precise feeling which the intelligence has excited! Shakspeare gives a fine illustration of this in another place, where he makes Constance say to the bearer of ill tidings

Thy news hath made thee a most ugly man.'

Then follows another of those delicate touches which go home and instantly to the heart. Of each succeeding messenger David asks but one question, for his soul knows but one anxiety; it concerns not the battle, though upon that is his crown depending-but Is the young man Absalom safe?' In the history and the tragedy the messengers alike give evasive replies in the first instance, and the sufferers are represented as guessing the truth before they hear it. David, more unking'd by grief than by his son's rebellion, rose from his place, and 'went up to the chamber above the gate;' he asked no further question, desired no other intelligence, and craved no royal privilege, save the privilege to weep alone. His people were gathering round-those who had saved and those who had injured him ;-the din of battle and the shout of victory were in his ear ;-he saw and heard, but heeded not, for his soul was gone forth to Absalom, cut off in the full blossom of his iniquities ;-to Absalom, his beautiful and brave; -' and the victory that day was turned into mourning.' His recovered crown, his re-established throne, were vain comforters for his lost child. In David we see the monarch forgotten in the father; in Macduff, after the first paroxysm of sorrow, the husband and father become merged in the warrior, who resolves to make him medicines of his great revenge.' This is characteristic; but had both been poetic imaginations, we cannot doubt which would have been considered of the highest order. One other observation on this passage. In David mourning over Absalom, one would think that pathos reached its climax; but it does not till the subsequent chapter, where his grief is rebuked by the imperious Joab; and at the suggestion (command more properly) of the slayer of his son, he goes again to sit in the gate,

'speak comfortably unto his servants,' and seem to forget his child. With this assumed self-control, and real submission to the will of others, remember that David was a lion-like man,' one whom his own soldiers pronounced the light of Israel.'" The latter days of David were disturbed by the ambitious pretensions of Adonijah, the brother of Absalom, to the royal succession. He too, it appears, had been injudiciously indulged by his father, and too closely resembled his brother in his ingratitude, his imperious disposition, and his affectation of regal pomp. Informed of his conspiracy in time, David lost no time in having Solomon anointed and proclaimed as king.

In the midst of his splendour and prosperity, David forgot not his covenant with Jonathan, but showed kindness to his son, Mephibosheth, for his sake. We see from this, as well as other instances of conduct, that he was a man of warm affections, such as, regulated by prudence and controlled by religion, might have rendered his domestic life as happy as his reign was illustrious. But through his own folly and guilt all this was marred, till the springs whence flow the purest streams of human happiness, poured forth turbid waters, that fertilized not, but swept all before them to destruction. Let the solemn warning of David's example instruct all who read his history.

XIV.

THE FAMILY OF SOLOMON.

THE oath of David that Solomon should reign after him was given to Bathsheba his mother, but not merely to please her ambition or show her favour. He was appointed of God from his birth to the throne, and his father, in designating him for his successor, spoke by the Spirit of the Lord. That Bathsheba had influence, is evident from the application of Nathan the prophet to her in the emergency of Adonijah's usurpation, and his intimation that her own life, as well as that of her son, was in danger from the fears of the prince, should his power, already formidable through the aid of Joab and Abiathar, become established. Adonijah's subsequent petition to her, that she would obtain Solomon's consent to his marriage with Abishag, was made because he believed the king would not refuse any request preferred by her. He calculated not only upon her kindness of heart, but her want of penetration; nor was he mistaken, for she dreamed not of the insidious design concealed under his proposal, and presented his petition as if it had been her own. Solomon, on the other hand, saw through the artifice at once. The possession of the wives or harem of a deceased sovereign was connected in popular opinion with the title to his crown. Absalom thus asserted his claim to his father's kingdom; and the quarrel between Ishbosheth and Abner was occasioned by a similar step towards the accomplishment of ambitious schemes. The artful character of Adonijah had been shown by his previous conduct; it was now evident that he and his adherents had not relinquished their plans, nor their hopes of ultimate success; and it became necessary for the security and peace of the

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kingdom that such restless and scheming aspirants should be removed out of the way. The sternness of the king in pronouncing the doom, and ordering the execution of his brother, must be justified as necessary for the prevention of civil war, and the establishment of his authority over the whole nation. He speaks as certain of the Divine approval of his decision. In this very scene his reverence and affection for his mother are strikingly manifested. When she came into his presence he rose to meet her, and rendered her the homage of an obeisance, such as was common from an inferior to a superior. Then resuming his seat upon his throne-for it is probable the interview was in publiche caused a seat to be set for her at his right hand, thus honouring her before all the people as "the king's mother." When she spoke of her petition, he answered with respectful tenderness, bidding her say on, for that nothing she could ask would be denied; a promise which implied the supposition that the request would be such as it became her to make, and him to grant. As she attempted no remonstrance when he pronounced the sentence of death, it is likely she was immediately convinced of her error, and acquiesced in its justice.

The reign of Solomon brought the Hebrew empire to its period of greatest extent and splendour. Both his internal government and foreign treaties were regulated with consummate wisdom, so as to secure the peace of his subjects and the respect of neighbouring nations. Commerce flowed through his territories; his wealth was immense; his sumptuous palaces, and the magnificence that surrounded him, realized the gorgeous dreams of Oriental imagination; the fame of his luxury and his wisdom spread into distant lands, and brought princes to pay the homage of their admiration, and wonder at an understanding and knowledge surpassing that of other men. So great and widely-extended was the renown of his riches, and honour, and wisdom, that Eastern tradition invested him with supernatural powers, and sovereignty over the world of

genii and spirits. Still higher distinction, it was permitted him to build a house for the Lord of Hosts-the temple which was to be the dwelling of Him whom heaven and the heaven of heavens could not contain. He was favoured of God, and received the promise of the kingdom for his posterity, as it had been made before, on the condition of persevering obedience. The brightness of this life and reign were tarnished, their termination fatally clouded, by such folly on the part of the wisest of men, as must furnish to all who read his history a melancholy and humiliating lesson.

The first marriage of Solomon seems to have been with Naamalı, the Ammonitess, since her son, Rehoboam, was born a year before his accession to the throne. Soon after he became king he formed a treaty of alliance with the monarch of Egypt, and solemnly espoused his daughter. She resided in Jerusalem only till the completion of the temple and the royal palace, and then removed into a palace built expressly for her in another part of the country. Solomon's reason for assigning her this residence is given in the Second Book of Chronicles: "My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come." Though supposed to be a proselyte, she was a stranger by birth to the covenant and the privileges of Israel: her court might be frequented by those who had no part with the chosen people, or despised the ordinances they held sacred, and the guardian of the national worship deemed it not right that the place of the sanctuary should be profaned by the presence of idolaters. Happy for him, and his people, had his regard for the faith of his country been always thus inviolate!

The cause of the sad change in Solomon's later years is pointedly indicated. His love for the women of heathen extraction whom he had married, led him not merely to countenance the worship of the different deities in which they believed, but himself to join