Newman's mind swung through a wide arc, and thoughts apparently antagonistic often were to him supplemental each to each.... A man of dauntless courage and profound thoughtfulness, while his intellect was preëminently a logical one, both the heart and the moral sense possessed with him their sacred tribunals in matters of reasoning as well as of sentiment.... The extreme subtlety of his intelligence opposed no hindrance to his power of exciting vehement emotion. --_A. De Vere's Literary Reminiscences._ I. CHARACTER SKETCHES SAUL "I gave them a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath."--_Hosea_ xiii. 11. The Israelites seem to have asked for a king from an unthankful caprice and waywardness. The ill conduct, indeed, of Samuel's sons was the occasion of the sin, but "an evil heart of unbelief," to use Scripture language, was the real cause 5 of it. They had ever been restless and dissatisfied, asking for flesh when they had manna, fretful for water, impatient of the wilderness, bent on returning to Egypt, fearing their enemies, murmuring against Moses. They had miracles 10 even to satiety; and then, for a change, they wished a king like the nations. This was the chief reason of their sinful demand. And further, they were dazzled with the pomp and splendor of the heathen monarchs around them, and they 15 desired some one to fight their battles, some visible succor to depend on, instead of having to wait for an invisible Providence, which came in its own way and time, by little and little, being dispensed silently, or tardily, or (as they might 20 consider) unsuitably. Their carnal hearts did not love the neighborhood of heaven; and, like the inhabitants of Gadara afterwards, they prayed that Almighty God would depart from their coasts. 5 Such were some of the feelings under which they desired a king like the nations; and God at length granted their request. To punish them, He gave them a king _after their own heart_, Saul, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; of whom the text speaks in 10 these terms, "I gave them a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath."