poses, and the manner in which they exprefs themselves, as they behold him afar off, is, in every respect, consistent with the workings of nature-Behold, said they one to another, "Behold this dreamer "cometh." What a taunt was this, and how quickly did it prepare the fociety for the fentiments which immediately followed. -"Come now, therefore, and let us flay "him, and then we fhall fee what will be"come of his dreams." The fineffe of Reuben was an human artifice: "Shed no

blood, my brothers, but caft him into "this pit which is in the wilderness." This advice discovered an equal share of good fenfe and affection. Had Reuben intemperately and flatly opposed the intentions of the party, it is probable he might not only have encreafed the vengeance they meant to take of Jofeph, but have likewise drawn their anger upon himself. Seeming, therefore, to think the lad deferving punishment, and only prefuming to propose an alteration of it, as to the mode, was propitious to his amiable defign of deliver

ing him to his father. Judah's motion to fell him to the travelling Ifhmaelites is, likewife, a fine incident: but the ftratagem of killing the kid, and dipping the manycoloured coat in it's blood, and then fhewing it to the poor old father, is a circumftance levelled immediately at the heart, and cannot fail of wounding every reader of the leaft fenfibility. It were no undelightful talk to go on with a commentary on the remaining parts of this ftory, from the refidence of the hero in the house of Potipher, to his death and burial in Egypt: but it is a part of scripture so particularly handled by men of the most celebrated abilities, that every paffage has many times been the subject of learned remark. Upon the whole, however, it appears to be one of the most beautiful and interefting narratives in the whole lettered world; nor will it, perhaps, be easy to match it, even as it now ftands tranflated, by any compofition, in any language. As a chain of facred facts, recorded in the divine volume of the christian religion, it affects us with awe

and veneration: as a relick of antiquity, it is dear and valuable to all pofterity; and, as a piece of writing, it poffeffes at one and the fame time, and in the highest degree, every elegance of literature: in point of .ftyle, it is various and masterly; the images are pathetic beyond the force of encomium to do them justice, and the morality and virtues inculcated, are obvious, important, and domeftic. Were it poffible to alter, without taking from its beautiful fimplicity, what a noble fubject is here for an epic poem ! To alter the genuine text, indeed, advantageously, is not, I conceive, poffible but to make the story the groundwork of a poetical fabric, what an exquisite piece might the genius of Milton make of it! I am in doubt, whether fuch a pen, fo fuited as it was to facred fubjects, might not render a poem upon the History of Jofeph equal, if not, in fome refpects, fuperior, to the now unrivalled Paradife Loft.

And yet it is with reluctance I drop the comment on this entertaining fubject, till

I have a little attended the worthy Jofeph in his profperity: his faithful dealing as a fteward his honefty and integrity as a man. trusted with very extenfive treasures, infomuch, that his mafter "knew not ought "which he had, fave the bread which was "before him :" his generous ideas of honour and hospitality, in refifting the charms of his mistress: his reception and forgivenefs of his brethren; his attachment to the youthful Benjamin; and his kind and filial interviews with his father, are all of them fcenes fo highly finished and captivating, in their kind, that, they create a fort of pious enthufiam as we read, and the heart can fcarcely take leave of them without a figh.