Next upon Israel's throne does bravely sit A comely youth, endowed with wondrous wit: Far, from the parched line, a royal dame, To hear his tongue and boundless wisdom, came: She carried back in her triumphant womb The glorious stock of thousand kings to come. Here brightest forms his pomp and wealth display; Here they a temple's vast foundations lay; A mighty work; and with fit glories filled, For God to inhabit, and that King to build. Some from the quarries hew out massy stone, Some draw it up with cranes; some breathe and groan In order o'er the anvil; some cut down Tall cedars, the proud mountain's ancient crown; Some carve the trunks, and breathing shapes bestow, Giving the trees more life than when they grow. But, oh! alas! what sudden cloud is spread About this glorious King's eclipsed head? It all his fame benights, and all his store, Wrapping him round; and now he's seen no more. When straight his son appears at Sichem crown'd, With young and heedless council circled round; Unseemly object! but a falling state Has always its own errors joined with Fate. Ten tribes at once forsake the Jessian throne, And bold Adoram at his message stone; 'Brethren of Israel!'--More he fain would say, But a flint stopped his mouth, and speech in the way. Here this fond king's disasters but begin; He's destined to more shame by his father's sin. Susac comes up, and under his command A dreadful army from scorched Afric's sand, As numberless as that: all is his prey; The temple's sacred wealth they bear away; Adrazar's shields and golden loss they take; Even David in his dream does sweat and shake. Thus fails this wretched prince; his loins appear Of less weight now than Solomon's fingers were. Abijah next seeks Israel to regain, And wash in seas of blood his father's stain. Ne'er saw the aged sun so cruel sight; Scarce saw he this, but hid his bashful light. Nebat's cursed son fled with not half his men; Where were his gods of Dan and Bethel then? Yet could not this the fatal strife decide; God punished one, but blessed not the other side. Asan, a just and virtuous prince, succeeds, High raised by Fame for great and godly deeds: He cut the solemn groves where idols stood, And sacrificed the gods with their own wood. He vanquished thus the proud weak powers of hell; Before him next their doting servants fell: So huge an host of Zerah's men he slew, As made even that Arabia desert too. Why feared he then the perjured Baasha's sight? Or bought the dangerous aid of Syrian's might? Conquest, Heaven's gift, cannot by man be sold; Alas! what weakness trusts he? man and gold.