Me to them odious, for they change,

And I here pent up thus.

9. Through forrow, and affliction great,

Mine eye grows dim and dead,

Lord, all the day I thee intreat,

My hands to thee I fpread.

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40

fo. Wilt thou do wonders on the dead,

Shall the deceas'd arife,

And praise thee from their loathfome bed

With pale and hollow eyes?

11. Shall they thy loving kindness tell On whom the grave bath bold,

45

Or they who in perdition dwell,

Thy faithfulness unfold?

12. In darkness can thy mighty hand

Or wondrous acts be known,

Thy juftice in the gloomy land

Of dark oblivion ?

13. But I to thee, O Lord, do cry,

Ere yet my life be spent,

And up to thee my pray'r doth hie,

Each morn, and thee prevent.

14. Why wilt thou, Lord, my foul forfake,

And hide thy face from me?

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15. That am already bruis'd, and shake

With terror fent from thee?.

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Thy threatnings cut me through:

17. All day they round about me go,

Like waves they me pursue.

18. Lover and friend thou haft remov'd,

And fever'd from me far:

They fly me now whom I have lov'd,

And as in darkness are.

A PARAPHRASE on PSALM CXIV *.

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This and the following Pfalm were done by the Author at fifteen years old.

HEN the bleft feed of Terah's faithful fon

WHEN

After long toil their liberty had won,

And past from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,

Heb. Pra Concuffione.

This and the following Pfalm are Milton's earlieft performances. The first he afterwards tranflated into Greek. In the last are some

Jehovah's wonders were in Ifrael shown,
His praise and glory was in Ifrael known.

very poetical expreffions, The golden-treffed fun, God's thunder-clafping band, the moon's Spangled fifters bright, above the reach of mortal. eye, &c. I will here throw together fome of the most striking ftanzas in Milton's PSALMS.

That saw the troubled fea, and fhivering fled, And fought to hide his froth-becurled head Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil, As a faint host that hath receiv'd the foil.

Ps. lxxxv. v. 45.

Truth from the earth, like to a flow'r,

Shall bud and bloffom then:

And Justice from her heav'nly bow'r
Look down on mortal men.
Before him Righteoufnefs fhall go,
His royal harbinger :

Then will he come, and not be flow:
His footsteps cannot err.

Ps, lxxxviii. v. 5.

Into thy prefence let my pray'r
With fighs devout afcend;

And to my cries, that ceaseless are,
Thine ear with favour bend.

Ibid. v. 20.

Whom thou remembereft no more,

Doft never more regard :

Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er,

Death's hideous houfe hath barr'd.

Thou in the lowest pit profound
Haft fet me all forlorn,

Where thickest darkness hovers round,
In horrid deeps to mourn.
Through forrow, and afflictions great,

Mine eye grows dim and dead:
Lord, all the day I thee intreat,
My hands to thee I spread.

Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?
Shall the deceas'd arise,

And praife thee from their loathfome bed,
With pale and hollow eyes?

Shall They thy loving kindness tell
On whom the grave hath hold?
Or they who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?
In darknefs can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known;
Thy juftice, in the gloomy land
Of dark oblivion ?

Ps.

The high, huge-bellied mountains. skip like rams Amongst their ews, the little hills, like lambs, Why fled the ocean? And why skipt the moun

tains?

Why turned Jordan tow'rd his crystal fountains?
Shake Earth, and at the presence be aghaft
Of him that ever was, and ay fhall last,

That glaffy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make foft rills from fiery flint-stones gush.

L

PSALM CXXXVI.

ET us with a gladsome mind

Praise the Lord, for he is kind,

For his mercies ay indure,
Ever faithful, ever fure.

Let us blaze his name abroad,

For of Gods he is the God.

For his &c. .

Ps, lxxxviii. v. 65.

Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow,
Thy threatenings cut me through;
All day they round about me go,

Like waves they me pursue.

15. Sbake, Earth, and at the prefence be agbaft

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Of Him, that ever was, and aye shall loft.] He was now, only fifteen.

17. That glafy floods from rugged rocks can crush.] So in Comus, v. 861.

Under the GLASSY, cool, translucent wave.

See PARAD. L. B. vii, 619.

O let