;

For a mere garden-plot-for herb or fruit
Designed-denied his importuning suit
Like the vexed child, some fragile toy denied,
That vents his grief in waywardness and pride;
His pastime, business, duties, cast away,
Upon the idler's couch sullen and sad he lay.

It was temptation's hour; the tempter came,
And queen, and wife, and woman, was the name!
Oh woman! When within thy gentle breast
Virtue and grace have found their sacred rest,
Softener of man's stern heart, and nature rude,
Corrector of his ill, nurse of his good;
Who soothes his cares and griefs, and fans his hope,
And gives his sordid aims a Heavenward scope;
Who strews his rugged path with peace and love,
And meekly points his earth-bound eyes above ;-
But, if that bosom loathsome passions fire,
Envy, or malice, hate, or lust, inspire,
Boldest in evil, tardiest to remorse,
Swiftest to rush on ruin's headlong course;
(As strong resistance fiercest impulse gives,
And-virtue dead-corruption foulest lives ;)
Oh, from such deadly influence, power Divine,
Shield me, nor be such deep pollution mine!
No; unless wed to virtue, truth, and grace,
Be the stern wilderness my lonesome place!

She came; but 'twas no aim for kind relief; No woman's sympathy with manly grief,

Impelled her steps; 'twas passion pent within,
Pride for her idol, love of Baal, sin;

Envy of modest worth, hatred of good,

Greed of revenge, and slakeless thirst for blood:
Naboth had long been by the ruthless queen
Marked, as a foe to Baal's rites obscene;
And all were counted unforgiven foes
Who dared that foul idolatry oppose;

Nay more she fiercely swore, whoso should strive
For Israel's God and altars should not live!
And now, with joy to tyrants only known,

She saw her hour, and marked the prey her own;
Yet, fearing in the king a faltering heart,

She did not all at once her fell design impart.

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"Art thou a king ?" she cried, "bearest thou a soul

Regal, and shall base hinds thy will control?

"Have fate and fortune called thee to a throne,

"Nor made thy people's lands and lives thy own? "Up; take thy pastime; cast thy grief away;

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Thine be the land, and leave to me the way."

Guilt in high places quickly agents finds,
And facile consciences lets loose or binds.
The fountain of authority and law
Poisoned, all lesser streams corruption draw;
And when the throne a foul example gives,
Not long the people's truth or virtue lives.

Yet must some sanctimonious plea be found,
To bind with legal toils the victim round:
Religion must her sacred sanction lend,
Justice and right from their high seat to bend :
Charged 'gainst his God and king with blasphemy,
Naboth, the pious, loyal, good, must die!

He stood condemned :-so, in His time, One stood, Guiltless, to yield for others' guilt His blood; So subornation crushed the man and God, Who, veiled in flesh, our world-its Saviour—trod : Him, Naboth, by prophetic faith believed; And, dying, an undying life received.

Silent and calm, he stood. But who are those, There brought, to share and aggravate his woes? Those gentle youths !* What means that solemn train, Those weeping crowds, those guards, that two-fold chain ? What have they done? Must they, in life's young bloom, With him who gave their life partake the tomb? Oh! can a father's pleading naught avail? Oh, shall no ear be pierced by that said wail? Is she of woman's nature quite bereftOh, has that heart no mother's pity left? Could that fell womb to infancy give birth,

That breast give food-and send such youth to death!

* 2 Kings ix, 26.

Hark! from those patient lips burst one deep cry; "Be it enough that I your victim die!

"On me, on me, let all your wrath be shed,

"But, oh, let those young looks for mercy plead!" 'Twas vain; their blood must mingling flow; they die: And blood for vengeance sends its mingled cry!

Nor long delayed. The king exultant came,
Eager the blood-gained heritage to claim :
Not the most deeply steeped himself in guilt,
He seized the price of blood that others spilt;
Pleased he the goodly appanage surveyed,
And plans for ornament or profit laid :—
What solemn form before his eyes uprose?-
Not the red battle-field begirt with foes,
Not the dark hosts of hell in fierce array,
Not hell itself in flames upon his way,
Had so sent back his heart's blood's eager flow,
Or stamped such ashy paleness on his brow :-
It stood; and gathered in that solemn form,
(As the deep thunder rolls amid the storm,
And the forked flashes blaze the crimsoned sky,)
The awful wrath of outraged Deity!

'Twas then in tones, which fell as if from Heaven, The final sentence and eternal doom were given, The prophet thus the murderous deed denounced, And the king's swift-descending fate pronounced;

"Yes, I have found thee! Deemd'st thou, yon piercing

eye,

"If mine were closed, thy guilt could not descry?
"Still have thy deeds eternal patience tried,
"And long and loud for retribution cried;

"As the bond-slave his ceaseless labour plies,

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Thy guilt, with her's, thy queen's, unceasing vies; "And now, by her vile instigations led,

"Blood, of the guiltless, loyal, young is shed!
"Thou com'st in haste to take possession; here

Rapine and murder crown thy dark career ;— Take, then, the word Jehovah sends by me ;"Brief the sad remnant of thy days shall be ; "By violence cut short, bloodshed and strife "Shall haunt thy steps, and end thy guilt-doomed life; "And where th' unpitied blood of Naboth flowed, "There dogs, unpitying, shall drink up thy blood.

Thy sons shall share their guilty parent's doom; "None to a ripe and peaceful end shall come; "None shall be left of all that bear thy name; "None bear to future times thy guilt and shame!

"And last, for her, whose heart conceived the deed, "To whose vile fruit thou vilely wouldst succeed, "Learn, too, her doom! No rites funereal "Shall loyal crowds, for her, to mourning call;

"No holy obsequies, no solemn knell,
"To regal grandeur, duteous, bid farewell;