PSALM LXXXVIII.

I LORD God, that dost me save and keep,
All day to thee I cry;

And all night long before thee weep,
Before thee prostrate lie.

2 Into thy presence let my prayer
With sighs devout ascend,

And to my cries, that ceaseless are,
Thine ear with favour bend.

3 For, cloy'd with woes and trouble store, Surcharged my

soul doth lie;

My life, at death's uncheerful door,
Unto the grave draws nigh.

4 Reckon'd I am with them that pass
Down to the dismal pit;

I am a man, but weak, alas,
And for that name unfit.

5 From life discharged and parted quite
Among the dead to sleep;
And like the slain in bloody fight,
That in the grave lie deep.

Whom thou rememberest no more,
Dost never more regard;
Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er,
Death's hideous house hath barr'd.

6 Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hast set me all forlorn,

Where thickest darkness hovers round,
In horrid deeps to mourn.

7 Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves,
Full sore doth press on me;
Thou break'st upon me all thy waves,
And all thy waves break me.

8 Thou dost my friends from me estrange, And makest me odious,

Me to them odious, for they change,
And I here pent up thus!

9 Through sorrow and affliction great,
Mine eye grows dim and dead;
Lord, all the day I thee entreat,
My hands to thee I spread.

10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?
Shall the deceased arise,

And praise thee from their loathsome bed,
With pale and hollow eyes?

II Shall they thy loving-kindness tell,
On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they, who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?

12 In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known?
Thy justice in the gloomy land
Of dark oblivion?

13 But I to thee, O Lord, do cry,
Ere yet my life be spent,

And up to thee my prayer doth hie,
Each morn, and thee prevent.

14 Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake,
And hide thy face from me,

15 That am already bruised, and shake With terror sent from thee?

Bruised and afflicted, and so low
As ready to expire,
While I thy terrors undergo

Astonish'd with thine ire.

16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow, Thy threatenings cut me through : 17 All day they round about me go, Like waves they me pursue.

18 Lover and friend thou hast removed,
And sever'd from me far:

They fly me now whom I have loved,
And as in darkness are.

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV. WHEN the bless'd seed of Terah's faithful son, After long toil, their liberty had won, And pass'd from Pharian fields to Canaan land, Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand, Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown, His praise and glory was in Israel known. That saw the troubled sea, and shivering fled, And sought to hide his froth-becurled head Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil, As a faint host that hath received the foil.

The high huge-bellied mountains skip, like rams
Amongst their ewes; the little hills, like lambs.
Why fled the ocean? And why skipp'd the mountains?
Why turn'd Jordan toward his crystal fountains?
Shake, earth! and at the presence be aghast
Of him that ever was, and aye shall last;
That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush.

PSALM CXXXVI.

LET us, with a gladsome mind,
Praise the Lord, for he is kind,
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, over sure.
Let us blaze his name abroad,
For of gods he is the God;
For his, &c.

Oh, let us his praises tell,
Who doth the wrathful tyrants quell;
For his, &c.

Who, with his miracles, doth make
Amazed heaven and earth to shake;
For his, &c.

Who, by his wisdom, did create
The painted heavens so full of state;
For his, &c.

Who did the solid earth ordain
To rise above the watery plain;
For his, &c.

Who, by his all-commanding might,
Did fill the new-made world with light;
For his, &c.

And caused the golden-tressed sun
All the day long his course to run,
For his, &c.

The horned moon to shine by night,
Amongst her spangled sisters bright:
For his, &c.

He, with his thunder-clasping hand,
Smote the first-born of Egypt land;
For his, &c.

And, in despite of Pharaoh fell,

He brought from thence his Israel;
For his, &c.

The ruddy waves he cleft in twain,

Of the Erythræan main ;

For his, &c.

The floods stood still, like walls of glass,
While the Hebrew bands did pass;

For his, &c.

All living creatures he doth feed,

And with full hand supplies their need;

THE FIFTH ODE OF HORACE, LIB. I.
WHAT slender youth, bedew'd with liquid odours,
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,
Pyrrha? For whom bind'st thou
In wreaths thy golden hair,

Plain in thy neatness? Oh, how oft shall he
On faith, and changed gods, complain, and seas
Rough with black winds, and storms
Unwonted shall admire!

Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,

Who, always vacant, always amiable,

Hopes thee, of flattering gales

Unmindful. Hapless they,

To whom thou untried seem'st fair! Me, in my vow'd
Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern god of sea.

GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH.

BRUTUS thus addresses DIANA in the country of LEOGECIA.

GODDESS of shades, and huntress, who at will
Walk'st on the rolling spheres, and through the deep;
On thy third reign, the earth, look now, and tell
What land, what seat of rest, thou bidd'st me seek,
What certain seat, where I may worship thee
For aye, with temples vow'd, and virgin choirs.

To whom, sleeping before the altar, DIANA answers in a vision the same night.

BRUTUS, far to the west, in the ocean wide,
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,
Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old;
Now void, it fits thy people: thither bend