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And now her friends and flatterers fill the court;
From Dan, and from Beersheba they refort:
They barter places, and difpofe of grants,
Whole provinces unequal to their wants;
They teach her to recede, or to debate:
With toys of love to mix affairs of state;
By practis'd rules her empire to fecure;
And in my pleasure make my ruin fure.
They gave, and fhe transferr'd the curs'd advice,
That monarchs fhould their inward foul difguife,
Diffemble and command, be falfe and wife;
By ignominious arts for fervile ends

Should compliment their foes, and fhun their friends.
And now I leave the true and just fupports
Of legal princes, and of honeft courts,
Barzillai's, and the fierce Benaiah's heirs,
Whofe fires, great partners in my father's cares,
Saluted their young king at Hebron crown'd,
Great by their toil, and glorious by their wound.
And now, (unhappy council!) I prefer
Those whom my follies only made me fear,
Old Corah's brood, and taunting Shimei's race;
Mifcreants who ow'd their lives to David's grace;
Tho' they had spurn'd his rule, and curs'd him to
his face.

Still Abra's power, my fcandal ftill increas'd;
Juftice fubmitted to what Abra pleas'd:

Her

Her will alone could fettle or revoke;
And law was fix'd by what she latest spoke.
Ifrael neglected, Abra was my care:
I only acted, thought, and liv'd for her.
I durft not reason with my wounded heart;
Abra poffefs'd; fhe was its better part.
O! had I now review'd the famous caufe,
Which gave my righteous youth so just applause;
In vain on the diffembl'd mother's tongue
Had cunning art, and fly perfuafion hung;
And real care in vain, and native love
In the true parent's panting breaft had ftrove;
While both deceiv'd had feen the deftin'd child
Or flain, or fav'd, as Abra frown'd, or smil’d.
Unknowing to command, proud to obey,
A life-lefs king, a royal fhade I lay.
Unheard the injur'd orphans now complain;
The widow's cries addrefs the throne in vain.
Caufes unjudg'd disgrace the loaded file;
And fleeping laws the king's neglect revile.
No more the elders throng'd around my throne,
To hear my maxims, and reform their own.
No more the young nobility were taught,
How Mofes govern'd, and how David fought,
Loofe and undifciplin'd the foldier lay;
Or loft in drink and game the folid day:
Porches and schools, defign'd for publick good,
Uncover'd, and with fcaffolds cumber'd stood,

Or nodded, threatening ruin

Half pillars wanted their expected height;
And roofs imperfect prejudic'd the fight.
The artifts grieve; the laboring people droop:
My father's legacy, my country's hope,
God's temples lie unfinish'd

The wife and grave deplor'd their monarch's fate, And future mifchiefs of a finking ftate.

Is this, the ferious faid, is this the man,
Whose active foul thro' every science ran?
Who, by juft rule and elevated skill

Prefcrib'd the dubious bounds of good and ill?
Whofe golden fayings, and immortal wit,
On large Phylacteries expreffive writ,
Were to the forehead of the Rabbins ty'd,
Our youth's inftruction, and our age's pride?
Could not the wife his wild defires reftrain?
Then was our hearing, and his preaching vain!
What from his life and letters were we taught,
But that his knowledge aggravates his fault?

In lighter mood the humorous and the gay
(As crown'd with rofes at their feafts they lay)
Sent the full goblet, charg'd with Abra's name,
And charms fuperior to their master's fame:
Laughing, fome praise the king, who let 'em fee,
How aptly luxe and empire might agree:
Some glofs'd, how love and wifdom were at ftrife;
And brought my proverbs to confront my life.

However,

However, friend, here's to the king, one cries:
To him who was the king, the friend replies.
The king, for Judah's, and for wisdom's curse,
To Abra yields: could I, or thou do worse?
Our loofer lives let chance or folly fteer:1
If thus the prudent and determin'd err.

Let Dinah bind with flowers her flowing hair,
And touch the lute, and found the wanton air:
Let us the blifs without the fting receive,

Free, as we will, or to enjoy, or leave.
Pleafures on levity's fmooth furface flow:
Thought brings the weight, that finks the foul to woe.
Now be this maxim to the king convey'd,

And added to the thoufand he has made.

Sadly, O Reason, is thy power exprefs'd,
Thou gloomy tyrant of the frighted breast!
And harsh the rules, which we from thee receive,
If for our wifdom we our pleasure give;-
And more to think be only more to grieve.
If Judah's king at thy tribunal try'd,
Forfakes his joy, to vindicate his pride;

And changing forrows, I am only found

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Loos'd from the chains of love, in thine more ftri&tly bound!

But do I call thee tyrant, or complain,

How hard thy laws, how abfolute thy reign?
While thou, alas! ́art but an empty name,
To no two men, who e'er difcours'd, the fame;
The idle product of a troubled thought,

In borrow'd fhapes, and airy colours wrought;

A fancy'd

A fancy'd line, and a reflected fhade;
A chain which man to fetter man has made;
By artifice impos'd, by fear obey'd.

Yet, wretched name, or arbitrary thing,
Whence ever I thy cruel effence bring,
I own thy influence; for I feel thy fting.
Reluctant I perceive thee in my foul,
Form'd to command, and destin'd to controul.
Yes; thy infulting dictates fhall be heard:
Virtue for once fhall be her own reward:
Yes; rebel Ifrael, this unhappy maid
Shall be difmifs'd: the crowd fhall be obey'd:
The king his paffion, and his rule fhall leave,
No longer Abra's, but the people's flave.
My coward foul shall bear its wayward fate:
I will, alas! be wretched, to be great,
And figh in royalty, and grieve in state.

I faid: refolv'd to plunge into my grief
At once fo far, as to expect relief
From my despair alone

I chose to write the thing I durst not speak,
To her I lov'd, to her I must forfake.

The harsh epistle labour'd much to prove,
How inconfiftent Majefty, and Love.
efteem her well;

I always fhould, it faid,

But never fee her more: it bid her feel
No future pain for me; but inftant wed
A lover more proportion'd to her bed;
And quiet dedicate her remnant life
To the juft duties of an humble wife.

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