ay ape — + ar: Ne ai. - A n And vowed he’d see them all below, Before he’d let one sinner go. ‘¢ Well,” said Jehovah, ** we shall see: We'll try him now with number three. He shall yet know that I am God. To Aaron say: stretch out thy rod, And smite the dust, it shall suffice To turn it into crawling lice.” lewill, said Aaron, ‘if I must.” He raised his hand, and smote the dust. Up rose no dust, but lice instead, That rained a shower on every head ; In palace, temple, tent, and house, Each dusty speck became a louse. On man and beast the vermin light ; No rest by day, no sleep by night, Or, but at best, a fitful snatch : Their sole employment was to scratch. Up millions went on every breeze ; They pastured on the leaves of trees, On blushing cheek of ladies fair, And scrambled up and down their hair. In Egypt, where it never rains, The dust a fearful mass attains ; 1 128 RADICAL RIIYMES. And this was moving, all alive, As bees that cluster round a hive. All travel ceased, the drivers sick, The roads with lice were three feet thick ; . With every step rose up a cloud, And imprecations long and loud. Phra-doo’s men tried their magic art, But not a single louse could start. We plainly see why this was so, The dust was all used up you know. But the magicians, full of dread On finding their enchantments dead, ‘¢ Tt is the Lord,” to Pharaoh said ; ‘¢ Before him let us bow the head.” ‘¢ Bow to this lousy god, not I,” Said Pharaoh: ‘‘ sooner would I die; ”’ And in a rage he turned away, God-hardened for another day. Within his private parlor sat ‘“T Am” and Gabriel in chat. ‘“‘ There's Pharaoh’s case : now let me see What shall the next reminder be ? I play with him as plays a cat With safely-captured mouse or rat ; RADICAL RHYMES. 129 And when I strike the fatal blow, He'll gladly let my people go. I have it now: a cloud of flies Tl send him for the next surprise.”’ All Egypt in a moment woke, For all had felt Jehovah's stroke. Buz-uz rushed in the hungry flies, Attacking mouth and nose and eyes, Flies large as any bumble-bee, And flies so small they scarce could see ; Mosquitoes sucking blood no more Than patience out of every pore ; Flesh-flies that buzzed, and lit, and then When struck, but buzzed and lit again ; Sharp gnats, black flies, infernal pest, Whose victims know no moment’s rest. The air was full: with every breath A hundred flies went to their death ; But twice a hundred came to view The cavern into which they flew. They bobbed against the speaker’s lips, The drinker took them with his sips ; No man could eat, but with each bite Went flies to spoil his appetite. Black were the tables; every dish Was covered; flesh and fowl and fish 130 RADICAL RHYMES. Were fly-blown ere a man could eat, And Egypt’s misery was complete. Pharaoh, with red and swollen face, To pain prefers the deep disgrace ; For Moses and for Aaron sends, And thus accosts his Hebrew friends: ‘¢ Permission I to you accord ; Go, sacrifice unto the Lord ; But go not very far away, And, oh, remove these flies, I pray!” Then Moses prayed, ‘*O thou the Lord, By countless heavenly hosts adored, King Pharaoh says, as thou dost know, That he will let thy people go: Try him once more, O God of love ! This plague of hungry flies remove.” ‘> As thou desirest let it be, And Egypt from this curse be free,” God said, and every fly was gone ; There was not left a single one. When Pharaoh found that all was well, His spirits rose, his terror fell. ‘“’ Twas but an accident,” said he: ‘¢ Why should I set these Hebrews free ? *T would ruin us to let them go, And ruin them, as they might know ; RADICAL RHYMES. If to the wilderness they fly, They can do nothing there but die. In mercy I must take their part, Nor let them with these men depart.” “The hardened wretch! how can he be,” Said God, “so lost to sympathy ? 3ut I will make the tyrant smart, And through his pocket reach his heart. Tl kill the cattle and the sheep, And laugh to see the nation weep ; Pll slay each camel, horse, and ass, And over none my vengeance pass. Iam the Lord, I?ll make them know ; Then they shall let my people go.” Over all the land a murrain passed, As sweeps the dread sirocco’s blast : The camels sunk beneath their load ; The horses dropped upon the road ; The asses ’neath their burdens fell ; The people’s trouble who can tell. The sick man left upon the road, Became a helpful neighbor’s load ; With merchandise the road was strewed, Dropped by the dying multitude ; The cattle, feeding in the stall, Were seen to gasp and then to fail ; 152 RADICAL RIYMES. The peasant’s only cow was dead ; Children went supperless to bed ; And through the land went up a wail, That made the stoutest spirit quail. But though the whole to God was known, It never moved his heart of stone; And Pharaoh’s had no softer grown, For God had made it like his own. ‘¢ Now on their backs I'll lay my rod, And they shall feed that I am God. The hardness of this Pharaoh’s heart Shall make the whole of Egypt smart,” Jehovah said, and then he spake To Moses and his brother: ‘* Take Of furnace ashes full supply ; By handfuls cast them toward the sky, In Pharaoh’s sight; each atom then Shall be a boil on beasts and men.” ( Strange to curse beasts with boil and blain The murrain had already slain.) "Twas done, and every man and brute Was furnished with an embossed suit ; Then running boils, from head to feet, — A panoply of pain complete. They covered the magicians o'er, Their bodies but one running sore ; RADICAL RIYMES. 133 Their magic gone, no power to stay, With pain they howling fled away. From princes in their palace laid, To beggars “neath a hovel’s shade ; From new-born babe to hoary sire, The coursing blood seemed liquid fire ; Foul blotches covered every face, The fair of beauty shewed no trace ; All commerce ceased ; the love of gain Was swallowed by the deadly pain. They could not walk, they could not sit; All clothing was too tight a fit ; No doctor could his patients see ; A patient without patience he. What mortal could such pain withstand ? Pak hospital was all the land. Vain cries for father, sister, mother, For no poor soul could help another. Now surely Pharaoh will relent, And of his stubbornness repent, And send his slaves from Egypt out ; And so he would, without a doubt, But, Moses will the cause impart, ‘‘ The Lord had hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Scarce had the morning drank the night, And pierced the fog with arrowy light, 12 134 RADICAL RHYMES. Revealing what its veil had hid Of palace, tower, and pyramid, When, armed with curse-producing red, Came Moses, deep in talk with God. ‘‘ Now, Moses, ve another plan To move this diamond-hearted man : Since Egypt has a country been, A thunder-storm has ne’er been seen ; Combine with this a shower of hail, And then, I think, it cannot fail To strike the stoutest heart with fear, And make my majesty appear.” So saying, to his home went God, And Moses stretched to heaven his rod : Hoarse thunder shook the very ground, A nation paled to hear the sound ; Dark grew the heavens, as midnight biack, And hoarser thunder answered back ; Fierce ightnings flashed in sheets of fire, Responsive to Jehovah's ire, Irom heaven to earth leaped at one bound, And ran along upon the ground ; "Twas noon one moment, next twas night, And every soul was dumb with fright. Then crashing came great icy balls: The stoutest tree before them falls; RADICAL RHYMES. 135 They plough the ground, and leave no blade To grow for food, or tree for shade; In vain the peasant homeward flies, Beneath their blows he falls and dies, And on the spot, an icy mound . Tells where his body may be found ; The cattle, killed and boiled before, Where’er exposed, were killed once more ; And if you, doubting, whisper, ‘ No,” Your Bibles read, you’ll find it so. Dark as the clouds that o’er him roll, The fears become in Pharaoh’s soul ; And, when the storm in fury fell, His abject terror none can tell. *¢ Call quick for Moses. Aaron too, This state of things will never do. IT am a sinner, God is just,” Said Pharaoh, humbled to the dust; While lightnings through his palace played, And thunders rumbled overhead. ‘*¢] have done wrong, I now can see: Entreat the Lord once more for me, And stay the thunder and the hail, If you can with your God prevail ; And I will do just as ye say, — Your people shall no longer stay.” 136 RADICAL RHYMES. As thinks the fish that has the bait, TPve all I need, I will not wait, Nor dreams of hook, or angling friend, On which his future moves depend : So Pharaoh, when he saw the rod, Knew nothing of the angler, God, Who let him move a while about, Until he chose to lift him out. Then Moses stretched to heaven his hand ; Changed in an instant was the land; The darkness flees, the thunders cease, And in a moment all is peace. But Pharaoh laughed when Moses came, Fulfilment of his word to claim : “Your fancy was upon the wing, I never dreamed of such a thing; I'll hold you while I hold my breath, And nought can free you short of death.” Once more the Lord to Moses came: ‘¢Go unto Pharaoh, in my name, His and his servants’ hearts I’ve steeled, That they may not in mercy yield, Till I have all my wonders shown, And Egypt’s hosts are overthrown. - Once more the land is green and fair; Tell Pharaoh I shall fill the air RADICAL RHYMES. 137 With locusts that shall eat it bare, And not a verdant leaflet spare.”’ When Pharaoh and his servants heard, They trembled at Jehovah’s word ; And Pharaoh said, “If that be so, Go serve the Lord: but who must go ?”’ Then Moses said, “‘ Why, every one ; Each father, mother, daughter, son; Our flocks and herds we'll also take, A sacrifice to God to make.” ‘“‘ No, no,” said Pharaoh, ‘none but men, And then you will return again , And to his servants, “ Drive them out, I will not have such men about.”’ Then Moses, by command of God, Once more stretched out his magic rod, Which brought an east wind day and night, And loeusts with the morning light : A pitchy cloud that hid the sun, As if the evening had begun ; And then a loud, increasing roar, Like breakers on a rocky shore ; And from that cloud on all below, Fell locusts like the winter’s snow : As sand-grains on the desert floor, So covered they the country o’er ; 12* 38 RADICAL RIYMES. At every window in they flew, And filled the houses through and through ; Leaped everywhere, all things upon, And bit in fury, every one; (With science this may lack accord, But these were locusts of the Lord ; ) They stripped the trees, they ate each blade, And of the land a desert made, Till Pharaoh, all his courage spent, For Moses and for Aaron sent. ‘*¢ [ have done wrong, I sorely rue ; I’ve sinned against the Lord and you. Forgive this time: yes, you may start, But cause these locusts to depart.” Then Moses to Jehovah prayed ; And he a mighty west wind made, That swept the land from locusts free, And dropped them into the Red Sea. The broken-hearted Pharaoh would Have freed the Hebrews if he could ; But, ere the wretch could make a start, ** The Lord had hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Then Moses stretched toward heaven his hand, And darkness fell on all the land. Dark is the night, without a star; That day was blacker, darker far ; RADICAL RHYMES. 139 Darker than dungeon or ‘ black hole,” Or pit where miners delve for coal ; No lamp could shed a ray of light, To break the darkness of that night ; A London fog, black as your hat, Is mid-day radiance to that ; "Twas darkness that a knife could cut ; You say that is a story, but The Bible, before which you kneel, Declares *twas darkness you might feel. For three days not a mortal rose (So heavy was it I suppose), Till Pharaoh, by this curse appalled, In anguish unto Moses called : (** How did he find him?” AIT know, The Bible says that it was so.) “Go serve the Lord, go every one, I shall rejoice when you are gone: Although your flocks and herds remain, And then you will return again.”’ ‘¢ Our flocks and herds ?”’ said Moses; ‘¢n9; We cannot move unless they go; To God, burnt-offerings must be made, And on his altars victims laid ; All his commands his people bind, We will not leave a hoof behind.” 140 RADICAL RHYMES. Said Pharaoh, in a passion then, ‘‘ Begone, nor see my face again : King of all Egypt, when my eye Sees thee again thou’lt surely die.” You ask, **‘ How came this sudden start ?.” The ‘“ Lord had hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Said God to Moses, ‘‘ I’ve in store For Pharaoh only one plague more ; Then, though his heart is hard and stout, I know that he will thrust you out. Through all the land, thus saith the Lord, Pll pass with my destroying sword ; - Speak to my people, ’tis my will, A lamb unblemished must they kill For every household; and each door Must with the blood be sprinkled o’er, And I shall see the crimson sign, And know that blood-stained house is mine ; And on that dark and fearful night, When I through Egypt take my flight, Let no soul from his dwelling stir, Or I may be his murderer.” At midnight, with his flaming sword, Throuzhout all Ezyps swep5 the Lord; Of man and beast the first-born slew, But by the sign his people knew. RADICAL RHYMES. 141 (The beasts twice slain before, ’tis true ; A trifle for the Lord to do.) Hark! ’tis a mother’s piercing ery ; She sees her baby gasp and die. Her neighbor wakes, last week a bride, Her husband’s corpse les by her side. From Pharaoh’s wife to miller’s maid, From king to him in dungeon laid, The Lord had smitten everywhere ; No house but death had entered there. From stricken Egypt rose a wail Loud as the most terrific gale. Then from the multitude a shout : “¢ Drive, drive these cursed Hebrews out.”’ And Pharaoh sent for Moses then, ‘¢ For,” said he, ‘‘ we are all dead men. Go, go; and Moses, take your rod, Your children, cattle, and your God : There is no safety while you stay ; You must march out this very day.” A nation in a moment free: It was the day of jubilee ; To pack, to start, they were not slow ; Their kneading-troughs contained the dough, So hurried by their neighbors they, Who saw but death if they should stay. 142 RADICAL RHYMES. Taught by the Lord, their need he knew, They borrowed of those neighbors too, — Gold, silver, raiment; glad were they To help their plagues to get away. That very morn they started out; Three million people on the route, From Egypt to the Promised Land, Went trudging o’er the desert sand, With cattle, sheep, a numerous throng, A column twenty-five miles long. (You tell me they could never do What I declare ; and that is true, As Natal’s bishop clearly shows, And every common-sense man knows ; But then Jehovah, so immense, - Cannot be bound by common sense. ) Wrapped in a pillared cloud all day, Great I AM marched to show the way ; But in the darkness of the night He blazed a fire to give them light ; With Moses now and then he talked, As through the wilderness they walked : ‘* From Pharaoh they are free at last, But I cannot forget the past ; T’ll harden his old heart anew, And he shall follow after you ; Then thou shalt see what I will do. RADICAL RHYMES. 1438 I have within my mind a plan, To get me honor on that man ; I'll shame the gods he has implored, And show him that I am the Lord.” Then Pharaoh said, ‘* Why did we so ? From serving us, why let them go ? Tis not too late to mend this thing, All Egypt’s chariots swiftly bring ; Nor captains nor for soldiers lack ; We'll capture them, and drive them back.” Six hundred chariots were at hand, Obedient to the king’s command ; With captains also at their post, And horsemen and an armed host. Hard-hearted Pharaoh led the van According to Jehovah’s plan. The Hebrews, their day’s travel o’er, Were camped upon the Red Sea’s shore, When they beheld with deadly fear Pharach’s grand army drawing near ; On each side rocky mountains rose ; Before, the sea, behind, their foes ; They knelt, with Moses by their side, And to the Lord in terror cried ; 144 RADICAL RHYMES. No answer from Jehovah came ; On Moses then they poured the blame : ‘* Why not in Egypt let us le? Why didst thou bring us here to die ? Better had we been slaves to-day Than thus to perish by the way.” Six hundred thousand fighting men, With God for leader; but what then ? ° A set of trembling cowards they ; So are his people to this day. Then Moses, by command of God, Upraised again his awful rod ; ‘‘ Fear not, stand still, behold,” said he, And stretched it over the Red Sea ; And then arose a wind that blew A passage its deep waters through. With hope, yet terror, on they sped All night upon the dry sea’s bed ; On right and left a watery wall By wind upheld, how could it fall ? (The story to this very day Has been upheld the self-same way.) When Pharaoh saw the dried-up sea, **°Tis good for us as them,” said he, And on he went most recklessly. The fiery pillar no more led, But went behind the host instead ; RADICAL RHYMES. A cloud to Pharaoh, but a light _ To every flying Israelite. And from that pillar, like a ghost, God looked, and troubled Pharaoh’s host ; Nay more, took off their chariot-wheels, And thus reduced them to their heels, Till the alarmed Egyptians say, ‘“* Let us return, while yet we may ; Their God is fighting for them, we To save our lives must quickly flee.” The Hebrews, with the morning light, Were on the farther side, all right; But the Egyptians, toiling on, Oft looking back, their courage gone. ‘‘ Now, Moses,” said the Hebrew God, ‘«¢ Stretch o’er the sea once more thy rod; In gravitation’s jaws are they, No power can now release my prey.”’ Up went the rod, the water saw, And in an instant felt the law ; In vain affrighted Pharaoh flees, Together rush the parted seas ; His chariots and his horsemen brave Sink deep beneath the Red Sea wave. Their corpses strew the sandy shore, And Egypt sees her sons no more. 146 RADICAL RHYMES. ON A PIECE OF SILURIAN LIMESTONE, FULL OF FOSSILS AND THEIR FRAGMENTS. Mruuions have toiled that this rock might be, Struggling for life in an ancient sea, — Pearly shells strewing the sandy shores ; Trilobites rowing with tiny oars; Corals adorning their stony bowers ; Beautiful crinoids, like breathing flowers, Opening, closing throughout the day Feathery petals to catch their prey ; Head-footed mollusks with tapering floats, — Giant freebooters m ivory boats; Gasteropods coiled up in erystal cells; Jelly-fish looking like emerald bells. . Myriads of forms that we ne’er may see Sported about in that world-wide sea, On its fucoidal savannas fed, Drooped, dropped, and sank to the ocean’s bed ; For death reaped the harvest that life had sown, And ages converted them into stone. RADICAL RHYMES. 147 HOW GOD MAKES THE WORLD. Gop makes his world by falling rains, By viewless winds that sweep the plains, By restless waves that lash the shore _And rivers rolling evermore. The planet cools the mountain’s rise ; The ocean’s bottom seeks the skies ; The falling rains the high lands lave, And rivers sweep them to their grave ; While myriads form within the sea The continents that are to be. From age to age God’s spirit wrought ; All life the image of his thought ; Advanced to man, and yet are we But prophecies of what shall be. JUDHA AND NEW ENGLAND. Is Jesus the only son of God? There is not a soul that walks the sod Who is not God’s child as much as he: Divinely begot, from sin as free, a 148 RADICAL RHYMES. As God-beloved, as heaven-blest, The baby, mother, upon your breast. Is Canaan the only holy land? Not less is the ground on which we stand: From evergreen Maine to Texas brown No holier land the seasons crown; Monadnock as sacred you may count , As Sinai’s top or Zion’s mount. What holier, nobler men had they In biblical times than we to-day ? No Yankee need blush when he compares The life of our Abraham with theirs ; From Adam to Malachi what one Is there to equal our Garrison ? WHO ARE THE LORD’S PEOPLE? THOSE sleek, shaven priests, who wear cassocks and bands, And show to the people their lily-white hands ? — Who talk of “the Lord” as of “ Jack in the box,” Shown only to those who are ortho in dox; RADICAL RHYMES. 149 Who send men to heaven or hell as they please, For to both of these prisons they carry the keys. Are Baptists his people, the dipped, the elect, Who bound the eternal by walls of a sect? Or born-again Methodists, zealous and loud, Who scare with their hot hell the unthinking crowd ? Are Quakers his children, who save every cent, And, if they owned heaven, would make us pay rent ? a3 Or blue Presbyterians, Puritan breed, Who measure a man by the form of his creed ? Or Adventists, waiting impatient to fly When Jesus shall drop like a stone from the sky, Whose hope is that they, when the planet burns up, ; Shall with the incendiary pleasantly sup ? The people of God are the women and men Who fill this broad planet again and again: There’s no one so poor God passes him by; _ There’s no one so wretched he heeds not his cry, — No sinner so wayward, though far he may roam, But hears, if he listen, God calling him home. The people of God are the harlots and thieves, The sceptic who doubts, and the sot who believes, 150 RADICAL RHYMES. The people of God are the beggars and tramps, ~The virgins who carry no oil in their lamps ; The people of God are the evil and good, — Those washed but in suds, and those “washed in the blood.” No child has he fathered for devil to mar, And heaven shall be where his little ones are. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS ISSUED BY THE DENTON PUBLISHING COMPANY, WELLESLEY, MASS. OUR PLANET: ITS PAST AND FUTURE. By W!1- LIAM DENTON. (Seventh Thousand.) 344 pages. 1I2mo. Illustrated. THE SOUL OF THINGS. Inthree volumes. By WILLIAM and ELIZABETH M. F. DENTON. Each volume complete in itself. 1,182 pages. 12mo. Illustrated. $1.50 each volume. GENESIS AND GEOLOGY. (Tenth Thousand.) By WIL- LIAM DENTON. 80 pages. I2mo. 40 cents in cloth; 25 cents in paper. THE DELUGE IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN SCI-_ ENCE. By WILLIAM DENTON. (Eighteenth Thousand.) Price 10 cents. IS DARWIN RIGHT? OR, THE ORIGIN OF MAN. About 200 pages. 12mo. Illustrated. Price $1.00. Sent, postpaid, on receipt of price. Liberal allowance to agents or persons purchasing by the quantity. Address DENTON PUBLISHING COMPANY, WELLESLEY (NEAR Boston), MASss. Z ti ty VG, “ye Ly g Y Y YD ee