This was the gift, if you the truth will have,
That Constantine to good Sylvester gave.

FROM HORACE.

Whom do we count a good man? Whom but he
Who keeps the laws and statutes of the senate,
Who judges in great suits and controversies,
Whose witness and opinion wins the cause?
But his own house, and the whole neighbourhood,
Sees his foul inside through his whited skin'.

FROM EURIPIDES.

This is true liberty, when freeborn men,
Having to advise the publick, may speak free;
Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise :
Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace;
What can be a juster in a state than this1?

FROM HORACE m.

Laughing, to teach the truth,

What hinders? As some teachers give to boys
Junkets and knacks, that they may learn apace".

From Of Reformation, &c. Pr.-W. vol. i. p. 10.

h Epist. i. xvi. 40.

T. WARTON.

i From Tetrachordon, Pr.-W. vol. i. p. 239. T. WARTON. *IKETIA. v. 440.

'Milton's Motto to his " Areopagitica, A Speech for the liberty of unlicensed Printing," &c. Prose- W. vol. i. p. 141. T. WARTON. m Sat. i. i. 24.

"From Apol. Smectymn. Pr.-W. vol. i. p. 116. T. WARTON.

FROM HORACE.

Joking decides great things,

Stronger and better oft than earnest can ".

FROM SOPHOCLES".

'Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds, And your ungodly deeds find me the words'.

FROM SENECA $.

There can be slain

No sacrifice to God more acceptable,
Than an unjust and wicked king.

• Sat. i. x. 14.

P Apol. Smectymn. vol. i. p. 116. T. WARTON. a Electra v. 627.

From Apol. Smectymn. Ibid.

S Hercul. Fur.

From Tenure of Kings, &c. Pr.-W. vol. i. p. 315.

T. WARTON.

PSALM I*.

Done into verse, 1653.

BLESS'D is the man who hath not walk'd astray
In counsel of the wicked, and i' the way
Of sinners hath not stood, and in the seat
Of scorners hath not sat. But in the great
Jehovah's law is ever his delight,
And in his law he studies day and night.
He shall be as a tree which planted grows
By watery streams, and in his season knows
To yield his fruit, and his leaf shall not fall,
And what he takes in hand shall prosper all.
Not so the wicked, but as chaff which fann'd
The wind drives, so the wicked shall not stand
In judgement, or abide their trial then,

Nor sinners in the assembly of just men.

5

10

For the Lord knows the upright way of the just, 15 And the way of bad men to ruin must.

* Metrical psalmody was much cultivated in this age of fanaticism. Milton's father is a composer of some of the tunes in Ravenscroft's Psalms. T. WARTON.

"A literal version of the Psalms may boldly be asserted impracticable; for, if it were not, a poet so great as Milton would not, even in his earliest youth, have proved himself so very little of a formidable rival, as he has done, to Thomas Sternhold." Mason's Essays on English Church Musick, 1795, p. 177. In the last of these translations however, as Mr. Warton observes, are some very poetical expressions. TODD.

PSALM II.

Done Aug. 8, 1653. Terzetti.

WHY do the Gentiles tumult, and the Nations
Muse a vain thing, the kings of the earth upstand
With power, and princes in their congregations
Lay deep their plots together through each land
Against the Lord and his Messiah dear?

5

Let us break off, say they, by strength of hand Their bonds, and cast from us, no more to wear, Their twisted cords: He, who in heaven doth dwell, Shall laugh; the Lord shall scoff them; then, severe, Speak to them in his wrath, and in his fell

And fierce ire trouble them; but I, saith he,
Anointed have my King (though ye rebel)

On Sion my holy hill. A firm decree

I will declare: The Lord to me hath said, Thou art my Son, I have begotten thee This day, ask of me, and the grant is made; As thy possession I on thee bestow

10

15

The Heathen; and, as thy conquest to be sway'd, Earth's utmost bounds: them shalt thou bring full low

With iron scepter bruis'd, and them disperse

Like to a potter's vessel shiver'd so.

And now be wise at length, ye kings averse,

Be taught, ye judges of the earth; with fear
Jehovah serve, and let your joy converse

20

Ver. 18. The Heathen ;] Mr. Warton, in both editions, reads "The Heaven." TODD.

With trembling; kiss the Son lest he appear
In anger, and ye perish in the way,

If once his wrath take fire, like fuel sere.
Happy all those who have in him their stay!

PSALM III. Aug. 9, 1653.

When he fled from Absalom.

LORD, how many are my foes!
How many those,

That in arms against me rise!
Many are they,

That of my life distrustfully thus say;

No help for him in God there lies.

But thou, Lord, art my shield, my glory,
Thee, through my story,

The exalter of my head I count :

Aloud I cried

Unto Jehovah: He full soon replied,

And heard me from his holy mount.

I lay and slept; I wak'd again;
For my sustain

Was the Lord. Of many millions

The populous rout

I fear not, though, encamping round about,

They pitch against me their pavilions.

Ver. 14.

25

5

10

15

my sustain] The verb converted into a sub

stantive. So, in Par. Lost, B. iii. 15.

"In that obscure sojourn."

And in B. vi. 549.

"Instant without disturb they took alarm." TODD.