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6 Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hath set me all forlorn,

Where thickest darkness hovers round,
In horrid deeps to mourn.

7 Thy wrath, from which no shelter saves,
Full sore doth press on me;

Thou break'st upon me all thy waves,
And all thy waves break me.1

8 Thou dost my friends from me estrange,
And mak'st me odious,

Me to them odious, for they change,
And I here pent up thus.

9 Through sorrow, and affliction great,
Mine eye grows dim and dead;
Lord, all the day I thee entreat,
My hands to thee I spread.

10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?
Shall the deceased arise,

And praise thee from their loathsome bcl
With pale and hollow eyes?

11 Shall they thy loving kindness tell
On whom the grave hath hold,
Or they who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?

12 In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known?
Thy justice in the gloomy land
Of dark oblivion ?

13 But I to thee, O Lord, do cry,
Ere yet my life be spent ;

And up to thee my prayer doth hie,
Each morn, and thee prevent.

14 Why wilt thou, Lord, my soul forsake,
And hide thy face from me,

15 That am already bruised, and 2 shake
With terror sent from thee??
Bruised and afflicted, and so low
As ready to expire;
While I thy terrors undergo,

Astonished with thine ire.

16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow, Thy threatenings cut me through:

1 The Hebrew bears both.

LL

2 Præ concussione.

17 All day they round about me go, Like waves they me pursue.

18 Lover and friend thou hast removed,
And severed from me far:

They fly me now whom I have loved,
And as in darkness are.

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV.

[This and the following Psalm were done by the Author at fifte years old.]

WHEN the blest seed of Terah's faithful son,
After long toil, their liberty had won,
And past from Pharian fields to Canaan land,
Led by the strength of the Almighty's hand,
Jehovah's wonders were in Israel shown,
His praise and glory was in Israel known.
That saw the troubled sea, and shivering fled,
And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that hath received the foil.
The high, huge-bellied mountains skip like rams
Amongst their ewes, the little hills like lambs.

Why fled the ocean? And why skipped the mountains?
Why turned Jordan toward his crystal fountains?
Shake, Earth! and at the presence be aghast

Of him that ever was, and aye shall last;
That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,
And make soft rills from fiery flint-stones gush.

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Oh, let us his praises tell,

Who doth the wrathful tyrants quell: For his, &c.

Who with his miracles doth make
Amazéd Heaven and earth to shake:
For his, &c.

Who by his wisdom did create
The painted heavens so full of state:
For his, &c.

Who did the solid earth ordain
To rise above the watery plain :
For his, &c.

Who, by his all commanding might,
Did fill the new-made world with light
For his, &c.

And caused the golden-tresséd sun
All the day long his course to run:
For his, &c.

The hornéd moon to shine by night,
Amongst her spangled sisters bright:
For his, &c.

He, with his thunder-clasping hand,
Smote the first-born of Egypt land:
For his, &c.

And in despite of Pharao fell,
He brought from thence his Israel:
For his, &c.

The ruddy waves he cleft in twain
Of the Erythræan main:

For his, &c.

The floods stood still like walls of glass, While the Hebrew bands did pass :

For his, &c.

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In bloody battle he brought down
Kings of prowess and renown :
For his, &c.

He foiled bold Seon and his host,
That ruled the Amorrean coast:
For his, &c.

And large-limbed Og he did subȧue,
With all his over-hardy crew:

For his, &c.

And to his servant Israel,

He gave their land therein to dwell:
For his, &c

He hath, with a piteous eye,

Beheld us in our misery:

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All living creatures he doth feed,

And with full hand supplies their need:
For his, &c.

Let us therefore warble forth
His mighty majesty and worth:
For his, &c.

That his mansion hath on high
Above the reach of mortal eye:
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

JOHANNIS MILTONI

LONDINENSIS

Poemata.

QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS VIGESIMUM CONSCRIPSIT.

Hæc quæ sequuntur de Authore testimonia, tametsi ipse intellige. bat non tam de se quam supra se esse dicta, eo quod præclaro ingenio viri, nec non amici ita ferè solent laudare, ut omnia suis potius vir. tutibus, quam veritati congruentia nimis cupidè affingant, noluit tamen horum egregiam in se voluntatem non esse notam; cum alii præsertim ut id faceret magnopere suaderent. Dum enim nimiæ laudis invidiam totis ab se viribus amolitur, sibique quod plus æquo est non attributum esse mavult, judicium interim hominum cordatorum atque illustrium quin summo sibi honori ducat, negare non potest.

JOANNES BAPTISTA MANSUS, MARCHIO VILLENSIS, NEAPOLITANUS,

AD

JOANNEM MILTONIUM ANGLUM.

Ur mens, forma, decor, facies, mos, si pietas sic,
Non Anglus, verùm hercle Angelus ipse fores.

AD JOANNEM MILTONEM ANGLUM

TRIPLICI POESEOS LAUREA CORONANDUM,

Græca nimirum, Latina, atque Hetrusca, Epigramma Joannis
Salsilli Romani.

CEDE Meles, cedat depressa Mincius urna;
Sebetus Tassum desinat usque loqui;
At Thamesis victor cunctis ferat altior undas,
Nam per te, Milto, par tribus unus erit.

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