His eldest hope, with every grace adorn'd,
By me, so heaven will have it, always mourn'd,
And always honour'd,fnatch'd in manhood's prime
By unequal fates, and providence's crime :
Yet not before the goal of honor won,

All parts fulfill'd of fubject and of fon:
Swift was the race, but fhort the time to run.
Oh narrow circle, but of power divine,

Scanted in space, but perfect in thy line!

By fea, by land, thy matchlefs worth was known;
Arms thy delight, and war was all thy own:
Thy force infus'd the fainting Tyrians prop'd ;
And haughty Pharaoh found his fortune stop'd.
Oh ancient honor! Oh unconquer'd hand,
Whom foes unpunish'd never cou'd withstand!
But Ifrael was unworthy of his name:
Short is the date of all immoderate fame.
It looks as heaven our ruin had defign'd,
And durft not truft thy fortune and thy mind.
Now, free from earth, thy difencumber'd foul
Mounts up, and leaves behind the clouds and
ftarry pole:

From thence thy kindred legions mayft thou bring,
To aid the guardian angel of thy king.
Here ftop, my mufe, here cease thy painful flight:
No pinions can purfue immortal height:

Tell good Barzillai thou canft fing no more,
And tell thy foul she should have fled before:
Or fled the with his life, and left this verfe
To hang on her departed patron's hearse?
Now take thy steepy flight from heav'n, and see
If thou canft find on earth another he:
Another he would be too hard to find;

See then whom thou canft fee not far behind.
Zadoc the priest, whom, fhunning pow'r and place,
His lowly mind advanc'd to David's grace.
With him the Sagan of Jerufalem,

Of hofpitable foul, and noble stem ;

Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense
Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.
The prophets fons, by fuch example led,
To learning and to loyalty were bred:
For colleges on bounteous kings depend,
And never rebel was to arts a friend.
To these fucceed the pillars of the laws;
Who beft can plead, and best can judge a cause.
Next them a train of loyal peers ascend;
Sharp-judging Adriel, the mufes friend,
Himfelf a mufe: in fanhedrims debate
True to his prince, but not a flave of state:
Whom David's love with honors did adorn,
That from his difobedient fon were torn.

Jotham of piercing wit, and pregnant thought;
Endued by nature, and by learning taught,
To move affemblies, who but only try'd
The worse a-while, then chofe the better fide:
Nor chose alone, but turn'd the balance too;
So much the weight of one brave man can do.
Hufhai, the friend of David in distress;
In public ftorms of manly stedfastness :
By foreign treaties he inform'd his youth,
And join'd experience to his native truth.
His frugal care fupply'd the wanting throne';
Frugal for that, but bounteous of his own :
"Tis easy conduct when exchequers flow ;
But hard the task to manage well the low :
For fovereign power is too deprefs'd or high,
When kings are forc'd to fell, or crowds to buy.
Indulge one labour more, my weary muse,
For Amiel who can Amiel's praise refuse?
Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet
In his own worth, and without title great:
The fanhedrim long time as chief he rul'd,
Their reafon guided, and their paffion cool'd:
So dextrous was he in the crown's defence,
So form'd to speak a loyal nation's fenfe,
That, as their band was Ifrael's tribes in fmall,
So fit was he to represent them all.

Now rafher charioteers the feat afcend,
Whofe loose careers his fteady fkill commend:
They, like th' unequal ruler of the day,
Misguide the seasons, and miftake the way;
While he withdrawn at their mad labors fimiles,
And fafe enjoys the fabbath of his toils.

These were the chief, a small but faithful band
Of worthies, in the breach who dar'd to ftand,
And tempt th' united fury of the land,
With grief they view'd fuch powerful engines bent,
To batter down the lawful government.
A numerous faction, with pretended frights,
In fanhedrims to plume the regal rights;
The true fucceffor from the court remov'd;
The plot, by hireling witneffes, improv❜d.
Thefe ills they faw, and, as their duty bound,
They fhew'd the king the danger of the wound;
That no conceffions from the throne wou'd please,
But lenitives fomented the disease:

That Abfalom, ambitious of the crown,

Was made the lure to draw the people down :
That falfe Achitophel's pernicious hate
Had turn'd the plot to ruin church and state:
The council violent, the rabble worse :
That Shimei taught Jerufalem to curfe.

With all these loads of injuries opprest, And long revolving in his careful breast

The event of things, at laft his patience tir'd,
Thus, from his royal throne, by heaven infpir'd,
The god-like David spoke; with awful fear
His train their Maker in their mafter hear.

Thus long have I by native mercy fway'd,
My wrongs diffembled, my revenge delay'd:
So willing to forgive the offending age;
So much the father did the king affuage.
But now fo far my clemency they flight,
The offenders question my forgiving right,
That one was made for many, they contend;
But 'tis to rule; for that's a monarch's end.

They call my tenderness of blood, my fear:
Tho manly tempers can the longest bear.
Yet fince they will divert my native course,
"Tis time to fhew I am not good by force.
Those heap'd affronts that haughty subjects
bring,

Are burdens for a camel, not a king.

Kings are the public pillars of the state,
Born to fuftain and prop the nation's weight:
If my young Sampfon will pretend a call
To shake the column, let him share the fall:
VOL. I.