Egypt, Assyria, and Persia, and even in the modern paintings of the last-named nation, in which the sovereign is invested with gigantic proportions in comparison with the persons around him. Even Samuel, man of peace as he was, and, from his habits and character, necessarily more disposed than most of his contemporaries to regard the inner more than the outer man, was not free from the influence of this feeling. We might not be entitled to infer this from the mere fact of his recommending Saul to the attention of the people on the ground of his physical qualifications, as that might have been done in condescension to the known infirmity of the unreasoning populace; but we are enabled to see that he spoke from real feelings of admiration; for, in a case where his own judgment only was concerned, in the choice of a future king among Jesse's sons, he, if left to himself, would clearly have chosen the tallest and best-looking. He no sooner saw the fine young man Eliab, than he internally pronounced: 'Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him,' which drew down upon him this rebuke: 'Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.' 1 Sam. xvi. 6, 7. In this, as we view it, there was an implied rebuke addressed to Samuel, not only as to this case, but for his former and grievously mistaken appreciation of Saul, on account of his being a head taller than any of the people. Even we want not experience of this in the involuntary respect with which tallness of stature and powerful physical endowments are regarded among ourselves by the uncultivated, and indeed by persons not wholly uncultivated, if we may judge from the not unfrequent sarcasms which we may meet with in the most 'respectable' monthly, weekly, and daily publications upon the shortness, by yard measure, of some of the most eminent and highly-gifted public men of this and a neighbouring country. There is certainly, however, more of this appreciation of stature in ancient than in modern literature. It appears to have been usual with the ancient Orientals, as well as with the Greeks and Romans, to choose persons to the highest offices of the magistracy, whose personal appearance was superior to that of others; and this is what ancient writers often take notice of as a recommendation of them as princes. Herodotus, after recounting the numbers of men in the army of Xerxes, makes the remark, that among this vast host there was not one who appeared, by his comeliness and stature, more worthy than he to fill the throne.1 The same writer also informs us that the Ethiopians deemed the man who was strongest and tallest of stature fittest to be their king." In Virgil, Turnus is another Saul in the superiority of his person to others, whom he by a whole head overtops.3 It is not surprising that, as Quintus Curtius remarks, barbarians made part of the royal majesty consist in the outward form and goodly figure of their princes; but it does excite some surprise to hear a man so cultivated and refined as Pliny the Younger naming qualities of this sort among those which entitled his hero, Trajan, to the supreme rank to which he had been elevated. There is a curious passage in Homer, where, in order to secure greater respect for Ulysses from the Phæacians, upon whose island he was cast, 'Pallas o'er his head and shoulders broad, He had before been announced as— 'A wanderer o'er the deep, But in his form majestic as a god.' This latter intimation lets us into the secret of the extraordinary estimation of stature in ancient times, among at least the Gentiles. They had a notion, that such persons came nearer to the deities, and looked more like them. So Diana is 2 Thalia, ch. 20. 1 Polymnia, ch. 187. 3 'Ipse catervis Vertitur in mediis, et toto vertice supra est.'-Æneid, xi. 682. 5 Panegyric. Trajani, iv. 22. described in Ovid1 as superior in stature to the nymphs and inferior goddesses by whom she is surrounded. Something of this has passed away, but not all; and the time is probably not yet near, when in this respect man will see as the Lord seeth-looking less to the outward appearance, and more to the heart. Thirtieth Week—Fifth Day. STRAYED ASSES.-I SAMUEL IX. 3. THE circumstances of Saul's first interview with Samuel are very remarkable and interesting, not only in themselves, but from the indications of ancient usages which they afford. The future king of Israel had hitherto known no other employment than what the charge of his father's estate, and particularly the superintendence of the cattle, afforded. This, however, was an occupation held in much esteem. It was regarded as the proper office of a son, and by no means implies the smallness of Kish's possessions, or the want of servants, by whom such duties might have been discharged. Men were in those days in the habit of thinking that the affairs were best looked after which they attended to themselves; and therefore persons of substance and consideration were in the habit of discharging in their own persons, or in the persons of their sons, duties which, in a more refined age, are entrusted to slaves or hired servants. Among cattle in the East at all times, and especially before horses were in use for riding, asses were of very much importance. When, therefore, it was found one morning that some of Kish's asses were missing, Saul himself, accompanied by a servant, at once set out in search of them. If such an incident now happened in Palestine, it would be at once concluded that the animals had been stolen; and it speaks well for the state of society in the time of Samuel, that this suspicion never 1 Metam. iii. 181, 182. crossed the mind of Saul or of his father. It was simply concluded that the asses had strayed. A long and weary chase they had after the asses-so long, that Saul, with a tender regard for his father, which impresses us with a favourable idea of his character, began to think of abandoning the pursuit, and returning home, lest Kish should, from such protracted absence, suppose that some evil had befallen his son. By this time they were near the town in which Samuel resided. The servant mentioned this circumstance, and advised that he should be consulted before they abandoned the search. The terms in which the man described the prophet are remarkable enough: 'Behold, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass now let us go thither; peradventure he can show us the way that we should go.' Considering that Saul belonged to Benjamin, within the small territory of which tribe Samuel constantly abode, and to which his circuits were confined, it is somewhat surprising that Saul should need this information concerning Samuel; for it seems clear that the servant speaks under the impression that his master knew nothing of him. It shows, at least, that Saul had too much occupied himself with his father's business to take much heed to public affairs. It might, indeed, seem that there were few public matters to engage attention; and that the office of Samuel being to decide differences between man and man, Saul, having no such differences with his neighbours to decide, had no occasion to become acquainted with the person or character of Samuel. Even in our assize towns, how little is known or thought of the judges of assize, except by those who have causes before them for judgment! But one would have thought that the recent agitation for a king must have stirred all the tribes, and would have drawn general attention to Samuel, who was required to take so important a part in their transactions, and upon whose further movements in this important affair we should suppose that the attention of all Israel, or at least of the southern tribes, would with deep anxiety be fixed. Yet Saul seems to VOL. III. I have been quite uninformed on these subjects, or to have had only some vague impression that the people wanted a king. And if it be said, that although he must have known Samuel as judge, he did not know him as prophet, it is answered, that it was not only as a judge, but as a prophet, that he had in this great matter been applied to by the people, and the result had shown that he had access to the secret oracles of God. The ignorance of Saul as to Samuel is further shown by the fact, which presently appears, that he was altogether unacquainted with his person, which we should have supposed to have been well known to almost every man in Benjamin. We cannot solve this further than by saying that it proves how little interest in public concerns had hitherto been taken by the man who was destined to become the first king of Israel. The manner in which the servant brings Samuel to the notice of Saul is also very remarkable. The character he gives of the man of God is correct so far as it goes; but one would scarcely gather from it that he is speaking of him who was the acknowledged ruler of the land. The practical conclusion also surprises us that, seeing he was a man of God whose word failed not to come to pass, he was the person to be consulted respecting the lost asses. We may fancy that the servant and his master either entertained a very high sense of the importance of their asses, or a very low one of the prophetic office; but the former, would scarcely have reached this conclusion, unless it had been notorious that Samuel had often been consulted respecting things lost or stolen. We may therefore infer, that at the commencement of the prophetic office in the person of Samuel, it was usual, in order to encourage confidence in their higher vaticinations, and to prevent that dangerous resort to heathenish divinations to which people are in such cases more than in any other addicted, for the prophets to afford counsel, when required, in certain matters of private concernment. Saul was willing to follow the suggestion of his servant; but a difficulty occurred to him, which strikes those imperfectly |