PARENT of Life and Light! Sole Source of Good!
Whose tender mercies through the tide of time,
In long successive order, have sustain'd,

And saved the sons of Israel! Thou, whose power
Deliver'd righteous Noah from the flood,
The whelming flood, the grave of humankind!
O. Thou, whose guardian care and outstretch'd
hand

Rescued young Issac from the uplifted arm,
Raised at thy bidding, to devote a son,
An only son doom'd by his sire to die:
(0 saving faith, by such obedience proved,
O blest obedience, hallow'd thus by faith!)
Thou, who in mercy savedst the chosen race
In the wild desert, and didst there sustain them
By wonder-working love, though they rebell'd
And murmur'd at the miracles that saved them!
Oh! hear thy servant Daniel! hear and help!
Thou, whose almighty power did after raise
Successive leaders to defend our race:
Who sentest valiant Joshua to the field,
Thy people's champion, to the conquering field,
Where the revolving planet of the night
Suspended in her radiant round, was stay'd,
And the bright sun, arrested in his course,
Stupendously stood still!

Chorus of JEWS.

What ail'd thee, that thou stood'st still,
O Sun! nor did thy flaming orb decline?
And thou, O Moon? in Ajalon's low vale,
Why didst thou long before thy period shine?

Was it at Joshua's dread command,
The leader of the Israelitish band?"
Yes at a mortal bidding both stood still:
'Twas Joshua's word, but 'twas Jehovah's will.

What all-controlling hand had force
To stop eternal Nature's constant course?
The wandering moon to one fix'd spot confine,
But his whose fiat gave them first to shine?

DANIEL.

O Thou! who, when thy discontented host,
Tired of Jehovah's rule, desired a king,
In anger gav'st them Saul: and then again
Didst wrest the regal sceptre from his hand
To give it David-David best beloved!
Illustrious David! poet, prophet, king;
Thou who didst suffer Solomon, the wise,
To build a glorious temple to thy name,-
Oh, hear thy servants, and forgive us too!

If by severe necessity compeil'd

We worship here we have no temple now: Altar or sanctuary, none is left.

Chorus of JEWS.

O Judah! let thy captive sons deplore,
Thy far-famed temple's now no more!
Fallen is thy sacred fane, thy glory gone!
Fallen is thy temple, Solomon!
Ne'er did Barbaric kings behold,

With all their shining gems, their burnish'd gold,
A fane so perfect, bright, and fair;

For God himself was wont t' inhabit there.
Between the Cherubim his glory stood,

While the high-priest alone the dazzling splendour view'd.

How fondly did the Tyrian artist strive

His name to latest time should live!

Such wealth the stranger wonder'd to behold:
Gold were the tablets, and the vases gold.
Of cedar such an ample store,.
Exhausted Lebanon could yield no more.
Bending before the Ruler of the sky,
Well might the royal founder cry,
Fill'd with an holy dread, a reverend fear,
Will God in very deed inhabit here?
The heaven of heavens beneath his feet,
Is for the bright inhabitant unmeet:
Archangels prostrate wait his high commands,
And will he deign to dwell in temples made with
hands?

DANIEL.

Yes, Thou art ever present, Power Supreme!
Not circumscribed by time, nor fix'd to space,
Confined to altars, nor to temples bound.
In wealth, in want, in freedom, or in chains,
In dungeons or in thrones, the faithful find thee!
E'en in the burning cauldron thou was near
To Shadrach and the holy brotherhood:
The unhurt martyrs bless'd thee in the flames;
They sought, and found thee: call'd and thou wast
there.

First JEW.

How changed our state! Judah, thy glory's fallen,
Thy joys for hard captivity exchanged;
And thy sad sons breathe the polluted air
Of Babylon, where deities obscene
Insult the living God; and to his servants,
The priests of wretched idols, made with hands,
Show contumelious scorn.

DANIEL.

'Tis Heaven's high will. Second JBW.

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem!
If I not fondly cherish thy loved image,
E'en in the giddy hour of thoughtless mirth

If I not rather view thy prostrate walls
Than haughty Babylon's imperial towers-
Then may my tongue refuse to frame the strains
Of sweetest harmony; my rude right hand
Forget with sounds symphonious, to accord
The harp of Jesse's son to Sion's songs.

First JEW.

Oft on Euphrates' ever verdant banks,
Where drooping willows form a mournful shade,
With all the pride which prosperous fortunes
give,

And all the unfeeling mirth of happy men,
The insulting Babylonians ask a song;
Such songs as erst in better days were sung
By Korah's sons, or Heaven-taught Asaph set
To loftiest measures: then our bursting hearts
Feel all their woes afresh; the galling chain
Of bondage crushes then the free-born soul
With writhing anguish; from the trembling lip
The unfinish'd cadence falls; and the big tear,
While it relieves, betrays the wo-fraught soul.
For who can view Euphrates' pleasant stream,
Its drooping willows, and its verdant banks,
And not to wounded memory recall.
The piny groves of fertile Palestine,
The vales of Solyma, and Jordan's stream.

DANIEL.

Firm faith and deep submission to high Heaven
Will teach us to endure, without a murmur,
What seems so hard. Think what the holy host
Of patriarchs, saints, and prophets have sustain'd
In the blest cause of truth! And shall not we,
O men of Judah, dare what these have dared,
And boldly pass through the refining fire
Of fierce affliction? Yes, be witness, Heaven!
Old as I am, I will not shrink at death,
Come in what shape it may, if God so will,
By peril to confirm and prove my faith.
Oh! I would dare yon den of hungry lions,
Rather than pause to fill the task assign'd
By Wisdom Infinite. Nor think I boast:
Not in myself, but in thy strength I trust,
Spirit of God!

I, with some favour'd youths of Jewish race,
Was lodg'd in the king's palace, and instructed
In all the various learning of the East;
But He, on whose great name our fathers call'd,
Preserv'd us from the perils of a court,
Warn'd us to guard our youthful appetites,
And still with holy fortitude reject
The pamp'ring viands Luxury presented;
Fell Luxury! more perilous to youth
Than storms or quicksands, poverty or chains.
Second JEW.

He who can guard 'gainst the low baits of sense,
Will find Temptation's arrows hurtless strike
Against the brazen shield of Temperance.
For 'tis th' inferior appetites enthral

[him;

The man, and quench the immortal light within
The senses take the soul an easy prey,
And sink th' imprison'd spirit into brute.

DANIEL.

Twice,t by the Spirit of God, did I expound

Nebuchadnezzar. † Daniel ii. and iv.

The visions of the king; his soul was touch'd,
And twice did he repent, and prostrate fall
Before the God of Daniel: yet again,
Pow'r, flatt'ry, and prosperity, undid him,
When, from the lofty ramparts of his palace,
He view'd the splendours of the royal city,
That magazine of wealth, which proud Euphrates
Wafts from each distant corner of the earth;
When he beheld the adamantine towers,
The brazen gates, the bulwarks of his strength,
The pendent gardens, Art's stupendous work,
The wonder of the world! the proud Chaldean,
Mad with the intoxicating fumes which rise
When uncontroll'd ambition grasps at once
Dominion absolute and boundless wealth,
Forgot he was a man, forgot his God!
"This mighty Babylon is mine," he cried;
"My wondrous pow'r, my godlike arm achiev'd it,
I scorn submission; own no Deity

Above my own."-While the blasphemer spoke,
The wrath of Heav'n inflicted instant vengeance;
Stripp'd him of that bright reason he abus'd,
And drove him from the cheerful haunts of men,
A naked, wretched, helpless, senseless, thing;
Companion of the brutes, his equals now.

First JEW.

Nor does his impious grandson, proud Belshazzar
Fall short of his offences; nay, he wants
The valiant spirit and the active soul
Of his progenitor; for Pleasure's slave,
Though bound in silken chains, and only tied
In flow'ry fetters, seeming light and loose,
Is more subdu'd than the rash casual victim

Of anger or ambition; these indeed

Burn with a fiercer but a short-liv'd fire;
While Pleasure with a constant flame consumes.
War slays her thousands, but destructive Pleasure,
More fell, more fatal, her ten thousands slays:
The young luxurious king she fondly wooes
In ev'ry shape of am'rous blandishment;
With adulation smooth ensnares his soul;
With love betrays him, and with wine inflames.
She strews her magic poppies o'er his couch,
And with delicious opiates charms him down,
In fatal slumbers bound. Though Babylon
Is now invested by the warlike troops
Of royal Cyrus, Persia's valiant prince;
Who, in conjunction with the Median king,
Darius, fam'd for conquest, now prepares
To storm the city: not the impending horrors
Which ever wait a siege, have pow'r to wake
To thought or sense the intoxicated king.

They justify his vices, and extol

His boastful phrase, as if he were some god.
Whate'er he says, they say; what he commands,
Implicitly they do; they echo back

His blasphemies with shouts of loud acclaim;
And when he wounds the tortur'd ear of Virtue,
They cry," All hail! Belshazzar, live for ever!"
To-night a thousand nobles fill his hall,
Princes, and all the dames who grace the court:
All but his virtuous mother, sage Nitocris:
Ah! how unlike the impious king her son!
She never mingles in the midnight fray,
Nor crowns the guilty banquet with her presence.
The royal fair is rich in every virtue
Which can adorn the queen, or grace the woman.
But for the wisdom of her prudent counsels
This wretched empire had been long undone.
Not fam'd Semiramis, Assyria's pride,
Could boast a brighter mind or firmer soul;
Beneath the gentle reign of Merodach,
Her royal lord, our nation tasted peace.
Our captive monarch, sad Jehoiachin,
Grown gray in a close prison's horrid gloom,
He freed from bondage; brought the hoary king
To taste once more the long-forgotten sweets
Of liberty and light, sustain'd his age,

* 2 Kings xxv.

An impulse more than human stir my breast:
Rapt in prophetic vision, I behold
Things hid as yet from mortal sight.
The dart of vengeance tremble in the air,

I see

Ere long to pierce the impious king. Even now
The desolating angel stalks abroad,
And brandishes aloft the two-edged sword
Of retribution keen; he soon will strike,
And Babylon shall weep as Sion wept.
Pass but a little while, and you shall see
This queen of cities prostrate on the earth.
This haughty mistress of the kneeling world,
How shall she sit dishonour'd in the dust,
In tarnish'd pomp and solitary wo!

How shall she shroud her glories in the dark,
And in opprobious silence hide her head!
Lament, O virgin daughter of Chaldea!

For thou shalt fall! imperial queen, shalt fall!
No more Sidonian robes shall grace thy limbs.
To purple garments sackloth shall succeed!
And sordid dust and ashes shall supply

The odorous nard and cassia. Thou, who said'st
I AM, and there is none beside ME: thou,
Even thou, imperial Babylon, shalt fall!
Thy glory quite eclips'd! The pleasant sound
Of viol and of harp shall charm no more:
Nor song of Syrian damsels shall be heard,
Responsive to the lute's luxurious note:
But the loud bittern's cry, the raven's croak,
The bat's fell scream, the lonely owl's dull plaint,
And every hideous bird, with ominous shriek,
Shall scare affrighted Silence from thy walls:
While Desolation, snatching from the hand
Of Time the scythe of ruin, sits aloft,
Or stalks in dreadful majesty abroad.
I see th' exterminating fiend advance,
Even now I see her glare with horrid joy;
See towers imperial mouldering at her touch;
She glances on the broken battlement;
She eyes the crumbling column, and enjoys
The work of ages prostrate in the dust:-
Then pointing to the mischiefs she has made,
Exulting cries, "This once was Babylon !"

PART II.

SCENE The court of Belshazzar. The King seated on a magnificent Throne. Princes, Nobles, and Attendants. Ladies of the Court. Music-A superb Banquet.

First COURTIER (rises and kneels.) HALL, mighty king!

Second COURTIER.

Belshazzar, live for ever!

Third COURTIER.

Sun of the world, and light of kings, all hail!

Fourth COURTIER.

With lowly reverence, such as best becomes The humblest creatures of imperial power, Behold a thousand nobles bend before thee!

See the Prophecies of Isaiah, Chap. xlvii. and others.

Princes far fam'd, and dames of high descent; Yet all this pride of wealth, this boast of beauty, Shrinks into nought before thine awful eye! And lives or dies, as the king frowns or smiles

BELSHAZZAR.

This is such homage as becomes your love,
And suits the mighty monarch of mankind.
First COURTIER.

The bending world should prostrate thus before thee;

And pay not only praise but adoration!

BELSHAZZAR (rises and comes forward)
Let dull Philosophy preach self-denial;
Let envious Poverty and snarling Age
Proudly declaim against the joys they know not.
Let the deluded Jews, who fondly hope
Some fancied heaven hereafter, mortify,
And lose the actual blessings of this world,
To purchase others which may never come.
Our gods may promise less, but give us more.
Ill could my ardent spirit be content
With meagre abstinence and hungry hope.
Let those misjudging Israelites, who want
The nimble spirits and the active soul,
Call their blunt feelings virtue: let them drudge,
In regular progression, through the round
Of formal duty and of daily toil;

And, when they want the genius to be happy,
Believe their harsh austerity is goodness.

If there be gods, they meant we should enjoy:
Why give us else these tastes and appetites?
And why the means to crown them with indul-
gence?

To burst the feeble bonds which hold the vulgar,
Is noble daring.

Yes; we are likest gods
When we have pow'r, and use it. What is wealth
But the rich means to gratify desire?
I will not have a wish, a hope, a thought,
That shall not know fruition. What is empire?
The privilege to punish and enjoy ;

To feel our pow'r in making others fear it;
To take of pleasure's cup till we grow giddy,
And think ourselves immortal! This is empire!
My ancestors scarce tasted of its joys:
Shut from the sprightly world and all its charms
In cumbrous majesty, in sullen state,
And dull unsocial dignity, they liv'd,
Far from the sight of an admiring world,

That world, whose gaze makes half the charms of

greatness;

They nothing knew of empire but the name. Or saw it in the looks of trembling slaves;

[blest;

And all they felt of royalty was care.
But I will see and know it of myself;
Youth, Wealth, and Greatness, court me to be
And Power, and Pleasure draw with equal force
And sweet attraction: both I will embrace
In quick succession; this is Pleasure's day;
Ambition will have time to reign hereafter;
It is the proper appetite of age.

The lust of Power shall lord it uncontrolled,
When all the generous feelings grow obtuse,
And stern Dominion holds with rigid hand
His iron rein, and sits and sways alone.
But youth is pleasure's hour!

Such magic is in song! Then give me song; Yet not at first such soul-dissolving strains

[sures

As melt the soften'd sense; but such bold_mea-
As may inflame my spirit to despise
The ambitious Persian; that presumptuous boy,
Who rashly dares e'en now invest our city,
And menaces the invincible Belshazzar.

(A grand Concert of Music, after which an Ode.)

In vain shall Persian Cyrus dare

With great Belshazzar wage unequal war:
In vain Darius shall combine,
Darius leader of the Median line;

While fair Euphrates' stream our wall protects,
And great Belshazzar's self our fate directs.
War and famine threat in vain,
While this demi-god shall reign!
Let Persia's prostrate king confess his power,
And Media's monarch dread his vengeful hour.
On Dura's ample plain behold
Immortal Belus,f whom the nations own;

Sublime he stands in burnish'd gold,
And richest offerings his bright altars crown.
To-night his deity we here adore,
And due libations speak his mighty power.

Yet Belus' self not more we own
Than great Belshazzar on Chaldea's throne.
Great Belshazzar like a god,
Rules the nations with a nod!
To great Belshazzar be the goblet crown'd!
Belshazzar's name the echoing roofs rebound!

BELSHAZZAR.

Enough! the kindling rapture fires my brain,
And my heart dances to the flattering sounds.
I feel myself a god! Why not a god!
What were the deities our fathers worshipp'd?
What was great Nimrod, our imperial founder?
What greater Belus, to whose power divine
We raise to-night the banquet and the song:
But youthful heroes, mortal, like myself,
Who, by their daring, earn'd divinity?
They were but men: nay, some were less than men,
Though now revered as gods. What was Anubis,
Whom Egypt's sapient sons adore? A dog!
And shall not I, young, valiant, and a king,
Dare more? do more? exceed the boldest flights

Of my progenitors?-Fill me more wine,
To cherish and exalt the young idea! [He drinks
Ne'er did Olympian Jupiter himself
Quaff such immortal draughts.

First COURTIER.

What could that Canaan, That heaven in hope, that nothing in possession, That air-built bliss of the deluded Jews, That promised land of milk and flowing honey; What could that fancy'd Paradise bestow To match these generous juices?

BELSHAZZAR.

I joy to hear it!

Go-fetch them hither. They shall grace our banquet.

Does no one stir? Belshazzar disobey'd!
And yet you live? Whence comes this strange
reluctance?

This new-born reverence for the helpless Jews,
This fear to injure those who can't revenge it?
Send to the sacred treasury in haste,
Let all be hither brought ;-who answers dies.
[They go out.

The mantling wine a higher joy will yield,
Pour'd from the precious flagons which adorn'd
Their far-famed temple, now in ashes laid.
Oh! 'twill exalt the pleasure into transport,
To gall those whining, praying Israelites!

I laugh to think what wild dismay will seize them
When they shall learn the use that has been made,
Of all their holy trumpery!

[The vessels are brought in. Second COURTIER.

It comes;

A goodly show! how bright with gold and gems!
Far fitter for a youthful monarch's board
Than the cold shrine of an unheeding God.

BELSHAZZAR.

Fill me that massy goblet to the brim.
Now, Abraham! let thy wretched race expect

The name of Nebuchadnezzar not being re ducible to verse, I have adopted that of Nebassar, on the authority of the ingenious and learned author of " Judah Restored."

We are not skill'd in those mysterious arts
Which wait the midnight studies of the sage;
But of the deep diviners thou shalt learn,
The wise astrologers, the sage magicians,
Who, of events unborn, take secret note,
And hold deep commerce with the unseen world.
Enter Astrologers, Magicians, &c. &c.

BELSHAZZAR.

First COURTIER (after a long pause.)

Oh transcendent horror!

Second COURTIER.

What may this mean. The king is greatly moved!
Third COURTIER.

Nor is it strange who unappalled can view it?
Those sacred cups! I doubt we've gone too far.

First COURTIER.

Observe the fear-struck king! his staring eyes
Roll horribly. Thrice he essay'd to speak,
And thrice his tongue refused.

BELSHAZZAR (in a low trembling Voice.)
Ye mystic words;
Thou semblance of an hand; illusive forms;
Ye wild fantastic images; what are ye?
Dread shadows, speak! Explain your dark intent!
Ye will not answer me-Alas! I feel
I am a mortal now-My failing limbs
Refuse to bear me up. I am no god;

Gods do not tremble thus-Support me; hold me; These loosen'd joints, these knees which smite each other,

Betray I'm but a man-a weak one too!

First COURTIER.

in truth 'tis passing strange, and full of horror!

BELSHAZZAR

Send for the learn'd magicians, every sage Who deals in wizard spells and magic charms. [Some go out.

First COURTIER.

How fares my lord the king?

BELSHAZZAR.

Am I a king?
What power have I? Ye lying slaves, I am not.
Oh, soul-distracting sight! but is it real?
Perhaps 'tis fancy all, or the wild dream
Of mad distemperature, the fumes of wine!
I'll look upon't no more!-So-now I'm well!
I am a king again, and know not fear:
And yet my eyes will seek that fatal spot,
And fondly dwell upon the sight that blasts them!
Again, 'tis there! it is not Fancy's work-
I see it still! 'tis written on the wall!
I see the writing, but the viewless writer,

Who? what is he? Oh, horror! horror! horror!
It cannot be the God of these poor Jews;
For what is he, that he can thus afflict?

Second COURTIER.

Let not my lord the king be thus dismay'd.
Third COURTIER.

Let not a phantom, an illusive shade,
Disturb the peace of him who rules the world.

BELSHAZZAR.

No more, ye wretched sycophants! no more!
The sweetest note which flattery now can strize,
Harsh and discordant grates upon my soul.
Talk not of power to one so full of fear,
So weak, so impotent! Look on that wall;

If thou would'st soothe my soul, explain the writing,
And thou shalt be my oracle, my god!

Oh, tell me whence it came, and what it means,
And I'll believe I am again a king!

Friends, princes, ease my troubled breast, and

ASTROLOGERS.

Hail, mighty king of Babylon!

BELSHAZZAR.

[They kneel

Nay, rise:

I do not need your homage but your help:
The world may worship, you must counsel me.
He who declares the secret of the king,
No common honours shall await his skill;
Our empire shall be tax'd for his reward,
And he himself shall name the gift he wishes.
A splendid scarlet robe shall grace his limbs,
His neck a princely chain of gold adorn;
Meet honours for such wisdom: he shall rule
The third in rank throughout our Babylon.
Second ASTROLOGER.

Such recompense becomes Belshazzar's bounty.
Let the king speak the secret of his soul;
Which heard, his humble creatures shall unfold.
BELSHAZZAR (points to the Wall.)

Be't so-look there-behold those characters;
Nay, do not start, for I will know their meaning!
Ha! answer; speak, or instant death awaits

O my misguided son: Well may'st thou wonder to behold me here: For I have ever shunn'd this scene of riot, Where wild intemperance and dishonour'd mirth Hold festival impure. Yet, O Belshazzar! I could not hear the wonders which befell, And leave thee to the workings of despair; For spite of all the anguish of my soul At thy offences, I'm thy mother still! Against the solemn purpose I had form'd Never to mix in this unhallow'd crowd, The wondrous story of the mystic writing, Of strange and awful import, brings me here; If haply I may show some likely means To fathom this dark mystery.

BELSHAZZAR.

QUEEN.

Then hear me.