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With much confusion; then, grown red with shame, They shall return in haste the way they came, And in a moment shall be quite abashed,

PSALM VII

August 14, 1653

Upon the words of Chush the Benjamite against him

LORD, my God, to thee I fly;
Save me, and secure me under
Thy protection while I cry;
Lest, as a lion (and no wonder),
He haste to tear my soul asunder,
Tearing and no rescue nigh.

Lord, my God, if I have thought
Or done this; if wickedness
Be in my hands; if I have wrought
Ill to him that meant me peace;
Or to him have rendered less,
And not freed my foe for nought:

Let the enemy pursue my soul,
And overtake it; let him tread
My life down to the earth, and roll
In the dust my glory dead,
In the dust, and there outspread
Lodge it with dishonour foul,

Rise, Jehovah, in thine ire;
Rouse thyself amidst the rage
Of my foes that urge like fire;
And wake for me, their fury assuage;
Judgment here thou didst engage
And command, which I desire.

So the assemblies of each nation
Will surround thee, seeking right:
Thence to thy glorious habitation

ΤΟ

20

All people from the world's foundation.

30

Return on high, and in their sight.
Jehovah judgeth most upright

Judge me, Lord; be judge in this
According to my righteousness,
And the innocence which is
Upon me: cause at length to cease
Of evil men the wickedness,
And their power that do amiss.

But the just establish fast,

Since thou art the just God that tries
Hearts and reins. On God is cast
My defence, and in him lies;

In him who, both just and wise,

40

Saves the upright of heart at last.

God is a just judge and severe,
And God is every day offended;
If the unjust will not forbear,

His sword he whets; his bow hath bended
Already, and for him intended

The tools of death that waits him near.

(His arrows purposely made he
For them that persecute.) Behold,
He travails big with vanity;
Trouble he hath conceived of old
As in a womb, and from that mould
Hath at length brought forth a lie.

He digg'd a pit, and delved it deep,
And fell into the pit he made:

His mischief, that due course doth keep,
Turns on his head: and his ill trade
Of violence will undelayed

Fall on his crown with ruin steep.

Then will I Jehovah's praise
According to his justice raise,
And sing the Name and Deity
Of Jehovah the Most High.

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PSALM VIII

August 14, 1653

O JEHOVAH Our Lord, how wondrous great
And glorious is thy name through all the earth,
So as above the heavens thy praise to set!
Out of the tender mouths of latest bearth,
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou
Hast founded strength, because of all thy foes,
To stint the enemy, and slack the avenger's brow,
That bends his rage thy providence to oppose.

When I behold thy heavens, thy fingers' art,

The moon and stars, which thou so bright hast set
In the pure firmament, then saith my heart,
Oh, what is man that thou rememberest yet
And think'st upon him, or of man begot

That him thou visit'st, and of him art found?
Scarce to be less than gods thou mad'st his lot;

With honour and with state thou hast him crowned.

O'er the works of thy hand thou mad'st him lord;
Thou hast put all under his lordly feet,

All flocks and herds, by thy commanding word,
All beasts that in the field or forest meet,
Fowl of the heavens, and fish that through the wet
Sea-paths in shoals do slide, and know no dearth.
O Jehovah our Lord, how wondrous great

And glorious is thy name through all the earth!

IO

20

SCRAPS FROM THE PROSE WRITINGS

66

FROM OF REFORMATION TOUCHING CHURCH

DISCIPLINE IN ENGLAND," 1641

[DANTE, Inferno, xix. 115]

AH, Constantine, of how much ill was cause,
Not thy conversion, but those rich domains
That the first wealthy Pope received of thee!

[PETRARCH, Sonnet 107]

FOUNDED in chaste and humble poverty,

'Gainst them that raised thee dost thou lift thy horn,
Impudent whore? Where hast thou placed thy hope?
In thy adulterers, or thy ill-got wealth?
Another Constantine comes not in haste.

[ARIOSTO, Orl. Fur, xxxiv. Stanz. 80]

THEN passed he to a flowery mountain green,
Which once smelt sweet, now stinks as odiously:
This was that gift (if you the truth will have)
That Constantine to good Sylvestro gave.

FROM THE APOLOGY FOR SMECTYMNUUS, 1642

[HORACE, Sat. i. 1, 24]

LAUGHING to teach the truth

What hinders? as some teachers give to boys
Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace.

[HORACE, Sat. i. 10, 14]

JOKING decides great things

Stronglier and better oft than earnest can.

[SOPHOCLES, Electra, 624]

'Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words.

FROM AREOPAGITICA, 1644

[EURIPIDES, Supplices, 438]

THIS is true liberty, when freeborn men,
Having to advise the public, may speak free:
Which he who can and will deserves high praise:
Who neither can nor will may hold his peace.
What can be juster in a state than this?

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WHOM do we count a good man? Whom but he

Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate,
Who judges in great suits and controversies,
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause?

But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood,
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin.

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FROM THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN, 1670

[In Geoffrey of Monmouth the story is that Brutus the Trojan, wandering through the Mediterranean, and uncertain whither to go, arrived at a dispeopled island called Leogecia, where he found, in a ruined city, a temple and oracle of Diana. He consulted the oracle in certain Greek verses, of which Geoffrey gives a version in Latin elegiacs; and Milton translates these.] GODDESS of Shades, and Huntress, who at will Walk'st on the rolling sphere, and through the deep, On thy third reign, the Earth, look now, and tell What land, what seat of rest thou bidd'st me seek, What certain seat, that I may worship thee For aye, with temples vowed, and virgin quires. 967

[Sleeping before the altar of the Goddess, Brutus received from her, in vision, an answer to the above in Greek. Geoffrey quotes the traditional version of the same in Latin elegiacs, which Milton thus translates.]

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BRUTUS, far to the west, in the ocean wide,
Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies,
Sea-girt it lies, where giants dwelt of old;
Now void, it fits thy people. Thither bendomt
Thy course; there shalt thou find a lasting seat;
There to thy sons another Troy shall rise, C
And kings be born of thee, whose dreaded might
Shall awe the world, and conquer nations bold.

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