Rescued young Isaac from the lifted arm, Rais'd, at thy bidding, to devote a son, An only son, doom'd by his sire to die: (0 saving faith, by such obedience prov'd! O blest obedience, hallow'd thus by faith! Thou, who in mercy sav'dst the chosen race In the wild desert, and didst there sustain them By wonder-working love, though they rebell'd And murmur'd at the miracles that sav'd them! O hear thy servant Daniel! hear and help! Thou, whose almighty power did after raise Successive leaders to defend our race; Who sentest valiant Joshua to the field, The people's champion, to the conqu'ring field, Where the revolving planet of the night, Suspended in her radiant round, was stay'd; And the bright sun arrested in his course, Stupendously stood still!

Dạn. O Thou! who, when thy discontented
host,

Tir'd of Jehovah's rule, desir'd a king,
In anger gav'st them Saul; and then again
Did'st wrest the regal sceptre from his hand
To give it David--David, best belov'd!
Illustrious David! poct, prophet, king;
Thou who did'st suffer Solomon the wise
To build a glorious Temple to thy name,-
O hear thy servants, and forgive us too!
If by severe necessity compell'd,
We worship here-we have no temple now:
Altar or sanctuary none is left.

CHORUS OF JEWS.

O JUDAH! let thy captive sons deplore Thy far-fam'd temple's now no more! Fall'n is thy sacred fane, thy glory gone! Fall'n is thy temple, Solomon!

Ne'er did Barbaric kings behold, With all their shining gems, their burnish'd gold, A fane so perfect, bright, and fair: For God himself was wont t' inhabit there.

Between the cherubim his glory stood, While the high-priest alone the dazzling splen'dour view'd.

How fondly did the Tyrian artist strive,
His name to latest time should live!
Such wealth the stranger wonder'd to behold:
Gold were the tablets, and the vases gold.
Of cedar such an ample store,
Exhausted Lebanon could yield no more.
Bending before the Ruler of the sky,

Well might the royal founder cry,

Fill'd with an holy dread, a rev'rend fear,
Will God in very deed inhabit here?

The heaven of heavens beneath his feet, Is for the bright inhabitant unmeet:

Archangels prostrate wait his high commands,

And will he deign to dwell in temples made with hands?

[preme: Dan. Yes, Thou art ever presc.t, Pow'r SuNot circumscrib'd by time, nor fix'd to space, Confin'd to altars, nor to temples bound. In wealth, in want, in freedom, or in chains, In dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find thee! E'en in the burning caldron thou wast near To Shadrach and the holy brotherhood: The unhurt martyrs bless'd Thee in the flames; They sought, and found Thee; call'd, and Thou wast there.

First Jew. How chang'd our state! Judah, thy glory 's fallen!

Thy joys for hard captivity exchang'd:
And thy sad sons breathe the polluted air
Of Babylon, where deities obscene

Insult the living God; and to his servants,
The priests of wretched idols made with hands,
Show contumelious scorn.

Where drooping willows form a mournful shade With all the pride which prosp'rous fortunes give,

And all th' unfeeling mirth of happy men,
Th' insulting Babylonians ask a song;
Such songs as erst in better days were sung
By Korah's sons, or heav'n-taught Asaph set
To loftiest measures; then our bursting hearts
Feel all their woes afresh; the galling chain
Of bondage crushes then the free-born soul
With wringing anguish from the trembling lip
Th' unfinish'd cadence falls; and the big tear,
While it relieves, betrays the wo-fraught soul.
For who can view Euphrates' pleasant stream,
Its drooping willows, and its verdant banks,
And not to wounded memory recall
The piny groves of fertile Palestine,
The vales of Solyma, and Jordan's stream!
Dan. Firm faith and deep submission to high
heaven

Will teach us to endure without a murmur
What seems so hard. Think what the holy host
Of patriarchs, saints, and prophets have sus-
tain'd,

In the blest cause of truth! And shall not we,
O men of Judah! dare what these have dar'd
And boldly pass through the refining fire
Of fierce affliction? Yes, be witness, Heaven!
Old as I am, I will not shrink at death,
Come in what shape it may, if God so will,
By peril to confirm and prove my faith.

Oh! I would dare yon den of hungry lions, Rather than pause to fill the task assign'd By wisdom Infinite. Nor think I boast, Not in myself, but in thy strength I trust, Spirit of God!

First Jew.

Prophet, thy words support,

And raise our sinking souls.
Dan.
Behold yon palace;
There proud Belshazzar keeps his wanton court!
I knew it once beneath another lord,
His grandsire, who subdu'd Jehoiachin,
And hither brought sad Judah's captive tribes;
And with them brought the rich and precious
relics

Of our fam'd temple; all the holy treasure,
The golden vases, and the sacred cups,
Which grac'd, in happier times, the sanctuary.
Second Jew. May HE to whose blest use they
were devoted,

Preserve them from pollution; and once more,
In his own gracious time restore the temple!
Dan. I, with some favour'd youths of Jewish

race

Was lodg'd in the king's palace, and instructed
In all the various learning of the East;
But HE, on whose great name our fathers call'd,
Preserv'd us from the perils of a court,
Warn'd us to guard our youthful appetites,
And still with holy fortitude reject
The pamp'ring viands Luxury presented;
Fell Luxury; more perilous to youth
Than storms or quicksands, poverty or chains:
Second Jew. He who can guard 'gainst the
low baits of sense,

Will find Temptations arrows hurtless strike
Against the brazen shield of Temperance.
For 'tis th' inferior appetites enthral

The man,

and quench th' immortal light within

him; The senses take the soul an easy prey, And sink th' imprison'd spirit into brute. Dan. Twice, by the Spirit of God, did I expound

The visions of the king; his soul was touch'd,
And twice did he repent, and prostrate fall
Before the God of Daniel: yet again,
Pow'r, flattery, and prosperity, undid him.
When from the lofty ramparts of his palace
He view'd the splendours of the royal city,
That magazine of wealth, which proud Euphra-

tes

Wafts from each distant corner of the earth;
When he beheld the adamantine tow'rs,
The brazen gates, the bulwarks of his strength,
The pendant gardens, Art's stupendous work,
The wonder of the world! the proud Chaldean,
Mad with th' intoxicating fumes which rise
When uncontroll'd ambition grasps at once
Dominion absolute, and boundless wealth,
Forgot he was a man, forgot his god!

This mighty Babylon is mine,' he cry'd; 'My wond'rous pow'r, my godlike arm achiev'd it.

I scorn submission; own no Deity
Above my own.'-While the blasphemer spoke,
The wrath of Heav'n inflicted instant ven-
geance;

Nebuchadnezzar.

† Daniel, chap. ii. and iv.

Stripp'd him of that bright reason he abus'd; And drove him from the cheerful haunts of men, A naked, wretched, helpless, senseless thing; Companion of the brutes, his equals now.

First Jew. Nor does his impious grandson, proud Belshazzar,

Fall short of his offences; nay, he wants
The valiant spirit and the active soul
Of his progenitor; for Pleasure's slave,
Though bound in silken chains, and only tied
In flowery fetters, seeming light and loose,
Is more subdu'd than the rash casual victim
Of anger or ambition; these indeed
Burn with a fiercer but a short-lived fire;
While pleasure with a constant flame consumes,
War slays her thousands, but destructive Plea-

sure,

More fell, more fatal, her ten thousands slays:
The young luxurious king she fondly woos
In ev'ry shape of am'rous blandishment;
With adulation smooth ensnares his soul;
With love betrays him, and with wine inflames.
She strews her magic poppies o'er his couch,
And with delicious opiates charms him down,
In fatal slumbers bound. Though Babylon
Is now, invested by the warlike troops
Of royal Cyrus, Persia's valiant prince;
Who, in conjunction with the Median king;
Darius, fam'd for conquest, now prepares
To storm the city: not the impending horrors
Which ever wait a siege have pow'r to wake
To thought or sense th' intoxicated king.

Dan. E'en in this night of universal dread,
A mighty army threat'ning at the gates;
This very night, as if in scorn of danger,
The dissolute Belshazzar holds a feast
Magnificently impious, meant to honour
Belus, the fav'rite Babylonish idol.

Lew'd parasites compose his wanton court, Whose impious flatt'ries sooth his monstrous crimes:

They justify his vices and extol

His boastful phrase, as if he were some god :
Whate'er he says, they say; what he commands,
Implicitly they do; they echo back

His blasphemies with shouts of loud acclaim;
And when he wounds the tortur'd ear of Virtue,
They cry
"All hail! Belshazzar live for ever!"
To-night a thousand nobles fill his hall,
Princes, and all the dames who grace the court;
All but his virtuous mother, sage Nitocris:
Ah! how unlike the impious king her son!
She never mingles in the midnight fray,
Nor crowns the guilty banquet with her pre-

sence.

The royal fair is rich in every virtue
Which can adorn the queen or grace the wo-

man.

But for the wisdom of her prudent counsels
This wretched empire had been long undone.
Not fam'd Semiramis, Assyria's pride,
Could boast a brighter mind or firmer soul;
Beneath the gentle reign of Merodach,*
Her royal lord, our nation tasted peace.
Our captive monarch, sad Jehoiachin,
Grown gray in a close prison's horrid gloom,
He freed from bondage; brought the hoary
king

2 Kings, chap. xxiv.

Yes; we are likest gods

Darius leader of the Median line;
While fair Euphrates' stream our walls protects,
And great Belshazzar's self our fate directs.
War and famine threat in vain,
While this demi-god shall reign!
Let Persia's prostrate king confess his pow'r,
And Media's monarch dread his vengeful hour.
On Dura's* ample plain behold

Immortal Belus,† whom the nations own;
Sublime he stands in burnish'd gold,

wealth

But the rich means to gratify desire?

I will not have a wish, a hope, a thought,
That shall not know fruition. What is empire?
The privilege to punish and enjoy :

To feel our pow'r in making others fear it;
To taste of Pleasure's cup till we grow giddy,
And think ourselves immortal! This is empire!
My ancestors scarce tasted of its joys:
Shut from the sprightly world, and all its
charms,

In cumbrous majesty, in sullen state
And dull unsocial dignity they liv'd;
Far from the sight of an admiring world,
That world, whose gaze makes half the charms
of greatness;

They nothing knew of empire but the name,
Or saw it in the looks of trembling slaves;
And all they felt of royalty was care.
But I will see, and know it of myself;
Youth, Wealth, and Greatness court me to be
blest,

And Pow'r and Pleasure draw with equal force
And sweet attraction: both I will embrace
In quick succession; this is Pleasure's day;
Ambition will have time to reign hereafter;
It is the proper appetite of age.

The lust of pow'r shall lord it uncontroll'd,
When all the gen'rous feelings grow obtuse,
And stern Dominion holds, with rigid hand,
His iron rein, and sits and sways alone.
But youth is Pleasure's hour!
Perish the slave
Who, with official counsel would oppose
The king's desire, whose slightest wish is law!
Bel. Now strike the loud-ton'd lyre and softer
lute;

1st cour.

Let me have music, with the nobler aid

Of poesy. Where are those cunning men Who boast, by chosen sounds, and measur'd sweetness,

To set the busy spirits in a flame,

And cool them at their will? who know the art
To call the hidden powers of numbers forth,
And make that pliant instrument, the mind,
Yield to the pow'rful sympathy of sound,
Obedient to the master's artful hand,
Such magic is song! Then give me song;
Yet not at first such soul dissolving strains
As melt the soften'd sense; but such bold mea-

sures

As may inflame my spirit to despise

Th' ambitious Persian, that presumptuous boy,
Who rashly dares e'en now invest our city,
And menaces th' invincible Belshazzar.

[A grand concert of music, after which an ode.]
In vain shall Persian Cyrus dare
With great Belshazzar wage unequal war :
In vain Darius shall combine,

To-night his deity we here adore,
And due libations speak his mighty pow'r.
Yet Belus' self not more we own
Than great Belshazzar on Chaldea's throne.
Great Belshazzar like a God,

Rules the nations with a nod!

To great Belshazzar be the goblet crown'd!
Belshazzar's name the echoing roofs rebound!
Belsh. Enough! the kindling rapture fires my
brain,

And my heart dances to the flattering sounds,
I feel myself a god! Why not a god!
What were the deities our fathers worship'd?
What greater Belus, to whose pow'r divine
What was great Nimrod our imperial founder?
We raise to-night the banquet and the song
But youthful herocs, mortal, like myself,
Who by their daring earn'd divinity?
They were but men: nay some were less than

men,

1st cour.

Hold-enough!