When to their sports they turned. Immediately
Was Samson as a public servant brought,
In their state livery clad: before him pipes
And timbrels, on each side went armed guards.
At sight of him the people with a shout
Rifled the air, clamouring their god with praise,
Who made their dreadful enemy their thrall.
He, patient, but undaunted, where they led him
Came to the place: and what was set before him
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed,
All with incredible, stupendous force.
At length, for intermission's sake, they led him
Between the pillars: he his guide requested,
As over-tired, to let him lean awhile

With both his arms on those two massive columns,
That to the arched roof gave main support.
He, unsuspicious, led him: which when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined,
And eyes fast fixed, he stood as one who prayed,
Or some great matter in his mind revolved.
At last, with head erect, he cried aloud,
"Hitherto, lords, what your commands imposed
I have performed, as reason was, obeying :
Now of my own accord, such other trial

I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater,
As with amaze shall strike all who behold!"
This uttered, straining all his nerves, he bowed,
As, with the force of winds and waters pent,
When mountains tremble: those two massive pillars
With horrible convulsion to and fro

He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew

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The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder,
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,
Lords, ladies, captains, councillors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of that, but each Philistine city round,
Met from all parts to solemnize the feast.
Samson, with these unmixed, inevitably
Pulled down the same destruction on himself:
The vulgar only 'scaped, who stood within.

MILTON.

189. THE WEAKEST THING.

WHICH is the weakest thing of all

Mine heart can ponder?

The sun, a little cloud can pall
With darkness yonder!
The cloud a little wind can move

Where'er it listeth!

The wind, a little leaf above,
Though sear, resisteth !

What time that yellow leaf was green,
My days were gladder;

But now, whatever Spring may mean,
I must grow sadder.

Ah, me! a leaf with sighs can wring
My lips asunder!

-Then is my heart the weakest thing
Itself can ponder!

Yet, Heart, when sun and cloud are pined,

And drop together,

And at a blast which is not wind,

The forests wither,—

Thou from the darkening deathly curse,

To glory breakest,

The Strongest of the universe

Raising the weakest !

MRS. BROWNING.

190. THE WATERFALL.

STRAY, regardless whither; till the sound
Of a near fall of water every sense

Wakes from the charm of thought: swift shrinking back,

I check my steps, and view the broken scene.

Smooth to the shelving brink a copious flood Rolls fair and placid; where collected all In one impetuous torrent, down the steep It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round. At first an azure sheet, it rushes broad; Then whitening by degrees, as prone it falls, And from the loud-resounding rocks below Dash'd in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless shower. Nor can the tortur'd wave here find repose: But, raging still amid the shaggy rocks, Now flashes o'er the scatter'd fragments, now Aslant the hollow channel rapid darts;

And falling fast from gradual slope to slope,
With wild infracted course, and lessen'd roar,
It gains a safer bed, and steals, at last,
Along the mazes of the quiet vale.

THOMSON.

191. FAITH AND REASON.

[From THE LIBRARY.]

HEN first Religion came to bless the land, Her friends were then a firm believing band; To doubt was then to plunge in guilt extreme, And all was gospel that a monk could dream; Insulted Reason fled the grovelling soul, For fear to guide, and visions to control. But now, when Reason has assumed her throne, She in her turn demands to reign alone, Rejecting all that lies beyond her view, And being judge, will be a witness too; Insulted Faith then leaves the doubtful mind, To seek for truth, without a power to find. Ah! when will both in friendly beams unite, And pour on erring man resistless light?

CRABBE.

192.

LULLABY OF AN INDIAN CHIEF.

OH! hush thee, my babie, thy sire was a knight,

Thy mother a lady both lovely and bright: The woods and the glens from the towers which we see, They all are belonging, dear babie, to thee.

Oh! fear not the bugle, though loudly it blows;
It calls but the warder that guards thy repose;
Their bows would be bended, their blades would be red,
Ere the step of a foeman draws near to thy bed.
Oh! hush thee, my babie, the time will soon come
When thy sleep shall be broken by trumpet and drum;
Then hush thee, my darling, take rest while you may,
For strife comes with manhood, and waking with day.

SIR W. SCOTT.

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193. THE OCEAN.

[From CHILDE HAROLD.]

THERE is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture by the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar !
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews-in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean-roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain ;
Man marks the earth with ruin-his control
Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's
ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,

He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groanWithout a grave, unknelled, uncoffined and unknown.