derness, can equal those of Ruth and Rizpah? Where are the denouncers of woe, the bards and the prophets of profane history, that lose not all their sublimity, when compared with him who sat lamenting in the wilderness, or with the stern and undaunted Baptist? And where may we find a family so eminently true to their country and their God, as that of the priest Maccabeus? But to enumerate a tenth of the subjects of poetic interest which sacred history presents, would require volumes. The one here submitted to minuter examination is the tribe of Benjamin.

The father of this fierce and warlike tribe seems to have been a man of a mild and affectionate disposition. The love which Jacob entertained for his elder brother Joseph was transferred to Benjamin, and this, his youngest son, was farther endeared by the loss of Rachel, who died in giving birth to him during their flight from Laban. His amiable and peaceful deportment, contrasted with the turbulence of his brethren, refreshed the heart of the venerable patriarch, and seems to have had a beneficial influence even upon the betrayers of Joseph, who treated him, in their journey to Egypt, with kindness and attention, and expressed no jealousy at the favour he received from "the lord of the land." This journey occasioned a series of very pathetic and wonderful events; but Benjamin, like the heroes of the Great Unknown, is passive throughout. We enter into the despair of the desolate father, we weep tears of joy with Joseph, our hearts glow within us at the powerful and affecting appeal of Judah, but we feel only quiet esteem for the virtues of Benjamin, which could excite in minds of such different character the same energy of attachment.

The first warning of the rapacious and daring spirit

which should spring from such gentle seed, is given in the prophetic blessing which Israel pronounced on his children upon his death-bed. It is shortly, but forcibly, expressed in the words, "Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf." Every tribe is likened to some animal. Judah, for instance, to the generous-hearted lion; but cruelty and rapacity are characteristic of the wolf, and these were in later times the distinction of the Benjamites. There is a tradition among the Jews, that these animals became "the ensigns of their house," and were painted on the standards which marked the station of each tribe during their pilgrimage in the desert. Some modern writers, however, assert that the name of the patriarch formed "the ensign of his house." Others suppose that the standard was only distinguished by its colour, which corresponded with the stone on Aaron's breastplate, upon which the name of the tribe was written.

The blessing of Moses seems at first sight to have been of a different tenor from that of Jacob. He says of Benjamin, "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him, and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders." But this refers entirely to the situation which this tribe should attain in the promised land. Benjamin's possessions lay immediately around the holy city; and in consequence of this vicinity, when the kingdom of Israel was rent in twain, Benjamin sided with Judah, and dwelt in safety "between the shoulders of the Lord;" that is, beside the temple which he had chosen. It is not improbable that both these prophecies may have been misunderstood, and the double mistake have contributed to form the character of the tribe. When surrounded by enemies, the fierceness of the wolf would seem to figure and excite warlike virtue, and the pro

mise of safety and continuance in the Lord would naturally engender confidence, and add to courage. But courage carried to excess soon degenerates into ferocity; and in times of general corruption, a tribe which formed its character upon this equivocal virtue would easily be persuaded that it might sin with impunity.

The number of the men of Benjamin above twenty years of age, and able to bear arms, taken in the beginning of the second year after their escape from Egypt, was thirty-five thousand and four hundred. This generation perished to a man in the wilderness; but its children, when the army passed over Jordan to take possession of the promised land, amounted to forty-five thousand and six hundred fighting men. These found abundant need of all their valour and military skill in -rooting out the Canaanites, who occupied their allotted country. The war was one of extermination. God had commanded Isracl utterly to destroy the nations, on account of their brutal and abominable vices; but this command was never fully executed. Overcome with fatigue and bloodshed, every tribe sought peace and rest before its work was done. Even Judah and Benjamin, the fiercest of them, left cities in their borders unconquered, and these became, according to God's de-. nunciation," thorns in their sides;" seducing them from their allegiance, keeping them in continual alarm, and not unfrequently reducing them to slavery. Fourteen cities were in the territory of Benjamin, but Jebus, the chief of these, afterwards called Jerusalem, was not taken. This important citadel was strongly situated on the ridge of hills which cuts Judea from north to south, and is a little more than twenty furlongs distant from Gibeah, the strong-hold of Benjamin, which possessed several local advantages. It probably was never at

tacked, for its height secured it from an escalade, and the sling, an arm of war in which Benjamin peculiarly excelled, would in such an attempt have been useless. Long after Benjamin's power was annihilated, and Gibeah, its rival, laid in ashes, Jebus remained to annoy Israel, and was at last taken with great difficulty by David, who made it the capital of his kingdom, and the seat of the ark of God. We read of no other city that withstood the might of Benjamin, and it is probable that the pride and cruelty of this tribe grew up with their power. But in due time the whole nation began. to feel the effects of their disobedience, in uniting with the idolatrous nations around them.

In less than a century after their entrance into Canaan, the people of God were twice brought into captivity-first, by the King of Mesopotamia, who kept them in subjection eight years, and forty years afterward by the Moabites, who, for the space of eighteen years, grievously oppressed them. From this condition they were rescued by the valour and military conduct of a Benjamite, Ehud, the son of Gera; who, after assassinating Eglon their king, totally routed the Moabite army. The effects of this victory were rest and liberty for fourscore years; and during the administration of Ehud, it is probable that his tribe increased in power and reputation; but the brevity with which the affairs. of these times are recorded in the Book of Judges, precludes all political remarks. Ehud is distinguished for a property which was much esteemed by his descendants. He was left-handed; and appeared before Eglon unarmed, trusting to execute his purpose with a small dagger, which he concealed under the raiment of his right thigh, an unsuspected place, from which none but a left-handed man could readily extricate and use a

weapon. His success shewed the advantage of using both hands with equal facility, and made it a part of military practice. In the account of the army of Benjamin, mustered for the defence of Gibeah, this advantage is particularly mentioned, as well as the skill of the tribe in the use of the sling. "There were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling stones at an hair-breadth, and not miss."

Nothing occurs after this deliverance from Moab, which separately affected the Benjamites; but it seems that pride and cruelty and abominable lust polluted the whole tribe, and in no long time drew upon it the same punishment which Divine Justice inflicted on the nations of Canaan. They hastened to fill up the measure of their iniquity, and God was pleased to overthrow them by a signal destruction, and crush for ever the power which they had so grossly abused. Perhaps there is no historical fact on record, so full of poetic incidents as this, so deeply pathetic in its cause, so sullenly grand and terrible in its execution, so strikingly awful in its effect. The Wolf could not change his nature. He sinned with unrelenting fierceness, defended himself with indomitable resolution, and was at last overpowered and annihilated, not subdued.

It would be equally presumptuous and idle to detail what is fully and passionately described in Scripture. The three last chapters of the Book of Judges are occupied solely by this affecting tragedy. The first contains the rape and murder of the Levite's wife by the inhabitants of Gibeah; the second, the war which these sins excited, the total overthrow of the guilty city, and the near extinction of the whole tribe; the last gives the means adopted for restoring the name of Benjamin, "lest one should be wanting in Israel." A reader of any