As when Gennesaret, in his circling hills, By wing of wind down swooping suddenly Is into tempest wrought that, to his depths Astir, he rouses, and on high his waves Uplifts like mountains snowy-capped with foam; So, smitten with the vehement impact And passion of Saul's rash, abrupt Beginning, that mercurial multitude Had answered with commotion such as seemed Menace of instant act of violence: But, as when haply there succeeds a lull To tempest, then the waves of Galilee Sink from their swelling and smooth down to plane Yet deep will roll awhile from shore to shore That long slow undulation following storm; So, when, with wise self-recollection, Saul, In mid-career of passionate appeal, Stayed, and those gusts of stormy eloquence Impetuous poured no longer on the sea Of audience underneath him, but, instead, Proposed a sober task of argument, The surging throng surceased its turbulence, And settled from commotion into calm; Yet so as still to feel the rock and sway Of central agitation at its heart, While thus that master of its moods went on: "What said Jehovah to the serpent vile Which tempted Eve? Did he not speak of One, Offspring to her seduced, Who should arise To crush the offending head? No hint, I trow, Of meekness and obedience unto death Found there at least, death on the shameful tree, Forsooth, to be the character and doom Of that foretokened Champion of his kind, That haughty Trampler upon Satan's head! "To Abraham our father was of God Foretold, 'In thee shall all the families Of the earth be blessed.' What blessing, pray, could come Abroad upon mankind through Abraham's seed, Messiah, should Messiah, Abraham's seed, Prove to be such as now is preached to you, A shame, a jest, a byword, a reproach, A hissing and a wagging of the head, A gazing-stock and mark for tongues shot out-- Burlesque and travesty of our brave hopes And of our vaunts, shown vain, rife everywhere Among the nations, that erelong a prince Should from the stem of Jesse spring, to sway An universal sceptre through the world?