Favoured by They sprang again from misery to might, 1 And shelter'd 'neath the smile of Syrian Kings: Seleucus even gave them civic right; What surest wins affection ?—what reclaims ?— Of unbelief?-what softens, soothes, or tames ? Toleration. 'Tis toleration-spite the hypocrite And such, we trust, with their best means and might, 1 The Jews had considerable privileges conferred upon them by some of the Syrian kings, but were cruelly treated by others. 2 Seleucus Nicator, one of the captains of Alexander the Great, and who succeeded to the government of Syria, admitted the Jews of his day to the rights of citizens, in those towns which he built in Asia Minor and CeloSyria, and even in Antioch, his capital. He was certainly one of the most powerful of the princes who got possession of any part of the Macedonian Empire after the death of Alexander. He was murdered 280 years B. C. 3 Antiochus the Great, third of that name, and King of Syria and Asia. He was humane and liberal, and very tolerant to the Jews; and even gave exemption from taxes to all of them who would come within a limited time and settle in Jerusalem. Shall the wise rulers of that realm ordain— To which the wrong'd so oft have look'd for right Against the despot's unrelenting chain :— Must nations ever have to mourn this bane ? XXX. How did poor Israel writhe beneath the frown The basest deeds with sacrilege, and threw The poor Judean, maddening, furious flew, And sought amongst the beasts of prey to roam; While thousands, lingering, suffer'd martyrdom ! XXXI. The Greeks, who woo'd but science and the arts, 1 He was called by the Greeks Epiphanes, or the Illustrious, but by the Jews Epimanes, or the Furious. He was, in fact, the fourth Antiochus. A monster. Jews despised Despis'd1 that simple sect, both heads and hearts, by the Greeks. Who would not, could not, kindle at the lyre; Nor dared, with rapt, creative skill, aspire To make the marble speak, the canvas smile; Who found no glory in heroic style, No melody in sapphics; which beguile. XXXII. Greeks scorn- The Jew 2, as scornful of the heathen rights, ed by the Jews. Stamp'd as the worst of fools and hypocrites The wayward Hellenes, who would maintain Respect for folks call'd Gods, though they could stain He destroyed Jerusalem, and was perhaps the greatest scourge the Jews ever had, and a disgrace to Antioch. He died in 164 B. C., when his son, surnamed Eupater, succeeded to the throne of Syria. 1 "Graiis ingenium, Graiis dedit ore rotundo Musa loqui, præter laudem nullius avaris." Horace. 2 See an admirably well drawn comparison betwixt the Greeks and Jews of those days, in Finlayson's Sermons, page 72. Their lives with something much allied to sin. Diana', poets say, was chaste, though vain; But Venus's amours made no small din ; And as for Jove-he was a libertine. XXXIII. 'Midst great disparities, 'twere no surprise The sons of Judah knelt, and grateful bless'd Commenc'd those frightful fights, which crowd the list 1 Diana permitted a splendid temple to be dedicated to her in the Chersonesus Taurica, where human victims were offered up on her altar (Juvenal, xv. 116.); and it is singular that this temple was burnt the same day that Alexander was born.-See Jovency's Epitome de Diis, et Heroibus Poeticis, p. 71. 2 Venus, the wife properly speaking of Vulcan, had children by Mercury, Mars, Bacchus, Neptune, and Anchises; but her prime favourite was Adonis, the son of Cinyras, King of Cyprus.-Ovid, Ep. iv. 97. 3 Juvenal, with his usual boldness, does not hesitate to affirm, that the heathen deities corrupted the morals of mankind by their debaucheries and crimes; and, in this way, the satirist has artfully exposed the baneful effects of a false religion-Juvenal, xiii. 37–60. Who worshipped the true God. Of horrors it were painful to relate, And which, in silence, we commiserate. XXXIV. Mutual good will. Sufficient fair their state, by Romans told, When the fam'd Persian monarchs 1-liberal too! Their aid and support from the humble Jew; Was far more sacred than the motley crew 1 From the time that, by the humanity of Cyrus, the Jews were released from bondage in Babylon, till the death of Darius Condamanus, when the monarchy terminated, which embraced a period of about 200 years, and during which thirteen kings had reigned, I am not aware that there is one instance of the Persians having injured the Jews, or, more properly speaking, treated them harshly. 2 The ancient Persians (Sabians), every one knows, worshipped the sun and moon and stars, by what Prideaux calls Tabernacles (Connexion, part i. p. 177-179),—that is to say, the orbs themselves; and, according to Herodotus, on the tops of mountains (Clio, sect. cxxxi.), disdaining to take their divinities from men, as the Greeks did. It may here be remarked, |