king except their God. Were we viler then? Did kings conquer Canaan? Who
was Moses, who was Aaron, who was mighty Joshua? Was the sword of Gideon
a kingly sword? Did the locks of Samson shade royal temples? Would a
king have kept his awful covenant like solemn Jephtha? Royal words
are light as air, when, to maintain them, you injure any other than a
subject.

'Kings! why, what's a king? Why should one man break the equal sanctity
of our chosen race? Is their blood purer than our own? We are all the
seed of Abraham. Who was Saul, and who was David? I never heard that
they were a different breed from our fathers. Grant them devout, which
they were not; and brave and wise, which other men were; have their
posterity a patent for all virtues? No, Jabaster! thou ne'er didst err,
but when thou placedst a crown upon this haughty stripling. What he did,
a thousand might have done. 'Twas thy mind inspired the deed. And now he
is a king; and now Jabaster, the very soul of Israel, who should be our
Judge and leader, Jabaster trembles in disgrace, while our unhallowed
Sanhedrim is filled with Ammonites!'

'Abidan, thou hast touched me to the quick; thou hast stirred up
thoughts that ever and anon, like strong and fatal vapours, have risen
from the dark abyss of thought, and I have quelled them.'

'Let them rise, I say; let them drown the beams of that all-scorching
sun we suffer under, that drinks all vegetation up, and makes us
languish with a dull exhaustion!'

'Joy! joy! unutterable joy!'

'Hark! the prophetess has changed her note; and yet she hears us not.
The spirit of the Lord is truly with her. Come, Jabaster, I see thy
heart is opening to thy people's sufferings; thy people, my Jabaster,
for art not thou our Judge? At least, thou shalt be.'

'Can we call back the Theocracy? Is't possible?'

'But say the word, and it is done, Jabaster. Nay, stare not. Dost thou
think there are no true hearts in Israel? Dost thou suppose thy children
have beheld, without a thought, the foul insults poured on thee; thee,
their priest, their adored high priest, one who recalls the best days
of the past, the days of their great Judges? But one word, one single
movement of that mitred head, and---- But I speak unto a mind that feels
more than I can express. Be silent, tongue, thou art a babbling
counsellor. Jabaster's patriot soul needs not the idle schooling of a
child. If he be silent, 'tis that his wisdom deems that the hour is not
ri