Or swelling Neptune lawless inroads made, And to their cell of store his flood conveyed; The commonwealth, broke up, distracted go, And, in wild haste, their loaded mates o'erthrow: Even so our scattered guests confusedly meet, With boiled, baked, roast, all justling in the street; Dejecting all, and ruefully dismayed, For shekel, without treat or treason paid. Sedition's dark eclipse now fainter shows, More bright each hour the royal planet grows, Of force the clouds of envy to disperse, In kind conjunction of assisting stars. Here, labouring muse! those glorious chiefs relate, That turned the doubtful scale of David's fate; The rest of that illustrious band rehearse, Immortalized in laureled Asaph's verse: Hard task! yet will not I thy flight recall; View heaven, and then enjoy thy glorious fall. First write Bezaliel,[395] whose illustrious name Forestals our praise, and gives his poet fame. The Kenites rocky province his command, A barren limb of fertile Canaan's land; Which, for its generous natives, yet could be Held worthy such a president as he. Bezaliel with each grace and virtue fraught, Serene his looks, serene his life and thought; On whom so largely nature heaped her store, There scarce remained for arts to give him more. To aid the crown and state his greatest zeal, His second care, that service to conceal; Of dues observant, firm to every trust, And to the needy always more than just; Who truth from specious falsehood can divide, Has all the gownsmen's skill without their pride; Thus crowned with worth, from heights of honour won, Sees all his glories copied in his son,[396] Whose forward fame should every muse engage, Whose youth boasts skill denied to others' age. Men, manners, language, books of noblest kind, Already are the conquest of his mind; Whose loyalty, before its date, was prime, Nor waited the dull course of rolling time; The monster faction early he dismayed, And David's cause long since confessed his aid. Brave Abdael[397] o'er the prophet's school was placed; Abdael, with all his father's virtue graced; A hero who, while stars looked wondering down, Without one Hebrew's blood restored the crown. That praise was his; what therefore did remain For following chiefs, but boldly to maintain That crown restored? and in this rank of fame, Brave Abdael with the first a place must claim. Proceed, illustrious, happy chief proceed! Fore-seize the garlands for thy brow decreed; While the inspired tribe attend with noblest strain, To register the glories thou shalt gain: For sure the dew shall Gilboah's hills forsake, And Jordan mix his stream with Sodom's lake; Or seas retired their secret stores disclose, And to the sun their scaly brood expose;