Long time in peace, by families and tribes, Under paternal rule, till one shall rise,
Of proud, ambitious heart, who, not content With fair equality, fraternal state,
Will arrogate dominion undeserved
Over his brethren, and quite dispossess
Concord and law of nature from the earth—
Hunting (and men, not beasts, shall be his game) With war and hostile snare such as refuse
Subjection to his empire tyrannous.
A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled Before the Lord, as in despite of Heaven, Or from Heaven claiming second sovereignty, And from rebellion shall derive his name, Though of rebellion others he accuse. He, with a crew, whom like ambition joins With him or under him to tyrannize,
Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell. Of brick and of that stuff they cast to build
A city and tower, whose top may reach to Heaven; And get themselves a name, lest, far dispersed In foreign lands, their memory be lost- Regardless whether good or evil fame. But God, who oft descends to visit men Unseen, and through their habitations walks, To mark their doings, them beholding soon, Comes down to see their city, ere the tower Obstruct Heaven-towers, and in derision sets Upon their tongues a various spirit, to rase Quite out their native language, and, instead, To sow a jangling noise of words unknown. Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud Among the builders; each to other calls, Not understood-till, hoarse and all in rage,
As mocked they storm. Great laughter was in Heaven,
And looking down to see the hubbub strange And hear the din. Thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named." Whereto thus Adam, fatherly displeased :- "O execrable son, so to aspire
Above his brethren, to himself assuming Authority usurped, from God not given! He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl, Dominion absolute; that right we hold By His donation: but man over men He made not lord-such title to Himself Reserving, human left from human free. But this usurper his encroachment proud Stays not on man; to God his tower intends
Siege and defiance. Wretched man! what food Will he convey up thither, to sustain
Himself and his rash army, where thin air
Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross, And famish him of breath, if not of bread?”
To whom thus Michael :-" Justly thou abhorr❜st
That son, who on the quiet state of men Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue Rational liberty; yet know withal,
Since thy original lapse, true liberty
Is lost, which always with right reason dwells Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being. Reason in man obscured, or not obeyed,
Immediately inordinate desires
And upstart passions catch the government From reason, and to servitude reduce
Man, till then free. Therefore, since he permits Within himself unworthy powers to reign Over free reason, God, in judgment just, Subjects him from without to violent lords, Who oft as undeservedly enthral His outward freedom. Tyranny must be, Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.
Yet sometimes nations will decline so low From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong, But justice and some fatal curse annexed, Deprives them of their outward liberty, Their inward lost: witness the irreverent son Of him who built the ark, who, for the shame Done to his father, heard this heavy curse, Servant of servants,' on his vicious race. Thus will this latter, as the former world, Still tend from bad to worse, till God at last, Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw His presence from among them, and avert His holy eyes, resolving from thenceforth To leave them to their own polluted ways, And one peculiar nation to select From all the rest, of whom to be invoked- A nation from one faithful man to spring. Him on this side Euphrates yet residing, Bred up in idol worship-Oh, that men (Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown, While yet the patriarch lived who 'scaped the flood, As to forsake the living God, and fall
To worship their own work in wood and stone
For gods !—yet him God the Most High vouchsafes To call by vision from his father's house, His kindred, and false gods, into a land
Which He will show him, and from him will raise A mighty nation, and upon him shower
His benediction so, that in his seed
All nations shall be blessed. He straight obeys; Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes. I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith
He leaves his gods, his friends, and native soil, Ur of Chaldæa, passing now the ford To Haran-after him a cumbrous train Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude- Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth
With God, who called him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains; I see his tents
Pitched about Sechem, and the neighbouring plain Of Moreh. There, by promise, he receives
Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hamath northward to the desert south
(Things by their names I call, though yet unnamed), From Hermon east to the great western sea; Mount Hermon, yonder sea, each place behold In prospect, as I point them: on the shore,
Mount Carmel; here, the double-founted stream, Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills. This ponder, that all nations of the earth Shall in his seed be blessed. By that seed Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise The serpent's head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be revealed. This patriarch blessed, Whom 'faithful Abraham ' due time shall call
A son, and of his son a grandchild, leaves, Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown. The grandchild, with twelve sons increased, departs From Canaan to a land hereafter called
Egypt, divided by the river Nile
See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths Into the sea. To sojourn in that land
He comes, invited by a younger son
In time of dearth—a son whose worthy deeds Raise him to be the second in that realm
Of Pharaoh. There he dies, and leaves his race Growing into a nation, and now grown
Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves Inhospitably, and kills their infant males: Till, by two brethren (those two brethren call Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim
His people from enthralment, they return,
With glory and spoil, back to their promised land. But first the lawless tyrant, who denies To know their God, or message to regard, Must be compelled by signs and judgments dire: To blood unshed the rivers must be turned; Frogs, lice, and flies must all his palace fill With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land; His cattle must of rot and murrain die ; Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss, And all his people; thunder mixed with hail, Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptian sky, And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls; What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain, A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green; Darkness must overshadow all his bounds, Palpable darkness, and blot out three days; Last, with one midnight stroke, all the first-born Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds, The river-dragon, tamed, at length submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft Humbles his stubborn heart, but still as ice More hardened after thaw; till, in his rage Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea Swallows him with his host, but them lets pass As on dry land, between two crystal walls, Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand Divided till his rescued gain their shore:
Such wondrous power God to His saint will lend, Though present in His angel, who shall go Before them in a cloud, and pillar of fire- By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire- To guide them in their journey, and remove Behind them, while the obdurate king pursues. All night he will pursue, but his approach Darkness defends between till morning-watch;
« AnteriorContinua » |