For inward light alas

Puts forth no visual beam.

O mirror of our fickle state,
Since man on earth unparallel'd!

The rarer thy example stands,

By how much from the top of wondrous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,

To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.

For him I reckon not in high estate

Whom long descent of birth

Or the sphere of fortune raises;

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But thee whose strength, while virtue was her mate, Might have fubdued the earth,

Universally crown'd with highest praises.

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Sams. I hear the found of words, their fenfe the air

Diffolves unjointed ere it reach my ear.

Chor. He speaks,let us draw nigh.Matchless in might, The glory late of Ifrael, now the grief;

We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown From Efhtaol and Zora's fruitful vale

To vifit or bewail thee, or if better,

Counsel or confolation we may bring,

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Salve to thy fores; apt words have pow'r to fwage

The tumors of a troubled mind,

And are as balm to fefter'd wounds.

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Sams. Your coming, Friends, revives me, for I learn

Now of my own experience, not by talk,

How counterfeit a coin they are who friends

Bear in their superscription, (of the most

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I would be understood) in profp'rous days
They fwarm, but in adverse withdraw their head,
Not to be found, though fought. Ye fee, O Friends,
How many evils have inclos'd me round;

Yet that which was the worst now leaft afflicts me, 195
Blindness, for had I fight, confus'd with shame,
How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who like a foolish pilot have shipwrack'd
My veffel trufted to me from above,

Gloriously rigg'd; and for a word, a tear,
Fool, have divulg'd the fecret gift of God
To a deceitful woman? tell me, Friends,
Am I not fung and proverb'd for a fool
In every street? do they not fay, how well
Are come upon him his deserts? yet why?
Immeasurable strength they might behold
In me, of wisdom nothing more than mean;
This with the other should, at least, have pair'd,
These two proportion'd ill drove me tranfverfe.

Chor. Tax not divine difpofal; wifeft men
Have err'd, and by bad women been deceiv'd;
And shall again, pretend they ne'er so wise.
Deject not then so overmuch thyself,

Who haft of forrow thy full load befides;

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Yet truth to fay, I oft have heard men wonder 215 Why thou shouldst wed Philistian women rather

Than of thine own tribe fairer, or as fair,

At

!

At least of thy own nation, and as noble.

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Sams. The firft I faw at Timna, and she pleas'd
Me, not my parents, that I fought to wed
The daughter of an infidel: they knew not
That what I motion'd was of God; I knew
From intimate impulfe, and therefore urg'd
The marriage on; that by occasion hence
I might begin Ifrael's deliverance,
The work to which I was divinely call'd.
She proving false, the next I took to wife
(O that I never had! fond wish too late,)
Was in the vale of Sorec, Dalila,

225

That specious monfter, my accomplish'd fnare. 230
I thought it lawful from my former act,
And the fame end; ftill watching to opprefs
Ifrael's oppressors: of what now I fuffer
She was not the prime cause, but I myself,

Who vanquish'd with a peal of words (O weakness!}
Gave up my fort of filence to a woman.

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Chor. In feeking just occasion to provoke

The Philiftine, thy country's enemy,

Thou never waft remiss, I bear thee witness:

Yet Ifraël ftill ferves with all his fons.

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Sams. That fault I take not on me, but transfer

On Ifrael's governors, and heads of tribes,

Who seeing thofe great acts, which God had done
Singly by me against their conquerors,

Acknowledg'd not, or not at all confider'd

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.

G4

De

Deliverance offer'd: I on th' other side

Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds, (doer;
The deeds themselves, though mute, spoke loud the
But they perfifted deaf, and would not seem 249
To count them things worth notice, till at length
Their lords the Philiftines with gather'd pow'rs
Enter'd Judea seeking me, who then
Safe to the rock of Etham was retir'd,
Not flying, but fore-cafting in what place
To fet upon them, what advantag'd best:
Mean while the men of Judah, to prevent

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The harrafs of their land, befet me round;
I willingly on fome conditions came

Into their hands, and they as gladly yield me
To the uncircumcis'd a welcome prey,

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Bound with two cords; but cords to me were threds
Touch'd with the flame: on their whole hoft I flew
Unarm'd, and with a trivial weapon fell'd
Their choiceft youth; they only liv'd who fled.
Had Judah that day join'd, or one whole tribe, 265
They had by this poffefs'd the tow'rs of Gath,
And lorded over them whom now they serve:
But what more oft in nations grown corrupt,
And by their vices brought to fervitude,

Than to love bondage more than liberty,
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;
And to despise, or envy, or suspect
Whom God hath of his special favor rais'd

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As

As their deliverer; if he ought begin,
How frequent to desert him, and at last
To heap ingratitude on worthieft deeds?

Chor. Thy words to my remembrance bring
How Succoth and the fort of Penuel

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Their great deliverer contemn'd,
The matchless Gideon in pursuit

Of Madian and her vanquish'd kings:
And how ingrateful Ephraim

Had dealt with Jephtha, who by argument,
Not worse than by his shield and spear,
Defended Ifrael from the Ammonite,

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Had not his prowefs quell'd their pride

In that fore battel, when so many dy'd

Without reprieve adjudg'd to death,

For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth.

Sams. Of fuch examples add me to the roll, 290 Me easily indeed mine may neglect,

But God's propos'd deliverance not so.

Chor. Juft are the ways of God,

And justifiable to men;

Unless there be who think not God at all:

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If any be, they walk obfcure;

For of fuch doctrin never was their school,

But the heart of the fool,

And no man therein doctor but himself.

Yet more there be who doubt his ways not just, 300

As to his own edicts found contradicting,

Then