These reasons in love's law have past for good,
Though fond and reasonless to some perhaps ;
And love hath oft, well meaning,wrought much woe,
Yet always pity' or pardon hath obtain'd.
Be not unlike all others, not austere
As thou art strong, inflexible as steel.
If thou in strength all mortals dost exceed,
In uncompassionate anger do not so.

815

SAM. How cunningly the sorceress displays Her own transgressions, to upbraid me mine! 820 That malice not repentance brought thee hither,. By this appears I : gave, thou say'st, th' example, I led the way; bitter reproach, but true;

I to myself was false ere thou to me;

Such pardon therefore as I give my folly,

825

Take to thy wicked deed; which when thou seest Impartial, self-severe, inexorable,

830

Thou wilt renounce thy seeking, and much rather
Confess it feign'd: weakness is thy excuse,
And I believe it, weakness to resist
Philistian gold: if weakness may excuse,
What murderer, what traitor, parricide,
Incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it?
All wickedness is weakness: that plea therefore
With God or man will gain thee no remission. 835
But love constrain'd thee; call it furious rage
To satisfy thy lust: love seeks to' have love;
My love how could'st thou hope, who took'st the way
To raise in me inexpiable hate,

By ransome, or how else: mean while be calm, And healing words from these thy friends admit.

SAM. O that Torment should not be confin'd To the body's wounds and sores,

607

As a lingring disease,

But finding no redress, ferment and rage,

Nor less than wounds immedicable

Rankle, and fester, and gangrene,

To black mortification.

620

Thoughts my tormentors arm'd with deadly stings

Mangle my apprehensive tenderest parts,

Exasperate, exulcerate, and raise

625

Dire inflammation, which no cooling herb
Or medicinal liquor can asswage,

Nor breath of vernal air from snowy Alp.

Sleep hath forsook and giv'n me o'er

To death's benumming opium as my only cure: 630 Thence faintings, swoonings of despair,

And sense of Heav'n's desertion.

I was his nursling once and choice delight,

His destin'd from the womb,

But now hath cast me off as never known,
And to those cruel enemies,

Whom I by his appointment had provok'd,
Left me all helpless with th' irreparable loss
Of sight, reserv'd 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,

The close of all my miseries, and the balm.
CHOR. Many are the sayings of the wise
In ancient and in modern books inroll'd,
Extolling patience as the truest fortitude;
And to the bearing well of all calamities,
All chances incident to man's frail life,
Consolitaries writ

645

650

655

With study'd argument, and much persuasion sought

Lenient of grief and anxious thought:

But with th' afflicted in his pangs their sound
Little prevails, or rather seems a tune

660

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 various,
Or might I say contrarious,

665

Temper'st thy providence through his short course,
Not ev'nly, as thou rul'st

Th' angelic orders and inferior creatures mute,
Irrational and brute.

671

Nor do I name of men the common rout,
That wand'ring loose about

675

Grow up and perish, as the summer flie,
Heads without name no more remember'd,
But such as thou hast solemnly elected,
With gifts and graces eminently adorn'd
To some great work, thy glory,

And people's safety, which in part they' effect:
Yet toward these thus dignify'd, thou oft
Amidst their highth of noon

680

[gard

Changest thy count'nance, and thy hand with no re-

Of highest favours past

From thee on them, or them to thee of service.

Nor only dost degrade thein, or remit

685

To life obscur'd, which were a fair dismission,
But throw'st them lower than thou didst exalt them
Unseemly falls in human eye,

Too grievous for the trespass or omission;

[high,

691

Oft leav'st them to the hostile sword
Of Heathen and profane, their carcases

To dogs and fowls a prey, or else captiv'd ;

694

Or to the unjust tribunals, under change of times,
And condemnation of th' ungrateful multitude.
If these they 'scape, perhaps in poverty

With sickness and disease thou bow'st them down,
Painful diseases and deform'd,

In crude old age;

Though not disordinate, yet causeless suff'ring
The punishment of dissolute days: in fine,
Just or unjust alike seem miserable,

For oft alike both come to evil end.

700

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? 707 Behold him in this state calamitous, and turn His labors, for thou canst, to peaceful end.

But who is this, what thing of sea or land? 710

Female of sex it seems,

That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay,

Comes this way sailing

Like a stately ship

Of Tarsus, bound for th' iles

Of Javan or Gadire

715

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,

Sails fill'd, and streamers waving,

Courted by all the winds that hold them play,
An amber sent of odorous perfume

Her harbinger, a damsel train behind;

Volume III.

720

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