therefore, to abandon the deserts; and travelling on, from night to night, I, at length, found myself in a cultivated land, and at the gates of a city of stupendous walls and towers. It was Argob, the city of Og;-who has not heard of that last of the Anakims, and of his great bedstead of iron? I was surrounded by a band of fierce, shaggy, and monstrous men who led me into his presence. He sate on a massy bench, beneath a sycamore, at the gate of his ponderous palace, and his sons, and his old warriors, a race of giants, stood around. I was overwhelmed, for a moment, by the sight of so huge and terrible a being; tall as I am, I reached not to his girdle. Hopeless of life-careless of death, which to me could not be worse than life itself,-I avowed myself a prophet of Israel. A lying and cunning spirit was upon me. I declared that I fled from the despotism of Moses, and would rather receive death at the hands of the king, than live in those of the tyrant of my people. The spirit of delusion seized the giant-monarch. The nations of the Anakims had fallen around him beneath the arms of the Israelites; he awaited daily his own trial, and he grasped at the intelligence I might give as a saving branch in the moment of his fall. I was received with favour and honour. I encouraged him—feigned to reveal to him the secret of the Hebrew strength, and assured him of victory. Kindled by my words, he determined not to expect, but to pour forth on his enemies. At once the whole land was in motion like a swarm of hornets. The

din of arms, the tumult of processions and sacrifices, filled it from end to end. The giant sons of the king, like inflamed demons, flew from place to place; -the almost equally gigantic daughters, creatures of a fierce and superhuman beauty and stature, their proud necks loaded with strings of pearls, their hair flowing on their shoulders, glittering with gold and jewels, their arms and ancles bound with massy clasps of gold, and tinkling bells of silver, excited to madness the priests by their kindled charms, and their presents of embroidered hangings for the tabernacles of their polluted groves. Dreadful was the rage which boiled through the sanguinary multitudes-dreadful were the cries of human victimsthrilling the shrieks of tender infants cast into the flaming furnaces of Adrammelec.

"But in the midst of this tumultuous scene of guilt and terror, one beautiful and serene object shone like a solitary star upon a tempestuous ocean. It was the youngest daughter of the king, the daughter of a captive descendant of Esau. Of the ordinary stature of humanity, the richness of her beauty, and the gentleness of her spirit, presented only the image of her deceased mother. She was fair as the lily of the valley, but her eyes and flowing locks were dark as night. She had heard of the true God, and of his dealings with her ancestors, from her mother, in childhood; she looked on the savage natures of those with whom she dwelt, with horror and detestation; and my words roused in her soul the most intense

and anxious interest. While all others were absorbed in the preparations for war, from day to day, she besought me with questions. In her presence my former tone of mind, my former happiness, seemed to return; a spirit of sacred inspiration was even permitted to me; and I displayed, with glowing enthusiasm, the true history of man-the dispensations of God to Israel-the speedy and utter annihilation of this people. When I ceased, I beheld her kneeling upon the ground, her lovely face turned with a sublime and adoring expression towards heaven. She arose. 'I fear not to die,' she meekly said, "but I fain would not die in the midst of this idolatrous people. Oh! that I was but the lowest handmaid in the tents of my mother's kindred!'

"Already deeply affected by her beauty, I was now aroused by her devotion. 'Fly,' I exclaimed. I know the deserts, and vow to become thy faithful conductor.'

"With much entreaty I prevailed ;—but when I counselled her to bear away the teraphim of the king, she paused; her pure soul shrank from any thing like theft; and those golden and jewelled teraphim, worth almost half his kingdom,—those household gods from which, morn and evening, he invoked prosperity, it was too much. But my zeal-my character of a prophet-my solemn representations that it was a testimony against idolatry demanded by God, shook her spirit-she struggled long, but gave way. In a thicket, not far from

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the city, I concealed two swift dromedaries. At night, I awaited her at the foot of a tower upon the wall, whence, with the teraphim, she descended in a basket. We had already reached the thicket, when her giant-brothers sprang forth with dreadful yells. I beheld her in their grasp I heard her cries-I saw the sword red with her blood resistance was vain-I fled! Darkness and my destiny favoured my flight; but the blood of that fair and gentle creature lay on my soul like fire. Remorsepity-love-drove me on in desperation, I knew not whither. At length I was stopped by a range of rocks; I climbed to their top, and sate down in a state of dreamy torpor. From that height I beheld the armies of Israel in march; I saw the host of the Anakims come down like a foaming sea; anon, they were scattered like mist, and the Israelites pursued, slaying to the bounds of the vast horizon. I followed, and in a few days beheld all that monstrous nation utterly destroyed, and walked amongst the smoking ashes of their groves and idoltemples.

"But I saw a thing there more hateful than even the Anakims. I saw the Israelites dwelling at peace in the cities and in the fertile fields-in a plenteous possession, from which I was cut off for ever. I retired from the intolerable spectacle once more to the desert. The tempestuous energy of those passions, which had successively visited me, seemed now exhausted. I was feeble and faint as a child; yet a burning envy consumed my

heart of the blessings of my brethren, and a malignant cruelty towards the weak and defenceless possessed me. I trod with vindictive malice on the beetle that crawled on the sand before me; and when the lizard ran up the sunny rock, and looked cheerfully in my face, I took up a stone and crushed it. Even this petty force of evil departed, and I was left a powerless prey to remorse to a vain longing after reunion with my people— to overwhelming terrors-terrors of God, of death, and of the powers of darkness.

"Oh, praise! boundless praise to Him, who, at length, drew back the arm of his wrath, and forgave. I lay at the mouth of this cave-I know not whether awake or in sleep, but I saw before me two angelic beings; and, by a closer contemplation of them, I recognized my parents. I heard my mother, as if addressing my father, say,— 'How long have we interceded for our unhappy son, that he might be made a partaker of the annual benefit of the scape-goat, and, at length, it is granted. His latter career of crime has been but the career of a maniachis real crime was the breach of his sacred trust-he has suffered as no man ever yet did, and he is forgiven.' She scattered upon me drops, as of water, from a crystal vase, and a thrill of joy-a warm sensation of human love, and tenderness, and hope, gushed upon my soultears came into my eyes, and I lay as in a soothing trance. During the space of a moon I have continued tranquil, breathing an atmosphere of love, and full of