other restored to his place. But this man did not remember, in his prosperity, the kindness he had received in his afflic tion. 14. At length the king had two dreams; and God enabled Joseph to show him, that they meant, that, after seven years of great plenty, there would be seven years of grievous famine. So he advised the king to lay up all the spare corn in the country, till the years of famine should come, that he and his people might not perish. 15. The king was so pleased with Joseph's advice, that he made him the chief governor of his kingdom, and gave him power to gather the spare corn, and to lay it up against the seven years of famine. 16. This trust he faithfully discharged, and, when the years of famine came, he sold it out to the people, while their money lasted, and afterwards made an agreement with them for their flocks and lands, to hold them as Pha'raoh's tenants, on the payment of a fifth part for rent. LESSON XIX. The same, concluded. 1. THUS there was plenty of food in Egypt, while the neighbouring countries were in great distress. For the famine was grievous in all lands, reaching even to the land of Canaan, where Jacob and his sons lived. 2. And Jacob sent them into Egypt to buy corn of Josephi; but they little thought that he was the poor boy, their brother, whom they had so long before sold for a slave. 3. But he knew them, and was glad; yet he thought it right at first to treat them roughly', and order them to prison as spies, that he might bring them to repentance for their former crimes, and learn from them a true report of his father and Benjamin, whom, as he did not see him with them, he might think they had put to death. 4. In this distress they remembered their former cruelty, and said, We are verily guilty concerning our brother. For, when persons are in trouble, they reflect upon their sins, and are sorry for them. Joseph, hearing this, could not keep from tears, but went out from them, and wept. 5. At ength, after several more trials, his brother Judah 1 Pron. ruf-lë came near to him, and said—“Oh, my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant, for thou art even as Phā'raōh. 6. "My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a brother? And we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. "And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him. And we said anto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father; for, if he snould leave his father, his father would die. 8. "And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. And it came to pass, when we came up unto thy servant, my father, we told him the words of my lord. 9. "And our father said, Go again, and buy us a little food. And we said, We cannot go down. If our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down; for we may not see the man's face except our youngest brother be with us. 10. 66 And thy servant, my father, said unto us, Ye know that my wife bare me two sons; and the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces, and I have not seen him since: and if ye take this also from me, and mis'chief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. 11. "Now, therefore, when I come to thy servant, my father, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life, it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die; and thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave 12. "For thy servant became surety' for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. 13. "Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide, instead' of the lad, a bondman to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest, peradven'ture2, I see the evil that shall come upon my father." 14. And Joseph could refrain no longer, but made himself known to his brethren, saying, "I am Joseph." And when they were greatly troubled at the thoughts of what they had 1 pĕr-ad-ven'-tshŭr. 1 Pron, shūré-të. done, and afraid lest he would punish them, he kindly com forted them, by reminding them of the good which God had brought out of their evil deed in selling him into Egypt. 15. When he had made a feast for his brethren, and given them many presents, he sent them back to fetch their father, their wives, and their little ones, their flocks and herds, and all their substance, to dwell with him in the land of Egypt. 16. But though he had so kindly forgiven them himself, he could not forget what sort of spirit they had formerly shown, and feared lest they should quarrel with and upbraid one another for their cruelty to him, and accuse those to their father who had been most guilty; therefore he sent them off with this kind advice, "See that ye fall not out by the way." 17. Jacob, at first, could not believe that Joseph was alive; but when he saw the presents, and the wag'ons which he had sent to carry their goods, he was filled with joy, and set out to join his long-lost son. 18. And he lived many years in Egypt under the care of Joseph, who also was good to all his brethren, whom he settled in the land of Gō'shen, where there was much păs'ture' for their cattle. 19. Thus Jacob had been greatly mistaken, when he grieved so much for the loss of Joseph. For, while he thought he had been dead, he was only sent into another country, to provide for preserving his father's life, and to do good to many nations. 20. Thus God sees not as man sees. We can only see a little way before us; but God sees every thing that will happen. 21. We ought not, then, to grieve for our afflictions, as if there were none to help us, but wait with patience for the end of things, and trust in God that the end will be good to those who do their duty. LESSON XX. The River Jor' dan.-CHATEAUBRIAND3. 1. I was desirous of seeing the Jordan at the place where it discharges itself into the Dead Sea; but the Arabs refused to conduct me to it, because the river, near its mouth, turns off to the left, and approaches the mountains of Arabia. I was, therefore, obliged to make up my mind to proceed to the curve of the river that was nearest to us. 2. We broke up 1 Prom. pas'-tshŭr 2 wěr: 3 Shǎ-to-bre-an. our camp, and advanced, for an hour and a half, with excessive difficulty, over a fine white sand. We were' approaching a grove of balm trees and tamarinds, which, to my great astonishment, I perceived in the midst of this sterile tract. 3. The Arabs all at once stopped, and pointed to something that I had not yet remarked at the bottom of the ravine3. Unable to make out what it was, I perceived what appeared to be sand in motion. 4. On drawing nearer to this singular object, I beheld a yellow current, which I could scarcely distinguish from the sands on its shores. It was deeply sunk below its banks, and its sluggish stream rolled slowly on. This was the Jordan. 5. I had surveyed the great rivers of America with that pleasure, which solitude and nature impart; I had visited the Tiber with enthusiasm, and sought, with the same interest, the Euro'tas and the Cephis'us; but I cannot express what I felt at the sight of the Jordan. 6. Not only did this river remind me of a renowned antiquity, but its shores likewise presented to my view the theatre of the miracles of my religion. 7. Judea is the only country in the world, that revives in the traveller the memory of human affairs, and of celestial things, and which, by this combination, produces in the soul a feeling and ideas, which no other region is capable of exciting. 8. The Arabs stripped, and plunged into the Jordan. I dared not follow their example, on account of the fever by which I was still tormented; but I fell upon my knees on the bank, with my two servants, and the drogoman* of the mon'ăstěry. I took up some water from the river in a leathern vessel it did not seem to me as sweet as sugar, according to the expression of a pious missionary. 9. I thought it, on the contrary, rather brackish; but, though I drank a considerable quantity, I felt no inconvenience from it: nay, I even think it would be very pleasant, if it were purified from the sand which it carries along with it. * * * * 10. About two leagues from the place where we halted, 1 perceived, higher up the river, a thicket of considerable extent. I determined to proceed thither, for I calculated that this must be nearly the spot where the ls'raelites passed the river, facing Jericho, where the man'na ceased to fall, where the Hebrews tasted the first fruits of the land of promise, where Na'ǎman was cured of his leprosy, and, lastly, where 1 Pron, wěr. Christ was baptized by St. John. 11. Towards this place we advanced, but as we drew near to it, we heard the voices of men in the thicket. Unfortunately the human voice, which cheers you every where else, and which you would love to hear on the banks of the Jordan, is precisely what most alarms you in these deserts. 12. The Bethlehemites and the drogoman proposed an immediate retreat; but I declared that I had not come so far, to be in such a hurry to return; that I agreed to go no higher up the river; but that I was determined to examine the river facing the spot where we then stood. 13. They yielded with reluctance to my resolution, and we again repaired to the bank of the Jordan, which a bend of the river had carried to some distance from us on the right. I found it of the same width and depth as a league lower down, that is, six or seven feet deep close to the shore, and about fifty paces in breadth. LESSON XXI. The Lion.* 1. A LION of the largest size measures from eight to nire feet from the muzzle to the origin of the tail, which last is of itself about four feet long. The height' of the larger spě'cimens is four or five feet. 2. The smallest-sized are about five feet and a half long, and three and a half in height, with the tail proportionally short. The lioness, in all its dimensions, is about one fourth less than the lion, and wants the nane. 3. The form and gait of this striking quad'ruped2 are bold nd majestic. His head is large, his ears are rounded, his ye-brows ample, his eye-balls round and fiery, and glowing, n the least irritation, with peculiar lustre. 4. His chest is haggy, his tail bushy at the extremity, and a yellowish-brown mane, nearly two feet long, flows on the sides of his head and neck. His predominant colour is pale-tawny, with a lighter shade, approaching to white, on the flanks and belly. 5. The structure of his frame, and his astonishing movements, bespeak a singular combination of bones, nerves, and mus'cles, destined to act with wonderful effect, in pursuing and destroying the creatures on which he feeds. 6. Not * Lessons XXI. and XXII. are abridged from the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, Mazology." 1 Pron, hite. 2 quod'-rů-ped. |