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ably, induced parents to yield to the restless eagerness of youth, always anxious to escape from the trammels of discipline, and confide in the strength of their untried powers.

Pride, too, a false and injurious pride is apt to lend its assistance. Instead of measuring the child's progress by his advancement in learning and in years, the parent is too much inclined to dwell only upon the advance he has made in his classes, and to note, with peculiar gratifica- | tion, the fact, that he is the youngest of the graduates. Often, when it is evident to the teacher, that the pupil's lasting interest would be promoted by reviewing a part of his course, the very suggestion of being put back, is received as an affront, and indignantly rejected, though offered from the kindest and best considered motives. It is a mistake, a great mistake. To hurry a youth into college, and hurry him out of it, that he may have the barren triumph of extraordinary forwardness, is to forget the very end and object of education, which is to give him the full benefit of all that he can acquire in the period, which precedes his choice of a pursuit for life. What is gained by it? If, as frequently happens, he be too young to enter upon the study of a profession, there is an awkward interval when he is left to himself; he is almost sure to misapply and waste his precious time, and is in great danger of contracting permanent habits of idleness and dissipation. But even should this not be the case, of what consequence is it to him, that he should enter upon a profession a year sooner or later, compared with the loss of the opportunity of deepening, and widening, and strengthening the foundations of character, which are then to be laid in a seminary of learning. This opinion is not without decided support. Many intelligent parents have been observed to adopt it in practice, voluntarily lengthening

out the education of their children beyond the ordinary limits. Such an improvement as has now been alluded to, ought unquestionably to be aimed at. The progress of liberal education ought to bear some proportion to the rapid advances our country is making in other respects, and to the character and standing which her wealth, her strength, and her resources require her to maintain. It is especially due to the nature of our republican institutions, in order to win for them still higher esteem with mankind, that their capacity should be demonstrated, to encourage and produce whatever is calculated to adorn and to improve our nature, and to contribute our full proportion to the great society of learning and letters in the world. It would be much to be regretted, if the multiplication of colleges were to have the contrary effect, of lowering the standard of education, or of preventing its progressive elevation. Let the competition among them be, not who shall have the most pupils within their walls, but who shall make the best scholars!

SAUL'S LAST DAY.

BY DR. R. M. BIRD.

THAT day the spirit of the monarch fled,
His hand was nerveless, and his heart was dead:
Around him thousands in their armour stood,

And, marvelling, watched their gloomy leader's mood.
On his strong limbs the jointed brass was hung,
The tempered falchion on his harness rung;
Strapped to his arm, the plaited buckler shone,
And spear and jav'lin at his feet were thrown.
From his dark front the frowning plume descends,
On his brow waves, and o'er his shoulder bends;
And such a brow! while all around, elate
With triumph shone, or wrinkled black with hate,
His, his alone of all the martial crew,
Retained a ghastly and a craven hue.
Yet not from fear th' unusual colour came,
Nor deadly hatred, nor consuming shame :
No longer these had interest or control;
The fit, the horror is upon his soul!*

Shall the harp ring his flagging spirits on?
Ah no! the harper that could soothe is gone :
The harp rejected for the vengeful brand,

The son of Jesse leads the hostile band.†

* But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. 1 Samuel, c. xvi. v 14.

"David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish." (1

Then sound the clarion, wake the timbrel shrill
Pale and abstracted is his aspect still.

Strike then the cymbal and the rolling drum !—
His God has left him, and his hour is come.

*

His captains spoke; the warrior raised his eye,-
"And these," the gloomy prophet said, "must die."
His sons rebuked him," Ye must also fall,

And they, and I, and Israel, and all."†

"Know ye the weapon that ye bear in hand?"
The wistful monarch looked upon his brand :—
"Ay, sons, my steel-a warrior's work has done,
And soon shall finish what the Lord begun.‡
Ye gaze on it, and then survey the foe;
Ye know 'twill smite, but that is all ye know.
Proud steel! the prophet tells me what thou art,—
The night shall find thee in a monarch's heart.
Why stand I here to descant on my shame?

He told me not that I was lost to fame !

He told me not, my sinews should deny
Their wonted office, or be stretched to fly!
Come, chiefs, array! light up your martial fire;
Like Saul ye conquer, or like Saul expire !"

As rocks that topple from some mountain hoar,
Crash in the waves, and drive them to the shore;
Or howling torrents that from high hills leap,
And o'er the valleys with destruction sweep;

Sam. xxix. 2.) The jealousy of the Philistine lords, however, caused Achish to send David back into the land of the Philistines; and he did not appear in this battle.

*The Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy. 1 Samuel, ch. xxviii. v. 16.

† Ch. xxviii. v. 19.

The Lord shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. 1 Samuel, xxviii. 16-20.

So from Gilboa's reverend slope they fly,
Charge with the Gentiles, with the Gentiles die,
Batter'd and dripping with the scarlet gore,
Their shields and swords reflect the sun no more;
Fierce through the ranks the scythed chariots flash,
And mow out alleys wheresoe'er they dash:
The prancing charger neighs and springs in air,
And treads down hundreds that the sabres spare;
By furious arms opposing spears are thrust,
And man and steed together bite the dust.-

Hark! hark! a shriek! 'twas loud, and wild, and shrill,
Echoed in thunder from the shuddering hill ;
And caverned silence, maddened with the sound,
Opes his scared lips, and pours the yell around.
Ah me! how yonder spouting rills are dyed
With crimson issue from the Hebrew's side;
And the green grass, with dew late sprinkled o'er,
Smokes up to heaven, a sacrifice of gore!

"Back, back, great king! Gilboa's caves shall show
Some present refuge from the unsparing foe."
"Said I not thus ?" the desperate chief replied,
The winged arrow trembling in his side;

"Said I not thus, the godless should prevail
And Israel fall, like corn before the hail?

Where are my sons?"--" These corses !"-" Said I not-
A monarch's children like a beggar's rot.
Away, away! degenerate Hebrews fly !-
But Saul- -Begone! nor see a monarch die.
The dreadful phantom, vainly now implored,
Unmann'd my spirit and unedged my sword,
Else fled not Saul before the haughty foe,

Nor on his back received the Gentile blow.

Haste, slave-strike, strike :* the victor shall not say

* Ch. xxxi. v. 4.

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