Was it to hear the lowing of thy cattle? By Reuben's fountains there was deep debating And Gilead lingered on the shores of Jordan- Came the king and fought, Fought the kings of Canaan, By Taanach, by Megiddo's waters, For the golden booty that they won not. From the heavens they fought 'gainst Sisera, So trample thou, my soul, upon their might. Then stamped the clattering hoofs of prancing horse At the flight, at the flight of the mighty. Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord, Curse, a twofold curse upon her dastard sons: For they came not to the succour of Jehovah, To the succour of Jehovah 'gainst the mighty. Above all women blest be Jael, Heber the Kenite's wife, O'er all the women blest, that dwell in tents. Water he asked-she gave him milk, The curded milk, in her costliest bowl. Her left hand to the nail she set, Her right hand to the workman's hammer- At her feet he bowed; he fell; Where he bowed, there he fell dead. From the window she looked forth, she cried, A many-coloured robe, and richly broidered, Thus perish all thine enemies, Jehovah; DELILAH, Or Sorek, a Philistine woman, who enticed Samson to reveal to her the secret of his supernatural strength, which was in his hair. This she caused to be cut off, and thus delivered him, helpless, into the hands of his enemies. The history of Samson is the history of the triumphs of womans's spiritual nature over the physical strength and mental powers of man. Samson's birth, character and mission were first revealed to his mother; the angel appearing twice to her before her husband was permitted to see the heavenly messenger. All the preparatory regimen to ensure this wonderful son was appointed as the mother's duty; and when the angel "In the above translation an attempt is made to preserve something like a rhythmical flow. It adheres to the original language, excepting where an occasional word is but rarely, inserted, for the sake of perspicuity." of the Lord was revealed, the man's earthly nature was overwhelmed with fear; the woman's spiritual nature held its heavenly trust unshaken. The arguments of the wife, to comfort and sustain her husband, are as well-reasoned as any to be found in man's philosophy. Next, the "woman in Timnath," the wife of Samson, persuaded him to tell her his riddle or enigma, then considered a remarkable proof of genius to make. His wisdom was weakness weighed with her attractions. But his great physical strength remained a secret still. It was the especial gift of God, confided to him that he might become the deliverer of his nation. Yet this endowment was rendered of little real avail, because he devoted it to unworthy purposes, either to gratify his sensual passions or to escape the snares into which these had led him. The last trial of his strength, mental and bodily, against the subtlety of the woman's spirit, proved her superior power. Delilah conquered Samson, and in the means she employed she was far less culpable than he; because she was his paramour, perhaps his victim, and he the heaven-gifted champion of Israel. Read the history as recorded in the Bible, not in Milton's "Samson Agonistes," where the whole is set in a false light. Delilah was not the wife of Samson. She owed him no obedience, no faith. But his strength was consecrated to God— he was the traitor, when he disclosed the secret. See Judges, from chapters xiii. to xvii. These events occurred B. C. 1120. DIDO, or ELISSA, A DAUGHTER of Belus, king of Tyre, who married Sichæus of Sicharbas, her uncle, priest of Hercules. Her brother, Pygmalion, who succeeded Belus, murdered Sichæus, to get possession of his immense riches; and Dido, disconsolate for the loss of her husband, whom she tenderly loved, and dreading lest she should also fall a victim to her brother's avarice, set sail, with a number of Tyrians, to whom Pygmalion had become odious from his tyranny, for a new settlement. According to some historians, she threw. into the sea the riches of her husband, and by that artifice compelled the ships to fly with her, that had come by the order of the tyrant to obtain possession of her wealth. But it is more probable that she carried her riches with her, and by this influence prevailed on the Tyrian sailors to accompany her. During her voyage Dido stopped at Cyprus, from which she carried away fifty young women, and gave them as wives to her followers. A storm drove her fleet on the African coast, where she bought of the inhabitants as much land as could be surrounded by a bull's hide cut into thongs.. Upon this land she built a citadel, called Byrsa; and the increase of population soon obliged her to enlarge her city and dominions. erected a funeral pile, as if wishing by a solemn sacrifice to appease the manes of Sichæus, to whom she had vowed eternal fidelity. When all was prepared, she stabbed herself on the pile in presence of her people; and by this uncommon action obtained the name of Dido, or "the valiant woman," instead of Elissa. Virgil and others represent her as visited by Æneas, after whose departure she destroyed herself from disappointed love; but this is a poetical fiction, as Æneas and Dido did not live in the same age. After her death, Dido was honoured as a deity by her subjects. She flourished about B. C. 980. DINAH, THE only daughter of the patriarch Jacob. Her seduction by prince Shechem; his honourable proposal of repairing the injury by marriage, and the prevention of the fulfilment of this just intention by the treachery and barbarity of her bloody brethren Simeon and Levi, are recorded in Gen. xxxiv. But every character in the Bible has its mission as an example or a warning, and Dinah's should be the beacon to warn the young of her sex against levity of manners and eagerness for society. "She went out to see the daughters of the land;" the result of her visit was her own ruin, and involving two of her brothers in such deeds of revenge as brought a curse upon them and their posterity. And thus the idle curiosity or weak vanity of those women who are always seeking excitement and amusement, may end most fatally for themselves and those nearest connected and best beloved. Dinah lived B. C. 1732. DIOTIMA, ONE of the learned women who taught Socrates, as he himself declared, the "divine philosophy." She was supposed to have been inspired with the spirit of prophecy; and Socrates learned of her how from corporeal beauty to find out that of the soul, of the angelical mind, and of God. She lived in Greece, about B. C. 468. E. EGEE, QUEEN of the African Amazons, of whom it is related, that she passed from Lybia into Asia, with a powerful army, with which she made great ravages. Opposed by Laomedon, king of Troy, she set his power at defiance; and, charged with an immense booty, retook the way to her own country. In repassing the sea, she perished with her whole army. ELECTRA, Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, was the sister of Iphigenia and Orestes. Her step-father Ægisthus would not allow her to marry any of her suitors who were princes, lest her children should avenge the murder of Agamemnon; but he married her to a man of humble rank in Argos, who left her a virgin. At the time of her father's death she saved her brother Orestes, and afterwards instigated him to murder Ægisthus and Clytemnestra. When Orestes was tortured by the furies on account of these murders, Electra was informed by the oracle of Delphi that he was slain by a priestess of Diana; this so excited her that she was about to kill Iphigenia, who had just entered the temple as a priestess of Diana, with a firebrand, when Orestes appeared. Electra afterwards married Pylades, the friend of Orestes. ERINNA, A GRECIAN lady cotemporary with Sappho ; composed several poems, of which some fragments are extant in the "Carmina Novem Poetarum Seminarum," published in Antwerp, in 1568. She lived about B. C. 595. One of her poems, called "The Distaff," consisted of three hundred hexameter lines. It was thought that her verses rivalled Homer's. She died at the age of nineteen, unmarried. There is another poetess of the same name mentioned by Eusebius, who flourished in the year B. C. 354. This appears to have been the poetess mentioned by Pliny as having celebrated Myro in her poems. ESTHER, A JEWISH maiden, whose great beauty raised her to the throne of Persia, whereby she saved her countrymen from total extermination. Esther was an orphan, brought up by her cousin Mordecai, who was of the tribe of Benjamin, the greatgrandson of Kish, one of the captives taken from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Mordecai was probably born in Babylon; but he was a devout worshipper of the God of Israel. He had adopted Esther as his own daughter; -and when after king Ahasuerus had repudiated his first queen Vashti, and chosen the "fair and beautiful" Jewish maid, then her uncle, who had strictly enjoined her not to let it be made known to the king that she was a Jewess, left Babylon for Susa, where he often waited at the gate to see his niece and hear of her welfare. About this time Ahasuerus passed an ordinance, importing, that none of his household, under penalty of death, should come into his presence while he was engaged in the administration of justice. If, however, he extended the golden sceptre towards the intruder, the penalty was to be remitted. Not long after, two of the chamberlains of the king conspired against him; the plot was disclosed to Mordecai, and, through the medium of Esther, the king was apprised of his danger. Mordecai received no reward for this service, except having the transaction entered in the records of the state, and being allowed the privilege of admission to the palace. Haman, an Amalekite, now became the chief favourite of king Ahasuerus ;-Mordecai, probably proud of his Jewish blood, and despising the base parasite, refused to bow down to him in the gate, as did all the king's servants. This affront, so offensive to Haman's pride, determined him not only to destroy Mordecai, but all the captive Jews throughout the wide dominions of king Ahasuerus. The favourite made such representations to the king concerning the Jews, that a proclamation for their entire destruction was promulgated. The result is known to all who have read the "Book of Esther;"-how this pious and beautiful woman, trusting in heaven and earnestly employing her own influence, succeeded in defeating the malice of the Amalekite; "Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai." The relationship of Esther and Mordecai was made known to the king, who gave Haman's office to the noble Jew, and from that time took him into his confidential service and promoted him to the highest honours. Between the king and his lovely wife the most perfect confidence was restored. Indeed from what is said by the prophet Nehemiah, who wrote some ten or twelve years later, and who represented the queen as sitting beside the king when petition was made concerning the Jews, we must infer she was ever after his counsellor and good angel. The learned are not agreed who this Ahasuerus was; Josephus asserts, that he is the same as the Artaxerxes Longimanus of profane history; and the Septuagint, throughout the whole book of Esther, translates Ahasuerus by Artaxerxes. Indeed the great kindness shown by Artaxerxes to the Jews, can hardly be accounted for, except on the supposition that they had so powerful an advocate as Esther to intercede for them. Some writers, however, assert that he is the same as Darius Hystaspes, king of Persia, B. C. 521, who allowed the Jews to resume the building of their temple. But whoever the Ahasuerus of this history might be, its interest centres in Esther. In her example the influence of woman's pious patriotism is exhibited and rewarded. Esther was deeply indebted to Mordecai for his care and zeal in her education; still, had she not possessed, and exercised too, the highest powers of woman's mind-faith in God, and love, self-sacrificing love for her people-the Jews must have perished. This wonderful deliverance has, from that time to this-more than twenty-three centuries-been celebrated by the Jews, as a festival called “the days of Purim," or, more generally, "Esther's Feast." This great triumph occurred B. C. 509. EURYDICE, AN Illyrian lady, is commended by Plutarch, for applying herself to study, though already advanced in years, and a native of a barbarous country, that she might be enabled to educate her children. She consecrated to the muses an inscription, in which this circumstance is mentioned. EURYDICE, he perished through the ambition of his mother, as well as his brother and successor, Perdiccas. Philip, who succeeded them, preserved his crown from all her attempts, on which she fled to Iphicrates, the Athenian general. What became of her afterwards, is not known. EURYDICE, WIFE of Aridæus, the natural son of Philip, king of Macedonia, who, after the death of Alexander the Great, was made king for a short time. Aridæus had not full possession of his senses, and was governed entirely by his wife. After a reign of seven years, Aridæus and Eurydice were put to death, B. C. 319, by Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, who had conquered them. EVE, THE Crowning work of creation, the first woman, the mother of our race. Her history, in the sacred Book, is told in few words; but the mighty consequences of her life will be felt through time, and through eternity. We shall endeavour to give what we consider a just idea of her character and the influence her destiny exercises over her sex and race. The Bible records that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Yet he was not perfect then, because God said, "It is not good for man to be alone." Would a perfect being have needed a helper ? So God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and while he slept God took one of the ribs of the man; "And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man." It was this twain in unity, to which allusion is made in the 1st chap. of Genesis, 27th and 28th verses. The creation is there represented as finished, and the "image of God was male and female;" that is, comprising the moral excellences of man and woman; thus united, they formed the perfect being called Adam. It is only when we analyze the record of the particular process of creation, and the history of the fall, and its punishment, that we can learn what were the peculiar characteristics of man and woman as each came from the hand of God. Thus guided, the man seems to have represented strength, the woman beauty; he reason, she feeling; he knowledge, she wisdom; he the material or earthly, she the spiritual or heavenly in human nature. That woman was superior to man in some way WIFE of Amyntas, king of Macedonia, in the is proven, first, by the care and preparation in fifth century before Christ, was the mother of forming her; and secondly, by analogy. Every Alexander, Perdiccas, and Philip, father of Alex- step in the creation had been in the ascending ander the Great, and of one daughter, Euryone. scale. Was the last retrograde? It must have From a criminal love she had for her daughter's been, unless the woman's nature was more refined, husband, she conspired against Amyntas; but he pure, spiritual, a nearer assimilation with the andiscovered the plot, through one of his daughters gelic, a link in the chain connecting earth with by a former wife, and forgave her. On the death heaven, more elevated than the nature of man. of Amyntas, Alexander ascended the throne, but | Adam was endowed with the perfection of physi cal strength, which his wife had not. He did not | plied deep affections and acute sensibilities, rerequire her help in subduing the earth. He also quiring endowments of a spiritual and intellectual had the large understanding which could grasp character. She was to suffer "sorrow" for her and comprehend all subjects relating to this world children, and be subjected to the rule of her hus-and was equal to its government. "He gave band, to whom her desire "shall be;" that is, her names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and hopes of escaping from the ignorance and infeto every beast of the field;" and that these names riority to which he would consign her, must be were significant of the nature of all the animals, centred on winning, by her love, gentleness and thus subordinated to him, there can be no doubt. submission, his heart; and through the influence Still, the sacred narrative goes on-"But for of her purer mind, infused into their children, Adam there was not found any help meet for him;" finally spiritualize his harder and more earthly that is, a created being who could comprehend nature. Her doom was sad, but not degrading; him and help him where he was deficient,-in his for though like an angel with wings bound, she spiritual nature. For this help woman was formed, was to minister to her husband, yet a promise of -and while the twain were one, Adam was per- wondrous blessings for her seed preceded her senfect. It was not till this holy union was dissolved tence. Not so with Adam. He had shown at by sin that the distinctive natures of the masculine every step that his mind was of a different stamp. · and the feminine were exhibited. He had disobeyed God from a lower motive; and when arraigned, instead of humility, he showed fear and selfishness. He sought to excuse himself by throwing the blame on his wife. True, he was not deceived. His worldly wisdom had not been dazzled by the idea of gaining heavenly wisdom, which he probably did not covet or estimate as she did. His sentence was in accordance with his character, addressed to the material rather than the spiritual in human nature. Like a felon he was condemned to hard labour for life, on the ground cursed for his sake. And he was further degraded by reference to his origin—"from the dust;" and consigned to death and the grave! Not a ray of hope was given the man, save through the promise made to the woman! Let us examine this exhibition. Adam and his wife were placed in the garden of Eden, where grew the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," the fruit of which they were forbidden to eat on pain of death. The woman, being deceived by the serpent, or spirit of evil, into the belief that the penalty would not be inflicted, and that the fruit would confer on them, the human pair, a higher degree of spiritual knowledge than they❘ then possessed-"Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," was the promise of the subtle tempter" she took of the fruit, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." Such is the precise account of the fall. Commentators have imputed weakness of mind to the woman, because the tempter assailed her. But does it not rather show she was the spiritual leader, the most difficult to be won, and the serpent knew if he could gain her the result was sure? Remember that her husband was "with her"-the serpent addressed them both "Ye shall be as gods," &c. Now, is it not reasonable to suppose that the nature (the human pair was then one,) best qualified to judge of these high subjects, would respond? The decision was, apparently, left to her. The woman led; the man followed. Which showed the greatest spiritual power, the controlling energy of mind? In the act of disobedience the conduct of the woman displayed her superior nature. The arguments used by the tempter were addressed to the higher faculties of mind as her predominant feelings, namely, the desire for knowledge and wisdom. With her these arguments prevailed; while man, according to his own showing, had no higher motives than gratifying his sensuous inclinations; he ate, because his wife gave him the fruit. Precisely such conduct as we might expect from a lower nature towards a higher; compliance without reason or from inferior considerations. We next come to the trial of the guilty pair, and their sentence from the mouth of their Maker. Every word confirms the truth of the position, that woman's moral sense was of a higher standard than man's. She was first sentenced. Meekly and truly had she confessed her fault; the unerring sign of a noble spirit betrayed into sin when striving for glory. Her temporal punishment im Does it not mark her purer spiritual nature that, even after the fall, when she was placed under her husband's control, she still held his immortal destiny, so to speak, in her keeping? To her what a gracious promise of future glory was given! Her seed was to triumph over the tempter which had deceived her. She was not only to be delivered from the power of the curse, but from her was to come the deliverer of her earthly ruler, man. After the sentence was promulgated, we find instant acknowledgement that the mysterious union, which had made this first man and woman one being in Adam, was altered. There was no longer the unity of soul; there could not be where the wife had been subjected to the husband. And then it was that Adam gave to woman her specific name-Eve, or the Mother. Thus was motherhood predicated as the true field of woman's mission, where her spiritual nature might be developed, and her intellectual agency could bear sway; where her moral sense might be effective in the progress of mankind, and her mental triumphs would be won. Eve at once comprehended this, and expressed its truth in the sentiment, uttered on the birth of her first-born, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." When her hopes for Cain were destroyed by the fratercidal tragedy, she, woman-like, still clung to the spiritual promise, transferring it to Seth. The time of her death is not recorded. According to Blair's chronology, Adam and Eve were created on Friday, October 28th, 4004 B. C. F. FLORA, A FAMOUS Courtezan of Rome, who loved Pompey so devotedly, that though at his entreaties she consented to receive another lover, yet when Pompey took that opportunity to discontinue his visits entirely, she fell into such despair as showed she had the true woman's heart, although so polluted by her degradation that its holiest feelings were made to become her severest tortures. Flora was so beautiful that Cecilius Metellus had her picture drawn and kept in the temple of Castor and Pollux. FULVIA, AN extraordinary Roman lady, wife of Marc Antony, had, as Paterculus expresses it, nothing of her sex but the body; for her temper and courage breathed only policy and war. She had two husbands before she married Antony - Clodius, the great enemy of Cicero, and Curio, who was killed while fighting in Africa, on Caesar's side, before the battle of Pharsalia. After the victory, which Octavius and Antony gained at Philippi over Brutus and Cassius, Antony went to Asia to settle the affairs of the East. Octavius returned to Rome, where, falling out with Fulvia, he could not decide the quarrel but with the sword. She retired to Præneste, and withdrew thither the senators and knights of her party; she armed herself in person, gave the word to her soldiers, and harangued them bravely. Bold and violent as Antony was, he met his match in Fulvia. "She was a woman," says Plutarch, "not born for spinning or housewifery, not one that would be content with ruling a private husband, but capable of advising a magistrate, or ruling the general of an army." Antony had the courage, however, to show great anger at Fulvia for levying war against Octavius; and when he returned to Rome, he treated her with so much contempt and indignation, that she went to Greece, and died there of a disease occasioned by her grief. She participated with, and assisted her cruel husband, during the massacres of the triumvirate, and had several persons put to death, on her own authority, either from avarice or a spirit of revenge. After Cicero was beheaded, Fulvia caused his head to be brought to her, spit upon it, drawing out the tongue, which she pierced several times with her bodkin, addressing to the lifeless Cicero, all the time, the most opprobrious language. What a contrast to the character of Octavia, the last wife of Marc Antony! G. GLAPHYRA, A PRIESTESS of Bellona's temple in Cappadocia, and a daughter of Archelaus, the high-priest of Bellona, is celebrated for her beauty and intrigue. Although she was married and had two sons, Sisinna and Archelaus, yet she fell in love with Marc Antony, and he gave her the kingdom of Cappadocia for her children. This infidelity of Antony so displeased his wife Fulvia, that she resolved to revenge herself by taking the same course. Glaphyra had a granddaughter of the same name, who was a daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and married Alexander, son of Herod and Mariamne, by whom she had two sons. After the death of Alexander she married her brotherin-law Archelaus. H. HAGAR, AN Egyptian woman, the handmaid of Sarai, whom she gave to her husband Abram as a concubine or left-handed wife. Such arrangements were not uncommon in those old times. When the honoured wife was childless, she would give her favourite slave or maid-servant to her husband, and the children born of this connection were considered as belonging to the real wife. It had been promised Abram that his seed should become a great nation; but his wife Sarai had borne him no children. She was nearly eighty years of age; her husband ten years older. Despairing of becoming herself the mother of the promised seed, she would not stand in the way of God's blessing to her husband-so she gave him Hagar. It was, like all plans of human device that controvert the laws of God, very unfortunate for the happiness of the parties. Hagar was soon uplifted by this preference; and believing herself the mother of the promised heir, she despised her mistress; was rebuked, and fled into the wilderness. There the angel of the Lord met her, and commanded her to return to Sarai, and be submissive. Hagar seems to have obeyed the divine command at once; and all was, for a time, well. Ishmael was born, and for twelve years was the only child, the presumptive heir of one of the richest princes of the East. But at the birth of Isaac, the true heir, all Hagar's glory vanished. The bondwoman and her son were finally sent forth from the tents of the patriarch, with "bread and a bottle of water." Hagar carried these on her shoulder, a poor, outcast mother, the victim of circumstances and events she could not change or control. But God hears the cry of affliction, and all who turn to Him in their hearts will be comforted. Thus was Hagar relieved; God "opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water," when Ishmael was dying of thirst. "She went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink." Mother-like, she never thought of herself, of her own sorrows and wants. She devoted herself to her son, who became the "father of twelve princes," the progenitor of the Arabs, who, to this day, keep possession of the wilderness where Hagar wandered with her son Ishmael. Poetry and painting have made this scene of her life memorable. It happened B. C. 1898. |