IN the seventeenth chapter of the first book of Samuel, we meet with what we may call the first account of a complete suit of defensive armour, on the person of Goliath. We read, "He had an helmet of brass upon his head." A strong defence for the head was not only the most common, but

doubtless the most ancient, kind of armour. Among several nations, indeed, the shield and helmet formed the only defensive weapons.

The Hebrew helmets were generally of brass, the King's helmet being distinguished by a crown: and as the Egyptians and other surrounding nations had crests to their helmets, it is not unlikely that this ornament was known to the Jews. We are informed by historians, that among the Egyptians, helmets of metal were only worn by the King and nobles; the common soldiers wearing, in their stead, woollen and linen caps, strongly quilted. The latter was probably preferable, because, being thick and well padded, it afforded an excellent protection to the head, without the inconvenience attending the use of metal in so warm a climate. The padded helmets are usually represented as of a red, green, or black colour.

Goliath was also clothed with "a coat of mail." This piece of armour was intended to afford the same protection to the body that the helmet gave to the head. Before metal became general for this purpose, several substances were used in its stead. The skins of various animals were first employed with this intent. Hides, mats, wood, strong twisted linen, and leather bordered with metal, were successively adopted. Entire plates of metal then became general; but as these were heavy and inflexible, various contrivances were resorted to in order to obtain the security which metal gives, without its rigidity, and without all

its weight. For this purpose the leather was covered with pieces of metal, so as to protect the more important parts of the body, and to serve at once for ornament and use. Sometimes the defence was formed with hoops of metal sliding over each other, and therefore yielding to the motions of the body. The properly mailed armour then became general, by which a higher degree of flexibility was obtained than a metallic covering might be supposed capable of affording.

N. S. P.

THE WOUNDED SOLDIER.

THERE was a boy who had been brought up in a Sunday-school, where it was customary that the children should repeat, every succeeding Sabbath, the appropriate Collect of the day. He afterwards entered upon the world; he left a pious mother, he became a soldier; and I lament to say that in the army he lost almost every trace of his religion; and the experience he had acquired in younger years was effaced by the habits of military life. It so happened that he was engaged in one of those great battles which occurred so frequently during the last war; and he received a wound which left him upon the field in a state that seemed to be hopeless. Feeling, as he did, that he was on the very confines of the eternal world, all the recollections of his past life rushed upon his memory: the habits that he had acquired in his military engagements, and all the principles of

his youth that he had lost, presented themselves most powerfully to his mind; and, from his own account, he endeavoured to lift up his heart in prayer: but he had lived without prayer; he did not know how to pray, and no words whatever suggested themselves to his mind. Still, in the midst of that awful feeling with which his mind was possessed, he struggled to give utterance to his thoughts in the language of prayer, addressing the God whom he had offended, and the Saviour whose cause he had deserted. At length a Collect that he had learned as a boy at school, présented itself to his memory. It was the language of prayer, it was a supplication for pardon, it recognised the Saviour as the ground of his hope: it was offered up in the spirit of penitence and true contrition; and from that time he felt as if a burden had been removed, and he had found access to the throne of grace. It pleased God to spare his life he returned to his own country; and, feeling how much he was indebted to what he had learned in the days of his childhood at the Sunday-school, he made the resolution to save the sum of one guinea, and at the very first sermon that he might hear preached for a Sunday-school, to present it at the collection. He did so. The town where the sermon was preached was Leeds. When he dropped the guinea into the plate, the person who held it, supposing he had made a mistake, and had contributed a guinea instead of a shilling, brought it back again, and explained the error into which he presumed he had fallen; but

he said, "Sir, it is not a mistake: the sum that I have laid down has been collected during many weeks, and I wish it to be an offering to my God." Being requested to explain what the circumstances were which led to so liberal an act, he retired into the vestry, and there related these interesting facts.-Church of England Magazine.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR AND HIS SONS.

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THE Monarch was one day pensive and thoughtful. His wise men inquired the cause, and he stated that he wished to know what would be the fate of his sons after his death. The wise men consulted together; and at length it was proposed that they should put questions separately to the three Princes, who were then young. The first who entered the room was Robert, afterwards known by the surname of Courthose. "Fair Sir," said one of the wise men, answer me a question. If God had made you a bird, what bird would you wish to have been?" Robert answered, "A hawk, because it resembles most a courteous and valiant Knight." William Rufus next entered, and his answer to the same question was, "I would be an eagle, because it is a strong and powerful bird, and feared by all other birds, and therefore it is King over them all." Lastly came the younger brother, Henry, who had received a learned education, and was on that account known by the surname of Beauclerc. His choice was a starling,