302
��SAMSON AGONISTES
��Promised by heavenly message twice de- scending.
Under his special eye
Abstemious I grew up and thrived amain; He led me on to mightiest deeds, Above the nerve of mortal arm, 639
Against the Uncircumcised, our enemies : But now hath cast me off as never known, And to those cruel enemies, Whom I by his appointment had provoked, Left me all helpless, with the irreparable
loss
Of sight, reserved alive to be repeated The subject of their cruelty or scorn. Nor am I in the list of them that hope; Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless. This one prayer yet remains, might I be
heard,
No long petition speedy death, 650
The close of all my miseries and the balm. Chor. Many are the sayings of the wise, In ancient and in modern books enrolled, Extolling patience as the truest fortitude, And to the bearing well of all calamities, All chances incident to man's frail life, Consolatories writ
With studied argument, and much persua- sion sought,
Lenient of grief and anxious thought. But with the afflicted in his pangs their sound 660
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune Harsh, and of dissonant mood from his
complaint,
Unless he feel within Some source of consolation from above, Secret refreshings that repair his strength And fainting spirits uphold.
God of our fathers ! what is Man, That thou towards him with hand so vari- ous
Or might I say contrarious ? Temper'st thy providence through his short course : 670
Not evenly, as thou rul'st The angelic orders, and inferior creatures
mute,
Irrational and brute ? Nor do I name of men the common rout, That, wandering loose about, Grow up and perish as the summer fly, Heads without name, no more remembered; But such as thou hast solemnly elected, With gifts and graces eminently adorned, To some great work, thy glory, 680
��And people's safety, which in part they effect.
Yet toward these, thus dignified, thou oft,
Amidst their highth of noon,
Changest thy countenance and thy hand, with no regard
Of highest favours past
From thee on them, or them to thee of ser- vice. Nor only dost degrade them, or remit
To life obscured, which were a fair dismis- sion,
But throw'st them lower than thou didst exalt them high
Unseemly falls in human eye, 690
Too grievous for the trespass or omission;
Oft leav'st them to the hostile sword
Of heathen and profane, their carcasses
To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captived,
Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times,
And condemnation of the ungrateful multi- tude.
If these they scape, perhaps in poverty
With sickness and disease thou bow'st them down,
Painful diseases and deformed,
In crude old age; 700
Though not disordinate, yet causeless suf- fering
The punishment of dissolute days. In fine,
Just or unjust alike seem miserable,
For oft alike both come to evil end.
So deal not with this once thy glorious Champion,
The image of thy strength, and mighty minister.
What do I beg? how hast thou dealt already !
Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn
His labours, for thou canst, to peaceful end.
But who is this ? what thing of sea or
land 710
Female of sex it seems
That, so bedecked, ornate, and gay,
Comes this way sailing,
Like a stately ship
Of Tarsus, bound for the isles
Of Javan or Gadire,
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails filled, and streamers waving,
Courted by all the winds that hold them play;
An amber scent of odorous perfume 720
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