106 KEDEMPTION.
Who did with those contend, equal 'in number,
And scarce less skill'd in song, do I invoke,
In this fresh trial of superior skill.
Away, Urania, you, ye Muses nine,
Your songs no more delight the sages' ear ;
Away, profane, the palm and laurel now
Crowns loftier bedeck. Pindus, Parnassus,
Rise in vain for me, and Helicon,
Who higher soar than Pegas&m wing,
And there indite a strain, more sweet than fount
Castalian heard from skill'd Apollo's lyre,
Or Orpheus', feign'd to hold the streams entranced,
Make mountains move, and savage beasts grow tame;
Fables, which find their complement alone
In Him, whom David and Isaias sang;
Who now inspire my song, and lead me, though
Unworthy, to a bolder flight than e'er,
Unless so aided, I should dare t' essay.
Not that my art succeeds to equal theirs,
In numbers rhythmical, and flowing verse;
But that the theme, which me so elevates,
Not I the theme, surpasses highest flight
Of man's heroics, mythologic verse,
War's grizzly wounds, with blood and crackling bones,
Neath pond'rous cars and rolling chariots crush' d,
Or batt'ring rams, dread enginery of death;
Befitting more the songs of carnal man,
Than mine, which bold contemns mere earthly thought,
And draws from fount celestial thought divine,
To sing the circumstance of peace, not war,
Man whole redeem'd, and raised above those arts,
Which, but for Sin, had ne'er distraught our sphere,
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