"whereon thy feet have trodden, fhall be "thine inheritance, and thy childrens' for "ever; because thou haft wholly followed "the Lord thy God. And now, behold "the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, "these forty and five years, even fince the "Lord fpake this word unto Mofes, while "the children of Ifrael wandered in the "wilderness; and now, lo, I am this day, "fourfcore and five years old: and yet, I "am as ftrong this day as I was in the day "that Mofes fent me: as my ftrength was "then, even fo is my ftrength now for "war, both to go out, and to come in. "Now, therefore, give me this mountain, "&c. if fo be the Lord be with me then: "I fhall be able to drive them out."

His plea was irrefiftible. The whole fpeech was fuftained by a manly firmness,

and a difdain of all that naufeous incenfe which is too frequently lavished by the fervile petitioner. In In confequence of this oration, Jofhua bleffed him, and willingly gave that which was requested.

*

His own conquefts thus paid, he was refolved to do juftice to congenial merit: and, as an inftance of his love of glory, and an example to others, he gave his child to him who should most deserve her. Othniel had no fooner obtained her, than the noble parent fettled upon their ffue a fresh inheritance of fields and fprings. Here it is not eafy to glance at a deficiency of modern times-a deficiency long deplored, and ftill remaining to be fo. Where is the adequate meed for the present race of conquerors? Are the deliverers of our country for ever to be neglected-to ftarve after the toils of war, upon the ftipend of divided pay, and to fee the hand of power lifting up over their venerable heads, the beardlefs babies of the troop to the very top round of the ladder of preferment, while they are condemned to languish at the view, and, even in the feason of the filver hair, ftand uncovered in the prefence of their puerile fuperiors?-O, Britain, where is thy gratitude! O, ye diftributers of honour, whither is fled the fpirit of recompense? H 6

STORY OF NAOMI and RUTH.

PASSAGE.

AND RUTH SAID, INTREAT ME NOT TO LEAVE THEE, OR TO RETURN FROM FOLLOWING AFTER THEE; FOR WHITHER THOU GOEST, I WILL GO; AND WHERE THOU LODGEST, I WILL LODGE: THY PEOPLE, SHALL BE MY PEOPLE; AND THY GOD, MY GOD.

THERE never was any thing more happily conceived, or more fweetly told than the book of Ruth. It feems 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 opposed by custom, on the other. The general circumstances of the story being uncommonly fine, will speak best for themselves, and afford proper comments in the progress of reciting them.

When

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 Naomi, the widow, was left with her children: foon after this, thofe children "took them wives of the 66 women of Moab; the name of the one "was Orpher, and the other Ruth." It came to pass 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 tenderness, fhe refolv ed to feek folace from her forrow, by change of refidence. So fhe arole with her daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth, that The might return from the country of Moab. It presently occured to the poor woman, as fhe was journeying on her way, that if fhe was herself unhappy, it was no teftiof her affection to involve her fons'

mony