IDYL THE ELEVENTH.

From the tenth Verse of the seventh Chapter to the fourth of the eighth.

ASSURED of the affections of her husband, the Bride in this Idyl would contrive to have more of his society. She would lead him from the busy scene of the populous city, where the happiness she enjoyed in his company suffered so frequent interruption. She invites him to go with her to a country residence, which the faithful pair are supposed to possess at some distance. She urges the pleasantness of the season:-the beauties of the spot would be in perfection: the choicest fruits that could gratify his taste had been carefully provided:-Oh, that circumstances did not so often deprive her of the opportunity of entertaining him!

I AM my beloved's, and his desire is towards me*.
Come, my beloved, we will go to the country;
We will abide all night in the villages;

We will go early in the morning into the vineyards;

a Some plead for a different reading in this place pion. It would then be," And my desire is towards him."-Dr. Hodgson and Mr. Good.

The journey proposed, I conceive, is to some remote vineyard, or rather cultivated estate: for the word we render vineyard

We will see if the vine flourishes,
-The blossom will be opened;
The pomegranate will have budded:

There will I present thee with mandrakes;

The mandrakes will be emitting their fragrance:
And over our doors all sorts of fruits, new and olda,
For thee, my beloved, I have laid up in store.

is of more general signification, as was observed in a note of the first idyl. It would be necessary for them, it seems, to pass the night at some villages on the road; early on the following morning, they would reach the desired spot. Such are the most simple deductions we can make respecting the meaning of these lines.

She would present him with mandrakes; they would by this time be in perfection. and, I conjecture to be names of the same thing, or rather the same name, as appears from Jeremiah, xxiv. 1. In which passage we find the word, there translated baskets, written both and '7. Whether these mandrakes were flowers, or plants, or fruit, bas been long a subject of dispute, "Nullam aliam," says Simon, "vocem textus S. Hebr. tot explicationibus divexatam videas." The Septuagint speaks of them as fruit, unha pardgayogwv. Gen. xxx. 14. And it is highly probable, that a particular kind of melon, which has been noticed in the eastern parts of the world, is intended by the term. It is called chamama, or breast of a woman, because it is in that shape: which is the very meaning of the Hebrew root. It is described as very wholesome, and of a very pleasant scent: so much so, indeed, as even to be carried in the hand by way of nosegay. See Fragments to Calmet.

"And over our doors." Such is the literal rendering of the Hebrew, and it is easy to conceive an allusion to some repository, or closet, for preserving fruit, the situation of which was usually as here described. The vineyard, it appears, to which the affec tionate spouse is desiring her husband to retire with her, was her peculiar charge. And in the portraiture of a virtuous woman, which Solomon has given us in the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs, it is noticed as part of her industrious cares: "She considereth a field and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard."

O that thou wert as my brother,
Sucking the breasts of my mother!
I would find thee in the street,

I would kiss thee, and no one would despise me :
I would lead thee about,

I would bring thee to the house of my mother:
Thou shouldst accustom me to give thee spiced wines,
With the juice of pomegranates.

His left arm' was under head,

His right did enfold me.

my

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
-Why should you stir-

Why should you raise up my beloved, till he please?

e "O that thou wert as my brother!" The spouse expresses in this endearing language her ardent desire to have more of her husband's company. She feels herself, in public life, kept at too great a distance from him; his important avocations call him where she cannot be with him; or, she sees him among visitors and strangers, where a sense of propriety imposes upon her a painful restraint. Her means too of performing services really needful, or of supplying gratifications to her lord, are most inadequate to her wishes. Consulting only her own affection, she could wish to be his constant attendant: she could wish the circumstances were such, that it might become the perpetual object of her care to administer to his wants and comforts. "O that he were," is the fond language of her passion, a little infant brother -a child, that she could be always following and leading about, and might have continually with her. How pleased should she be to amuse him, and to gratify his wonted requests, with spiced wines, and sweet juices of fruits !"

The conclusion, with some small variation, is similar to that of the third Idyl.

INTERPRETATION OF THE ELEVENTH

IDYL.

THE wish for retirement, so often felt by the truly religious, especially after being long harassed with the cares and importunities of a public situation, so destructive of holy meditation, is beautifully shadowed in this parable. The bride is persuading her beloved husband to retire from the tumultuous city, that she may enjoy, without interruption, the society she so much coveted in the remote scene of rural felicity which she describes.

"Come, my beloved, we will go to the country, we will abide all night in the villages; we will go early in the morning into the vineyards," &c. Were it the will of God, and could it be rendered compatible with his duties and engagements in life, the spiritual Christian could form no scheme of happiness more adapted to his taste, than in some calm and peaceful retreat, far from the noisy contests of the world, undisturbed by its cares and trifles, and known only to mankind as the occasional messenger of peace or love, to spend the remainder of his days in prayer, in meditation, in the cultivation of religious knowledge, and in those exercises of devotion, which promote the communion of the soul with god..

"Nihil magis in votis habeo, quam ut procul omni disputatione, in placido otio, secretaque solitudine, piis precibus, devotis meditationibus, humili sacratissimarum literarum nostrarum scru

Such is often the pious wish of the Christian: and it is possible, indeed, particular trials and temptations, with the vexatious contradictions of sinners, may extort from him the perhaps somewhat too impatient exclamation of the Psalmist, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander afar off, and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest." But the Lord knoweth how to deliver them that are tempted. His time is best. Nor will he finally leave unsatisfied those who seek peace and righteousness, who "seek meekness."

A scheme of retirement from the world is not unusually indeed, at a certain time of life, projected by the irreligious. They too propose to leave the scenes of business or ambition, that they may soothe their declining years with that peace which the world has failed to afford them. But ah, how unsuccessful the attempt! How difficult to embellish solitude so as to please the gay, or to find, in retirement, a substitute for the worldly mind which is tired of the world, or too late discovers the delusion of its flattering promises!

It is commonly found, in fact, that the tone of mind which could accommodate itself to harmless

tinio, et arcanis cum Deo colloquiis, obscurus cæteroquin, et vix vicinis notus, nisi quantum pietas jubet, ad ultimum usque spiritum vacaré liceat."-Witsius Mic. vol. i. p. 637.