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trembling, and weeping, and crying, and confessing his guilt, and imploring forgiveness. And having forsaken all other things, he cut off his hair, and followed the blessed Augustine all the days of his life, as the author of his salvation. And being thus made perfect in all purity of mind and body, he closed his last day, and entered the joys of eternal felicity, to live without end.”

CHAP. XVI.

SOTHEBY'S SAUL.

"WELL, after all that has been lectured by criticism," said Egeria one evening, about an hour after tea, laying down Mr Sotheby's poem of Saul," it certainly is not in the thought and conception, but in the expression and the execution, that the excellence of poetry consists. This work, both in point of thought and conception, possesses many beautiful passages; but in general their expression and execution seldom exceed mediocrity. For example, I do not know a finer idea in any poem than Mr Sotheby's theory, if we may use the expression, of Saul's frenzy. He supposes the unhappy king to be haunted by a spectre, which successively assumes his own form and character, as in the days of his pastoral innocence, and tortures him with the afflicting contrast of those blameless times, before he had known the cares of royalty or felt the pangs of remorse. But, though elegantly versified, it lacks of the energy and simplicity of natural feeling. The first form in which

the demon appears, is that of a beautiful youth in shepherd's weeds, who addresses the entranced monarch in these polished strains:"

"Up from thy couch of wo, and join my path; And I will wreath thy favourite crook with flowers. Lo! this thy crook, which from the flinty cleft Sprung wild, where many a gurgling streamlet fell. Pleasant the spot wherein the sapling grew; And pleasant was the hour, when o'er the rill Thy fancy shaped its pliant growth; 'twas spring! Sweet came its fragrance from the vale beneath, Strew'd with fresh blossoms, shed from almond bowers. Still blooms the almond bower: the fragrance still Floats on the gale: still gush the crystal rills, And Cedron rolls its current musical. Why droop'st thou here disconsolate and sad? Look up! the glad hills cast the snow aside; The rain is past, the fresh flow'rs paint the field : Each little bird calls to his answering mate; The roes bound o'er the mountains. Haste away! Up from thy couch, and join my gladsome path, Where shepherds carol on the sunshine lawn!" 'I come, I come, fair angel,' Saul exclaims. 'Give me my shepherd's weeds-my pipe-my crook; Aid me to cast these cumbrous trappings off. Yet stay;'-but swift at once the vision gone Mocks him, evanishing. Groans then, and sighs, And bitterness of anguish, such as felt Of him, who on Helvetia's heights, a boy, Sung to the Alpine lark; and saw, beneath, Prone cataracts, and silver lakes, and vales Romantic; and now paces his night-watch, Hoar veteran, on the tented field. Not him, Fresh slaughter fuming on the plain,—not him The groan of death, familiar to his ear,

Disquiet: but if, haply heard, the breeze
Bring from the distant mountain low of kine,
With pipe of shepherd leading on his flock
To fold; oh then, on his remembrance rush
Those days so sweet; that roof, beneath the rock,
Which cradled him when sweeping snow-storms burst;
And those within, the peaceful household hearth,
With all its innocent pleasures. Him, far off,
Regret consumes, and inly-wasting grief,
That knows no solace, till in life's last hour,
When, o'er his gaze, in trance of bliss, once more
Helvetia and her piny summits float.""

"Mr Sotheby's description of the approach of Saul and his guards to the camp of the twelve tribes is magnificent."

"Hark! hark! the clash and clang

Of shaken cymbals cadencing the pace
Of martial movement regular: the swell
Sonorous of the brazen trump of war;

Shrill twang of harps, sooth'd by melodious chime
Of beat on silver bars; and sweet, in pause
Of harsher instrument, continuous flow

Of breath, through flutes, in symphony with song,
Choirs, whose match'd voices fill'd the air afar
With jubilee, and chant of triumph hymn:
And ever and anon irregular burst

Of loudest acclamation, to each host

Saul's stately advance proclaim'd. Before him, youths
In robes succinct for swiftness: oft they struck
Their staves against the ground, and warn'd the throng
Backward to distant homage. Next, his strength
Of chariots roll'd with each an armed band;
Earth groan'd afar beneath their iron wheels:
Part arm'd with scythe for battle, part adorn'd

For triumph. Nor there wanting a led train
Of steeds in rich caparison, for show

Of solemn entry. Round about the king,
Warriors, his watch and ward, from every tribe
Drawn out. Of these a thousand each selects,

Of size and comeliness above their peers,

Pride of their race. Radiant their armour: some
In silver cased, scale over scale, that play'd

All pliant to the litheness of the limb;
Some mail'd in twisted gold, link within link
Flexibly ring'd and fitted, that the eye
Beneath the yielding panoply pursued,

When act of war the strength of man provoked,
The motion of the muscles, as they work'd
In rise and fall. On each left thigh a sword

Swung in the broider'd baldric: each right hand Grasp'd a long shadowing spear. Like them, their chiefs

Array'd; save on their shields of solid ore,

And on their helm, the graver's toil had wrought

Its subtlety in rich device of war:

And o'er their mail, a robe, Punicean dye,
Gracefully play'd; where the wing'd shuttle, shot
By cunning of Sidonian virgins, wove
Broidure of many-coloured figures rare.

Bright glow'd the sun, and bright the burnish'd mail Of thousands ranged, whose pace to song kept time; And bright the glare of spears, and gleam of crests, And flaunt of banners flashing to and fro

The noon-day beam. Beneath their coming, earth
Wide glitter'd. Seen afar, amidst the pomp,
Gorgeously mail'd, but more by pride of port
Known, and superior stature, than rich trim
Of war and regal ornament, the king,
Throned in triumphal car, with trophies graced,
Stood eminent. The lifting of his lance

Shone like a sunbeam. O'er his armour flow'd

A robe, imperial mantle, thickly starr'd

With blaze of orient gems; the clasp, that bound
Its gather'd folds his ample chest athwart,

Sapphire; and o'er his casque, where rubies burnt,
A cherub flamed, and waved his wings in gold."

"The song of the virgins is also written with spirit and elegance."

"Daughters of Israel! praise the Lord of Hosts!
Break into song! with harp and tabret lift
Your voices up, and weave with joy the dance:
And to your twinkling footsteps toss aloft
Your arms; and from the flash of cymbals shake
Sweet clangor, measuring the giddy maze.

Shout ye! and ye! make answer, Saul hath slain
His thousands; David his ten thousands slain.
Sing a new song. I saw them in their rage,
I saw the gleam of spears, the flash of swords,
That rang against our gates. The warder's watch
Ceased not. Tower answer'd tower: a warning voice
Was heard without; the cry of wo within!
The shriek of virgins, and the wail of her,
The mother, in her anguish, who fore-wept,
Wept at the breast her babe, as now no more.
Shout ye! and ye! make answer, Saul hath slain
His thousands; David his ten thousands slain.
Sing a new song. Spake not th' insulting foe?
I will pursue, o'ertake, divide the spoil.
My hand shall dash their infants on the stones:
The ploughshare of my vengeance shall draw out
The furrow, where the tower and fortress rose.
Before my
chariot Israel's chiefs shall clank
Their chains. Each side, their virgin daughters groan;
Erewhile to weave my conquest on their looms.

Shout ye! and ye! make answer, Saul hath slain His thousands; David his ten thousands slain.

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