Puts forth no visual beam, inte i 19qmot need gisa. O mirror of our fickle state,

Since man on earth, unparallel'd! real @ tiya
The rarer thy example stands,

By how much from the top of wondrous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,

น

To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fallen.
For him I reckon not in high estate

Whom long descent of birth,

Or the sphere of fortune, raises;

* ་

But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate, Might have subdued the earth,

:

Universally crown'd with highest praises.

Sam, I hear the sound of words; their sense the air Dissolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.

Cho. He speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless in The glory late of Israel, now the grief;

[might, We come, thy friends and neighbours not unknown, From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful vale,

To visit or bewail thee; or, if better,
Counsel or consolation we may bring,..

Salve to thy sores; apt words have power to swage

The tumours of a troubled mind,

And are as balm to fester'd wounds.

Sam. Your coming, Friends, revives me; for I learn, Now of my own experience, not by talk, How counterfeit a coin they are who friends Bear in their superscription (of the most I would be understood); in prosperous days They swarm, but in advérse withdraw their head,

Not to be found, though sought. Ye see, O Friends,
How many evils have enclosed me round;

Yet that which was the worst now least afflicts me,
Blindness; for had I sight, confused with shame,
How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who, like a foolish pilot, have shipwreck'd
My vessel trusted to me from above,
Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear,
Fool! have divulged the secret gift of God
To a deceitful woman? tell me, Friends,
Am I not sung and proverb'd for a fool
In every street? do they not say, how well
Are come upon him his deserts! yet why?
Immeasurable strength they might behold
In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean;
This with the other should, at least, have pair'd,
These two, proportion'd ill, drove me transverse.
Cho. Tax not divine disposal; wisest men

Have err'd, and by bad women been deceived;
And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.
Deject not then so overmuch thyself,

Who hast of sorrow thy full load besides:
Yet, truth to say, I oft have heard men wonder
Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather
Than of thy own tribe fairer, or as fair,

At least of thy own nation, and as noble.

Sam. The first I saw at Timna, and she pleased Me, not my parents, that I sought to wed The daughter of an infidel: They knew not That what I motion'd was of God; I knew

From intimate impulse, and therefore urged
The marriage on; that by occasion hence
I might begin Israel's deliverance,
The work to which I was divinely call'd.
She proving false, the next I took to wife
(0 that I never had! fond wish too late),
Was in the vale of Sorec, Dalila,

That specious monster, my accomplish'd snare.
I thought it lawful from my former act,
And the same end; still watching to oppress
Israel's oppressors: of what now I suffer
She was not the prime cause, but I myself,
Who, vanquish'd with a peal of words, (O weakness!)
Gave up my fort of silence to a woman.

› Cho. In seeking just occasion to provoke
The Philistine, thy country's enemy,

Thou never wast remiss, I bear thee witness:
Yet Israël still serves with all his sons.

Sam. That fault I take not on me, but transfer

On Israel's governors and heads of tribes,

Who, seeing those great acts which God had done
Singly by me against their conquerors,

Acknowledged not, or not at all considered,
Deliverance offer'd: I on the other side
Used no ambition to commend my deeds;

[doer:

The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the

But they persisted deaf, and would not seem

To count them things worth notice, till at length
Their lords the Philistines with gather'd powers
Enter'd Judea seeking me, who then

Safe to the rock of Etham was retired;
Not flying, but forecasting in what place
To set upon them, what advantaged best;
Meanwhile the men of Judah, to prevent f
The harass of their land, beset me round ;
I willingly on some conditions came
Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me
To the uncircumcised a welcome prey,

1

Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threads
Touch'd with the flame: on their whole host I flew?
Unarm'd, and with a trivial weapon fell'd cont
Their choicest youth; they only lived who fled, her
Had Judah that day join'd, or one whole tribe,
They had by this possess'd the towers of Gath,
And lorded over them whom they now serve:
But what more oft, in nations grown corrupt, 2
And by their vices brought to servitude,
Than to love bondage more than liberty,
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;
And to despise or envy or suspect
Whom God hath of his special favour raised
As their deliverer? If he aught begin,
How frequent to desert him, and at last
To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds?

Cho. Thy words to my remembrance bring How Succoth and the fort of Penuel

Of Madian and her vanquish'd kings: A38 F And how ingrateful Ephraim Fargest v jamolish mu 1

Had dealt with Jephtha, who by argument,
Not worse than by his shield and spear,
Defended Israel from the Ammonite,
Had not his prowess quell'd their pride
In that sore battle, when so many died
Without reprieve, adjudged to death,
For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth.
Sam. Of such examples add me to the roll;
Me easily indeed mine may neglect,
But God's proposed deliverance not so.
Cho. Just are the ways of God,

And justifiable to Men;

Unless there be, who think not God at all:

If any be, they walk obscure;

For of such doctrine never was there school,

But the heart of the fool,

And no man therein doctor but himself.

Yet more there be, who doubt his ways not just, As to his own edícts found contradicting, Then give the reins to wandering thought, Regardless of his glory's diminution; Till, by their own perplexities involved, They ravel more, still less resolved, But never find self-satisfying solution.

As if they would confine the Interminable,
And tie him to his own prescript,

Who made our laws to bind us, not himself,
And hath full right to exempt

Whomso it pleases him by choice

From national obstriction, without taint