ak,
But what he to his prophet now hath shown--
Who unto us will make it clearly known?
Arms he himself to save us, poor and weak?
Arms he himself to have us overthrown?

THE WHOLE CHORUS.

O promises! O threats! O mystery profound!
What woe, what weal, are each in turn foretold?
How can so much of wrath be found
So much of love to enfold?

A VOICE.

Zion shall be no more; a cruel flame
Will all her ornaments devour.

A SECOND VOICE.

God shelters Zion; she has shield and tower
In His eternal name.

FIRST VOICE.

I see her splendor all from vision disappear.

SECOND VOICE.

I see on every side her glory shine more clear.

FIRST VOICE.

Into a deep abyss is Zion sunk from sight.

SECOND VOICE.

Zion lifts up her brow amid celestial light.

FIRST VOICE.

What dire despair!

SECOND VOICE.

What praise from every tongue!

FIRST VOICE.

What cries of grief!

SECOND VOICE.

What songs of triumph sung!

A THIRD VOICE.

Cease we to vex ourselves; our God, one day,
Will this great mystery make clear.

ALL THREE VOICES.

Let us his wrath revere,
While on his love, no less, our hopes we stay.

The catastrophe is reached in the coronation of little Joash as king,
and in the destruction of usurping and wicked Athaliah. Little Joash, by
the way, with his rather precocious wisdom of reply, derived to himself,
for the moment, a certain factitious interest, from the resemblance,
meant by the poet to be divined by spectators, between him and the
little Duke of Burgundy, Louis XIV.'s grandson, then of about the same
age with the Hebrew boy, and of high reputation for mental vivacity.

The scene in which the high priest, Jehoiada, for the first time
discloses to his foster-son, Joash, the latter's royal descent from
David, and his true heirship to the throne of Judah, will serve
sufficiently to exhibit what maturity of modest and pious wisdom the
dramatist attributes to this Hebrew boy of nine or ten years. Nine or
ten years of age Racine makes Joash, instead of seven, as Scripture,
interpreted without violence, would make him. The lad has had his sage
curiosity excited by seeing preparations in progress for some important
ceremonial. That ceremonial is his o