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 REDEMPTION. 45

The varying sense of fickle man; pure,

For the lustrate; for the impure, obscene;

Hideous, to terrify the weak; ornate,

The fanciful to please; hermetic last

For wise, who chief are trick'd with subtil lore.

Thus Belu?, who the Babylonians duped,

Assyria, and all the spacious east,

Rose first, whose temple Babel was ; Baal

His name the Canaanites among; the next,

Astarte, his obscene consort, fit pair

The sons of Noe to seduce, and shape

To our intent; Phoenice chiefest seat

Of her adoring rites, adulterous.

And who of hell has never heard the fame

Of Dagon ? fishy monster half, half man;

The more of monster he, the more adored,

Which stands the certain seal of our success,

And well might raise the wonder both of heav'n

And hell. But here in our affairs occurs

Some change, secret till now, and unexposed.

The world lay prostrate at our feet, when Heav'n

To secure the slight allegiance he held,

Living reponses gave, and oracles

Endow'd Urim and Thummim, chief the means

Thus used. So we, as who me knows, knows well

How this was met, and knows with what success.

First, Libyan and Dodouian Hammon rose,

Famous in Egypt, chief in Thebes renown'd,

Whose temples, monuments, and hundred gates,

Magnificent, conspired to swell the fame

Of his high state. Memphian Serapis next,

Scarcely less eminent, appear'd; three fanes

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