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(Should fleeting Vict'ry to the vanquish'd go,
Should the deprefs my arms, and raise the foe)
• Would for that foe with equal ardour wait
At the high palace or the crouded gate;
With restless rage would pull my ftatues down,
And caft the brafs anew to his renown.
O impotent defire of worldly fway!
That I, who make the triumph of to-day,
May of to-morrow's pomp one part appear,
Ghaftly with wounds, and lifeless on the bier!
Then, (vilenefs of mankind!) then, of all thefe
• Whom my dilated eye with labour fees,

• Would one, alas! repeat me good or great,
• Wash my pale body, or bewail my fate?

Or, march'd I chain'd behind the hoftile car, • The victor's paftime, and the sport of war, Would one, would one his pitying forrow lend, • Or be fo poor, to own he was my friend?

• Avails it then, O Reason, to be wise ?
To fee this cruel fcene with quicker eyes?
To know with more diftinction to complain,
And have superior sense in feeling pain ?

Let us revolve, that roll with stricteft eye
• Where safe from Time diftinguifh'd actions lie;
And judge if greatnefs be exempt from pain,
Or pleasure ever may with pow'r remain.

• Adam, great type, for whom the world was made,

• The fairest bleffing to his arms convey'd,

A charming wife! and air, and fea, and land,
And all that move therein, to his command
Render'd obedient: fay, my penfive Mufe,
What did thefe golden promifes produce?
Scarce tafting life, he was of joy bereav'd;
One day, I think, in Paradife he liv'd,

• Destin'd the next his journey to pursue,

• Where wounding thorns and curfed thiftles grew.

• Ere

Ere yet he earns his bread, a-down his brow,
Inclin'd to earth, his lab'ring fweat must flow;
His limbs must ache, with daily toils opprefs'd,
Ere long-wifh'd night brings neceffary rest:
⚫ Still viewing with regret his darling Eve,
He for her follies and his own must grieve.
Bewailing ftill afresh their hapless choice,
His ear oft frighted with the imag'd voice.

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• Of Heav'n, when firft it thunder'd; oft his view
Aghaft, as when the infant lightning flew,
And the stern cherub ftopp'd the fatal road,
• Arm'd with the flames of an avenging God.
His younger fon on the polluted ground,
Firft-fruit of death, lies plaintive of a wound
• Giv'n by a brother's hand; his eldest birth
• Flies, mark'd by Heav'n, a fugitive o'er earth:
Yet why thefe forrows heap'd upon the fire,

• Becomes nor man nor angel to enquire.

• Each age finn'd on, and guilt advanc'd with time;
The fon ftill added to the father's crime:

• Till God arofe; and, great in anger, faid,
"Lo! it repenteth me that man was made.
"Withdraw thy light, thou fun! be dark, ye fkies!
"And, from your deep abyfs, ye waters, rise !"
• The frighted angels heard th' Almighty Lord,
And o'er the earth, from wrathful viols, pour'd
Tempefts and ftorms, obedient to his word.

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• Mean time his Providence to Noah gave

The guard of all that he design'd to fave:

Exempt from gen'ral doom the patriarch food,

⚫ Contemn'd the waves, and triumph'd o'er the flood. • The winds fall filent, and the waves decrease;

• The dove brings quiet, and the olive peace: Yet ftill his heart does inward forrow feel, Which faith alone forbids him to reveal.

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• If on the backward world his views are caft,
'Tis death diffus'd, and universal waste.
Prefent, (fad profpect!) can he aught defcry
But (what affects his melancholy eye)
The beauties of the ancient fabrick loft,

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In chains of craggy hill, or lengths of dreary coast?

While to high heav'n his pious breathings turn'd,

Weeping he hop'd, and facrificing mourn'd;

• When of God's image only eight he found

• Snatch'd from the watʼry grave, and fav'd from nations drown'd; And of three fons, the future hopes of earth,

The feed whence empires must receive their birth, • One he forefees excluded heav'nly grace,

• And mark'd with curfes fatal to his race.

Abraham, potent prince, the friend of God!

⚫ Of human ills muft bear the destin❜d load;

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By blood and battles muft his pow'r maintain,
And flay the monarchs ere he rules the plain;
Muft deal juft portions of a fervile life
To a proud handmaid and a peevish wife ;
• Muft with the mother leave the weeping fon,
In want to wander and in wilds to groan;
Muft take his other child, his age's hope,
To trembling Moriam's melancholy top,
Order'd to drench his knife in filial blood,
Destroy his heir, or difobey his God.

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• Mofes beheld that God; but how beheld?
The Deity, in radiant beams conceal'd,
And clouded in a deep abyfs of light?

While prefent, too fevere for human fight,
Nor ftaying longer than one swift-wing'd night:
The following days, and months, and years, decreed
To fierce encounter, and to toilfome deed.

His youth with wants and hardfhips muft engage ; < Plots and rebellions must disturb his age:

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• Some

Some Corah ftill arofe, fome rebel flave,
Prompter to fink the ftate, than he to fave;
And Ifrael did his rage fo far provoke,

That what the Godhead wrote the prophet broke.
His voice scarce heard, his dictates scarce believ'd,
In camps, in arms, in pilgrimage, he liv'd;
And dy'd obedient to fevereft law,

Forbid to tread the promis'd land he faw.

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My father's life was one long line of care ;

A fcene of danger, and a state of war.

Alarm'd, expos'd; his childhood muft engage

• The bear's rough gripe, and foaming lion's rage:

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By various turns his threaten'd youth muft fear

• Goliah's lifted fword, and Saul's emitted fpear. Forlorn he muft, and perfecuted, fly,

⚫ Climb the steep mountain, in the cavern lie; And often afk, and be refus'd to die.

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• For ever from his manly toil are known

The weight of pow'r, and anguish of a crown. • What tongue can speak the restlefs monarch's woes, When God and Nathan were declar'd his foes?

• When ev'ry object his offence revil'd;

The husband murder'd, and the wife defil'd, * The parent's fins imprefs'd upon the dying child? • What heart can think the grief which he sustain'd, • When the king's crime brought vengeance on the land; And the inexorable prophet's voice

• Gave famine, plague, or war, and bid him fix his choice.
• He dy'd; and, oh! may no reflection shed

• It's pois'nous venom on the royal dead.
Yet the unwilling truth must be express'd,
• Which long has labour'd in this penfive breast:
Dying, he added to my weight of care;
He made me to his crimes undoubted heir;
• Left his unfinish'd murder to his fon,
And Joab's blood entail'd on Judah's crown.
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• Young

Young as I was, I hafted to fulfil

• The cruel dictates of my parent's will:
• Of his fair deeds a distant view I took,
• But turn'd the tube upon his faults to look ;
Forgot his youth, spent in his country's cause,
• His care of right, his rev'rence to the laws,
• But could with joy his years of folly trace,
• Broken and old in Bathsheba's embrace;

Could follow him where'er he stray'd from good,
And cite his fad example, whilst I trod

Paths open to deceit, and track'd with blood.
Soon docile to the fecret acts of ill,

• With smiles I could betray, with temper kill;

• Soon in a brother could a rival view,

• Watch all his acts, and all his ways pursue: In vain for life he to the altar fled;

• Ambition and Revenge have certain speed.

• E'en there, my foul, e'en there he should have fell, • But that my int'reft did my rage conceal.

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Doubling my crime, I promife and deceive,

Purpose to flay, whilft fwearing to forgive.

Treaties, perfuafions, fighs, and tears, are vain

• With a mean lye curs'd vengeance I sustain,

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Join fraud to force, and policy to pow'r,
Till of the destin'd fugitive secure,

• In folemn state to parricide I rife,

And, as God lives, this day my brother dies.
• Be witness to my tears, celestial Muse!

* In vain I would forget, in vain excuse
• Fraternal blood by my direction spilt;
• In vain on Joab's head transfer the guilt.
The deed was acted by the subject's hand,
The fword was pointed by the king's command,
Mine was the murder; it was mine alone:
• Years of contrition muft-the crime atone;

}

• Nor

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