Its author, a true creator of the philosophy of history, had for the first time dared to see in the march of the world and the succession of empires, only a purpose subordinate to the destinies of the Jewish people.

Jesus was early penetrated by these high hopes.
Perhaps, also, he had read the books of Enoch, then revered equally with the holy books,[2] and the other writings of the same class, which kept up so much excitement in the popular imagination.

The advent of the Messiah, with his glories and his terrors--the nations falling down one after another, the cataclysm of heaven and earth--were the familiar food of his imagination; and, as these revolutions were reputed near, and a great number of persons sought to calculate the time when they should happen, the supernatural state of things into which such visions transport us, appeared to him from the first perfectly natural and simple.
[Footnote 1: The legend of Daniel existed as early as the seventh century B.C.

(Ezekiel xiv.

14 and following, xxviii.