Because we fight, and battles gain, Some captives call, and say the rest are slain; From hieroglyphic proofs of heraldry, That single time might to a sum amount; Whilst all these shadows that for things we take, Are but the empty dreams which in death's sleep we make. 3 But these fantastic errors of our dream Lead us to solid wrong; We pray God our friends' torments to prolong. And wish uncharitably for them To be as long a-dying as Methusalem. The ripened soul longs from his prison to come, But we would seal and sew up, if we could, the womb. We seek to close and plaster up by art The cracks and breaches of the extended shell, And in that narrow cell Would rudely force to dwell The noble, vigorous bird already winged to part. THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT. I. Is this thy bravery, Man! is this thy pride! All creatures, the Creator said, were thine; And sweat and toil in the vain dru Of tyrant Sin, To which we trophies raise, and wear out all our breath In building up the monuments of death. We, the choice race, to God and angels kin! Home to the promised Canaan above, Which does with nourishing milk and pleasant honey flow, And even i' th' way to which we should be fed With angels' tasteful bread: But we, alas! the flesh-pots love; We love the very leeks and sordid roots below. II. In vain we judgments feel, and wonders see; And with worse hardened hearts, do our own VOL. II. Pharaohs grow; G 97 Ah! lest at last we perish so, Think, stubborn Man! think of the Egyptian prince, Who Moses' God dost now refuse more oft than Moses he. III. 'If from some God you come,' said the proud king, With half a smile and half a frown, 'But what God can to Egypt be unknown? What sign, what powers, what credence do you bring?' 'Behold his seal! behold his hand!' Cries Moses, and casts down the almighty wand: The almighty wand a serpent grew, And his long half in painted folds behind him drew: Upwards he cast his threatening head, He gaped and hissed aloud, With flaming eyes surveyed the trembling crowd, IV. Jannes and Jambres stopped their flight, And with proud words allayed the affright. The God of slaves!' said they, 'how can he be More powerful than their master's deity?' And down they cast their rods, And muttered secret sounds that charm the servile gods. The evil spirits their charms obey, And in a subtle cloud they snatch the rods away, Were ready still at hand, And all at the Old Serpent's first command: So much was overpowered By God's miraculous creation His servant Nature's slightly wrought and feeble generation. V. On the famed bank the prophets stood, Touched with their rod, and wounded all the flood; In their strange current drowned; The herbs and trees washed by the mortal tide The amazed crocodiles made haste to ground; From their vast trunks the dropping gore they spied, Thought it their own, and dreadfully aloud they cried: Nor all thy priests, nor thou, O King! couldst ever show From whence thy wandering Nile begins his course; Take heed lest this do so. What plague more just could on thy waters fall? The kind, instructing punishment enjoy; Whom the red river cannot mend, the Red Sea shall destroy. VI. The river yet gave one instruction more, And from the rotting fish and unconcocted gore, Which was but water just before, A loathsome host was quickly made, That scaled the banks, and with loud noise did all the country invade; As Nilus when he quits his sacred bed, (But like a friend he visits all the land So did this living tide the fields o'erspread. To kill their noisome enemies, From the unexhausted source still new recruits arise: Nor does the earth these greedy troops suffice; The towns and houses they possess, The temples and the palaces, Nor Pharaoh nor his gods they fear, Where never sun-born frog durst to aspire, VII. The water thus her wonders did produce, But both were to no use: As yet the sorcerer's mimic power served for excuse. Try what the earth will do, said God, and lo! They struck the earth a fertile blow, |