Linus music. We know nothing about the bringing up of Samson save
that "the child grew and the Lord blessed him. And the Lord began
to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol."
Samson made little use of his musical gifts, if he had any, but
that little he made well; Herakles made little use of his musical
training, and that little he made ill. He lost his temper and
killed his music master with his lute; Samson, after using an
implement which only the black slaves of our South have treated as
a musical instrument, to slay a thousand Philistines, jubilated in
song:--

With the jawbone of an ass
Heaps upon heaps!
With the jawbone of an ass
Have I slain a thousand men!


The vast fund of human nature laid bare in the story of Samson is,
it appears to me, quite sufficient to explain its popularity, and
account for its origin. The hero's virtues--strength, courage,
patriotism--are those which have ever won the hearts of men, and
they present themselves as but the more admirable, as they are made
to appear more natural, by pairing with that amiable weakness,
susceptibility to woman's charms.

After all Samson is a true type of the tragic hero, whatever Dr.
Chrysander or another may say. He is impelled by Fate into a
commission of the follies which bring about the wreck of his body.
His marriage with the Philistine woman in Timnath was part of a
divine plot, though unpatriotic and seemingly impious. When his