to refresh herself trom the provisions for his labourers, but with genuine and delicate kindness, directed the reapers to let fall "some of the handfuls on purpose for her." The lines of Mrs. Hemans are too descriptive for us to omit their quotation :—

"Oh! forlorn

Yet not forsaken Ruth! I see thee stand
Lone, 'midst the gladness of the harvest band;
Lone as a wood-bird on the ocean's foam
Fall'n in its weariness. Thy fatherland
Smiles far away! Yet to the sense of home,
That finest, purest which can recognize
Home in Affection's glance, for ever true
Beats thy calm heart."

Naomi then discovered to Ruth the affinity between Boaz and herself, and directed her secretly to claim the protection which the Jewish law enjoined towards distressed relatives. An interview accordingly took place under circumstances which set forth the integrity and uprightness of Boaz in a remarkable degree; and he, aware that Naomi had a nearer kinsman than himself, fulfilled the obligations of consanguinity, by giving him the option of marrying Ruth and redeeming her estate, and, finally, upon his refusal, became her husband. The tenderness which united the mother-inlaw and the fair Moabitess was cemented still more strongly by the birth of a son,-Obed, the grandfather of David. Naomi, we are told, took the child and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it, her affection to the house of Ruth being so entire, that

the neighbours spoke of the new-born babe as though it were her own offspring, and characterized Ruth's love as being better than that of seven sons. The sacred history goes no further than to afford a brief genealogy, probably because its object, consistent with the tenor of the other Scriptures, is not to gratify curiosity, but to enforce truth and record instruction. Still the outline of this fair type of female character may be filled up in thought, and the heart must be callous indeed to the attractions of essential goodness, which does not dwell with fondness upon the memory of one pure in her suffering as in her prosperity, and unchanged in her piety by either.

Antigone.

"That still face

Had once been fair; for on the clear arch'd brow,
And the curved lip, there lingers yet such grace
As sculpture gives its dreams; and long and low
The deep black lashes o'er the half-shut eye-
For death was on its lids-fell mournfully.
But the cold cheek was sunk, the raven hair
Dimm'd, the slight form all wasted as by care."

MRS. HEMANS.

Antigone.

B.C. 1225.

ALTHOUGH the period at which the circumstances of our heroine's life occurred, invests them with a portion of the mythical mist of tradition, yet there is little doubt that she was not only a real character, but distinguished for remarkable proofs of that filial and sisterly love which has made her instanced in all ages as

"The father's staff, the brother's friend."

She was the daughter of Edipus, king of Thebes, and Jocasta; and the romantic history of her parents has been one of the most favourite themes of ancient poets. Before we pass on to her own particular life, we may remark that mythology, or what is called, perhaps, more properly, the fabulous era of history, is not to be wholly spurned as if altogether untrue, nor accepted merely as an exercise for schoolboys, or a topic for imaginative rhymesters. Like those curious shells, or cases, in which the cadis and other insects