AUTHOR OF THE GRAMMATTICAL INTERROGATOR.
Raise and support what in me 's low,
Illume what in me 's dark,
Wisdom and strength to me bestow,
What else I need, impart.
GOODNOW & PHELPS, PRINTERS.
1852 July 6. life of David Mack, & Wellington Hill West Cambros
Of heavenly spirits good and bad,
And their exploits cheerful and sad,
Of Paradise, man's blest abode,
Or blessed only while he stood
Upright, and was obedient found,
And how he fell from bless'dness down
To what a state, and brought us all,
Tainted with sin e'er since the fall;
I sing, by borrow'd notes 'tis true,
Yet mingl❜d are with matter new,
And not like those so much complain'd,
Mine better are in mind retain'd;
Those richer are with language good,
Yet hard are to be understood.
Hard for the muse to sing of late
Matter untouch'd of worth or weight;
Then who can things the best compare
And paint in colors just and fair,
Shall share the favors of those nine,
So much renown'd in ancient time.
What tho' my song be not replete
On things beyond what scriptures teach,
Enough is shown to lead to more
Who would with candor ponder 't o'er :
Tho' none e'er sung things so remote
Beyond what Jethro's shepherd wrote;
With cautious steps I've ventur'd back
Beyond all musing poet's track,
And sung of days to nations alí
Lost 'twixt creation and the fall;
And if I had all knowledge gain'd,
And the Pierian spring had drain'd,
Could not define them in my song,
But only this, that they were long:
Nor could I jar with sacred writ,
But do allow it every whit:
But God inspired no man to know
More than pertains to bliss or wo,
And this, in Genesis is mix'd
Inspiration, tradition 'twixt,
The same as now his servants preach,
By the same gift they write or speak
E'er since the fall, and men the same,
And God a God that cannot change.
LIVERMORE, April, 1829.
CONTENTS TO PART FIRST.
The garden of Eden where four rivers meet;
Adam therein placed,
His charge not to touch the interdicted tree,
Eve formed from one of his ribs,
The probable time from which sacred history
began to date Adam's existence,
The Serpent, or Satan in the Serpent, the cause
of his fall,
He hurled headlong to perdition, "the place pre:
pared for the devil and his Angels,"
His speech to Beelzebub, a companion of his fall,
Calls his afflicted hearers together for consul-
tation,
Their council begins at Satan's high capital,
Satan undertakes the search for this world,
The Almighty shows him to the Son and fore-
tells his sucess,
The Son appears himself, a ransom for man, &c.
Satan found in the garden disturbing sleep,
Is threatened by Gabriel, who at length compels
him to retreat,
Adam approaches, and Eve relates the troubles
of her night,
L
MAN'S FIRST ESTATE AND HIGH REVOLT.
WHILE Some of God, and some of man,
And some of Princes great,
Some of the sea, and some the land,
And some th' affairs of state,
Of winter cold or flow'ry spring,
The living or the dead;
In field or shade or mountains; sing,
By diff'rent motives led.
The task be mine, with stud'ous care,
To paint the fall of man,
The Paradise and Eden, where
The human race began.
'F his first estate and foul revolt,
And that forbidden tree,
Whose fruit, once tasted, single fault,
Brought death and misery,
Sing, Muse, that, on the sacred top
Of Sinai or Oreb,
Dids'st inspire that sheperd, whose flock
On either mountain fed;
Who early led the chosen seed
Out of a foreign land;
By miracles his people freed
From Pharaoh's vengeful hand
In deserts taught the wand'ring tribes
How God from Chaos formed
This earth immense and flowing tides;
In six days all performed.
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