And Ruth faid, intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thu goel, I will go; and where thou lodgeft, I will lodge: thy people, fhall be my people; and thy God, my God.

TH

more

HERE never was any thing more happily conceived, or fweetly told than the book of Ruth.It seems chiefly defigned to exhibit to us a lively and high-coloured picture of the force of female friendship on the one hand, and the weakness of refolution, when oppofed by cuftom, on the other. The general circumstances of the story being uncommonly fine, will speak beft for themselves, and afford proper comments in the progrefs of reciting them.

When the famine raged with much feverity in her native land, Naomi, and her hufband, Elimelech, and their two fons, went to fojourn in the country of Moab; but Elimelech died,

and

and Noami, the widow, was left with children: foon after this, thofe children" took them wives of the women "of Moab; the name of the one was "Orpha, and the other Ruth." It came to pafs that the young men, their hufbands, died alfo, both of them, and now the poor widow was bereaved of her fons and her husband. Unable, therefore, to bear any longer a place in which every fcene prefented fome image of loft endearment, or revived fome diftracting idea of conjugal or maternal tendernefs, fhe refolved to feck folace from her forrow, by change of refidence. So fhe arofe with her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, that the might return from the country of Moab. It prefently occurred to the poor woman, as fhe was journeying on her way, that if fhe was herself unhappy, it was no teftimony of her affection to involve her fons' wives in equal calamities; and judging the reception fhe would be likely to meet in the land of Judah, entering it defolate, unfriended, and unadorned,

the

fhe paufed a moment, and thus pathetically addreffed the young widows: "Go, my children, each of you re

turn to your mother's houfe; the "Lord deal kindly with you as you "have dealt with the dead, and with "me. The Lord grant that ye may "find reft, each of you, in the houfe of

your dear deceafed hufband." Ha

ving uttered this fhort prayer for their happinels, the kiffed them, and prepared to depart alone. How true to nature was their reply! They did not pour forth unmeaning compliments of condolance. They did not interchange any idle civilities of forrow, for their anguifh was too fincere for ceremony. Neither did they enter into the parade of promifing future interviews-for they spoke not at all. The ex

treme of grief has at the firft furprize, little to do with language-at the molt, it burfts into fhort exclamations, as if it would fhew the impoffibility of proceeding for our alleviation, therefore, in thefe cafes, that power, who to every wound hath provided fomething

H

thing wherewith to heal it, gave the comfort of tears, fo that the fullness of the fad heart is, in part, difcharged by that kindly effufion which Provi dence has intended as a fountain to relieve the exceffes of nature; either in the furplus of mifery, or transport. "They lift up their voice and wept. --A folio could not fo well display their condition-After fometime paffed in this kind of fignificant filence, they faid unto her: "Surely, we will "return with thee unto thy people." Here again genuine grief difcovers itfelf: one tender fentence, and one only, expreffes their defigns and wifhes to attend her. in fuch cafes, concifenefs is nature, and circumlocution more art and affectation.* Perceiving the

* The bathetic, as well as the grand, fays the most elegant tranflator of Longinus, is difplayed as ftrongly by filence, or a bare word, as in a number of periods.. I will venture to say much more frongly, by a. fentence than a volume, in many cafes, and in fome (as in the prefent inftance) total filence is more expreffive and characteristic than the moft feeling or forcible fentence.

There is a kind of mournful eloquence

In a dum grief, which fhames all clam'rous

Sorrow.

Or,

the defign of the daughters, " the widow-woman Naomi, again began to

diffuade

Or, as a bard who better understood the operations of the human heart, more poetically has it,

My grief lies all within;

And thofe external manners of laments
Are merely fhadows to the unjeen grief
That fwells with plence in the tortur'd foul.
There lies the fubftance.

When words are too weak, fays the critic, or colours too faint to prefent a pathos, as the poet will be filent, fo the painter will hide what he camot fhew; - Mr. Smith hath offered a very fine example ot this, wherein, the skill of Timanthes, the painter, is fhewn in marking the gradations of forrow in a groupe of characters, till he had exhausted the paffions, and filence became necellary to the laft figure in the dittrefsful climax; but nothing can furnish a finer illuftration than Orpah and Ruth.

Lord Kaimes, however, in his chapter upon the language of Paffion, after having obferved, that immoderate grief is mute, because complaining is ftruggling for confolation, hath illuftrated that remark by to apt a itory from the 3d book of Herodotus, that I am fure the reader will not be difpleafed with me for fetting it down amongit the notes for his fervice.

Cambyles, when he conquered Egypt, took Psam"menitus the king prifoner; and for trying his conftancy, ordered his daughter to be dreffed in the ha"bit of a flave, and to be employed in bringing water "from the river; his fon alfo was led to execution "with a halter about his neck. The Egyptians vented "their forrow in tears and lamentations; Pfammeni"tus only, with a down-caft eye, remained filent, "Afterward meeting one of his companious, a man advanced in years, who being plundered of all, was begging alms, he wept bitterly, calling him by his "name. Cambyfes, ftruck with wonder, demanded

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and