From the dry ground to spring, thy thirst t' allay
After the brunt of battel, can as easy

Cause light again within thy eyes to spring,
Wherewith to ferve him better than thou haft; 585
And I perfuade me fo; why elfe this ftrength
Miraculous yet ramaining in those locks?
His might continues in thee not for nought,
Nor shall his wondrous gifts be frustrate thus.

590

Sams. All otherwise to me my thoughts portend, That these dark orbs no more fhall treat with light, Nor th' other light of life continue long,

But yield to double darkness nigh at hand:
So much I feel my genial spirits droop,
My hopes all flat, nature within me seems
In all her functions weary of herself,
My race of glory run, and race of shame,
And I shall shortly be with them that rest.

595

Man. Believe not these fuggeftions which proceed From anguish of the mind and humors black,

600

That mingle with thy fancy. I however

Must not omit a father's timely care

To profecute the means of thy deliverance

By ransome, or how else: mean while be calm,
And healing words from these thy friends admit. 605
Sams. O that torment should not be confin'd

To the body's wounds and fores,

With maladies innumerable

In heart, head, breast and reins;

But

But must secret passage find

610

To th' inmoft mind,

There exercise all his fierce accidents,

And on her purest spirits prey,

As on entrails, joints, and limbs,

With answerable pains, but more intense,
Though void of corporal sense.

My griefs not only pain me

615

Thoughts my tormentors arm'd with deadly stings Mangle my apprehenfive tenderest parts,

Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

625

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb
Or medicinal liquor can affwage,

Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.

Sleep hath forfook and giv'n me o'er

To death's benumming opium as my only cure: 630 Thence faintings, fwoonings of despair,

And sense of Heav'n's defertion.

I was his nurfling once and choice delight, His deftin'd from the womb,

Promis'd by heav'nly message twice defcending. 635 Under his special eye

Abstemious I grew up and thriv'd amain;

He led me on to mightiest deeds

Above the nerve of mortal arm

Against th' uncircumcis'd, our enemies:

But now hath caft me off as never known,

And to thofe cruel enemies,

Whom I by his appointment had provok'd,
Left me all helpless with th' irreparable loss
Of fight, referv'd alive to be repeated
The subject of their cruelty or scorn.
Nor am I in the lift of them that hope;
Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless;

640

645

This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, speedy death,

650

The close of all my miferies, and the balm.

Chor. Many are the sayings of the wife In ancient and in modern books inroll'd, Extolling patience as the trueft fortitude; And to the bearing well of all calamities, All chances incident to man's frail life, Confolatories writ

655

With study'd argument, and much persuasion sought Lenient of grief and anxious thought:

But with th' afflicted in his pangs their found 660

Little prevails, or rather seems a tune

Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his complaint;

Unless he feel within

Some fource of confolation from above,

Secret refreshings, that repair his strength,

665 And

And fainting spirits uphold.

God of our fathers, what is man!

That thou towards him with hand so various,
Or might I fay contrarious,

Temper'ft thy providence through his fhort course,

Not ev'nly, as thou rul❜st

671

Th'angelic orders and inferior creatures mute,

Irrational and brute.

Nor do I name of men the common rout,

675

That wand'ring loose about

Grow
up and perish, as the fummer flie,
Heads without name no more remember'd,

But fuch as thou haft folemnly elected,

With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd

To some great work, thy glory,

And people's fafety, which in part they' effect:

680

Yet toward these thus dignify'd, thou oft

Amidft their highth of noon

(gard

Changest thy count'nance, and thy hand with no re

Of highest favors past

685

From thee on them, or them to thee of fervice.

Nor only doft degrade them, or remit

To life obfcur'd, which were a fair difmiffion,

Butthrow'ft them lower than thou didft exalt them high,
Unseemly falls in human eye,

Too grievous for the trespass or omission;
Oft leav'ft them to the hoftile fword

Of Heathen and profane, their carcafes

H 4

690

Το

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captiv'd;

Or to th' unjust tribunals, under change of times, 695 And condemnation of th' ingrateful multitude.

If these they scape, perhaps in poverty

With fickness and disease thou bow'ft them down, Painful diseases and deform'd,

In crude old age;

Though not difordinate, yet caufless fuff'ring

The punishment of diffolute days: in fine,
Juft or unjust alike seem miferable,

For oft alike both come to evil end.

700

704

So deal not with this once thy glorious champion, The image of thy ftrength, and mighty minister. What do I beg? how haft thou dealt already? Behold him in this ftate calamitous, and turn His labors, for thou canft, to peaceful end.

But who is this, what thing of sea or land?

710

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,

Sails fill'd, and ftreamers waving,

Courted by all the winds that hold them play,
An amber fent of odorous perfume

720

Her harbinger, a damsel train behind;

Some