:

In amorous ditties all a summer's day,
While smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded the love tale
Infected Sion's daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch
Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led,
His eye surveyed the dark idolatries
Of alienated Judah. Next came one

4

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark
Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopped off
In his own temple, on the grunsel edge,

Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers:
Dagon his name; sea monster, upward man
And downward fish; yet had his temple high
Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon
And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.
Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat
Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks
Of Abana and Pharphar, lucid streams:
He also against the house of God was bold;
A leper once he lost, and gained a king,
Ahaz his sottish conqueror, whom he drew
God's altar to disparage and displace
For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn
His odious offerings, and adore the gods
Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared
A crew, who under names of old renown,
Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train,

With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused

nis, who was said to die and revive again every year. His death was annually commemorated. The river Adonis flowed from Mount Lebanon to the sea.

455. Ezekiel saw. See Ezek. viii.

4

46

47

47

460. grunsel edge, threshold, or groundsill.

464-466. These places were in the land of the Philistines, on the coast of Palestine. - Accaron, Ek

ron.

467-471. The account of the 459. his brute image. See 1 Sam. leper is found in 2 Kings v., and of the king in 2 Kings xvi.

v. 1-5.

pt and her priests, to seek
ering gods disguised in brutish forms
human. Nor did Israel scape

n, when their borrowed gold composed
Oreb; and the rebel king

at sin in Bethel and in Dan,

s Maker to the grazed ox,
ho, in one night, when he passed
t marching, equalled with one stroke
st-born and all her bleating gods.
last, than whom a spirit more lewd
m Heaven, or more gross to love
self: to him no temple stood,
moked; yet who more oft than he
and at altars, when the priest
ist, as did Eli's sons, who filled

480

485

490

495

ing gods. Among the Egyptian deities were Ammon and Mendes, the former a ram, the latter a goat.

492. to him no temple stood. There is no mention in the Old Testament of a god named Belial, but wicked men are called "sons of Belial."

502. flown, flushed, or flooded. 507. were, (it) would be

The Ionian gods, of Javan's issue held

Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth,
Their boasted parents: Titan, Heaven's first born,
With his enormous brood, and birthright seized
By younger Saturn; he from mightier Jove
(His own and Rhea's son) like measure found;
So Jove usurping reigned. These first in Crete
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top
Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air,

Their highest heaven; or on the Delphian cliff,
Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds
Of Doric land; or who with Saturn old
Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields,
And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost isles.

All these and more came flocking; but with look Downcast and damp; yet such wherein appeared

508. The Ionian gods, the gods worshipped by the Ionian Greeks. -Javan was the son of Japhet, and grandson of Noah. His descendants are supposed to have peopled the coasts of Asia Minor and Greece. - of, by. — held, held

as.

509. confessed later, confessed to be later, being fabled to have been children of Uranus, Heaven, and Ge, Earth.

510-514. There were twelve Titans, Heaven's first born. The youngest of these, Saturn or Kronos, deprived his father Uranus of his power, and was in his turn dispossessed by mightier Jove (Jupiter or Zeus), his own and Rhea's

son.

513. like measure, similar treatment.

514. Crete, now called Candia, an island south of Greece, was the birthplace of Jupiter. He was said to have been brought up in a cave of Mount Ida, which was in the centre of the island.

516. Olympus, the seat of the gods, was in northern Greece.

T

517. the Delphian cliff. celebrated temple and oracle Apollo were at Delphi, on Mou Parnassus.

518. Dodona, in the weste part of Greece, was a grove, fro which answers were given to the who came to consult the orac It was sacred to Jupiter.

519. Doric land, Greece, that part of Greece peopled the Dorians, an important rac - who, those of them who.

520. Fled. Saturn is said have fled to Italy, and reign there, after his defeat and ove throw by Jupiter. - Adria, tl Adriatic Sea, between Greece an Italy. See Acts xxvii. 27. Hesperian, Italian; to the wes from Hesperus, the evening sta

521. the Celtic, probably a Gree idiom, meaning the Celtic land ancient Gaul. - roamed, wand ered over. - the utmost isles, Bri ain, or the British Isles.- u most, furthest.

523. such wherein appeared looks such that in them appeared

me glimpse of joy to have found their chief pair, to have found themselves not lost 525 f; which on his countenance cast

ful hue: but he his wonted pride
ecting, with high words, that bore
of worth not substance, gently raised
ing courage and dispelled their fears.
ght commands that, at the warlike sound
ts loud and clarions, be upreared
y standard: that proud honor claimed
his right, a Cherub tall;

with from the glittering staff unfurled
rial ensign, which, full high advanced,
e a meteor streaming to the wind,
as and golden lustre rich emblazed,
arms and trophies; all the while
metal blowing martial sounds:
the universal host up sent

hat tore Hell's concave; and beyond
the reign of Chaos and old Night.
moment through the gloom were seen
sand banners rise into the air,
ent colors waving; with them rose
huge of spears; and thronging helm
d, and serried shields in thick array
1 immeasurable: anon they move
et phalanx to the Dorian mood
3 and soft recorders; such as raised

it of noblest temper heroes old
to battle, and instead of rage

, the same. ollecting, collecting avering.

aight, straightway. nblazed, emblazoned; r adorned with figures. gn, kingdom.

ient, bright.

549. anon. See line 325.

530

535

540

545

550

550. Dorian mood, or mode, the martial measure or music to which the Dorians, particularly the Spartans, moved. They always drew up their troops in pha

lanx.

551. recorders, instruments rerried, pressed close, or sembling flageolets. gether.

Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved
With dread of death to flight or foul retreat;
Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage

With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain Thus they,

From mortal or immortal minds.

Breathing united force, with fixèd thought,
Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed
Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil; and now
Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front
Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise
Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield,
Awaiting what command their mighty chief
Had to impose: he through the armèd files
Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse
The whole battalion views, their order due,
Their visages and stature as of gods;
Their number last he sums.

And now his heart

Distends with pride, and hardening in his strength Glories; for never, since created man,

Met such embodied force as named with these Could merit more than that small infantry Warred on by cranes; though all the giant brood * Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side Mixed with auxiliar gods; and what resounds

554. unmoved, not to be moved. 556. swage, assuage. 563. horrid, perhaps here, as in the Latin "horridus," bristling.

565. ordered, in due order, the shield on the left arm, and the spear erect in the right hand.

568. traverse, through and through.

572. his, probably its. His was the original possessive of "it," as well as of "he," as is seen in our translation of the Bible. See Gen. i. 11. "The fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind." See line 673

573. since created man, sin man was created.

575. that small infantry, t Pygmies, a fabulous people, lit more than a foot in height, w dwelt on the sea-shore, and we attacked by cranes every spring

577. Phlegra, a plain in Mac donia, in which the rebellioGiants perished.

All

578. Thebes and llium. sion is made to the War of t Seven against Thebes in Greed and to the Trojan War. In t latter, heroes fought, assisted gods. Ilium, Troy.