aught of any man's hand." "The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness, that ye have not found aught in my hand." And they answered, "He is witness."

This is the finis coronat opus; this is leaving life's bustling scene, with such excellent companions as honour, spirit, and dignity. The circumstances of this transaction give it a peculiar effect. It was a provoco ad populum. It was an appeal to the populace, to the mutable, miscellaneous, ungrateful, and ignorant rabble. It was, moreover, not only to a mob, but to a Jewish mob, than which the herd of swine, of whom the devil himself once had the absolute possession, does not exhibit a stronger picture of baseness, wildness, perverseness, and despera

tion.

But even before so rash and stupid a tribunal, the manly voice of innocence, with dignity and integrity in her train, commanded silence, and won applause; and what renders more signal this triumph of genius, virtue and rank, is, that it was obtained at the very moment, when the intrepid prophet and indignant sage was reproving the herd for their ingratitude, obstinacy, and rebellion.

Having thus abridged the history of this great and good man, as concisely as the nature and multitude of his illustrious actions would allow, we will now look back to the text, from which the vulgar critic may think we have strayed, but which the reader of sensibility will soon perceive has always been the radiant point of our speculation.

One eventful year in the life of Elkanah, the father of Samuel, he and all his house went up to offer the yearly sacrifice and his vow. But on this occasion one of the dearest of his domestic companions did not accompany the annual pilgrim in his journey to sacred Shiloh. Hannah went not up. This did not arise from female caprice or any decay of devotion. Her reason was a valid one; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up, until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may abide there for ever. The favourite object of this tender mother was to give her son an excellent education, to instil into his mind all high, holy and honourable principles, and to lead him to the fountains of wisdom. When the child was young, she took it up with her to the temple, and after presenting her gifts, according to the ori

ental custom, and making sacrifice, she remarked to the venerable high priest, that for this child, she had prayed; that her maternal wish was answered; and that as Heaven had granted her petition, to the service of Heaven this son should be devoted.-He accordingly actually officiates at the altar, being a child girded with a linen ephod. Here some dissipated or mercenary mothers would have left him to take his chance, either to live by the altar like a priest, or to perish like one of its miserable victims. But the matron, whom we now commemorate, had not only a tender heart, but a liberal spirit, a steady judgment, a perspicacious discernment, and that generous prudence, which is the queen regent of all the virtues. She knew that youth, innocence, and inexperience ought to be assisted in their struggle through the thorns and brakes of the wilderness of this world. She was not satisfied with a single burst of maternal affection, or with bounding her benignity by lines of distance, or a term of years. She was fully apprized that a youth, engrossed by contemplation and study, would either have no leisure for domestic cares, or that in the abstraction of literature, he would wholly lose sight of them; that hence he would be sometimes the natural prey of fraud, and

sometimes the victim of penury: and that all the learning of the east would not procure him from strangers, either the linen ephod of the child, or the mantle of the man. She was determined, therefore, habitually to take care, that neither his mind, his health, nor his studies should sustain any detriment from the rude collision of petty cares. But as he was of a sober and studious humour, that the tranquillity of his hermit cell should never be violated; and that he should enjoy uninterrupted leisure to acquire that fund of information, and those useful habits, which might ultimately redound to his own honour, and the general good. In accomplishing so judicious a design, she employed no agent, but her own heart, and no deputy, but her own skill.

The importance of such a provision has been abundantly verified, in the history of Samuel's successful career. Had he been left solitary at Shiloh, neglected by his friends, exposed to the artifice of some, and the temptation of others, he never would have prophesied any thing, but his own ruin; and instead of being a judge, would in all probability, have been a prisoner.

Wise and benignant mother! With how much enthusiasm and sensibility wilt thou always be apostrophized, by every son, in every age, who has felt the fostering warmth of maternal affection!

In addition to thy acts of kindness, from the dawn of genius to its glorious meridian, thy periodical assiduity of attention shall be ever remembered! That little vestment, which, to render the present more valuable, was brought, not by one of thine handmaids, not by a careless or venal slave, but by thy gracious self, will outlast the weaving of the noblest looms. Like the regretted handkerchief of the fabled Moor, in the unequalled tragedy of the matchless dramatist," the worms were hallowed that did breed its silk." It made her son amiable, and there was magic in its web. But if the little coat, made by a mother, was not, as a poet's fancy might suggest, of a silken texture, it was of wool from a Gideon's fleece, and watered with the kindliest dews of Heaven.

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