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She read; and forth to me fhe wildly ran, To me, the ease of all her former pain.

She kneel'd, intreated, ftruggl'd, threaten'd, cry'd,
And with alternate paffion liv'd, and dy'd:
"Till, now, deny'd the liberty to mourn,
And by rude fury from my prefence torn,.
This only object of my real care,
Cut off from hope, abandon'd to despair,
In fome few posting fatal hours is hurl'd

From wealth, from power, from love, and from the world.

Here tell me, if thou dar'ft, my conscious foul, What different forrows did within thee roll?

What pangs, what fires, what racks didft thou fuftain?
What fad viciffitudes of fmarting pain?

How oft from pomp and state did I remove,
To feed defpair, and cherish hopeless love?
How oft, all day, recall'd I Abra's charms,
Her beauties prefs'd, and panting in my arms?
How oft, with fighs, view'd every female face,
Where mimic fancy might her likeness trace?
How oft defired to fly from Ifrael's throne,
And live in fhades with her and Love alone?
How oft, all night, purfued her in my dreams,
O'er flowery vallies, and thro' crystal streams;
And waking, viewed with grief the rifing fun,
And fondly mourned the dear delufion gone?

When thus thegathered ftorms of wretched Love,
In my fwoln bofom, with long war had ftroye;
At length they broke their bounds: at length their force
Bore down whatever met its stronger course:

Lay'd

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Lay'd all the civil bonds of manhood waste:
And scatter'd ruin as the torrent past.

So from the bills, whofe hollow caves contain
The congregated fnow, and fwelling rain;
*Till the full ftores their antient bounds disdain;
Precipitate the furious torrent flows:

In vain would speed avoid, or ftrength oppofe;
Towns, forefts, herds, and men promifcuous drown'd,
With one great death deform the dreary ground:
The echo'd woes from diftant rocks refound.

And now, what impious ways my wishes took;
How they the monarch, and the man forfook;
And how I followed an abandoned will,

Thro' crooked paths, and fad retreats of ill;
How Judah's daughters now, now foreign slaves,
By turns my prostituted bed receives:

Through tribes of women how I loosely rang'd
Impatient; liked to-night, to-morrow chang'd;
And, by the inftin&t of capricious luft,

Enjoyed, difdained, was grateful, or unjust:
O, be these scenes from human eyes conceal'd,
In clouds of decent filence justly veil'd!
O, be the wanton images convey'd

To black oblivion, and eternal shade!

Or let their fad Epitome alone,

And outward lines, to future age be known,

Enough to propagate the fure belief,

That vice engender; fhame; and folly broods o'er

grief.

Buryed

Buryed in floth, and loft in ease I lay: The night I revelled; and I flept the day. New heaps of fewel damped my kindling fires; And daily change extinguish'd young defires. By its own force deftroy'd, fruition ceas'd; And, always weary'd, I was never pleas'd. No longer now does my neglected mind Its wonted ftores, and old Ideas find. Fix'd judgment there no longer does abide, To take the true, or fet the false afide. No longer does fwift memory trace the cells, Where fpringing wit, or young invention dwells. Frequent debauch to habitude prevails:

Patience of toil, and love of virtue fails.
By fad degrees impaired my vigour dies;
'Till I command no longer e'en in vice.
The women on my dotage build their sway:
They afk; I grant: they threaten; I obey,
In regal garments now I gravely ftride,
Aw'd by the Perfian damfel's haughty pride.
Now with the loofer Syrian dance, and fing,
In robes tuck'd up, opprobrious to the king.
Charm'd by their eyes, their manners I acquire,
And shape my foolishness to their defire,
Seduced and awed by the Philistine dame,
At Dagon's fhrine I kindle impious flame.
With the Chaldean's charms her rites prevail;
And curling frankincenfe afcends to Baal.
To each new harlot I new altars drefs;
And ferve her God, whofe perfon I caref

Where,

Where, my deluded fenfe, was Reafon flown?
Where the high majefty of David's throne?
Where all the maxims of eternal truth,
With which the living God inform'd my youth?
When with the lewd Egyptian I adore
Vain idols, deities that ne'er before
In Ifrael's land had fix'd their dire abodes,
Beaftly divinities, and droves of Gods:
Ofiris, Apis, powers that chew the cud,
And dog Anubis, flatterer for his food;
When in the woody hills forbidden shade
I carv'd the marble, and invok'd its aid:
When in the fens to snakes and flies, with zeal
Unworthy human thought, I proftrate fell;
To fhrubs and plants my vile devotion paid;
And fet the bearded leek, to which I pray'd:
When to all beings facred rites were given;
Forgot the arbiter of earth and heaven.

Through thefe fad fhades, this Chaos in my foul, Some feeds of light at length began to roll.

The rifing motion of an infant ray

Shot glimmering thro' the cloud, and promis'd day.
And now, one moment able to reflect,

I found the king abandoned to neglect,
Seen without awe, and ferved without refpect.
I found my fubjects amicably join,

To leffen their defects by citing mine.
The priest with pity prayed for David's race;
And left his text, to dwell on my difgrace.

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The

The father, whilst he warn'd his erring fon,
To fad examples which he ought to shun,
Defcrib'd and only named not Solomon.
Each bard, each fire did to his pupil fing,
A wife child better than a foolish king.

Into myself my reason's eye I turn'd;
And as I much reflected, much I mourn'd.
A mighty king I am, an earthly God:
Nations obey my word, and wait my nod;
I raise or sink, imprison or fet free;
And life or death depends on my decree.
Fond the Idea, and the thought is vain :
O'er Judah's king ten thousand tyrants reign;
Legions of luft, and various powers of ill
Infult the master's tributary will:

And he, from whom the nations fhould receive
Juftice and freedom, lies him felf a flave,

}

Tortur'd by cruel change of wild defires,
Lafhed by mad rage, and scorched by brutal fires.
O Reafon! once again to thee I call:
Accept my forrow, and retrieve my fall.
Wisdom, thou fay'ft, from Heaven received her birth;
Her beams tranfmitted to the fubject earth:
Yet this great emprefs of the human foul
Does only with imagin'd power controul;
If reftlefs paffion by rebellious fway
Compels the weak ufurper to obey.

O troubled, weak, and coward, as thou art!
Without thy poor advice the laboring heart
To worse extremes with fwifter fteps would run,
Not faved by virtue, yet by vice undone.

Oft

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