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Say, Royal Sir, by all your fame in arms,
Your praise in peace, and by Urania's charms,
If all your suff'rings past so nearly prest,

Or pierc'd with half so painful grief your breast?
Thus some diviner Muse her hero forms,

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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 with love;
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,

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Feeds from the hedge, and slakes with ice his thirst:
Long must his patience strive with Fortune's rage,
And long opposing gods themselves engage,
Must see his country flame, his friends destroy'd,
Before the promis'd empire be enjoy'd:

Such toil of fate must build a man of fame,

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And such to Isr'el's crown the godlike David came.
What sudden beams dispel the clouds so fast,
Whose drenching rains laid all our vineyards waste?
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 Hyblæan swarms,
Or straggled soldiers summon'd to their arms,
See where the princely bark in loosest pride,
With all her guardian fleet, adorns the tide.
Dryden.]
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High on her deck the Royal Lovers stand,

Our crimes to pardon ere they touch'd our land.
Welcome to Isr'el and to David's breast!

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Here all your toils, here all your suff'rings rest.
This year did Ziloah rále Jerusalem,
And boldly all sedition's syrtes stem,
Howe'er incumber'd with a viler pair
Than Ziph or Shimei to assist the chair:
Yet Ziloah's loyal labours so prevail'd,
That faction at the next election fail'd,
When e'en the common cry did Justice sound,
And Merit by the multitude was crown'd:
With David then was Isr'el's peace restor'd,
Crowds mourn'd their error, and obey'd their lord,

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PART I

---Antiquam exquirite matrem,

Et vera incessu patuit Dea.

Virg.

A MILK-WHITE Hind, immortal and unchang'd,
Fed on the lawns, and in the forest rang'd;
Without unspotted, innocent within,

She fear'd no danger, for she knew no sin:

Yet had she oft been chas'd with horns and hounds,
And Scythian shafts, and many winged wounds
Aim'd at her heart; was often forc'd to fly,
And doom'd to death, tho' fated not to die.

Not so her young; for their unequal line
Was Hero's make, half human, half divine.
Their earthly mold obnoxious was to Fate,
Th'immortal part assum'd immortal state.
Of these a slaughter'd army lay in blood,
Extended o'er the Caledonian wood,
Their native walk; whose vocal blood arose,
And cry'd for pardon on their perjur'd foes.
Their fate was fruitful and the sanguine seed,
Endu'd with souls, increas'd the sacred breed.
So captive Isr'el multiply'd in chains,

A num'rous exile, and enjoy'd her pains.

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With grief and gladness mix'd, the mothers view'd
Her martyr'd offspring, and their race renew'd;
Their corpse to perish, but their kind to last,
So much the deathless plant the dying fruit surpass'd.
Panting and pensive now she rang'd alone,

And wander'd in the kingdoms once her own.
The common hunt, tho' from their rage restrain'd
By sov'reign pow'r, her company disdain'd,
Grinn'd as they pass'd, and with a glaring eye
Gave gloomy signs of secret enmity.

Tis true, she bounded by, and tripp'd so light,
They had not time to take a steady sight;
For truth has such a face and such a mien
As, to be lov'd, needs only to be seen.

The bloody bear, an independent beast,
Unlick'd to form, in groans her hate express'd.
Among the tim'rous kind the quaking hare
Profess'd neutrality, but would not swear,
Next her the buffoon ape, as Atheists use,
Mimic'd all sects, and had his own to chuse:
Still when the lion look'd his knees he bent,
And paid at church a courtier's compliment.
The bristled baptist boar, impure as he,
But whiten'd with the foam of sanctity,
With fat pollutions fill'd the sacred place,
And mountains level'd in his furious race;
So first rebellion founded was in grace:

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But since the mighty ravage which he made

In German forests had his guilt betray'd,

With broken tusks, and with a borrow'd name,

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He shunn'd the vengeance, and conceal'd the shame;

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So lurk'd in sects unseen. With greater guile
False Reynard fed on consecrated spoil:
The graceless beast by Anthanasius first,
Was chas'd from Nice, then by Socinus nurs'd;
His impious race their blasphemy renew'd,
And Nature's king thro' Nature's optics view'd;
Revers'd they view'd him lessen'd to their eye,
Nor in an infant could a god descry,
New swarming sects to this obliquely tend,
Hence they began, and here they all will end.
What weight of ancient witness can prevail,
If private reason hold the public scale?
But, gracious god how well dost thou provide
For erring judgments an unerring guide?
Thy throne is darkness in th' abyss of light,
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight,
O teach me to believe thee thus conceal'd,
And search no farther than thyself reveal'd;
But her alone for my director take,
Whom thou hast promis'd never to forsake!
My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain desires,
My manhood, long misled by wand'ring fires,
Follow'd false lights, and, when their glimpsewasgone.
My pride struck out new sparkles of her own.

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