"And then, O God, through Christ the Lord,
"My soul thou wilt receive,
"To sing and praise thy name ador'd,
"And ne'er thy presence leave."

That thought sublime, too great for man,

To be for ever blest!

To dwell with Christ, his works to scan-
The Godhead manifest!

SONNET.

BY LORENZO DE MEDICIS.

Lo spirito talora a se ridutto,

Ed al mar tempestoso e travgliato
Fuggito in porto tranquillo e pacato,
Pensando ha dubbio e vuolne trar costrutto,
S'egli è ver, che da Dio proceda tutto,
E senza lui nulla è, civé il peccato-
Per sua grazia se ci è concesso e dato
Seminar qui per corne eterno frutto—
Tal grazia in quel sel fa operazione
Ch'a riceverla è volto e ben disposto-
Dunque che cosa è quella ne dispone ?
Qual prima sia, vorrei mi fosse esposto,
O tal grazia, o la buona inclinazione?
Rispondi or tu al dubbio ch'è proposto.

M. R.

TRANSLATION.

THE refug'd spirit, worn and tempest tost,
Serenely pausing o'er its dangers past,
Looks inward, as the troubled waters cease,
And, doubting, questions why it is at peace.
If all that is, must come of power divine-
If all is God's, except the creature's sin—
If by his grace it has indeed been given
To sow on earth, that we may reap in heaven—
And if that grace be wont to do its part
Upon the soften'd and the willing heart—
What is it makes it willing? Would I knew
Which first upon the alter'd bosom grew,
The inclination or the grace it sought-
Say, if thou knowest-and answer to the doubt.

ANSWER.

THE morning's icy bosom does not melt
Till the first sun-beam kindles in the east-
Yon orb opaque, that lights the midnight sky,
'Gan not to shine ere it received the beam.
Opaque, and cold, and lifeless more than they,
Ill could the bosom in itself enkindle

A spark of holiness where all was sin.

Springs the fresh grain, or e'er it has been sown?
God is the husbandman-he brake the ground,
He
gave the culture, and he sow'd the seed-
And if it bear us e'en but one poor thought,
But one faint wish of goodness, one desire
For grace and holiness, it is from him.
Since it is good, of us it could not come,
For we are evil--Goodness does not come
Of evil-God alone is good. To him
Be all the glory, for the gift is his.

BAKER AND SON, PRINTERS, SOUTHAMPTON.

THE

ASSISTANT OF EDUCATION.

FEBRUARY, 1824.

A SKETCH OF GENERAL HISTORY.

HISTORY OF THE HEATHEN WORLD TO THE DEATH OF MOSES, B.C. 1751. (Continued from page 12.)

t

We have observed that the Israelites on arriving in the neighbourhood of Canaan, B.C. 1451, found the country already possessed and fully inhabited.Several nations are mentioned by their historian, and the whole tract of country being small, the possessions of each separate state must of course be very inconsiderable. We shall name them slightly for some time forward, as they come in continual contact with the people whose history we have been writing, and shall have hereafter to pursue.

The kingdom of Moab is supposed to have extended not more than forty miles in either direction. The Moabites were governed by kings, and employed themselves chiefly in pasturage and the rearing of cattle, in which their wealth consisted. More of their customs is not known; neither is it known what language they spoke. Some remembrance of the religion of Lot, their progenitor, they probably retained, as they used circumcision; but had corrupted it with the grossest idolatry, and the Israelites were forbidden to intermarry with them. As the Moabites were not, like some of the nations, subdued and exterminated, to make room for the wanderers, they continued to be their neighbours, and were frequently, at

different periods of their history, engaged in war with them. And this is all we hear of these people, ere in later times they lost the name of Moabites in the general appellation of Arabians.

Ammon was immediately north of Moab, and probably of no greater extent; it is supposed, from the tribute of corn afterwards imposed on them, that corn was the peculiar production and riches of the province. As they, too, were descended from Lot, they probably resembled the Moabites in their habits and customs. We hear that they worshipped images under the names of Baal, Moloch, &c. words that signify no more than Lord or King; and it is said they sacrificed to them their own babes. We hear of them as strong in war in the time of Saul, and also much later in the history of the Jews, to whom they at last became subject. They, too, were lost sight of early in the Christian era, and were blended with the Arabians.

Media was likewise a part of Arabia, a mountainous and sandy country, in which was the mount Sinai, and of which the extent is not known. They were a numerous people, composed of shepherds and merchants. The shepherds moved up and down in tents, driving their cattle before them even when they went to war. The merchants travelled from place to place in large companies to trade, leaving their cattle to the care of women. By what they traded in, we can form some slight idea of their advancement in civilization. They sold gold, jewels, bracelets, chains, and ear-rings; purple raiment for their kings, and collars for their camels and from their purchase of Joseph, it is evident they also dealt in slaves. They are considered to have descended from Abraham, and Jethro, whose daughter Moses married, was a worshipper of Abraham's God. Others of them, therefore, might be so, but the most were idolators. We hear much of their wealth, and when attacked by the Israelites it is said they had castles, and that they armed them: but we cannot well know what sort of places of defence they then might be. They were several times subdued and almost destroyed by the

Israelites-but rose again at remote periods, always famous for their wealth, till they too were lost in the general name of Arabians.

Edom, as we have already said, was inhabited by the descendants of Cain. Their first form of government is not known, but we soon hear of kings of Edom. The people were warlike, and comparatively powerful. The origin of many arts and sciences is ascribed to them, but we scarcely find for what reason. If Job, as is supposed, dwelt among the Edomites, and as remotely as it is believed, they were early acquainted with the study of astronomy, and also with navigation. Sometimes contending with the Jews, and sometimes subject to them, all that remained of the Moabites a century after the birth of Christ, were converted and incorporated with the Jews.

Of Amalek we know even less, though they are called at that time the first of nations-something greater, probably, than the small states around them. They frequently appear in Jewish story, but the Creator had sentenced them to entire destruction, and they totally disappear in the time of Hezekiah.

Canaan, on which all these kingdoms nearly bordered, and which was itself the land promised to Abraham, was originally settled by Canaan, the son of Ham. Living on the borders of the sea, they very early became merchants, and in later history were famous in commerce under the name of Phoenicians. We find by their resistance to Joshua and his armies, that they were well furnished with weapons, had chariots of war, and fortified towns.

Fighting, therefore, had long ere this become a thing customary and well understood in these parts. They resited Joshua six years, when great numbers left the country, and are said to have seized on a part of Egypt: but it was not till the days of Solomon that the contest closed between the new claimants to the land of Canaan and its original possessors.

The country of the Philistines, afterwards called Pa