CHALDEAN ATTENDANT.

Or rather, love's delights despising,

Haste to raptures ever rising:

Wine shall bless the brave and free.

SECOND PRIEST.

Wine and beauty thus inviting,

Each to different joys exciting,

Whither shall my choice incline?

FIRST PRIEST.

I'll waste no longer thought in choosing;

But, neither love nor wine refusing,

I'll make them both together mine.

Recitative.

But whence, when joy should brighten o'er the land,

This sullen gloom in Judah's captive band?
Ye sons of Judah, why the lute unstrung;

Or why those harps on yonder willows hung?
Come, leave your griefs, and join our tuneful choir-

For who like you can wake the sleeping lyre!

SECOND PROPHET.

Bow'd down with chains, the scorn of all mankind,

To want, to toil, and every ill consign'd

Is this a time to bid us raise the strain,

And mix in rites that Heaven regards with pain?
No, never! May this hand forget each art
That speeds the powers of music to the heart,
Ere I forget the land that gave me birth,

Or join with sounds profane its sacred mirth!

FIRST PRIEST.

Insulting slaves! if gentler methods fail,

The whip and angry tortures shall prevail.

[Exeunt Chaldeans.

FIRST PROPHET.

Why, let them come, one good remains to cheer;

We fear the Lord, and know no other fear.

Chorus.

Can whips or tortures hurt the mind

On God's supporting breast reclin'd?

Stand fast-and let our tyrants see

That fortitude is victory.

End of the first act.

ACT II.

Scene as before.

Chorus of ISRAELITES.

O peace of mind! thou lovely guest,

Thou softest soother of the breast,

Dispense thy balmy store;

Wing all our thoughts to reach the skies,
Till earth, diminish'd to our eyes,

Shall vanish as we soar.

FIRST PRIEST.

Recitative.

No more! Too long has justice been delay'd

The king's commands must fully be obey'd:

Compliance with his will your peace secures ; Praise but our gods, and every good is yours. But if, rebellious to his high command,

You spurn the favors offer'd at his hand Think, timely think, what ills remain behind;

Reflect, nor tempt to rage the royal mind.

SECOND PRIEST.

Air.

Fierce is the whirlwind howling

O'er Afric's sandy plain;

And fierce the tempest rolling

Along the furrow'd main:

But storms that fly,

To rend the sky,

Every ill presaging

Less dreadful show

To worlds below

Than angry monarchs raging.

ISRAELITISH WOMAN.

Recitative.

Ah, me! what angry terrors round us grow;
How shrinks my soul to meet the threaten'd blow!
Ye prophets, skill'd in Heaven's eternal truth,
Forgive my sex's fears, forgive my youth,

If shrinking thus, when frowning power appears,
I wish for life, and yield me to my fears.
Let us one hour, one little hour obey;

To-morrow's tears may wash our stains away.

Air.

The wretch condemn'd with life to part,

Still, still on hope relies;

And every pang that rends the heart,

Bids expectation rise.

Hope, like the glimmering taper's light,

Adorns and cheers the way;

And still, as darker grows the night,

Emits a brighter ray.