cellent pagan; but the differences which separate the pagan from the Christian stand out in every line."

Onesimus has been compared to the Marcus Dama described in the Fifth Satire of Persius, which fact will be of interest to the classical students who read the latter.

Biblical Subjects of Poems. Many incidents of the Bible narrative have been made the themes of noble poems by which the English literature has been enriched. The effect of each is heightened by the reading of both at one time, where they are used in morning exercises of the school. A few examples of these will show how they may be utilized for this purpose.

1. Jacob's dream at Bethel is one of the most beautiful of the Old Testament narrations, and has been the theme of innumerable compositions in nearly all languages.

And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in

this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God. And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

It suggests the following stanza of a familiar hymn:

Though, like the wanderer,
The sun gone down,
Darkness be over me,

My rest a stone,

Yet in my dreams I'd be

Nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer to Thee.

A characteristic poem from Lucy Larcom, based upon the same narration, contains these stanzas:

When Jacob slept in Bethel, and there dreamed
Of angels ever climbing and descending

A ladder, whose last round of splendor seemed
With glory of the Ineffable Presence blending,
The place grew sacred to his reverent thought.
He said: "Lo, God is here, I knew it not."

And wherefore did they fold their wings of light,
Of swiftness, and of strength, those beings holy,
And up to dawn celestial, through earth's night,
Like mortals, step by step, go toiling slowly?
Was it to teach themselves the painful way
Man's feet must take to their familiar day?

Or was it that the traveler, laid asleep
On his stone pillow, with an inward seeing,
Should learn how mightiest spirits reach the steep
And glorious possibilities of being —

Not by a visionary flight sublime,

But up the foot-worn ladder rounds of time?

Wherever upward, even the lowest round,
Man by a hand's help lifts his feebler brother,

There is a house of God, and holy ground:

The gate of Heaven is Love; there is none other.
When generous act blooms from unselfish thought,
The Lord is with us, though we know it not.

2. The interview of Saul with the Witch of Endor calls vividly to mind the divination of Shakespeare's Macbeth, through the agency of the witches. Saul's recourse to the supernatural to learn his fate, is thus described.

Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at En-dor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid : for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbor, even to David: because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover

the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shalt deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. - I Samuel xxviii. 7-19.

Byron's poem, Saul, is a paraphrase of this narration:

Thou whose spell can raise the dead,

Bid the prophet's form appear,

"Samuel, raise thy buried head!

King, behold the phantom seer!"

Earth yawned; he stood the center of a cloud;
Light changed its hue, retiring from his shroud.
Death stood all glassy in his fixed eye;
His hand was withered, and his veins were dry;
His foot, in bony whiteness, glittered there,
Shrunken and sinewless, and ghastly bare;
From lips that moved not and unbreathing frame,
Like caverned winds, the hollow accents came.
Saul saw, and fell to earth, as falls the oak,
At once, and blasted by the thunder-stroke.

"Why is my sleep disquieted?
Who is he that calls the dead?
Is it thou, O King? Behold,
Bloodless are these limbs, and cold:
Such are mine; and such shall be
Thine to-morrow, when with me:
Ere the coming day is done,
Such shalt thou be, such thy son.
Fare thee well, but for a day,
Then we mix our moldering clay.
Thou, thy race, lie pale and low,
Pierced by shafts of many a bow;
And the falchion by thy side
To thy heart thy hand shall guide :
Crownless, breathless, headless fall,
Son and sire, the house of Saul!"

3. Another Hebrew poem of Byron relates the destruction of the army of Sennacherib (which seems to have been anni

hilated in camp by a poisonous wind), in answer to the prayer of Hezekiah, king of Judah. The Bible account is as follows:

Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

This is the poem :

-II Kings xix. 32-35.

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances uplifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal!
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!