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XIX.

DESTRUCTION OF THE PHILISTINES.

MILTON.

For GUARD, GUIDE, see § 21; MASSY, § 22; BENEATH, § 19.

See in Index, CATAPHRACTS, COUNSELOR or COUNSELLOR, DAUNT, DIS PATCHED or DESPATCHED, RIFT, THEATRE or THEATER, TO, MILTON, PHILISTINE.

Delivery. This piece affords one of the grandest specimens of the purely narrative style in the language. Mr. Thyer remarks of it: "One may without extravagance say, that the poet seems to exert no less force of genius in describing than Samson does strength in executing." See 48. The description of Samson tugging at the pillars till they fell requires such a modulation as one would be likely to give who had really witnessed the tremendous scene.

I.

OCCASIONS drew me early to the city;
And, as the gates I entered with sunrise,
The morning trumpets festival proclaimed
Through each high street; little I had dispatched,
When all abroad was rumored that this day
Samson should be brought forth, to show the people
Proof of his mighty strength in feats and games:

I sorrowed at his captive state, but minded
Not to be absent at that spectacle.

II.

The building was a spacious theatre,

Half round, on two main pillars vaulted high,
With seats where all the lords, and each degree
Of sort, might sit, in order to behold;

The other side was open, where the throng
On banks and scaffolds under sky might stand;
I among these aloof obscurely stood.

III.

The feast and noon grew high, and sacrifice

Had filled their hearts with mirth, high cheer, and wine,

When to their sports they turned. Immediately

Was Samson as a public servant brought,

In their state livery clad; before him pipes,

And timbrels, on each side went arm'ed guards,

Both horse and foot,

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- before him and behind,

Archers and slingers, cataphracts and spears.

IV.

At sight of him, the people with a shout
Rifted the air, clamoring their god with praise,
Who had made their dreadful enemy their thrall.
He, patient, but undaunted, where they led him,
Came to the place; and what was set before him,
Which without help of eye might be essayed,
To heave, pull, draw, or break, he still performed,
All with incredible, stupendous force;

None daring to appear antagonist.

V.

At length, for intermission sake, they led him
Between the pillars; he his guide requested
(For so from such as nearer stood we heard),
As over-tired, to let him lean awhile

With both his arms on those two massy pillars
That to the arch'ed roof gave main support.
He, unsuspicious, led him; which when Samson
Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined,
And eyes fast fixed he stood, as one who prayed,
Or some great matter in his mind revolved:
At last, with head erect, thus cried aloud :

VI.

"Hitherto, Lords, what your commands imposed
I have performed, as reason was, obeying,
Not without wonder or delight beheld;
Now of my own accord such other trial

I mean to show you of my strength, yet greater,
As with amaze shall strike all who behold."

VII.

This uttered, straining all his nerves, he bowed.
As with the force of wind, and waters pent,
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars
With horrible convulsion to and fro

He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder

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Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,
Lords, ladies, captains, counselors, or priests,
Their choice nobility and flower, not only
Of this, but each Philistian city round,
Met from all parts to solemnize this feast!

VIII.

Samson, with these immixed, inevitably
Pulled down the same destruction on himself:
The vulgar only 'scaped, who stood without.

XX.

-

CONDEMNATION OF SOCRATES.

For POISON, PRISON (poi'zn, priz'n), see § 10; unaccented a in MISSIONARY, 29; sm in enthusiasm, § 15. In travel the e is sounded.

See in Index, INQUIRY, SKEPTIC or SCEPTIC, PLA'To, Soc'ra-tes.

1. SOCRATES was the reverse of a skeptic. No man ever looked upon life with a more positive and practical eye. No man ever pursued his mark with a clearer perception of the road which he was to travel. No man ever combined, in like manner, the absorbing enthusiasm of a missionary, with the acuteness, the originality, the inventive resources, and the generalizing comprehension, of a philosopher.

2. And yet this man was condemned to death,condemned by a hostile tribunal of more than five hundred citizens of Athens, drawn at hazard from all classes of society. In the most momentous trial that up to that time the world had witnessed, a majority of six turned the scale. And the vague charges on which Socrates was condemned were, that he was a vain babbler, a corrupter of youth, and a setter-forth of strange gods.

3. It would be tempting to enlarge on the closing

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scene of his life, a scene which Plato has invested with such immortal glory; -on the affecting farewell to the judges; on the long thirty days which passed in prison before the execution of the verdict; on his playful equanimity amid the uncontrollable emotions of his companions; on the gathering in of that solemn evening, when the fading of the sunset hues on the top of the Athenian hills was the signal that the last hour was at hand; on the introduction of the fatal hemlock.

4. And then there should be represented the immovable countenance of Socrates, the firm hand, the burst of frantic lamentation from all his friends, as, with his habitual ease and cheerfulness, he drained the cup to its dregs; then the solemn silence enjoined by himself; the pacing to and fro; the strong religious persuasions attested by his last words; the cold palsy of the poison creeping from the extremities to the heart; the gradual torpor ending in death. But I must forbear.

5. O for a modern spirit like his! O for one hour of Socrates! O for one hour of that voice whose questioning would make men see what they knew, and what they did not know; what they meant, and what they only thought they meant; what they believed in truth, and what they only believed in name; wherein they agreed, and wherein they differed.

6. That voice is, indeed silent; but there is a voice. in each man's heart and conscience, which, if we will, Socrates has taught us to use rightly. That voice still enjoins us to give to ourselves a reason for the hope that is in us, — both hearing and asking questions. It tells us, that the fancied repose which self-inquiry disturbs is more than compen'sated by the real repose which it gives; that a wise questioning is the half of knowledge; and that a life without self-examination is no life at all.

XXI. QUARREL OF BRUTUS AND CASSIUS.

SHAKESPEARE.

We have few higher proofs than this celebrated scene presents of the wonderful creative powers of Shakespeare. It is from his tragedy of Julius Cæsar. There is no historical basis, so far as we know, for the dialogue. It seems to have been introduced solely for the dramatic development and contrast of the two characters, - Cassius, impulsive, hasty, unscrupulous; Brutus, noble, unswerving in reverence for the right, outspoken and uncompromising in detestation for the wrong, yet generous, forgiving, tender. "I know," says Coleridge,

66

no part of Shakespeare

that more impresses on me the belief of his genius being superhuman, than this scene."

See in Index, DRACHMA, IDES, LEGION, OFFENSE or OFFENCE, TO, VAUNT, YEA, Brutus, Caius, JULIUS, PLUTUS, SHAKESPEARE.

Delivery. The dialogue requires variations in the pitch from low or middle to high; of tone from pure to guttural and aspirate; of force from loud to gentle. The language of intense emotion, let it be remembered, is not always loud. A stifled tone often better conveys the idea of overpowering passion. The respective characters of Brutus and Cassius should be well considered by the reader. There should be nothing like sarcasm or irony in the angry tone of Brutus. It should be suggestive of bold and honest indignation.

Cassius. That you have wronged me doth appear in this: You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella,

For taking bribes here of the Sardians;
Wherein my letters (praying on his side
Because I knew the man) were slighted off.

Brutus. You wronged yourself, to write in such a case.
Cas. At such a time as this, it is not meet
That every nice offense should bear its comment.
Bru. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
Are much condemned to have an itching palm;
To sell and mart your offices for gold,
To undeservers.

Cas. I an itching palm?

You know that you are Brutus that speak this,
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last!

Bru. The name of Cassius honors this corruption,
And chas'tisement doth therefore hide its head.

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Bru. Remember March, the ides of March remember!

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