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THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS.
Destituunt.------
Claud. Bell. Get. 508.
ARGUMENT.
Invocation:—History of the JEWS from the Exodus, under Moses; —and Joshua:—Their general depravation—followed by the Babylonish;—and the Crucifixion,—by the Roman Invasion:— Their sufferings during,—and after the siege of Jerusalem (by Titus);—and present condition.—Their fate different from that of Egypt,—Babylon,—Tyre,—and the four successive Monarchies— Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman.—The question examined— whether the prophecies, relating to their Restoration, are to be figuratively,—or literally understood;—and reasons assigned for adopting the strict interpretation.—Their return:—The distinction of tribes superseded by the coming of the MESSIAH.— Conclusion.
Fraternal, Idumæa's favour'd tribes
Their Salem shall revisit; from the dust
In prouder state to rear the fallen dome,
And bid th' aspiring pinnacle o'ertop
Its antient elevation—I attune
Th' ambitious string. Thou, Moses (as of yore
Through Egypt's parting waves with heaven-lent power
Thou bor'st the chosen multitude, what time
His cumber'd wheel along the faithless track
Busiris urg'd; while round his troubled host,
The watery ruin roar'd) Thyself a bard,
Inspire the Muse; that with prophetic strain
Would hail their second Exodus, and wake
For future years the high triumphant song.
Has caught with rapture, how by Thee convey'd
Twice twenty summers they their long array
Wound through the intricate and perilous path;
When with impendent pillar, 'mid the wild
Unbroken solitudes, the daily cloud
And flame nocturnal mark'd th' uncertain way
Alternate: Gushing from the riven flint,
In lavish pride, how new-born torrents pour'd
Their liquid health; and, by circumfluous night
Shrouded from glance profane, th' ALMIGHTY trac'd
With his own finger on the two-leav'd stone
His double law: Upon its Lord's descent
Spread darkness: while the consecrated hill,
Guarded by death, even to its rocky base
Shook with strange weight; and lurid lightnings, hurl'd
In awful splendour through the deep obscure,
Announc'd a present Deity: How vain
This prodigal magnificence of Heaven;
Its record soon by novelty's young hand
Ras'd from man's careless heart: How two alone
Surviv'd the lingering maze; and Thou, even Thou,
As burst the glorious vision on thy view
Of Israel's destin'd heritage, wert doom'd
To sleep within an undiscover'd tomb;
Though six-score winters fail'd to chill thy blood,
And quench thy beaming eye:—O'er all this field,
Sown with bright miracles, the verse would range;
If verse were equal to the dazzling toil.
That Joshua wielded when from their huge cliffs
He swept the Anakim: The Sun stood still,
His punctual course remitting in mid sky;
And night's pale Sovereign check'd her rapid orb,
To aid the mighty task. Before him sunk
Devoted Canaan, with unhallow'd gore
Moistening the ground: Not infancy its years,
Nor kings their purple rescued; undiscern'd,
Amid the common carnage, they expir'd
By hostile hands—unsung, unwept, unknown.
Beneath the lustre of the noon-tide ray,
Long Israel flourish'd; 'till, by gradual shade
Darken'd to deepest crimson, guilt provok'd
Th' OMNIPOTENT's accumulated ire,
And urg'd his bolt. Upon the double throne
Sat rash Rebellion, ever prompt to burst
But frail as fair; such, Albion, thine (if thine
Rightly the bard hath noted) mirror-taught
To roll th' obedient eye, and court the glance
Of staggering triflers, or with zoneless waist
Rouse the lascivious fire: There Avarice ground
Wove the false tale; and rob'd Devotion paid
The homage of the lip, intent with prayer
To mask or hallow crimes. Then GOD's wak'd wrath,
Gigantic and impatient of delay,
Sped its vast vengeance from the eastern sky:
Onward by Jordan's stream in mournful line
The exiles move, with oft-reverted look
Sadly solicitous once more to view
Deserted Salem; ere her lessening hills
With dubious image cheat their earnest sight:
The haughty Babylonian stalks around,
And in proud mockery taunts the patriot tear.
Hung 'mid the victor's scoffs the silent harp,
Than Those who stoop'd beneath the arm of Rome!
When seventy suns had fill'd their annual course,
Chaldæa's vassals saw the righteous shrine
Mark'd out for heavier woe, more fiercely rose
The Flavian Star, and glar'd with redder fires.
Of Glory's King on Calvary for man
Offering Himself (nor less than He could make
Th' accepted sacrifice) while Nature mourn'd
The monstrous guilt; and Earth in wild alarm
Receiv'd within her agitated breast
Its transient Inmate!—Hopeless wish! Dismay'd
From the bold flight she turns, nor dares advance
Her pinion to the sun: Else would she sing
Th' offence, with all the sorrows which ensued;
Sorrows so merited, that even the Youth
Of proverb'd mercy steel'd his gentle breast.
He comes; with meagre Famine in his train,
And fire-rob'd Desolation. Faint and pale,
In his poor boy th' unnatural father sheaths
His frantic blade: And, deed of sadder note!
She, whose proud foot disdain'd the vulgar ground,
Grasping her infant (with far other joy
Plunges the murderous knife, and glows afresh
With guilty health. Twice fifty myriads fell—
Happy to lose in death the maddening sense
Of Hebrew ignominy! They nor saw
The Latian spoiler revel on the wealth
Of their sack'd fane (as from the holy gold
For his own Deities with curious zeal
He cull'd the votive gift) nor, 'mid the crash
Of sinking palaces, with anguish heard
The shriek of female frenzy: Who surviv'd,
Hereditary servitude, beheld
In long succession rising to the view
Unpitied millions destin'd to bewail
Paternal crime and errors not their own.
Gives to their anxious eye his courted beam,
They sigh for evening; with the eve's wan star
Comes its peculiar sorrow. Numerous still
As sands, which pillow Ocean's hoary head,
They thrive by grief and grow beneath the sword.
Erst by the midnight lamp, with learned toil
Skilful to wind the hieroglyphic maze,
Por'd on the treasur'd page by double fate
Denied to future times. With prone descent
Great Babylon is fallen; amid the dust,
Vainly inquisitive, the traveller pries
In fruitless search where Syrian Belus rear'd
His idol form: No human trace around
Instructs his doubtful step; no friendly tone
Of serpents haply rustling through the brake,
As parch'd by tropic fire and wild with thirst
Their sanguine eye-balls flash, his sinking heart
Beats with thick fear: Meanwhile the bittern moans
In hollow-sounding note; and the lone owl,
Dusky and slow, with inauspicious scream
Adds horror to the gloom. Beneath the waves
Old Tyre is whelm'd, and all her revelry:
Those hosts, who barter'd Israel's sons for gold
(The Traffickers of blood) no more renew
Th' abhorred merchandize; no more with glance
Of keen remark compute the sinew's force,
Or weigh the muscles of their fellow-man.
Queen of the isles and mart of distant worlds,
That thou like Tyre (with hands as deep in blood,
Warm from the veins of Africa, and wealth
By arts more vile and darker guilt acquir'd)
Shalt meet an equal doom. The day will rise,
If Justice slumber not, when those proud ships—
The grace at once and bulwark of thy coast,
That now 'mid baffled tempests range the globe—
Unequal to a foe so oft engag'd,
So oft subdued, shall through their yawning sides
Receive the victor main; and in th' abyss
Thy cliffs shall sink, their chalky tops alone
Extant above the brine: While, as from far
Across the wintry waste the seaman views
The humid net outspread, his piteous heart
(Piteous, though rugged) sorrows o'er thy fate.
Like woe-denouncing comets, blaz'd awhile
In evanescent glory. He, whose foot
Trampled upon Assyria's subject neck,
Fled from the Greek: To Rome's imperious race
Greece bent the suppliant knee: The Roman bow'd
Before the Goth: On rude Germania's brow
Shines Cæsar's diadem; and priests preside
Frown'd fierce defiance on th' embattled world.
Where Israel's relics rest; or how, recall'd
To repossession of their native seat,
His dissipated tribes the glad behest
Shall hear, and how obey: So may'st thou dare
To question GOD's omnipotence, and ask
How wake the dead. The same Almighty Word,
Which summon'd into being and dissolv'd
The hallow'd polity, in pristine form
(At his appointed time) shall re-unite
The ruin'd pile. This hapless Julian knew;
With puny effort, so perchance to thwart
MESSIAH's plan: Him hurl'd from central depths
By arm divine the conglobated fire
Repell'd , as oft his daring hand resum'd
Th' abortive work. Whether (as some suppose
In light conjecture) the prophetic song,
Glittering with eastern metaphor, expect
Its certain end in New Jerusalem—
Holiest of cities; or (as others frame
The surer inference, with scripture's voice
Combining circumstance) shall in the Old
Meet strict accomplishment: For still they lack
Haply in Arsareth with frequent prayer
To human haunt : Still, though dispers'd, distinct—
So GOD pronounc'd—by no mild offices
Of Gentile courtesy attach'd abroad,
With wealth unfasten'd to an alien soil,
They still articulate Judæa's tones;
Still pant in patriot sympathy; and still
The hope of Restoration gilds the gloom
Of present banishment: With brighter hues
Glows the gay vision 'mid their long dark night,
And borrows brilliance from surrounding shade.
Countless as Perfian bowmen, who beset
Freedom exulting on her Attic rock;
When Asia rous'd her millions to the war,
And sunk in all her pomp before the foe
Her vengeance fondly doom'd. With ranks as full,
But with more prosperous fates and purer joys
Than swell the warrior's breast, their destin'd march
The Hebrews bend, from where Hydaspes rolls
His storied tide; or cleave with holy prow
Th' Atlantic main, whose conscious surge reveres
Its buoyant load. No Spaniard plunderers they,
Allur'd by gold (whom will not gold allure?)
With dauntless foot to traverse new-found realms,
And plunge the wondering savage in the mine,
Where—guiltless then—the unsunn'd mischief slept:
No mad crusaders, by the Roman priest
Baptiz'd Invincible, with impious zeal
To combat Hali's turban'd race; and wade
But call'd by GOD or from the western stream
Of Plata, or where Ganges pours his urn,
In love-knit league they throng. With guardian hand
MESSIAH, erst their nation's deadliest hate,
Guides the returning host; and high in air
Waves the bright ensign of the Cross, that once
Led on th' Imperial Christian to the sight,
And to his shrinking legions gave the field.
Judah resigns; and Levi's hallow'd sons
Renounce the ephod, prompt in earlier times
To purge the public stain: For now they own
Their SHILOH come; nor longer, idly vain,
Assert the useless privilege of birth.
With magic touch explore the trembling strings,
While, with past solitude contrasting still
Present society (so sweeter deem'd)
He cheats the summer day of half its hours:
Oft, to the harp in tuneful concert join'd,
Swells the glad voice; and oft, as on the ear
The music falls, they move in measur'd step
Responsive; while the joyous sounds deceive
Their lifted foot, and steal it from its toil.
The dazzling blaze of prophecy fulfill'd,
Shall some rapt Simeon raise the grateful song
And hail th' accomplishment: “LORD, now dismiss'd
“In peace thy servant sleeps; his eyes have seen
“ISRAEL restor'd, and all thy people bless'd.”
The following Sonnet was written soon after the poem made its first appearance; and, notwithstanding the terrible denunciation of a friend (viz. “that it might perhaps make my peace with one of “the sex, at the expence of irretrievably offending all the rest”) I am unwilling to omit this opportunity of introducing it.
To MYRA.
What! Though of Albion's dames the Poet sungThat, frail as fair, with artificial glance
They roll'd th' obedient eye; and 'mid the dance
Guileful upon the staggering trifler hung:
He then nor knew, fond bard! the modest grace
Of Myra's frame; nor haply then divin'd
That Nature e'er had link'd so fair a face,
In bond harmonious, with so pure a mind.
Ah! Had he still in error persever'd!
Still cherish'd his mistake! Now doom'd to pine,
By viewing in that angel form of thine
A more than angel's chastity inspher'd,
Fatal discovery! from thy bright eyes
And brighter soul he learns his guilt—and dies.
The circumstantial agreement of the Mosaic prophecies (particularly Deut. xxviii. 49,57.) with the events, as detailed by Josephus in his narrative of the sufferings sustained by the Jews during the siege, has not escaped the observation of Bishop Newton; who remarks, in his Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. i.p.102, &c. that, though a great part of those predictions was accomplished at the time of the Babylonish captivity, they were all more amply fulfilled under the Roman invasion. Of the famine indeed of the latter period, the Jewish Historian has left us a very dreadful account; and, from its exact concurrence with prophecy, we know to how much faith it is entitled.
Γυναικες γουν ανδρων, και παιδες πατερων, και (το οικτροτατον) μητερες νηπιων εξηρπαζον εξ αυτων των στοματων τας τροφας. Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 10. 3. Των δ' υπο του λιμου φθειρομενων κατα την πολιν απειρον μεν επιπτε το πληθος. vi. 3. 3.
Deut. xxviii. 56, 57. — Δια γενος και πλουτον επισημοσ---- οπτησασα, το μεν ημισυ κατησθιει: το δε λοιπον κατακαλυψασα εφυλαττεν. Id. ib. vi. 3. 4.
Των δε απολουμενων κατα πασαν την πολιορκιαν(αριθμος)μυριαδες εκατον και δεκα. Id. ib. vi. This account is confirmed by Zonaras and Jornandes, who agree in relating that 1100000 (men, women, and children) perished during the siege by famine, disease, and the sword. Omnes (says Lipsius in his notes to Tacitus, Hist, V. 13.) undecies centena millia periisse obsidione illâ clarè tradunt, fame, morbo, Jerro.
Αλλ' ειθε παντες ετεθνηκειμεν, πριν την ιεραν εκεινην πολιν χερσιν ιδειν κατασκαπτομενην πολεμιων, πριν τον ναον τον αγιον ουτως ανοσιως εξορωρυγμενον. Joseph. vi. 3. 4. and vii. 8. 7.
The attachment of the Jews to their country, so pathetically described in the hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, is confirmed by Tacitus (Hist. V. 13.)—ac, si transferre sedes cogerentur, major vitæ metus quàm mortis.
Of their present numbers Basnage (who has written a history of the Jews, as a supplement and continuation of the history of Josephus) observes—“that it is impossible indeed to fix it; but “that we have reason to believe there are still near 3000000 of “people who profess this religion, and (as their phrase is) are “witnesses of the unity of God in all the nations of the world.”
The library of Alexandria was founded by the first Ptolemies, and gradually enlarged to 700000 volumes; 400000 of which were lodged in that quarter of the city called Bruchion, and the remaining 300000 within the Serapeum. The first part was casually destroyed by fire, when Julius Cæsar was making war upon the place; but restored in number by Antony's munificent present, of the Pergamean library, to Cleopatra: the whole were afterwards burnt by the command of Omar the Caliph.
Bishop Newton proves (vol. i. pp. 174. 177. &c.) by copious extracts from six or seven modern writers of eminence that the present desolate state of Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, &c. fulfils, with a melancholy degree of exactness, the prophecies of the Old Testament relative to their ultimate condition.
Exsilit in siccum; et flammantia lumina torquens
Sævit agris, asperque siti atque exterritus æstu.
Virg. Georg. III. 432, &c.
44
Æschyl. Sept. contra Theb. 383.
This traffic is however still patronised by the British Senate; and its continuance was voted, March 16, 1796, by a majority of—four!!!!
The following lines, by an anonymous writer, upon that event (transcribed from the Cambridge Intelligencer, March 19.) possess very considerable merit:
Of vengeance? Drench'd he deep its thirsty blade
In the foul bosom of his tyrant Lord?
Oh! Who shall blame him? Through the midnight shade,
Still on his tortur'd memory rush'd the thought
Of every past delight—his native grove,
Friendship's best joys, and liberty, and love:
All lost—for ever! Then remembrance wrought
His soul to madness: 'round his restless bed
Freedom's pale spectre stalk'd, with a stern smile
Pointing the wounds of slavery; the while
She shook her clanking chains, and hung her head.
No more he pours to heaven his suppliant breath,
But sweetens with revenge the draught of death.
When the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled (Luke xxi. 24.) or—as St. Paul expresses it—when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in, the fulness of the Jews also shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved (Rom. xi. 12.25.26.) that is, says Newton, II.70. when the times of the four great kingdoms of the Gentiles, according to Daniel's prophecies, shall be expired, and the fifth kingdom (or the kingdom of CHRIST) shall be set up in their place; and the Saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever (Dan. vii. 18.)
But these prophecies have not yet received their full and entire completion; our SAVIOUR hath not yet had the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession (Psalm xi. 8.) All the ends of the world have not yet turned unto the Lord (xxii. 27.) All people, nations, and languages, have not yet served him (Dan. vii. 14.) neither are the Jews yet made an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations (Isai. lx. 15.) The time is not yet come, when violence shall no more be heard in their land, wasting and destruction within their borders (18.) GOD's promises (Ezek. xxxviii. 21.25. xxxix. 28,29.) are not yet made good in their full extent; however, what hath been already accomplished is a sufficient pledge and earnest of what is yet to come. We have seen the prediction of Hosea, who prophesied before the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel (iii.4.5) fulfilled in part, and why should not we believe that it will be fulfilled in the whole? 1,137,138.
This event will take place (Newton afterwards observes, II. 395, &c.) about the time of the fall of the Othman empire (denoted by Ezekiel's Gog and Magog) and of the Christian Antichrist (referred to Dan. xi. 46. and xii. 7.) Then, in the full sense of the words, shall the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. xi. 15.—See also xx. 4. &c. and Dan. vii. 26, 27.)
About the particulars of that kingdom our prudence and modesty are equally concerned to forbear inquiry; as they are points which the HOLY SPIRIT hath not thought fit to explain, and of which the perfect comprehension may perhaps constitute a part of the happiness of that period.
Vid. Julian. Epist. xxv. Ιουδαιων τω κοινω. Ambitiosum quoddam apud Hierosolymam templum, quod post multa et interneciva certamina obsidente Vespasiano posteaque Tito ægrè est expugnatum, instaurare sumptibus cogitabat immodicis:—Metuendi globi flammarum propè fundamenta crebris assultibus erumpentes fecêre locum, exustis aliquoties operantibus, inaccessum; hocque modo elemento destinatiùs repellente, cessavit inceptum. Amm. Marcell. xxiii. 1.
Vide Hartley's Observations on Man, p. 11. iv. §.2. Prop. clxxxii. where, besides these two arguments in favour of the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine, viz.
I. That the predictions have never yet been adequately fulfilled of any Jews; and
II. That the ten Tribes or Israelites, carried away captive by Shalmaneser (II Kings xviii.2.) have never yet been restored at all, he alleges
III. That a double return seems to be foretold in several prophecies;
IV. That the prophets, who lived since the return from Babylon, have predicted a return in terms similar to those who went before; whence it follows that both classes must refer to some Restoration yet future; and,
V. That the Restoration of the Jews to their own land seems to be foretold also in the New Testament.
To these arguments, drawn from prophecy, he adds some concurrent evidences suggested by their existing circumstances:
1. That they are yet distinct from all the nations amongst which they reside;
2. That they are to be found dispersed in all the countries of the known world;
3. That, having no inheritance of land in any country, their property (money and jewels, &c.) admits of being easily transferred to Palestine;
4. That they are treated with contempt and cruelty every where;
5. That they correspond with one another throughout the world;
6. That most of them, by the Rabbinical Hebrew, have an universal medium of communication; and,
7. That they still hope and expect themselves to be RESTORED This Restoration (he subjoins) may alarm mankind, and open their eyes; while, by affording an opportunity of a careful survey of Palestine, it may prove the genuineness and divine authority of the Scriptures.
Pistorius, a Norwegian (in his notes and additions to Hartley, i. p. 706. &c.) after expressing his doubts of the destruction of all the present powers of the earth “by a fifth Monarchy or Millen-“nium,” &c. proceeds to vindicate the expectation of a future general Conversion and gathering of the Jews into the Church of CHRIST; proving, by many incontestable arguments, that Rom. xi.26. cannot be understood of a spiritual Israel, or as having happened long ago: About their Restoration to Palestine he is less certain.
THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON.
Luxuria incubuit.------
Juv. Sat. vi. 292.
ARGUMENT.
Exordium.—Time of the Destruction of Babylon (seventy years after “the carrying away of the Jews”)—Cyrus conquers Sardis; —and diverts the Euphrates.—Belshazzar's Feast.—The army of Medes and Persians, under the conduct of two Babylonians (Gobryas and Gadatas) enters the city, along the channel of the river.—The capture—and present state of Babylon.—Address to Rome,—and London.—Conclusion.
No more to rise and gild the front of day,
Far-beaming Babylon? Those massive gates,
Through which to battle rush'd a hundred states;
Cars strove with rival cars in fearless flight—
What! Could not all protect thee? Ah! In vain
Thy bulwarks frown'd defiance o'er the plain:
Fondly in antient majesty elate
Thou sat'st, unconscious of impending fate:
Nor brazen gates, nor adamantine wall,
Could save a guilty people from their fall.
Which taught thy feebled youth a scorn of foes?
And the wan artist, child of sorrow, pin'd:
Destin'd, as Death crept on with mortal stealth,
And the flush'd hectic mimick'd rosy health;
'Mid gasping crowds to ply th' incessant loom,
While morbid vapours linger'd in the gloom?
On Syrian bough Judæa's harp had hung:
Deaf to their despots' voice, her tribes no more
Wak'd Sion's music on a foreign shore;
But oft, his tide where broad Euphrates rolls,
Felt the keen insult pierce their patriot souls:
And still, as homeward turn'd the longing eye,
Gush'd many a tear and issued many a sigh.
Yet not for ever flows the fruitless grief!
Cyrus and Vengeance fly to their relief.
And wields with mighty arm his hallow'd sword.
Reluctant realms their sullen homage pay,
As on the heaven-led hero bends his way:
Opposing myriads press the fatal plain,
And Sardis bars her two-leav'd brass in vain;
Her secret hoards the hostile bands unfold,
And grasp with greedy joy the cavern'd gold.
And rebel states augment the swelling force:
Firm to their end 'mid scenes of rural love,
Unsoften'd by those scenes, the victors move:
And, as in lengthening line their ranks expand,
Spread wider ruin through the ravag'd land.
And shakes the harmless battle from her sides.
In vain the ram its vigorous shock applies;
The mines descend, th' assailing towers arise:
Till Treason comes the baffled chief to aid,
And briefer arts succeed the long blockade.
Wrest the huge river from his native coast;
And bid his flood its wonted track forego,
'Twixt other banks through lands unknown to flow.
Euphrates follows, as a mortal guides:
His surgeless channel, now a pervious vale,
Invites the foot where navies spread the sail;
And soon no barrier, but the eastern main,
Shall bound the conqueror's progress or his reign.
Impetuous Fire precipitates his waves,
The flaming ruin rushes on the plain;
And art and nature rear their mounds in vain.
Should some high-rampir'd town obstruct his course,
The red invader rises in his force:
Swells with dread increase o'er the adverse towers,
Then furious on the prostrate city pours;
And scornful of the check, and proudly free,
Extends his blazing triumph to the sea:
With refluent stream the straiten'd billows flow,
And yield new regions to th' insatiate foe.
Domestic treason, or a world in arms.
'Mid her gay palaces and festal bowers
Flutter'd in sportive maze the rose-crown'd hours:
Loud burst the roar of merriment around,
While wanton dance light tripp'd it o'er the ground;
When, bent the long-drawn revelry to spy,
Hush'd in grim midnight Vengeance hover'd nigh.
Nor vain her care; by wine's soft power subdued
The courtly troop with gladden'd eye she view'd:
The frantic mob in drunken tumult lost,
The drowsy soldier nodding at his post,
The gate unclos'd, the desert wall survey'd;
And called her Cyrus to unsheath his blade.
The luscious draught and drain the maddening joy;
And bid the Satrap emulate his Lord.
With pencil'd lids , the scandal of their race,
Thy crowded halls a thousand princes grace:
Ill on such legs the warrior greaves appear,
Ill by such hands is grasp'd the deathful spear;
Fitter 'mid Syria's harlot train to move,
And wage in safer fields the wars of love.
Alternate rang'd (with faces not more fair,
Nor hearts more soft) that harlot train is there:
The virgin's wish her half-clos'd eyes impart,
And blushless matrons boast th' adulterous heart;
Sigh heaves to sigh and glance to glance replies.
Let these th' achievements of thy Gods rehearse,
Raise the lewd hymn and pour th' unholy verse;
Proceed! With sacrilege enhance thy wine!
Let the vase circle, torn from Salem's shrine.
Empire and wealth for thee unite their charms;
For thee bright beauty spreads her willing arms:
Who shall control thy raptures, or destroy?
Give then the night, the poignant night, to joy.
That frozen cheek, whence life's warm crimson flies!
That lip, on which th' unfinish'd accents break!
Those hairs, erect with life! Those joints, that shake!
The wondrous hand, which stamps yon wall with flame,
Speaks the fear just that labours in thy frame;
As round it sheds self-mov'd the living ray,
Which mocks the lustre of thy mimic day.
Let Daniel's art the threatful lines explain:
Haste! For the prophet bring the scarlet vest;
If so, seduc'd, his words may sooth thy breast.
Ah! no: That phantom with the style of fate
Inscribes the doom of thee, thy race, thy state.
In curses then, rash Youth, the hour upbraid;
When first, by pleasure's meteor beam betray'd,
From virtue's path thy heedless foot declin'd,
And whelm'd in sordid sense the devious mind.
In vain! Even now is wrought the deed of death:
This moment ends thy glories and thy breath!
Above, beneath thee feasts th' insatiate worm;
Completes the murderer's rage, and dissipates thy form.
March Gobryas and Gadatas: Hold, rash pair;
'Tis parricide! Can nothing then atone
Your private wrongs, save Babylon undone?
With docile fervour flourish or expire?
No: When th' insulting Mede is at your gates,
And your pale country shakes through all her states;
For her your cherish'd enmity forego,
To wreak its fury on the public foe:
Renounce the hoarded malice of your breast,
And only struggle—who shall serve her best.
Her giant voice invades the startled ear;
With death's deep groans the shouts of triumph rise:
The mingled clamour mounts the reddening skies.
From street to street the flames infuriate pour,
Climb the tall fane and gild the tottering tower:
In cumbrous ruin sink patrician piles,
And strew amid the dust their massive spoils;
While, with stern forms dilating in the blaze,
Danger and Terror swell the dire amaze.
Though Gods, unequal to a mortal sword!
In awless state th' unworshipp'd idols stand,
And tempt with sacred gold the plunderer's hand.
The Attic warbler trill'd her changeful song:
Their varied green where pensile gardens spread,
And Median foliage lent its grateful shade:
There oft, of courts and courtly splendour tir'd,
The fragrant gale Assyria's Queen respir'd;
With blameless foot through glades exotic rov'd,
And hail'd the scenes her happier prime had lov'd.
Of infant Science pierc'd the midnight sky;
First dar'd 'mid worlds before unknown to stray,
Scann'd the bright wonders of the milky way;
And, as in endless round they whirl'd along,
In groups arrang'd and nam'd the lucid throng:
Nay, in their glittering aspects seem'd to spy
The hidden page of human destiny!
Vain all her study! In that comet's glare,
Which shook destruction from its horrid hair,
Of her sage train deep-vers'd in stellar law
Not one his country's hapless fate foresaw;
No heaven-read priest beheld the deepening gloom,
Or with prophetic tongue foretold her doom.
Her fretted roofs shall Babylon display;
No more her nymphs in graceful band shall join,
Or trace with flitting step the mazy line:
And moral drops shall gather in her eye;
As 'mid her day-dreams distant ages rise,
Glowing with nature's many-colour'd dies:
Resound the rattling car, th' innumerous feet,
And all the tumult of the breathing street;
The murmur of the busy, idle throng;
The flow of converse, and the charm of song :—
Starting she wakes, and weeps as naught she sees
Save trackless marshes and entangled trees:
As naught she hears, save where the deathful brake
Rustling betrays the terrors of the snake;
Save, of the casual traveller afraid,
Where the owl screaming seeks a dunner shade;
The hollow bittern shakes th' encircling groves.
The hour will come, nor distant is its date
(If right was caught the prophet's mystic strain,
Which aw-struck Patmos echoed o'er the main)
The hour, which holy arts in vain would stay,
That prone on earth thy gorgeous spires shall lay;
And, with their vain magnificence, destroy
Thy long illusion of imperial joy.
For once, like thee, lost Babylon was gay:
With thee wealth's taint has seiz'd the vital part,
As once with her, and gangrenes at the heart.
Profusion, Avarice, flying hand in hand,
Scatter prolific poisons o'er the land;
And reptile mischiefs on its surface swarm:—
Like hers, or deaf or faithless to the vow
Of honest passion are thy daughters now:
With well-feign'd flame th' obedient maidens wed,
If wealth or birth adorn the venal bed;
With changing beam the jointur'd brides survey—
Madly they fly where appetite inspires,
Dart the unhallow'd glance and burn with real fires.
Thy sons like hers, a fickle fluttering train,
Th' illustrious honours of their name profane;
Stake half a province on the doubtful die,
And mark the fatal cast without a sigh:
Wakes the dull blood and lights lascivious smiles;
Then in the stews they court th' impure embrace,
Drink deep disease and mar the future race.
When her dead chiefs the plains of Crecy strew'd;
Proud of such heroes, and by such rever'd,
In that blest age far other dames appear'd:
Blest age, return; thy sternness soften'd down,
Charm with our better features and thine own!
Come; but resign those glories of the field,
The gleaming falchion and the storied shield:
Renounce the towery menace of thy brow,
Which frown'd despair on vassal crowds below;
And true to order, and of all the friend,
To varied rank unvarying law extend.
Ah! In the snowy robe of Peace array'd,
Led by the Virtues of the rural shade,
Regenerate man, and other years of gold.
No traitor point the dagger at its side;
But each with patriot toils his hours shall crown,
And in his country's welfare find his own.
The classical reader will not be sorry to find a conjecture of the learned Gilbert Wakefield, on the passage (Isai, xiv. 12.) whence this metaphor is taken, transcribed from his notes on Virg. Georg. ii. 97. which reflects great credit upon his ingenuity and erudition.
“—Thou that didst subdue the nations!”
—Quâ proprietate de stellâ matutinâ prædicari potest, illam subigere nationes: Nos sanè—quibus Hebræi textûs (præsertim in Prophetis et Hagiographiâ) penè infinitas corruptiones, veterum versiones tractantibus, notare contigit—minimè dubitamus errorem sublatere, ab inverso literarum ordine (ut solet) profluentem; quod minùs illi mirabuntur, qui L. Capelli de his rebus librum evolverunt. Pro voce [HEBREW], quæ nihili est, substituimus [HEBREW] vel [HEBREW], mittens, quæ mittebas; aut etiam [HEBREW], mittebaris. Τους ο emendationis nostræ fautores tibi exhibemus, qui habent ο αποστελλων εις παντα τα εθνη: Hi igitur in exemplaribus suis legisse videntur [HEBREW], qui mittebas per omnes gentes. Ad hunc demum modum totam clausulam libentissimè refingeremus (et harum rerum æquos æstimatores fortiter appellamus; cæteros enim, in Hebræis literis planè hospites, nihil moramur nec nucis vitiosæ facimus) [HEBREW] qui lucem mittebas per omnes gentes. Nihil elegantius, aut quod Hebraicæ poësis concinnitatem pleniùs sapiat: nihil denique Prophetâ maximè sublimi dignius, &c.
—κεκοσμημενον και οφθαλμων υπογραφη και κρωματος εντριψει κ. τ. λ. Xenoph. Κ. Π. α
Ambitiosam hanc ornatûs rationem gentes Orientales, in luxum effusiores, excogitârunt. Ita olim Jezebelem, ut regiam præ se ferret gravitatem, oculos fuco ornâsse legimus, II Reg. ix. 30. Ad quem locum lxxii. habent εστιμμισατο τους οφθαλμους, i. e. stibio depinxit: Hoc enim lapide ideò in pingendis oculis homines decoris nimiùm studiosi utebantur, quòd eos non nigravit tantùm sed etiam dilatavit: &c. (Hutchinson. ad loc.) —“Ob vim nempè astringendi (στυπτικην) contrahebat palpebras, et adeò oculos ipsos dilatabat.” Zeun.
For an account of these hanging gardens, the walls, tower, &c. of Babylon, see Id. ib. pp. 94-105.
Sir Brook Booth by in his Answer to Burke, speaking of the reflections that will suggest themselves upon the view of Versailles in its present condition, has the following fine passage: “The silence “will be disturbed by sounds, that are no longer heard; and the “solitude peopled by the brilliant forms, that shall no longer glide “over its polished floors.”
—“I understand that in this island of Great Britain, at the time “I am now writing, Birth is the first virtue and Money the “second: Some indeed may dispute the precedence; but all will “allow that one or both are sine quâ nons, without which virtue is “not.” Hermsprong, II. p. 205.
The novel whence this description of female interestedness is taken, exhibiting Man as he is not, proceeds from the same pen which about four years ago produced Man as he is: They are both works of extraordinary merit. In this character even their “twenty thousand fair readers” (notwithstanding the above extract) will, I doubt not, feel themselves disposed by the innocent bribery of a more conciliating quotation to concur very cordially:
—“We are, like unhallowed satirists, involving in one promiscuous “censure all the fair daughters of men. Let us be more just. They “are our equals in understanding, our superiors in virtue: They “have foibles, where men have faults; and faults, where men have “crimes: In the gaiety of conversation it may be allowed (and— “the author might have added—in the fervour of poetry, of which “Synecdoche is a principal figure) at least it will be assumed, to put “the whole for a part, perhaps a small part; but it would be wise in “man, when he makes the errors of woman his contemplation, not “to forget his own.” II.p.175.
For the subjoined sonnet on The Corruption of Manners, which seems not inapposite to this place, I am indebted to the friendship of C. Marsh, Esq. of the Temple.
TYRANT of pomp, and pride! Chill'd by whose swayYouth's blossoms fade; and all that fancy wrought—
The towering fabric of exalted thought;
And human mind, that cleaves to heaven its way:
Thou smil'st, that Britain's nervous race decay;
Tho' once in virtue's brightest fields they fought,
Tho' once their blood a nation's blessings bought:
Now, the frail insects of a summer day,
They fly regardless of the coming storms;
Those storms shall come! Nurs'd in yon lurid sky
Soon shall they sweep away the sickly forms,
That now dissolv'd in perfum'd slumbers lie:
Heedless alas! that, while the sun-beam warms,
The blast that chills their little lives is nigh.
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