he, by unwearied courtier-art and all the tricks of statesmanship, supplanted the selfish and solid Burleigh, he would not have been more admired in his own or in after time. Human nature and society is so happily constituted, that the practice of those virtues which made Sidney, and which are the most conducive to human happiness, and which, after all, are felt to be the most estimable, are in the power of everybody. Greediness, whether of fame or riches, rapacity, low cunning, a careful calculation of how much vice may be made to appear as virtue, aided by pertinacity and arrogance, may raise a man above his superiors in intellect and virtue, place him in the chiefest seats of ambition, and excite a great deal of vulgar admiration ; yet in private life they can only make extremely disagreeable persons. But fortunately the demand for great men is remarkably small in the economy of Providence, and except in the case of leaders, like William of Orange of Sidney's time, whom nature had stamped and set apart for an especial service, the qualities by which they ordinarily succeed are not such that the world is benefited by a near contemplation of their lives, and a knowledge of their springs of action. It is well, then, that we have one reputation at least, like Sidney's, universal and uncontested, founded on the simple practice of those courtesies, humanities, and virtues, which are in everybody's power, which beautify and sanctify human life, and constitute the ideal of the modern gentleman, which do not flourish upon the lofty and frozen heights of grandeur and haughty self-consciousness, but which may adorn and fertilize with gentle luxuriance the lowliest glades of human existence. The Sidney whom we admire is the

Sidney as he fought

And as he fell, and as he loved and lived,
Sublimely mild, a spirit without spot.

6

*

To use his own expression, a right manlike man, such as nature, often erring, yet shows sometimes she would fain make.' Sidney's life, indeed, goes near to prove that famous saying of the Athenian sage, that if Virtue could be seen, all men would adore her. Envy herself was charmed in his presence, and became a worshipper. His whole person was radiant with worth, purity, and unassuming dignity. He was soft, gentle, compassionate, forgiving as a woman, and yet had all the dignity and valour of a man; he had the soul and lofty aspirations of a poet; the chivalrous nobleness of a paladin; and the spotless purity and devotion of a true soldier of the Cross. His large heart was a sanctuary of the highest and noblest thoughts

*Shelley's Adonais.

of his age, and ever vibrated to the ethereal music of the sweetest and purest emotions. 'No man lived who could say he did him harm.' His liberality was so great, that with him not to give was not to enjoy what he had. In his familiarity with men he never descended, but raised everybody to his own level; the great felt not their greatness nor the obscure their obscurity in his society; so modest and inaccessible to flattery, that he esteemed praise an encouragement to future welldoing, and no payment for the past.' Without dissimulation, incapable of disguise or artifice, his heart was as open as his hand. His tongue knew no deceit, and his guileless mind no policy but frankness, courage and sincerity, and his spirit ascended to the throne of God, in its spotless purity, without a trace of its journeying amid the mire and mould of earthly passions and desires. No wonder that his name has become a talisman in his country-that we can look on his noble life like a summer day in the midst of winter, and find in it, as in a noble poem, a fountain of ever-healing water :—

κάλλιστον ἦμαρ εἰσιδεῖν ἐκ χείματος

ὁδοιπόρῳ διψῶντι πηγᾶιον ῥέος.

No appreciation, however, of his life would be complete without hearing Spenser lament for a moment over his deceased friend :

Most gentle spirit, breathed from above,
Out of the bosom of his Maker's bliss,
In whom all bounty and all vertuous love
Appeared in their native properties,
And did enrich that noble heart of his

With treasure passing all this worldès worth,
Worthy of heaven itself, which brought it forth.

His blessed spirit, full of power divine
And influence of all celestial grace,
Loathing this sinfull earth and earthly slime,
Fled back too soon unto his native place;
Too soon for all that did his love embrace ;
Too soon for all this wretched world, whom he
Rob'd of all right and true nobility.*

Let us not, however, lament that the life of Sidney was not complete. There should not be a shadow of gloom in aught that reminds of him he is one of the spotless heirs of unfulfilled renown; and such are always dear to posterity who drink delight in the very sorrow that crowns their memory :—

ὃν οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν ἀποθνήσκει νεός.

* Spenser's Ruins of Time, 280.

The good die first,

Then those whose hearts are dry as summer dust

Burn to the socket.

Even Sidney's good and noble-hearted old friend Languet, who had experience enough of courts and men, warned him to be on his guard against the advance of age and its frigid caution and affected virtues; to examine carefully every new feeling before admitting it into his bosom; to be jealously watchful of the selfish and creeping maxims which, under the guise of duty and necessity, slip like serpents into the heart. He said it was rare that men grew better by being older.} We doubt not that Sidney would have withstood the trial, but at all events he was spared it-his heart did not grow cold nor his head grey in vain. On Languet, too, the practised old diplomatist, the conviction gradually stole, that Sidney's nature was too bright and too good for the daily intercourse of court and camp. The character Spenser gives of Sidney, as the honest courtier, shows how out of place he was at court, how unfit he was

To lose good days that might be better spent,
To waste long nights in pensive discontent ;

To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow,

To feed on hope, and pine with fear and sorrow.

*

So Sidney, happily for him and for us, was taken away in the fulness of youth and beauty, and uttered in his mortal agony the sublimest words to which human lips have given utterance, which are the essence of all Christian doctrine and philosophy, the symbol and sum of meaning of his earthly existence, germs pregnant with immortal fertility, and an aureole of glory about the head of the dying poet and soldier. We may say, indeed, with Tacitus, that whatever was admirable in him, and to be loved, cannot perish from the minds of men or the book of time: and, moreover, that his earthly career, closing where it did, leaves him before posterity clothed, like the Apollo Belvidere, in unfading youth; that those divine words of his show him in the same victor attitude and serene glory launching a deadly shaft at the Pythian dragon of selfishness, which yet in no small measure holds the world in its coils.

W. S.

*Mother Hubberde's Tale.

THE ANCIENT BASHAN AND THE CITIES

OF OG.

IT

T has long been a matter of dispute among ethnologists whether or not all the countries of the earth have been peopled by the descendants of those few persons who escaped in so marvellous a manner the general destruction at the time of the Deluge.

Without entering here into such considerations as thesewhether the Deluge was universal, or only affected a certain portion of the earth's surface-or whether there was only one creation of man, or a plurality of creations of men—or whether the words Shem, Ham, and Japheth really represented persons, or some idea only, we shall at once commence by tracing the migrations of the human race, on the supposition that the account given in the Book of Genesis of the different persons and tribes, and of the respective localities of these tribes, is correct; and from the first we wish to state that we ourselves place the most unqualified reliance in the relations given in the early chapters of Genesis of the history of the colonization of the Earth; and we equally believe in the accuracy and authenticity of the many names given in the early genealogies.

We are well aware how few ethnologists at the present day will assent to this: it is the fashion now to throw much doubt on these names. Many believe them to be names adapted by the Jews from some vague traditions, in order to account in a plausible manner for their descent, and for the works which existed of an old people before them; and in this way they occupy very much the same place in Jewish history that such names as Romulus and Remus do in Roman history. Others go even farther, and look upon the whole as a complete fabrication, or at best as an ingenious species of Jewish mythology. But we believe, on many grounds, that most of

these names are not only accurate, but are really the names of men, or of tribes of men, who once existed. There are difficulties, no doubt; but it is our conviction that, as in the case of the geography of these countries, so in the case of the proper names of men, each addition to our information, every new light thrown upon the history of these lands, will tend to show that every name has its meaning, and is of real value. How strongly has this been illustrated in the names of places! Before the present century—with the exception of the larger and more noted towns-scarcely a site was known in Palestine. Those long lists of places which we read in the Old Testament might have been equally deemed collections of fabulous names coined for the purpose of giving the appearance of additional accuracy to the narrative.

Shunem and Jezreel might have been placed near together, with Endor not far off, to tell with more point the story of Saul on the eve of the battle with the Philistines. Recent research has shown that even now a Shunem is standing halfan-hour from a Jezreel, and an Endor exists at a distance of three hours' walk from either. Who after this can help reading the story of Saul with additional interest? And what we have said of the identification of old places in the case of Shunem, Jezreel, and Endor, is so constantly recurring with regard to other sites mentioned in the Old Testament, that all researches made in the present day in Palestine, lead us more and more to see with what scrupulous accuracy, even in the matter of some small point connected with the topography of the country, the sacred historian has written his narrative.

It may be urged that what we say with regard to the accuracy of the names of places, does not apply to the names of people; that although a chronicler might invent a long genealogy in order to deduce a descent from some mythical personage, yet he would hardly venture to invent names of localities, since in these the truth of his account might immediately be brought to the test.

But we think that those who would invent names in the one case, would invent them in the other; since, in aftertimes, if no spot could be found bearing the name mentioned, this answer could always be given-that the name had changed. Nor would this be deemed unsatisfactory; on the contrary, it appears at first sight striking that the same names should still be preserved, and our impression on finding them is that we have the strongest confirmation possible of the truth of the Old Testament history.

It is with the especial desire and hope of throwing light on some of the earlier and less studied portions of Scripture, that