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This and this man was born in her;
High God shall fix her fast.

6. The Lord shall write it in a scroll
That ne'er shall be outworn,
When he the nations doth inroll;

That this man there was born.

7. Both they who sing, and they who dance,
With sacred songs are there;

In thee fresh brooks and soft streams glance,
And all my fountains clear.

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PSALM LXXXVIII.

1. LORD GOD, that dost me save and keep,
All day to thee I cry;

And all night long before thee weep,
Before thee prostrate lie.

2. Into thy presence let my prayer,
With sighs devout ascend;

And to my cries, that ceaseless are,

Thine ear with favour bend.

3. For, cloy'd with woes and trouble store,
Surcharged my soul doth lie;

My life, at Death's uncheerful door,
Unto the grave draws nigh.

4. Reckon'd I am with them that pass
Down to the dismal pit:

I am a man; but weak, alas!

And for that name unfit.

5. From life discharged, and parted quite,
Among the dead to sleep;

And like the slain in bloody fight,
That in the grave lie deep.

Whom thou rememberest no more,
Dost never more regard;
Them, from thy hand deliver'd o'er,
Death's hideous house hath barr'd.
6. Thou in the lowest pit profound

Hast 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.

8. Thou dost my friends from me estrange,
And makest me odious,

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

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9. Through sorrow and affliction great,
Mine eyes grow 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 bed
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 shake
With terrour sent from thee?
Bruised and afflicted, and so low
As ready to expire;

While I thy terrours undergo,

Astonish'd with thine ire.

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

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

18. Lover and friend thou hast removed,
And sever'd from me far:

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

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV e.

This and the following Psalm were done by the author at fifteen 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.

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e This and the following Psalm are Milton's earliest performances. The first he afterwards translated into Greek.-T. WARTON.

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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 f.
The high, huge-bellied mountains skip, like rams
Amongst their ewes: the little hills, like lambs.
Why fled the ocean? And why skipt 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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"Foil" is defeat: a substantive used in the same sense by Harrington in his "Orlando Furioso," and by Shakspeare repeatedly.-TODD.

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JOANNIS MILTONI

LONDINENSIS

POEMATA;

QUORUM PLERAQUE INTRA ANNUM ÆTATIS VIGESIMUM CONSCRIPSIT.

Hæc quæ sequuntur de Auctore testimonia, tametsi ipse intelligebat non tam de se quam supra se esse dicta, eo quod præclaro ingenio viri, necnon amici, ita fere solent laudare, ut omnia suis potius virtutibus, quam veritati congruentia, nimis cupide 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, verum 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.

AD JOANNEM MILTONUM.

GRECIA Mæonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maronem;
Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem.-SELVAGGI.

AL SIGNOR GIO. MILTONI, NOBILE INGLESE.

ODE.

ERGIMI all' Etra ò Clio

Perche di stelle intreccierò corona

Non più del Biondo Dio

La fronde eterna in Pindo, e in Elicona,
Diensi a merto maggior, maggiori i fregi,
A' celeste virtù celesti pregi.

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