Here, lab'ring Muse, those glorious chiefs re-Or swell'd above the clifts their billows raise,
late,
That turn'd the doubtful scale of David's fate;
The rest of that illustrious band rehearse,
Immortaliz'd in laurel'd Asaph's verse:
Hard task! yet will not I thy Might recal;
View Heaven, and then enjoy thy glorious
First write Bezaliel, whose illustrious name Forestals our praise, and gives his poet fame. The Kenites' rocky province his command, A barreu limb of fertile Canaan's land; Which for its generous natives yet could be Held worthy such a president as he! Bezaliel with each grace and virtue fraught. Serene his looks, serene his life and thought; On whom so largely nature heap'd her store, There scarce remain'd for arts to give him
To aid the crown and state his greatest zeal,
His second care that service to conceal:
Of dues observant, firm to ev'ry trust,
And to the needy always more than just:
Who truth from specious falsehood can divide,
Has all the gownsmen's skill without their
pride;
| Before the Muses leave their patron's praise.
Einab our next labour does invite,
And hard the task to do Eliab right:
Long with the royal wanderer he rov'd,
And firm in all the turns of fortune prov'd!
Such ancient service, and desert so large,
Well claim'd the royal household for his
charge;
His age with only one mild bheiress blest,
In all the bloom of smiling nature drest,
And blest again to see his flow'r allied
To David's stock, and made young Othniel's
The bright restorer of his father's youth,
Devoted to a son's and subject's truth:
Rosolv'd to bear that prize of duty home,
so bravely sought, while sought by Absalom.
Ah prince! th' illustrious planet of thy birth,
And thy more pow'rful virtue, guard thy
worth!
That no Achitophel thy ruin boast!
Israel too much in one such wreck has lost.
Ev'u eavy must consent to Helon's worth, Whose soul, though Egypt glories in his birth,
Thus crown'd with worth from heights of ho-Could for our captive ark its zeal retain,
See all his glories copied in his son, Whose forward fame should ev'ry Muse en gage,
Whose youth boasts skill denied to others age. Men, manners, language, books of noblest kind,
Already are the conquest of his mind;
Whose loyalty before its date was prime,
Nor waited the dull course of rolling time:
The monster Faction early he dismay'd,
And David's cause long since confess'd his aid.
Brave Abdael o'er the prophet's school was
plac'd;
Abdael with all his father's virtue grac'd;
A hero, who, while stars look'd wond'ring
down,
[crown,
Without on one Hebrew's blood restor'd the
That praise was his; what therefore did remain
For following chiefs, but boldly to maintain
That crown restou'd and in this rank of fame,
Brave Abdael with the first a place must
Proceed, illustrious, happy chief! proceed, Foreseize the garlands for thy brow decreed, While th' inspir'd tribe attend with noblest
To register the glories thou shalt gain:
For sure the dew shall Gilboah's hills forsake,
And Jordan mix his stream with Sodom's lake;
Or seas retir'd their secret stores disclose,
And to the sun their scaly brood expose;
And Pharaoh's altars in their pomp disdain: To slight his gods was small, with nobler pride,
He all th' allurements of his court defied. Whom profit nor example could betray, But Israel's friend, and true to David's sway. What acts of favour in his province fall, On merit he confers, and freely all.
Our list of nobles next let Amri grace, Whose merits claim'd the Abethdin's high
Who with a loyalty that did excel,
Brought all th' endowments of Achitophel.
Sincere was Amri, and not only knew,
But Israel's sanctions into practice drew;
Our laws, that did a boundless ocean seem,
Were coasted all, and fathom'd all by him.
No rabbin speaks like him their mystic sense,
So just, and with such charms of eloquence;
To whom the double blessing does belong,
With Moses inspiration, Aaron's tongue.
Then Sheva none more loyal zeal have shewn,
Wakeful as Judah's lion for the crown,
Who for that cause still combats in his age,
For which his youth with danger did engage.
In vain our factious priests the cant revive;
In vain seditious scribes with libel strive
T' inflame the crow'd; while he with watchful
Observes and shoots their treasons as they fly; Their weekly frauds, his keen replies detect; He undeceives more fast than they infect.
So Moses, when the pest on legions prey'd,
Advanc'd his sigual, and the plague was stay'd.
Once more, my fainting Muse, thy pinions
try,
1. Yet fate for ruin takes so still an hour,
And trenchrous sands the princely bark de-
And strength's exhausted store let love supply,
What tribute, Asaph, shall we render thee?
We'll crown thee with a wreath from thy own
tree!
Thy laurel grove no envy's flash can blast:
The song of Asaph shall for ever last.
With wonder late posterity shali dwell
On Absalom and false Achitophel:
Thy strain shall be our slumb'ring prophet's
dream,
And when our Sion virgins sing their theme,
Our jubilees shall with thy verse be grac'd;
The song of Asaph shall for ever last.
How fierce his satire loos'd! restrain'd, how
How tender of th' offending young man's fame!
How well his worth and brave adventures styl'd!
Just to his virtues, to his error mild.
No page of thine, that fears the strictest view,
But teems with just reproof, or praise as true.
Not Eden could a fairer prospect yield;
All paradise without one barren field:
Whose wit the censure of his foes has past,
The song of Asaph shall for ever last.
What praise for such rich strains shall we
allow?
What just rewards the grateful crown bestow?
While bees in flow'rs rejoice, and flow'rs in dew,
While stars and fountains to their course are
true;
While Judah's throne and Sion's rock stand
fast,
The song of Asaph and the fame shall last.
Still Hebron's honour'd happy soil retains Our royal hero's beauteous dear remains; Who now sails off with winds nor wishes slack,
Then death unworthy seiz'd a generous race,
To virtue's scandal, and the stars disgrace!
Oh! had the indulgent pow'rs vouchsaf d to
yield,
Instead of faithless shelves, a listed field;
A listed field of Heaven's and David's foes,
Fierce as the troops that did his youth oppose;
Each life had on his slaughter'd heap retir'd,
Not tamely and unconquering thus expir'd:
But destiny is now their only foe,
And dying c'en o'er that they triumph too;
With loud last breaths their master's 'scape
applaud,
Of whom kind force could scarce the fates de-
fraud;
Who for such followers lost, O machless mind!
At his own safety now almost repin'd!
Say, royal Sir, by all your fame in arms,
Your praise in peace, and by Urania's charms,
If all your suf'rings past so nearly press'd,
Or piere'd with half so painful grief, your
breast?
Thus some diviner Muse her hero forms,
Not sooth'd with soft delights, but toss'd in
storms;
Nor stretch'd on roses in the myrtle grove,
Nor crowns his days with mirth, his nights
But far remov'd in thund'ring camps is found,
His slumbers short, his bed the herbless
ground:
In tasks of danger always seen the first,
Feeds from the hedge, and slakes with ice his
thirst.
[rage,
Long must his patience strive with fortune's
And long opposing gods themselves engage:
Must see his country flame, his friends de-
stroy'd,
To bring his suffrings' bright companion Before the promis'd empire be enjoy'd:
Where, by inglorious chance, the valiant died!
Give not insulting Askalon to know,
Nor let Gath's daughters triumph in our woe!
No sailor with the news swell Egypt's pride,
By what inglorious fate our valiant died!
Weep Arnon! Jordan weep thy fountains dry, Or straggled soldiers summon'd to their arms.
The spring so far behind her course delay'd,
On th' instant is in all her bloom array'd;
The winds breathe low, the element serene;
Yet mark what motion in the waves is seen!
Thronging and busy as Hyblaen swarms,
While Sion's rock dissolves for a supply.
Calin were the elements, night's silence deep, The waves scarce murmuring, and the winds asleep;
See where the princely bark in loosest pride,
With all her guardian fleet, adorns the tide!
High on her deck the royal lovers stand,
Our crimes to pardon ere he touch'd our land
Where in childhoods past day I saw distiny frowning
While hope wou'd forsake as each prospect drew nigh
I caught at each leaf, like the wretch who is drowning
Yet others I saved not so friend-less as I
And each tear that was changed to a smile by my aid
Gave joy to my heart, tho' a poor orphan maid.
From experience like mine you this lesson may borrow Ne'er sink unresisting the victum of grief
But sooth a friends care 'tis the best balm for sorrow
And comforting others you'll meet with relief Thus each tear that was changed to a smile by my aid Cheer'd my heart tho' a poor little orphan maid.
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