SAMUEL 224 SAMURAI obtained several advantages over the Philistines. At length his mistress be- trayed him into the hands of his enemies, who put out his eyes, and made him work at a mill. On a public festival when the Philistine lords were assembled in the temple of Dagon, Samson was sent for to show them sport. Laying hold of two pillars of the temple as if to support himself, he pulled down the building and was buried in the ruins, with more than 3,000 Philistines. SAMUEL, in Scripture, a prophet and judge of Israel, of the tribe of Levi, was called in his youth, while attending Eli, the high priest. He consecrated Saul King of Israel and was afterward com- manded to anoint David. After govern- ing Israel either alone or in conjunction with Saul during 50 years, he died in the 90th year of his age, 1072 B. c. Books of Samuel, two of the historical books of the Old Testament, called after the prophet Samuel, their reputed author. They were anciently reckoned as one book by the Jews, the present division into two being derived from the Septuagint and Vulgate. Various attempts have been made to determine the age and authorship of these books. The common opinion, founded on I Chron. xxix. 29, is that the first 24 chapters were written by Samuel himself, and the remainder by Nathan and Gad. There is no reason to believe, however, that these documents were iden- tical with the present Books of Samuel. From Samuel and Kings being sometimes called the four Books of Kings, John is of opinion that they were all written by the same person, and at a date so recent as the 30th year of the Babylonish captivity. This hypothesis, however, will not stand the test of criticism. The lan- guage and style of the books are very different, denoting different periods and different authors. The Books of Samuel bear the impress of a hoary age in their language, allusions, and mode of com- position. With respect to the person who compiled and brought them together in their present form, all that can be af- firmed with probability is that he lived not long after the time of David. SAMUEL, RT. HON. HERBERT LOUIS, a British statesman; born in Liverpool in 1870. He was educated at University College School and at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating with first- class honors in 1893. In 1895 he con- tested South Oxfordshire as a liberal for a seat in the House of Commons and also in 1900. He was elected to repre- sent the Cleveland Division, N. Riding, Yorkshire, in 1902, and held the seat till 1918. In 1905-9 he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of the Home Depart- ment, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the cabinet in 1909-10 and 1915-16. He was Postmaster- General, 1910-14 and 1915-16; President of the Local Government Board, 1914-15; Secretary of State for Home Affairs, 1916; Chairman of the Select Committee on National Expenditure, 1917-18; British RT. HON. HERBERT LOUIS SAMUEL Special Commissioner to Belgium in 1919. In 1920 he was appointed British High Commissioner under the mandate over Palestine given to Great Britain by the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers at San Remo on April 25, 1920, with the object of establishing a National Home for the Jewish people. His published works include : "Liberalism, Its Principles and Proposals"; "The War and Liberty"; and numerous political pamphlets and articles. SAMURAI, a Japanese chivalric order of the feudal period; translated to its nearest English equivalent it signifies "guard." The Samurai were a military class or caste, prominent in early times in Japan and were termed individually or collectively, Samurai, with equal pro- priety. Originally, the name Samurai applied only to those soldiers who acted as personal guards to the Mikado and occupied quarters in the Imperial Palace. In its final usage it became a descriptive term for the entire military caste of the
