Whether fierce Vulcan’s rage the furzy plain
  Had seized, engender’d by some careless swain;
  Or swelling Neptune lawless inroads made,
  And to their cell of store his flood convey’d;
  The commonwealth broke up, distracted go,
  And in wild haste their loaded mates o’erthrow: 
  Even so our scatter’d guests confusedly meet,
  With boil’d, baked, roast, all justling in the street;
  Dejecting all, and ruefully dismay’d,
  For shekel without treat or treason paid. 930
   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 turn’d the doubtful scale of David’s fate;
  The rest of that illustrious band rehearse,
  Immortalized in laurell’d Asaph’s verse: 
  Hard task! yet will not I thy flight recall,
  View heaven, and then enjoy thy glorious fall. 940

   First write Bezaliel, whose illustrious name
  Forestalls 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 heap’d her store,
  There scarce remain’d for arts to give him more! 950
  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 crown’d with worth, from heights of honour won,
  Sees all his glories copied in his son,
  Whose forward fame should every muse engage—­
  Whose youth boasts skill denied to others’ age. 960
  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 dismay’d,
  And David’s cause long since confess’d his aid.

   Brave Abdael o’er the prophet’s school was placed—­
  Abdael with all his father’s virtue graced;
  A hero who, while stars look’d wondering down,
  Without one Hebrew’s blood restored the crown. 970
  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,
  Foreseize the garlands for thy brow decreed,
  While the inspired tribe attend with noblest