Of rude ungovern'd troops averse to all
That sav'reth of a wise economy,

Be not dismay'd! Trust only in the arm Whose strength can grind leviathan to dust, 120. And lift the weakest to a throne of state,

And all is well! remember what thou art:-
Preacher of righteousness, ordain'd by me!
Heed, then, thine office! and when come the foes
And ask for liberty of morbid growth,

Ascend the hill where now thine altar smokes,
And utter forth the eloquence of truth

122. Preacher of righteousness ordained by me.-The Scripture distinctly informs us, that "Noah was a preacher of righteousness;" and, since he seems to have sustained the office of a civil ruler, it is to be presumed, I think, that in antediluvian days there was an established priesthood as in after times; and that the preacher's office, although, of course, of Divine appointment, was distinct from that of the priest in some particulars. Let the faithful priest pray ever for the king! Let the upright king give, ever, protection to the priest! With regard to the former, God himself says, "I have set my king upon my holy hill of Sion:”' with regard to the latter, "the Lord himself said unto my Lord, thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisidec!" and St. John, we know, in the august Apocalypse gives us reason to believe, that sovereignty and priesthood shall co-exist in happy

D

Drawn unpolluted from that hidden source

Of whose clear streams dank folly cannot drink!"

Thus speaks Jehovah to the man elect, 130. The man fore-fated to survive the storm That erst shall bury the great globe itself! The voice is still;-the cloud so bright removes, Evolv'd in ether, and its splendour fades! The Patriarch, new-nerv'd, goes forth to do The daylight's biddings, and his sons proceed, And his sons' wives, their duties to fulfil! Thus human nature, aided by divine,

Is arm'd with vigour never felt before!

And those who crouch'd, bow'd down with grief

and dread,

union, when the worlds themselves have felt their great dread shock. "Unto him," says the inspired servant, "that hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, be glory and dominion for ever." It is as though he had said the first Adam was both king and priest by creation, but since by transgression he destroyed the kingdom and the priesthood, they are restored for ever by the second Adam, who was, and is, and shall be for ever, the priest and king immortal!

140. Look up, and wonder what distraction means!
Now to the hills where sheep in thousands lie
The royal shepherds haste, and hours go round
Spectators of the rural artificers' work—

A work remote from sordid influ'nces,
From schemes illicit, eyeless perfidies,
Unhallow'd doubtings, dastard self-conceit,
A mean-soul'd av'rice, and benumb'd remorse!
Where is thy dwelling, happiness?-O say?
Is't not where man forgetteth to do ill? .

150. Is't not where lambs teach innocence? where flowr's

Give incense to the clouds, and they again
Emit the fragance over all the field?

Yes! and thy tenement would hold the world
Were the world's tenants not dispos'd to stray!
Too oft is man the spoliator base!

The foe too oft! too oft the barb'rous brute!

Vines mourn the drunkard! and full barns the thief!

Oak-trees the rude! their boughs the murderer!

And e'en the sex unused to toil severe,

160. Form'd to ennoble and delight man's heart,

Is not untouch'd by sympathy with ill!—
Is not triumphant always o'er the pow'r
Of that frail bird that flutters in the breast,
Which some unthinking arrogants name love!

Mirandah was the daughter of a sire
Who fell prostrated by a villain's hand;
Her mother, too, was coffined in mould!
The little orphan, friendless and obscure,
Touch'd the kind heart of Noah, and he clasp'd
170. The girl with tenderness, and bade her draw
Supply for all her need from out his store!
Through sixteen years th'adopted daughter
liv'd

A walking mirror of each mental grace,
A star-lit lustre of each moral good!
But Odin's eye (O, unpropitious hour,)
Had aim'd its venom'd jav'lin at the fair:—
Quiet has fled from young Mirandah now,-

Her olive-branch of peace has been destroy'd! And thus she says to Japhet 'mongst the sheep: 180. "Say, Japhet, is it wrong to stretch one's view Beyond the line prescrib'd to Adam's race? Say, is it guilty to enlarge the mind

By sending it in search of things from home?
Because that Cain once whet the blade to slay,
Are his whole progeny to be disown'd?"

Japhet responds, "what means the would-be
wise?

Wisdom grows inch by inch, and day by day—
And seldom is the plant exuberant,

And ne'er luxuriates, as do baser weeds!

190 But thou art young, Mirandah, and shonld'st

learn

That what's ordain'd, has been ordain'd by
heav'n!

That heav'n is righteous! and that all ordain'd,
Is righteous therefore! Shall the shapen'd clay
Turn to the potter, and say, wherefore thus?'