Page:Redemption, a Poem.djvu/52

 46 REDEMPTION.

Confirm his rites, all rich endow'd, and great ;

Great to bind human souls fast hold on hell.

More to recount, here needs not. Delphi's fame

Ye know, and him who built his gorgeous shrine,

Trophonius, he of Boeotia proud j

Cumaean Sybils too, 'midst sickly caves,

Who much our mirth excite, and awe of men ;

Still more Diana, great at Ephesus,

Whom Taurici, with human victims oft

Appease. Apollo the best cheat of all ;.

Who not alone whom we possess'd ensnared,

But, toying with whose plaintive tale, bashless,

Juda's daughters the law of truth forsook,

Urim and Thummim scorn'd, oracular,

And oft with luctual sighs the demon sought,

Though at the peril of Levitic curse ;

Such pow'r superior did our cause engage.

To these, the Chaseedin and Asaphim,

Magicians, sorcerers, and wizards, add,

And all the rabble, which in compact firm

We hold to work our will on man, and hence

Inquire, if other fields here need essay.

With these, and such like instruments, has hell

Been fill'd. List to the groans which issue from

Yon gulf of boiling wrath ; look to that sea

Of liquid fire, where restless souls enlave

Their burning forms ; and hear the shrieks of woe,

Which e'er resound from adamantine rocks,

From glowing hills, and incandescent plains

Of unconsuming fire. Ye have then what

I most advise lead all hell's legions forth ;

Some, if it please, an open war to wage,

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