Houbigant's reading, notwithstanding that it is given upon the authority of the Samaritan copy, I cannot look upon as an improvement; it lacks the simplicity and elevation of our version.

The journey of the Israelites through the wilderness may be considered as an instructive type of the human pilgrimage, so exquisitely, though quaintly described by George Herbert.

I travel on, seeing the hill, where lay

My expectation.

A long it was and weary way.
The gloomy cave of Desperation

I left on the one and on the other side

The rock of Pride.

And so I came to fancy's meadow, strew'd

With many a flower:

Fain would I here have made abode,

But I was quicken'd by my hour.

So to Care's copse I came, and there got through,
With much ado.

That led me to the wild of Passion, which

Some call the world;

A wasted place, but sometimes rich.

Here I was robb'd of all my gold,

Save one good angel, which a friend had tied
Close to my side.

At length I got unto the gladsome hill

Where lay my hope,

Where lay my heart; and climbing still,
When I had gain'd the brow and top,
A lake of brackish waters on the ground
Was all I found.

With that abash'd and struck with many a sting
Of swarming fears,

I fell and cried, "Alas, my King!"
Can both the way and end be tears?

Yet taking heart, I rose, and then perceiv'd
I was deceiv'd.

My hill was farther; so I shrunk away;
Yet heard a cry,

Just as I went,-" None goes that way
And lives:" if that be all, said I,
After so foul a journey death is fair,
And but a chair.

CHAPTER XV.

The prophetic ode continued.

is

THE next passage of this incomparable song one of almost unexampled beauty, even in the Hebrew Scriptures where such examples abound. It is, besides, level to the comprehension and taste of the most ordinary mind, for it appears next to impossible that any reader of the slightest discernment should fail to distinguish its characteristic excellence.

As an eagle stirreth up her nest,
Fluttereth over her young,

Spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them,
Beareth them upon her wings;-

So the Lord alone did lead him,

And there was no strange god with him.

I know of nothing, even in the book of Job, that surpasses this passage for accuracy of illustration, and exquisite poetical adornment. It is an incomparable picture of divine tenderness towards human infirmity, realizing with marvellous vividness of imagery and irresistible truth of delineation, that merciful sustentation which God extends to his infirm creatures, whom he distinguishes as objects of his parental solicitude; it is a matchless picture of divine paternity. The eagle, great in power, supreme over all the

feathered tribes, which behold him with awe and cower at his approach; an emblem at once of strength and universal domination, appearing to the gazer from the earth beneath to soar to the very sun and hold communion with the inhabitants of those inaccessible heights to which the thoughts only of man can aspire;-this tremendous bird of prey, with all its fierce instincts, its terrible strength, its fearless courage and dreadful fatality of ferocious determination under aggression or provocation, is remarkable for its tenderness towards its offspring. Its domestic habits are singularly gentle. Its parental attention to its young is agreeably described in Mr. Wood's zoography.*

"The eagles," writes Mr. Wood, writes Mr. Wood, "are accustomed to build their aeries in the cavities of some almost inaccessible rock, which is hardly to be ascended by the aid of ladders and grappling irons. As soon as the shepherds have discovered their retreat, they raise a little hut at the foot of the rock, where they screen themselves from the fury of these dangerous birds when they convey provisions to their young. The male carefully nourishes them for the space of three months, and the female is engaged in the same employment, until the young bird is capable of quitting the aerie: but when that period is completed, they make him spring into the air and bear him up with their wings and talons when he is in danger of falling. Whilst the young eagle continues in the aerie, the parents ravage

Vol. i. pp. 381-383.

all the neighbouring country; they seize whatever falls in their way and bear it to their young. But the fields and woods supply them with their best game, for there they destroy pheasants, partridges, woodcocks, wild ducks, hares, and young fawns. The shepherds, at the very instant they perceive the old birds have left their aerie, plant their ladders and climb the rocks, as well as they are able, and then carry off what the eagles have conveyed to their offspring, and, in the room of what they take, leave the entrails of certain animals. But as this cannot be done so expeditiously as to prevent the young eagles from devouring part of their food, the shepherds must necessarily bring away what has been already mutilated; but in recompence for this disadvantage, what they thus take has a much finer flavour than anything the markets afford. When the young eagle has strength to fly, which requires a considerable time to attain, because he is deprived of the excellent food provided by his parental guardians and obliged to put up with what is very indifferent, the shepherds fasten him to the aerie, that the parent birds may continue to supply him with what they take, till the disagreeable task of providing for an offspring that perpetually fatigues them, obliges, first the male, and then the female to forsake him. The male transfers himself to a new situation, and the female shortly follows the track of her faithful mate; after which their tenderness for another progeny makes them forget the former, whom the shepherds leave in the