feriam. 3 Psalm. Jean. Treng: in Etymol. sub. eod. verb. Stephan. de Urbib. Lonrius in Act. l. 17. v. 19.

Gasp. Sanct, in Isai. c. 42. Num. 45 p. 445. maintain from Servius, and others, that the word was derived from the Greek word nayos, a village so named from the springs; or as others, the hills around which they were used to build their towns. Philaster Hæres. c. 3. thinks that they were called so, from a certain Paganus, who, he says, was the son of Ducalion and Pyrrha, and a powerful and famous king, and afterwards worshipped as a God. The writer of this article can find no such name in the Mythologia of Jo. Natalis, &c. nor Lemprieres modern work. If the story have therefore, any foundation, it may probably supply a desideratum in mythology. Isidore Etym. 1. 8. c. 70. says that they were so called from the Athenian pagi, from whence they sprung. For there, in country places and towns. the Gentiles built idols and temples, and had groves, wherefore the worshipper of idols begau to be called Pagan. Alciatus l. 1. Paserg. c. 13. and Connanus Comment. l. 9. c. 13. trump up this reason, because they were not soldiers of Christ, nor gave their names to the church militant for we know that in the Roman (law l quædam sf. de pæn. l. jus nostrum de reg. jur. l. 1. c. de militari testam, &c.) as many as were exempt from military service, were called Pagans. Paulus Osorius, Bede ubi supra followed by Cu

jacius in Parat. C. de Paganis. from the villages and country places, being far distant from the heavenly city. Wesenb. in ead Parat. because the Gentile superstition prevailed longer in the villages than in cities, through the greater stupidity of rustics. Dionysius Gothofredus, from contempt, as different from, and more ignoble than Christians.

Pet. Opmeer Chronol. a. Chr. 411. p. 307. because the Gentiles, and that sink (colluvies) of the human race, who wished idolatry to be restored at Rome, came from country villages. Gasp. Sanctius, ubi supra, because those who were not polished by the laws of the Gospel, lived as it were out of the Gospel, in villages and deserts. Cardinal Baronius Not.

ad Martyrol. Jan. 11. thinks that the heathens began to be called Pagans from the time of the Christian Emperors, when idolaters being excluded the cities, through the destruction of the temples, took refuge in the villages; where a variety of superstitions prevailed, as Cicero 1. 2. de Leg. shows; and Augustine Serm. de Verb. Dom. shows that down to the time of Honorius, in which he lived, what idolatry there was subsisted in the villages. This is a very plausible hypothesis, and is further supported by Azorius lib. 8. c. 24. col. 1273, and Anth. Mornacius Obs. ad libr. l. c. sub. d. lib. de Paganis, page 35, and

by the Editors of the Encyclopedie Methodique v. Paganus, It may therefore be assumed as the origin of the word.

APOSTLE SPOONS.

It was the custome in this country about the time of the Reformation, and even at a later period, for the sponsors at christenings to offer gilt spoons as a present to the child. These.. spoons were called " apostles spoons" because the figures of the apostles were carved on the tops of the handles. Such as were at once opu- / lent and generous, gave the whole twelve those who were either more moderately rich, or/ liberal, escaped at the expence of the four evangelists; or even sometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any Saint, in honour of whom the child received its name. The practice of spon+> sors giving spoons at christenings continued to the latter end of the seventeenth century, as appears from a pamphlet written against Dryden, entitled "the Reason of Mr. Bayes's Conversion" &c. p. 14. At one period it was the mode to present gifts of a different kind. "At this time," (the first year of Queen Elizabeth) says the continuator of Stowe's Chronicle, "and for many

years before, it was not the use and custome,