would they have acted thus scornfully towards one whom the whole house of Israel had gone out to meet on her arrival with her father Jethro. If then he married the Cushite during the lifetime of Zipporah, his conduct in this particular received the express approbation of God himself, who moreover punished with severity the unnatural opposition of Aaron and his sister. Next I place Gideon, that signal example of faith and piety, Judg. viii. 30, 31. and Elkanah, a rigid Levite, the father of Samuel; who was so far from believing himself less acceptable to God on account of his double marriage, that he took with him his two wives every year to the sacrifices and annual worship, into the immediate presence of God; nor was he therefore reproved, but went home blessed with Samuel, a child of excellent promise, 1 Sam. ii. 10. Passing over several other examples, though illustrious, such as Caleb, 1 Chron. ii 46, 48. vii. 1. 4. the sons of Issachar, in number six and thirty thousand men, for they had many wives and sons, contrary to the modern European practice, where in many places the land is suffered to remain uncultivated for want of population; and also Manasseh, the son of Joseph, 1 Chron. vii. 14: I come to the prophet David, whom God loved beyond all men, and who took two wives, besides Michal; and this not in a time of pride and prosperity, but when he was almost bowed down by adversity, and when, as we learn from many of the psalms, he was entirely occupied in the study of the word of God, and in the right regulation of his conduct. 1 Sam. xxv. 42, 43. and afterwards, 2 Sam. v. 12, 13. David perceived that Jehovah had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake; and David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem. Such were the motives, such the honourable and holy thoughts, whereby he was influenced, namely, by the consideration of God's kindness towards him for his people's sake. His heavenly and prophetic understanding saw not in that primitive institution what we in our blindness fancy we discern so clearly; nor did he hesitate to proclaim in the supreme council of the nation the pure and honourable motives to which, as he trusted, his children born in polygamy owed their existence. 1 Chron. xxviii. 5. of all my sons, for Jehovah hath given me many sons, he hath chosen, &c. I say nothing of Solomon, notwithstanding his wisdom, because he seems to have exceeded due bounds: although it is not objected to him that he had taken many wives, but that he had married strange women; 1 Kings xi. 1. Nehem. xiii. 26. His son Rehoboam desired many wives, not in the time of his iniquity, but during the three years in which he is said to have walked in the way of David. 2 Chron. xi. 17, 21.23. Of Joash mention has already been made; who was induced to take two wives, not by licentious passion, or the wanton desires incident to uncontrolled power, but by the sanction and advice of a most wise and holy man, Jehoida the priest. Who can believe, either that so many men of the highest character should have sinned through ignorance for so many ages; or that their hearts should have been so hardened; or that God should have tolerated such conduct in his people? Let therefore the rule received among theologians have the same weight here as in other cases; The practice of the saints is the best interpretation of the commandments.'" With all deference to Milton, we cannot help thinking that the Polygamy permitted to the Patriarchs is no more an argument for its legality in the eye of reason and Christianity, than the primitive marriages of brothers and sisters is a justification of incest. From such marriages the Patriarchs themselves sprung. In compliance, however, with our object, which was simply to describe the book, we abstain from troubling the reader with dissertation. AGRIGENTUM. THOU relic of a mighty state!— That reigns around, where thou and only thou Art seen with faded greatness on thy brow, Grey ruin's wreck-column and frieze, and wall, In perish'd glory-shaft and capital Mouldering away! Thy marble pile appears When the wreath'd victim to thy gate they led, -There is much To lure the wandering spirit home, One outline of his form-one shade Of what he was flung back for fancy's aid. Nigh thee and heard a fragment fall We of eternity conceive Or can conceive, in ruin stand, Afar from my own native land, Where men thy grandeur ill believe. The moon is like a shield of blood Emerging from the silent wavesThe sea of splendor, the proud flood, That many a land of history laves, The record of lost realms, the crown Of ocean greatness, power, and fame, The grave of navies and renown That should be link'd with many a name Sleeping a thousand fathoms down In those blue waters. They roll'd by Long ages ere this temple rose, and now No sign of waste or age is on their brow, They do not feel a like antiquity— Eternal youth is theirs.-Roll on, bright waves, O'er men and realms and long-forgotten graves! Egyptian, Grecian, Roman gone, And Carthage site no stone upon ! Nought save a few wild ruins left, Where the owl broods in crack and cleft, And the unsocial lizard crawls, Trailing along the shapeless walls, That serve to buttress ivy and green leaves. Mocking their greyness, while their tottering craves A sigh at proud man's vain endeavour To build with hands his tower of glory, His monument of dust and story→→ Yet Ætna's fire is darken'd never, And these bright waters roll as ever! The moonlight pours out in a flood, And wishes (oh, how vain they be!) Enough-proud ruin, prouder theme, Perennial green is on her bowers, Its withering touch on halls and towers, Thou, Temple, art her labour-thou I've seen thee, like a mighty stone Cast by some giant of the sky Where haughty Alpine summits frownA lofty glorious ruin now Of a departed majesty, The moonbeams sleep upon thee-shades A garment round thee-awe pervades That slumber like the patriot dead Who cannot wake when freedom calls. An atmosphere of glories past Hangs round thee, as round memory's brow Ye massy colonnades, farewell! Ye still will be when long is dead The fleeting race that now ye view And hoarier yet shall be your head--Buying like Man your length of years With dead friends, loneliness, and fears. GRIMM'S GHOST. LETTER XXVI. Anti-out of Town Company. THE rage for new joint-stock companies, owing to a recent hoax in the neighbourhood of Bartholomew-lane, is a little on the wane in this Overgrown metropolis. The people who hang about Capel-court have jumped headlong into many a scheme for pearl-diving, gold-digging, Thames-preaching, road-railing, and Jeremy Bentham knows what beside. Most of them have got a (lame) ducking for their pains. At first it was who but they but when it came to "cashing-up," affairs assumed a soberer complexion. Unlike the Whitfield process, a "call" brought them to their senses, and latterly the likeness of all projects, old or new, has been drawn in darkness and shadow. It is now discovered that the Egyptian Trading Company brings home nothing but `mummy-dust for snuff-takers: the produce of the swamps of Brazil is alleged to be only beneficial to toad-eaters; and as for the British Fishing Company, notwithstanding its capital of 500,000l. sterling, I would not stand in its chairman's shoes for the best John Dory that ever was brought to Quin's table. So widely has the drag-net of this association been spread, that actions for false imprisonment are (I happen to know) depending against its trustees at the suit of Mr. Codd of Hull and Mr. Pike of Bridgwater. Mr. Herring the comedian, who was most unceremoniously hooked out of Commodore Trunnion, in Astley's amphitheatre, has indeed, like his theatric predecessor Macklin, consented to stay proceedings on payment of costs-people who have their benefit to make should not create enemies. But Mr. Salmon of Devizes is determined to go to a jury. Let us not, however, in our zeal to discourage visionary projects, throw a damp upon those which tend to manifest utility. We may sneer at plans for climbing the Andes, and for diving into the Caspian sea; but that man must have a strange notion of the ridiculous who can attempt to cast ridicule upon the latest and most rational of projects, which has recently made its appearance in Capel-court, under the title of the new Grand Joint-stock Anti-out-of-Town Company! The prospectus, which now lies before me, paints in lively colours the strong dislike which people in general have to going into the country. Then why go they? It may be asked, "Poor man! how gat he there ?" The answer is obvious! Honour requires it! the same fondness for character which induces us to measure distances at Chalk-farm, sit out a house-dinner at the Alfred, drive in a cabriolet with a pair of round shoulders, and a couple of kid-leather gloves parallel with one's eyes along Regent-street, or read Tremaine quite through without missing a page of the third volume, hurries some of us to the sands of Ramsgate, and others to the brick pavement of Brighton-"modo Thebis, modo Athenis." No sooner, says the prospectus, does July arrive, than the good people of London begin to be cross-examined out of their habitations. Nobody admits that he means to stay in town. One talks of Broadstairs, and means indeed to take a tour of the whole Isle of Thanet to look after the harvest; one intends to pop over to France, and perhaps take a peep at Holland: a third has never seen Edinburgh, and a fourth, who picks his teeth seven days in the week at VOL. X. No. 57.-1825. 25 the Medusa Club, where he purchases endurance for five guineas per annum, has been so pressed both to take a month's shooting at Lord Bagwell's in Berkshire, and to stay in a house with some nice girls three miles from Maidstone, that he really does not know which to decide upon. Survey these several parties, continues the prospectus of the new company, when they have arrived at their place of rural destination, and what does the view present? A sad picture of ennui ! The yawns of the individuals are absolutely appalling! The tourist through the whole Isle of Thanet amuses himself by trying to pitch pebbles through the spokes of a bathing-machine at Margate: the popper over to France and peep-taker at Holland halts at Calais, gets a glimpse of the ex dandy Brummel, and regales himself with a slice from a yard and a half of sour bread, and still sourer wine at Quillac's: while the third, who has never seen Edinburgh, puts into Scarborough, horridly sea-sick, goes to the theatre, and meets with that melancholy accident, a comic song between the acts! The member of the Medusa Club luckily stays where he is, as nobody will endure him where he is not. "To check these heroes, and their laurels crop, To bring them back to reason-and their shop" to dissipate that sickness of stomach which the smell of wild roses and the sound of lowing cattle and twittering chaffinches are calculated to create in the natives of London; in short, to give to shareholders the semblance of visiting the country, while they in reality remain in town, are the objects which the founders of the Anti-out-of-Town Company have in view. The capital is half a million, and there are 5000 shares. A handsome edifice is already erected upon an area of waste land in Whitefriars. From this building, a sub-way under the streets of London conducts to Bond-street in the west, and to the Royal Exchange in the east; with diverging under-paths to the Lyceum, the Haymarket-theatre, Astley's, and the Circus. There is a handsome dining-room and drawing-room looking out into a clean well-paved court-yard; and the prints that adorn the walls of these two apartments are so selected as carefully to exclude all hateful ideas of mountains or meadows. They consist of a front view of Carlton-palace; the spire of Saint Bride's Church as at present opened to Fleet-street, with Hone's shop-window in shadow; the execution of Lord Balmerino upon Tower-hill; the Light-horse Volunteers mounting guard at the corner of Shoe-lane, in Fleet-street aforesaid; Abraham Newland, cut off at the knees like his Chevy Chace predecessor Witherington; Tom Paine, William Wilberforce, and Madame Vestris drawing on a white kid glove. At first a back view of Sadler's Wells, with the pipefield adjacent, was suspended over the chimney-piece; but this has been since removed as exciting ideas of too pastoral a cast. All sparrows are carefully chased from the premises, and people are hired to cry milk and sweep at the proper hour in the morning. There is a grand piano-forte in the drawing-room, but no songs are allowed to be sung to it but such as, "Oh, London is a fine town." "Hark, the merry Christchurch Bells." "From your rocks, storming Lannow, I fly ;" and "Ye shall walk in silk attire." Miss Martha Mac-treble begged hard for ""Twas within a mile of Edinburgh Town," but, on a reference to the directors, it was determined that it was at least three |