plish. David was not required in the camp; he might at once return home.1

David returned from the court of Saul to his father's house at Bethlehem. Every village through which he passed was mustering its men to resist the inroad. When he reached home, the same ardour was firing the people of his native town. As he had seen more of it in the course of his journey than any of them, his heart was more touched with a longing to join the contingent from Bethlehem, especially as he was a soldier of nature's own making. He seems to have asked leave to join the ranks. But his wish to become a soldier was first laid before a family council. As far as can be learned from what afterwards turned up, his elder brother Eliab upbraided him for his wrongness' or naughtiness of heart in even daring to put his wishes forward. Perhaps there was the meanness of jealousy in this upbraiding. 'You may do well enough for a minstrel, or to be favoured by Samuel,' was the meaning it conveyed. You think yourself a soldier too; but let others mind a business which is too high for you.' When the young men told off to defend their country marched out of Bethlehem, David, as the least esteemed of the family of Jesse, was sent to watch their few sheep in the upland pastures.

Meanwhile Saul, with his bodyguard of three thousand men, was marching to the borders. Every village that he passed poured forth its soldiery to swell his army. So suddenly had his troops been assembled, and so warlike was his array, that the Philistines did not dare to move more than

1 Although David's art was not required, the writer of the book of Samuel follows his usual course of tracing the story farther on, before he passes from it to other matters. This has caused a difficulty; but something similar takes place in all histories. Each of us,' says Horace Walpole, when writing of the Countess of Suffolk, ‘knew different parts of many court stories, and each was eager to learn what either could relate more; and thus, by comparing notes, we sometimes could make out discoveries of a third circumstance before unknown to both.' Compare also his note on the passage. Critics seldom think of the third circumstance that reconciles two differing versions of the same story.-Reminiscences, chap. vii.

a few miles beyond their own frontier. Their plundering had been speedily checked. Drawing their forces together on the approach of the Hebrews, they pitched their camp on a hill, whose height and steepness served them instead of a fortress. Another hill right opposite furnished the Hebrews with an equally safe camp. The face looking towards the invaders was too steep to allow an attack in front. Besides, the open plain of Elah (terebinth tree) lay between the two hills, and rendered a surprise on that side impossible. A stream with steep banks, and with terebinths or bushes shading its bed, flowed through the plain, apparently nearer the Hebrew camp than that of the invaders. The rear of the Hebrew camp was less securely guarded by nature. Though a steep crag on the one side, the hill fell away on the other with a tail of such gentle slope as not to be difficult of access for the lumbering bullock waggons of the Hebrew peasantry. Where these could climb, the light war chariots of the Philistines might act with advantage. The Hebrew king was aware of his danger. In later times, a ditch and rampart would have been the defence provided; but another, equally effectual, could be thrown round the camp with less trouble. Constantly coming and going were trains of Hebrew bullock waggons, bringing stores of all kinds to the soldiers. Some of them were the king's, but the greater part belonged to families which had sent sons and brothers to the war. An officer was appointed to keep this line of defence unbroken, as waggons left and came to the camp. He was called 'the keeper of the carriages' (1 Sam. xvii. 22). However much a rampart so primitive may provoke a smile in our day, it was then a dangerous obstacle to an advancing enemy, and has proved a most efficient barrier even in modern warfare. Arranged in two or three lines with open spaces between, these rows of country carts gave the Hebrews the advantage of hurling their weapons from above on an enemy climbing up from lower ground. A fresh line of defence was ready to furnish a

Alexander the

second shelter should the first line be forced. Great once led his horsemen against a triple line of waggons 'on a hill-top not precipitous on all sides."1 Although the foe thus assailed was only the armed people of a city in the Punjab, their rampart proved an effective barrier to his advance. He would have been driven back had he not dismounted and led forward the infantry. The energy of the Hebrew king involved the Philistine chiefs in difficulties. Knowing the danger of assaulting his camp in front or in rear, they found themselves reduced to inaction. Should they risk a march into Judah, flying bodies of Saul's army might carry fire and sword to the gates of their principal towns. Unless, then, the Hebrews could be tempted to quit their hill fortress, the Philistines could not venture to penetrate into the heart of Judah, while it would be a disgrace to return home without striking a blow. Baffled in their plans, and seeing no other way of honourable escape, their leaders had recourse to a device that was often practised afterwards. They proposed to decide the war by single

combat.

In the army of the invaders was a man of gigantic size, called Goliath of Gath. He was well known to the Hebrews. From his youth up he had been skilled in deeds of arms, mostly in wars waged with King Saul. The Hebrews spoke of him as 'the Philistine,' and 'the Man.' As nearly as we can judge, he was about eight and a half feet high, or a foot and a half taller than the great King Porus, whom Alexander conquered on the banks of the Indus, and whom the Greeks admired for his size and beauty. Whether Goliath's stature

'Arrian, Anab. v. 22, 23.

2 Arrian, v. 19. 'Three of the most remarkable men of the century gave a reception on Friday night at the Royal Aquarium, and were visited by many persons interested in anthropology. The giant Chang, a tea merchant of Pekin ; Brustad, a tall Norwegian; and Che-mah, described as “the Chinese dwarf, the smallest man in the world," received their friends, and being not much given to talk themselves, had their history related for them by a showman. It appears that Chang is the largest giant in existence, that he stands 8 feet 2 inches, and is

was measured with modern accuracy, or whether it was the fighting height from his brazen shoes to the top of his helmet, we are not informed, nor does it much matter. He was a giant, and wielded a giant's might, with probably the smallness of mind that often attends vast bulk of body. He was covered with a coat of scale-armour, 5000 shekels or 230 lbs. in weight. As they were exceedingly burdensome under a Syrian sun, his helmet and shield were carried by an armour-bearer. Without a war-chariot, he would have been as useless in battle as a heavy armed knight five centuries ago without his war-horse.1 To walk was a trouble

to this weighted giant, while an attempt at running was almost sure to be destruction. But, as we have seen, chariots were valueless against the skill shown in pitching the Hebrew camp. Goliath's heavy spear is compared to an Eastern weaver's beam, or to a pole not half the length of a telegraph post, while its iron head weighed nearly 20 lbs. Strapped across his shoulders was a short javelin for throwing to a distance, and picking up again as the enemy's line was driven back. It is called a target in our version, and was of solid brass. He expected to have little use for it. highly educated, speaking five different languages, including English, which last he speaks very well, but with the well-known sing-song of the Chinaman. He is 8 feet high without his boots, he measures 60 inches round the chest, weighs 26 stone, has a span of 8 feet with his outstretched arms, and signs his name without an effort upon a signpost 10 feet 6 inches high. Next to Chang, and next by no long interval, stands Brustad, about 7 feet 9 inches high, very muscular, very broad-backed, having as great a girth of chest as Chang, and a wider span in proportion to his height. He has a low forehead, but speaks English fairly well. His ring is 4 ounces in weight, and a penny goes easily through it. To grasp his mighty hand in greeting is like shaking hands with an oak tree. His weight is 28 stone, greater than Chang's, for his bones are more massive. His age is 35. Che-mah, the dwarf, gives his age as 42, sings a Chinese elegy, describes himself with much fluency and variety, and as his height is only 25 inches, appears to be what he is described, the smallest man in the world.'-Times, 14th June 1880.

1 Compare Plutarch's account (Demetrius, 21) of Alkimos, who wore a panoply of two talents, or about 4000 shekels weight.

2 His spear's head six hundred shekels of iron.' Care must be taken to place the commas so in English as to bring out the sense of the Hebrew. 'His spear's

head (six hundred skekels) of iron.'

He made the mistake of not having it handy for throwing; the time required to disengage it from its fastenings would have given an active enemy an irretrievable advantage. Goliath was got up for effect more than really equipped for battle. He was a grand show, that struck dismay into soldiers who had seen him as a mounted warrior in former campaigns. A fresh eye would pick out a joint in his harness, through which a weapon might reach his heart. Was tradition to prevail, or was a change of tactics at hand in these border wars?

The appearance of this well-known soldier on the plain spread terror among the Hebrew skirmishers. The petty battles, in which outposts or adventurers engaged, stopped at once the Philistines giving way to their great champion; the Hebrews, from dread of his prowess, crossing the stream or retreating up the hill. Goliath's shouts overtook the latter in their flight: 'Why are ye come out to set the battle in array? Am not I the Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.' He smiles to himself at the thought of being slain by a Hebrew. 'Kill me,' he cries, and we shall be your servants;' not 'the Philistines,' nor my people,' but we,' as if his fall were a thing to be put out of view. I reproach the armies of Israel this day,' he added; 'give me a man that we may fight together.' A terrible dread seized the Hebrew army. The giant had put them in a difficulty before the world. Brave men, who would cheerfully have gone to death in a general battle, shrank from the same danger in a single-handed encounter with the giant. Their country's freedom perished with failure; and their people's honour. With all, save very few in any age or nation, the risk could only weaken the hands in a combat weighted with such momentous issues.