CHALDEAN WOMAN.

Air.

See the ruddy morning smiling,
Hear the grove to bliss beguiling;
Zephyrs through the valley playing,
Streams along the meadow straying.

First PRIEST.

While these a constant revel keep,
Shall Reason only bid me weep?
Hence, intruder! we'll pursue
Nature, a better guide than you.

Second PRIEST.

Air.

Every moment, as it flows,
Some peculiar pleasure owes;
Then let us, providently wise,
Seize the debtor as it flies.

Think not to-morrow can repay
The pleasures that we lose to-day;
To-morrow's most unbounded store
Can but pay its proper score.

First PRIEST.

Recitative.

But, hush! see foremost of the captive choir,

The master-prophet grasps his full-ton'd lyre.

Mark where he sits, with executing art,
Feels for each tone, and speeds it to the heart.
See inspiration fills his rising form,

Awful as clouds that nurse the growing storm;
And now his voice, accordant to the string,
Prepares our monarch's victories to sing.

First PROPHET.

Air.

From north, from south, from east, from west,
Conspiring foes shall come;
Tremble thou vice-polluted breast,

Blasphemers, all be dumb.

The tempest gathers all around,

On Babylon it lies;

Down with her! down-down to the ground,

She sinks, she groans, she dies.

Second PROPHET.

Down with her, Lord, to lick the dust,

Ere yonder setting sun;

Serve her as she has serv'd the just!

'Tis fix'd-it shall be done.

First PRIEST.

Recitative.

No more! when slaves thus insolent presume, The king himself shall judge, and fix their doom.

Short-sighted wretches! have not you and all,
Beheld our power in Zedekiah's fall?

To yonder gloomy dungeon turn your eyes;
See where dethron'd your captive monarch lies,
Depriv'd of sight and rankling in his chain;
He calls on Death to terminate his pain.
Yet know, ye slaves, that still remain behind
More ponderous chains, and dungeons more confin'd.

Chorus.

Arise, all potent ruler, rise,

And vindicate thy people's cause;

Till every tongue in every land

Shall offer up unfeign'd applause.

ACT III.

[Exeunt

Scene as before.

First PRIEST.

Recitative.

Yes, my companions, Heaven's decrees are past,
And our fix'd empire shall forever last;
In vain the maddening prophet threatens woe,
In vain Rebellion aims her secret blow;
Still shall our fame and growing power be spread,
And still our vengeance crush the guilty head.

Air.

Coeval with man
Our empire began,
And never shall fall
Till ruin shakes all:
With the ruin of all

Shall Babylon fall.

PROPHET.

Recitative.

'Tis thus that pride triumphant rears the head,
A little while, and all her power is fled;
But ha! what means yon sadly plaintive train,
That this way slowly bends along the plain?
And now, methinks, to yonder bank they bear
A pallid corse, and rest the body there.
Alas! too well mine eyes indignant trace
The last remains of Judah's royal race:
Our monarch falls, and now our fears are o'er,
And wretched Zedekiah is no more!

Air.

Ye wretches who, by fortune's hate,

In want and sorrow groan;

Come ponder his severer fate,

And learn to bless your own.

You vain, whom youth and pleasure guide,
Awhile the bliss suspend;

Like yours, his life began in pride,

Like his, your lives shall end.

Second PROPHET.

Behold his squalid corse with sorrow worn,
His wretched limbs with ponderous fetters torn ;
Those eyeless orbs that shock with ghastly glare,
These ill-becoming rags-that matted hair.
And shall not Heaven for this its terrors show,
Grasp the red bolt, and lay the guilty low?
How long, how long, Almighty God of all,
Shall wrath vindictive threaten ere it fall!

ISRAELITISH WOMAN.

Air.

As panting flies the hunted hind,
Where brooks refreshing stray;
And rivers through the valley wind,
That stop the hunter's way.

Thus we, O Lord, alike distrest,
For streams of mercy long;

1

Those streams which cheer the sore opprest,
And overwhelm the strong.

First PROPHET.

Recitative.

But, whence that shout? Good heavens! amazement all!

See yonder tower just nodding to the fall;

1 "And shall not Heaven for this its terror show,

And deal its angry vengeance on the foe?"-Orig. MS.