Page:Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes (1671).djvu/140

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Samson Agonistes

O mirror of our fickle state,
Since man on earth unparallel'd!
The rarer thy example stands,
By how much from the top of wondrous glory,
Strongest of mortal men,
To lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fall'n.170
For him I reckon not in high estate
Whom long descent of birth
Or the sphear of fortune raises;
But thee whose strength, while vertue was her mate
Might have subdu'd the Earth,
Universally crown'd with highest praises.
Sam.I hear the sound of words, thir sense the air
Dissolves unjointed e're it reach my ear.
Chor.Hee speaks, let us draw nigh. Matchless in might,
The glory late of Israel, now the grief;180
We come thy friends and neighbours not unknown
From Eshtaol and Zora's fruitful Vale
To visit or bewail thee, or if better,

Counsel