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All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail;
Returning justice lift aloft her scale;

Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-robed innocence from heaven descend.
Swift fly the years, and rise the expected morn!
Oh, spring to light, auspicious Babe, be born!
See Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incense of the breathing spring:
See lofty Lebanon2 his head advance,
See nodding forests on the mountains dance:
See spicy clouds from lowly Sharon 3 rise,
And Carmel's flowery top perfume the skies!

4

Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers:
"Prepare the way!5 a God, a God appears!"
"A God, a God!" the vocal hills reply,
The rocks proclaim the approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
Sink down, ye mountains! and, ye valleys, rise!
With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay;
Be smooth, ye rocks! ye rapid floods, give way!
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold:
Hear him, ye deaf! and, all ye blind, behold!
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
And on the sightless eye-ball pour the day:
'Tis he the obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm the unfolding ear:
The dumb shall sing, the lame' his crutch forego,
And leap exulting, like the bounding roe.

1 Astræa, the daughter of Themis, goddess of Justice, is said to have come down from heaven to distribute justice and teach the principles of integrity to men. But when she saw that men had no reverence for what was holy, she left them, and fled back to heaven. In this new age she will return. See also Isa. ix. 7.

2 Lebanon. The mountains of Lebanon bound Palestine on the north. They consist of the chains of Libanus and anti-Libanus.

3 Sharon, a valley on the coast of Palestine, between Mount Carmel and the town of Jaffa. It was famous for its fertility and excellent pasturage.

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No sigh, no murmur, the wide world shall hear;
From every face he wipes off every tear:
In adamantine1 chains 2 shall death be bound,
And hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound.

As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture, and the purest air,
Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects;
The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms3:
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promised Father of the future age.
No more shall nation against nation rise 5,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes:
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover❜d o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion6 in a ploughshare end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sow'd, shall reap the field.
The swain in barren deserts with surprise
Sees lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise;
And starts amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear.7
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and stately box adorn3;

1 Adamantine, that cannot be broken.

2 See 2 Pet. ii. 4., and Jude, ver. 6. 3" He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." Isa. xl. 11. 4 Isa. ix. 6.: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," &c.

5 "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.". Isa. ii. 4.

6 Falchion, a bent sword. "And

they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks."- Isa. ii. 4.

7 "For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert; and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.". - Isa. xxxv. 6, 7.

8 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the myrtle, and the oiltree: I will set in the desert the firtree, and the pine, and the box-tree together."- İsa. xli. 19.

To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed,
And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed.1

The lambs with wolves shall grace the verdant mead,
And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead.
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet2,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrims' feet.
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk3 and speckled snake;
Pleased, the green lustre of their scales survey,
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.
Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons, and daughters, yet unborn1,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend",
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,
And heap'd with products of Sabæan springs!
For thee Idumè's7 spicy forests blow,

And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day.
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia9 fill her silver horn;

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said to delight in shadowy woods and the chase of the swift stag. The archetype of Diana is the shining moon, who, cold and chaste, scatters her modest silver light over mountain tops and forest glades.

But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze,

O'erflow thy courts: the Light Himself1 shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!

The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd His word, His saving power remains2;
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own MESSIAH reigns!
Pope.

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Caius Julius Cæsar was born B. c. 100. He possessed great energy of character, whilst his personal accomplishments and courage, his talents for war, and his capacity for civil affairs, render him one of the most remarkable men of any age. His victories and his great popularity roused the envy of some noble Romans, who conspired to put him to death. This event took place on the ides (15th) of March, B. c. 44, in the Senate-house. Brutus and Cassius were the two principal conspirators. Cæsar's refusal to remit a sentence which had been passed on one Publius Cimber was the signal for his death. Casca stabs him first; Brutus gives the last blow; and Cæsar falls at the foot of Pompey's statue.

Marc Antony, a friend of Cæsar, in addressing the people, speaks so as not to appear the enemy of Brutus and his associates; but at the same time, by reading Cæsar's will, and enumerating his good qualities, he so ingratiates himself as to awaken in the people an ardent desire to avenge Cæsar's death. Brutus and Cassius are therefore obliged to fly from Rome. Two years after the death of Cæsar, Brutus and Cassius, on the one side, and Marc Antony and Octavius on the other, met at Philippi, in Macedonia. The battle was fiercely contested, but ended in the total rout of the exiles; and Cassius, unwilling to survive his defeat, fell upon his own sword. Brutus was defeated in a second battle, upon which he killed himself, in the 44th year of his age.

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Rome-the Forum — a throng of citizens — Antony and others with Cæsar's

body.

2 Pleb. Peace! let us hear what Antony can say.

Ant. You, gentle Romans

All. Peace, oh! let us hear him.

Ant. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears

I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones:
So let it be with Cæsar! The noble Brutus 1
Hath told you, Cæsar was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault;
And grievously hath Cæsar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest
(For Brutus is an honourable man ;
So are they all, all honourable men,)
Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious :
And Brutus is an honourable man;

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
Did this, in Cæsar, seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept -
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal,

I thrice presented him a kingly crown',
Which he did thrice refuse.

Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And sure he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke;
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once-not without cause;

1 Marcus Junius Brutus was born at Rome B. C. 86. He was about fifteen years younger than Cæsar.

"On the festival of the Lupercalia, Antonius, then his colleague in the consulate, ran up to him as he was seated in state on the Rostra, and placed a diadem on his head. A few hired voices applauded. Cæsar re

jected it, and a general shout of approbation ensued. The offer was repeated, with the same effect." The Lupercal was a spot at the foot of Mount Aventine, where games were annually celebrated, commemorative of the founder of Rome. These games were called Lupercalia.

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