Preferment, wealth, and power, thy vassals were, And of a monarch all things but the care.

Oh, should our crimes again that curse draw down, And rebel arms once more attempt the crown, Sure ruin waits unhappy Absalom,

Alike by conquest or defeat undone.

Who could relentless see such youth and charms
Expire with wretched fate, in impious arms?
A prince so form'd, with Earth's and Heaven's
applause,

To triumph o'er crown'd heads in David's cause!
Or grant him victor, still his hopes must fail,
Who conquering, would not for himself prevail;
The faction whom he trusts for future sway,
Him and the public would alike betray;
Amongst themselves divide the captive state,
And found their hydra-empire in his fate!
Thus having beat the clouds with painful flight,
The pitied youth with sceptres in his sight,
(So have their cruel politics decreed)

Must by that crew that made him guilty, bleed!
For could their pride brook any prince's sway,
Whom but mild David would they choose to❜ obey?
Who once at such a gentle reign repine,
The fall of monarchy itself design;

From hate to that their reformations spring,
And David not their grievance, but the King.
Seized now with panic fear the faction lies,
Lest this clear truth strike Absalom's charm'd eyes;
Lest he perceive, from long enchantment free,
What all beside the shatter'd youth must see.
But whate'er doubts his troubled bosom swell,
Fair carriage still became Achitophel,

Who now an envious festival installs,
And to survey their strength the faction calls,
Which fraud, religious worship, too, must gild;
But oh, how weakly does Sedition build!
For, lo! the royal mandate issues forth,
Dashing at once their treason, zeal, and mirth!
So have I seen disastrous Chance invade
Where careful emmets had their forage laid,
Whether fierce Vulcan's rage the furzy plain
Had seized, engender'd by some careless swain,
Or swelling Neptune lawless inroads made,
And to their cell of store his flood convey'd;
The commonwealth broke up, distracted

go,

And in wild haste their loaded mates o'erthrow:
E'en so our scatter'd guests confusedly meet,
With boil'd, baked, roast, all justling in the street,
Dejecting all, and ruefully dismay'd,

For shekel without treat or treason paid.
Sedition's dark eclipse now fainter shows,
More bright each hour the royal planet grows,
Of force the clouds of envy to disperse,
In kind conjunction of assisting stars.

Here, labouring Muse, those glorious chiefs relate
That turn'd the doubtful scale of David's fate;
The rest of that illustrious band rehearse,
Immortalized in laurel'd Asaph's verse:
Hard task! yet will not I thy flight recall;
View Heaven, and then enjoy thy glorious fall.
First write Bezaliel, whose illustrious name
Forestalls our praise, and gives his poet fame;
The Kenite's rocky province his command,
A barren 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 more!
To aid the crown and state his greatest zeal,
His second care that service to conceal;
Of dues observant, firm to every 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;
Thus crown'd with worth from heights of honour
Sees all his glories copied in his son, [won,
Whose forward fame should every muse engage,
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 prophets' school was placed,

Abdael, with all his father's virtue graced;
A hero who, while stars look'd wondering down,
Without one Hebrew's blood restored the crown.
That praise was his; what therefore did remain
For following chiefs, but boldly to maintain
That crown restored; and in this rank of fame
Brave Abdael with the first a place must claim.
Proceed, illustrious, happy Chief, proceed,
Foreseize the garlands for thy brow decreed,
While the' inspired tribe attend with noblest strain
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 retired their secret stores disclose,
And to the sun their scaly brood expose,
Or swell'd above the cliffs their billows raise,
Before the Muses leave their patron's praise.
Eliab our next labour does invite,

And hard the task to do Eliab right:
Long with the Royal wanderer he roved,
And firm in all the turns of fortune proved!
Such ancient service, and desert so large,
Well claim'd the royal household for his charge,
His age with only one mild heiress bless'd,
In all the bloom of smiling Nature dress'd,
And bless'd again to see his flower allied
To David's stock, and made young Othniel's bride,
The bright restorer of his father's youth,
Devoted to a son's and subject's truth;
Resolved to bear that prize of duty home,
So bravely sought while sought by Absalom.
Ah, prince! the' illustrious planet of thy birth,
And thy more powerful virtue guard thy worth,
That no Achitophel thy ruin boast;

Israel too much in one such wreck has lost.

E'en envy must consent to Helon's worth, Whose soul, though Egypt glories in his birth, Could for our captive ark its zeal retain, And Pharaoh's altars in their pomp disdain : To slight his gods was small; with nobler pride He all the' 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 Abethdins' high place;

Who, with a loyalty that did excel,
Brought all the' 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.

Than Sheva none more loyal zeal have shown, 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 To' enflame the crowd, while he, with watchful eye, 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, Advanced his signal, and the plague was stay'd. Once more, my fainting Muse, thy pinions try, 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 not envy's flash can blast; The song of Asaph shall for ever last.

With wonder late posterity shall dwell
On Absalom and false Achitophel;

Thy strains shall be our slumbering prophets' dream,
And when our Sion virgins sing their theme,
Our jubilees shall with thy verse be graced;
The song of Asaph shall for ever last,