Scanted in space, but perfect in thy line! 
  By sea, by land, thy matchless worth was known, 840
  Arms thy delight, and war was all thy own: 
  Thy force infused the fainting Tyrians propp’d;
  And haughty Pharaoh found his fortune stopp’d. 
  O ancient honour!  O unconquer’d hand,
  Whom foes unpunish’d never could withstand! 
  But Israel was unworthy of his name;
  Short is the date of all immoderate fame. 
  It looks as Heaven our ruin had design’d,
  And durst not trust thy fortune and thy mind. 
  Now, free from earth, thy disencumber’d soul 850
  Mounts up, and leaves behind the clouds and starry pole: 
  From thence thy kindred legions mayst thou bring,
  To aid the guardian angel of thy king.

    Here stop, my muse, here cease thy painful flight: 
  No pinions can pursue immortal height: 
  Tell good Barzillai thou canst sing no more,
  And tell thy soul she should have fled before: 
  Or fled she with his life, and left this verse
  To hang on her departed patron’s hearse? 
  Now take thy steepy flight from heaven, and see 860
  If thou canst find on earth another he: 
  Another he would be too hard to find;
  See then whom thou canst see not far behind. 
  Zadoc the priest, whom, shunning power and place,
  His lowly mind advanced to David’s grace. 
  With him the Sagan of Jerusalem,
  Of hospitable soul, and noble stem;
  Him[71] of the western dome, whose weighty sense
  Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence. 
  The prophets’ sons, by such example led, 870
  To learning and to loyalty were bred: 
  For colleges on bounteous kings depend,
  And never rebel was to arts a friend. 
  To these succeed the pillars of the laws,
  Who best can plead, and best can judge a cause. 
  Next them a train of loyal peers ascend;
  Sharp-judging Adriel, the Muses’ friend,
  Himself a Muse:  in Sanhedrim’s debate
  True to his prince, but not a slave of state: 
  Whom David’s love with honours did adorn, 880
  That from his disobedient son were torn. 
  Jotham, of piercing wit, and pregnant thought;
  Endued by nature, and by learning taught
  To move assemblies, who but only tried
  The worse awhile, then chose the better side: 
  Nor chose alone, but turn’d the balance too,—­
  So much the weight of one brave man can do. 
  Hushai, the friend of David in distress;
  In public storms of manly steadfastness: 
  By foreign treaties he inform’d his youth, 890
  And join’d experience to his native truth. 
  His frugal care supplied the wanting throne—­
  Frugal for that, but bounteous of his own: 
  ’Tis easy conduct when exchequers flow;
  But hard the task to manage well the low;
  For sovereign power is too depress’d