There seemed to be something melancholy in his tone, as if the farewell were painful, notwithstanding his approach to the Holy Land. The ominous anticipations of Helon’s mother occurred to him, and though at Alexandria he had despised them as female weakness, he could not shake them off. Helon called aloud, with an animated voice, so that all before and behind might hear him, “Farewell Egypt; I see thee not again—or only as a new man!” He rode forward, giving himself up to the imaginations of his own mind, to which there was something of a fascinating interest in this nightly procession, amidst songs near and distant, the measured tinkling of the bells, beneath the glimmering light of the stars, and ruddy gleams of pitch-kettles, which deepened the surrounding shadows. He felt now more than ever that he had left Egypt behind, and was surprised at the almost poetical enthusiasm which began to be awakened within him. Two hours after sunrise, they arrived at Ostracine. No one was weary. The tent was pitched, and they laid themselves under it. Myron was rather dissatisfied, as having had the worst of the argument; Helon was full of the animating reflections which the journey in the night had excited in him; and Elisama still under the influence of the melancholy which had seized him at the river of Egypt. All emotions are durable in the mind of an oriental, and he does not quickly part either with his sorrow or his joy. Yet all were full of alacrity, and Myron, as usual, the first to speak, began thus: “Though I have little chance of making my cause good to any one’s satisfaction but my own, while I continue with you, yet I shall rejoice, Elisama, to hear the continuation of your narrative. I presume we would all rather speak and hear, than sleep.” “Listen then,” said Elisama, “and perhaps the narrative may enable me to throw off the melancholy that weighs upon me. I related to you, at Casium, that Jehovah had given the law to our nation, in preference to every other, as their inheritance, and their treasure. But though given, much was yet necessary in order that the law should be obeyed. It was not in every land, nor under all circumstances, practicable to walk blameless in all the commandments of the Lord. The whole legislation on mount Sinai had a reference to the future condition of Israel in Canaan, where those circumstances, under which alone the law could be fulfilled, either already existed, or were to be produced.