Ir has been perceived, no doubt, by every one, that, whilst reading the history of by-gone generations, the mind is very apt to represent them as it were before the eyes, marked with those characteristic traits which the moral qualities attributed to them are considered to impress upon the exterior appearance of mankind. No historian, therefore, more forcibly arrests our attention, or is better entitled, to our suffrage, than he, who combines a masterly and graphic description of their actions and conduct, with an accurate exposition of the influence of their manners, customs, and laws, upon the moral character and bearing of the people whose history he narrates.

The moral qualities of the Roman people appear in no very favourable light, from the description of their manners and customs that have reached us through their history. What opinion can we form of the humanity of a whole nation whose greatest delight consisted in sitting for hours to witness the sufferings of their fellow creatures murdering each other, or being torn to pieces by ferocious animals, in the arena of their amphitheatres? Their so much lauded courage, as might be expected from this trait in their character, would be found too often exempt from that humanity, or from those proper motives for its display, which alone entitle it to be ranked among the virtues.

It is not our purpose to treat at large of the manners, customs, and laws of this or any other of the ancient nations as they have come down

to us in profane history, or to exhibit their moral qualities in their true light; this has been done by other and abler hands, to whose writings we would refer those who deem it of importance to distinguish the real from the false gem, the pure gold from tinsel. Our subject will be better illustrated by confining our remarks to the Hebrew people, because, being the only nation that, from their origin down to this day, have remained a pure and unmixed race, possessed of the same law that was delivered to them when they were first constituted a nation, they are especially calculated, above any other people, to show the effects of the long operation of a code of laws upon the moral qualities and bearing of a people. One remark, however, we permit ourselves; it is, that far as the laws of God exceed in wisdom and beneficence the moral codes of men, so do the virtues based on the former transcend those which have the latter for their rule.

It has already been said, that there is no virtue which is not enforced, no vice that is not denounced, by that law; its full observance would, therefore, imply the possession of every virtue, and the absence of

every vice. The question might

thence arise, "By which of those virtues would the appearance of the people be characterized, since it can scarcely be supposed that the human countenance can express them all, at one and the same time ?" But a little reflection might enable the querist to answer his own question, for it would probably occur to him that there is a

countenance which is described as "beaming with every virtue."

We are not going to contend that the whole nation of Israelites ever possessed, in the mass, so benign a countenance; but, as there is little doubt that at some periods when they dwelt in their own land, they were, the greater part of them, strict observers of their law, we may venture to assert, that, at such periods of their history, the nation generally would bear the impress of the various virtues and good qualities which that law enforced.

The Israelites may be said to have been trained to virtue and elevated sentiments from the remotest period. We must recollect that the founder of their race, Abraham, enjoyed the peculiar honour of being called "the friend of his God," and of having been instructed by him in the way he should walk. (Gen. xxvi. 5.) Scripture describes him as an eminently virtuous character, and perfect in his day. Isaac and Jacob appear to have profited by the superior instruction which each would have received from his virtuous parent, on points of the first importance for man to know.

That those Patriarchs knew well what constituted the true worth and dignity of man, is sufficiently apparent from their own actions and conduct; and we may cite, as a further proof of it, the preference given by Jacob to Joseph over his other sons; which his character, resplendent with the sublimest virtues, shows him to have been well deserving of from his discerning parent. What the twelve sons had learned from Jacob, they would no doubt impart to their own offspring; hence we may infer that the Israelites, even whilst dwelling in the land of Goshen, had not only a true knowledge of their Creator, but that they already knew, to a certain extent, what were the ways in which he required them to walk. Thus, at the earliest period, this people must have possessed many excellent moral precepts, and correct religious doctrines, handed down. to them by their forefathers, and tending to prepare them for that fuller instruction which they were to recieve at the outset of their becoming

a nation.

That fuller law was given to them shortly after leaving Egypt, in the contemplation of their entering at once into possession of the land which had been assigned them, but which their frowardness occasioned to be postponed, and themselves condemned to wander in the wilderness during forty years. Still, the law they had; and, though many of its statutes could not be obeyed in the wilderness, whilst others were commanded to be observed only when they should be settled in their own land, many, indeed the greater portion, of its beneficent and excellent precepts, inculcating every virtue, might be, and no doubt were, observed by them whilst wandering in the wilderness; where, from their trials and sufferings, the occasions would be neither few nor rare for exercising them in those great and essential qualities which sustain the social system,-humanity, kindly feelings and neighbourly love, charity, self-government, and restraint of the passions, &c., &c. This, as it appears, was the purpose of their trials and sufferings; for they were told, " And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee; to know what was in thine heart; whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no." (Exod. viii. 2.)

We have no better means for ascertaining the effects of the observance of their law upon the aspect and bearing of the Israelites in past times, than by referring to some of the incidents in their history, and to those illustrious individuals in the Scriptures, whose actions and conduct, regulated principally by those laws and precepts, are described in language that brings them again, as it were, before our eyes characterised with those traits in their countenance and bearing which are considered inseparable from the possessors of virtues such as theirs. Our Hebrew brethren, we feel persuaded, will follow us with pleasure in the delineation of the characters of some of the brightest examples of their ancestors.

The whole history of Joseph is one of the most perfect specimens of the tender and pathetic it is possible

to produce.

His must be a cold heart who can read it without partaking largely in the feelings which it is calculated to arouse. Throughout the whole Scriptures we find no instance of a more strict observance in the laws, the statutes, and commandments of God than was practised by this worthy descendant of the perfect Abraham. His virtues are so many, that we might have been at a loss which to admire most, were we not led to pay our homage to that which stands pre-eminent in the eyes of man, because, without it, what would be his fate? Mercy and forgiveness are the attributes to which we allude; and beautifully did they shine forth in this model of human perfection. He appears not to have complained at the time of his experiencing the ill-treatment of his brethren, nor to have retained afterwards the least animosity towards them for it: Eminently pious, he repined not; but, submitting himself to the will of his Creator, he took care in his new situation to render himself worthy of his favour by the practice of every virtue. Horrorstruck at the idea of injuring his master in the tenderest part, he resists firmly the repeated solicitations of his unworthy mistress; and when cast into prison, through her false accusation, he suffers patiently and silently, unwilling to disturb the peace of his master's mind by a disclosure of the real facts of the case. There his conduct induces the keeper of the prison to entrust its whole management to his care. Removed thence to the court, and raised to the highest offices in the state, we find him administering the affairs of the kingdom with exemplary integrity, activity, and profound wisdom. Those scenes and actions exhibit him certainly in a light to excite our admiration, but the succeeding incidents make him appear scarcely human, and might have justified the adoration of a people, who, observing in him virtues far transcending those usually met with in man, and ignorant of the God whose service could so elevate and dignify human nature, might have attributed to him a divine origin. The milder virtues of Joseph shone forth with

the greatest lustre. Those few inquiring words addressed to his brethren, "Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive?" speak volumes of tenderness and affection for his aged parent. At that interview he sees, for the first time, since he had been separated from his family, Benjamin, his only brother, by the same mother, and can scarcely restrain himself from falling upon his neck. Notwithstanding he had recognised him previously, he asks, Is this your young brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be with you, my son." When unable longer to restrain himself, " he made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother. And he sought where to weep. And he entered his chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread." And now comes the disclosure to his brethren; it affords an opportunity for penetrating the inmost recesses of the heart of this beneficent character; and how delightful is it to find it filled with nothing so much as an anxious desire that the disclosure should occasion no pain to his brethren. Resentment formed no particle of his disposition; vanity and pride, at his superior fortune and elevation, were equally foreign to it; beneficence and perfect love now reigned supreme in that breast, where not a single low thought or unworthy feeling had ever before found admission, and could not now be there to alloy the perfect happiness he experienced in joining again his family, and in being able to con. fer benefits upon them, and promote their welfare. "Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him: And he cried, Cause every man to go out from me And there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: And the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph: Doth my father live? And his brethren could not answer, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren,