I mention Egypt, where proud kings
Did our forefathers yoke.

I mention Babel to my friends,
Philistia full of scorn,

And Tyre with Ethiop's utmost ends,
Lo this man there was born:

But twice that praise shall in our ear,
Be said of Sion last,

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

The Lord shall write it in a scroll
That ne'er shall be out-worn,
When He the nations doth enroll,
That this man there was born.

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.

PSALM LXXXVIII.

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.

Into thy presence let my pray'r

With sighs devout ascend,

And to my cries, that ceaseless are,
Thine ear with favour bend.

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.

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.

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.

Thou in the lowest pit profound
Hast set me all forlorn,

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

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.

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.

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

Wilt thou do wonders on the dead?

Shall the deceased arise,

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

Shall they thy loving kindness tell

On whom the grave hath hold

Or they who in perdition dwell,
Thy faithfulness unfold?

A PARAPHRASE ON PSALM CXIV.'

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,

This and the following Psalm are Milton's earliest performances.-WAR

TON. The first he afterwards translated into Greek.

And sought to hide his froth-becurled head
Low in the earth; Jordan's clear streams recoil,
As a faint host that had received the foil.1
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 P
Why turned Jordan toward his crystal fountains P
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.

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

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

The horned 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 Pharaoh fell,
He brought from thence his Israel:
For his, &c.

The ruddy waves he cleft in twain,
Of the Erythræan main:1

For his, &c.

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

For his, &c.

But full soon they did devour

The tawny king with all his power :

For his, &c.

His chosen people he did bless
In the wasteful wilderness:
For his, &c.

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

He foil'd bold Seon and his host,
That ruled the Amorrean coast:

For his, &c.

Red Sea.