VI.

CONCLUSION.

T might have been thought that an event of so much interest and importance as the destruction of Jerusalem; of interest from the wonderful display of

heroic endurance and steadfast courage which it involved,-of importance as a fulfilment of prophecy, and in the extent of its influence upon the fortunes of the human race; it might have been thought, we say, that such an event would have inspired the muse of one or other of our greater poets.* .* Yet the only poem which we know of as dealing at all worthily with the subject is the "Fall of Jerusalem," by Dean Milman, who, notwithstanding a certain dignity of rhythm and

It has been made the subject of a romance ("The Gladiators") by Whyte Melville.

fervour of style, does not occupy a very high place in English poetry. His poem, however, contains some fine passages, and affords a graphic illustration of the sober narrative of Josephus. As it is not very generally

known, it has seemed to us that a brief description of its plot-for it is cast in a dramatic form-and a few quotations from it, will be an appropriate conclusion to our "simple story," and a source of gratification to our younger readers.

In his preface Dean Milman observes:

"The groundwork of my poem is to be found in Josephus; but the events of a considerable time are compressed into a period of about thirty-six hours. Though their children are fictitious characters, the leaders of the Jews-Simon, John, and Eleazar-are historical. At the beginning of the siege the defenders of the city were divided into three factions.* John, however, having surprised Eleazar, who occupied the Temple, during a festival, the party of Eleazar became subordinate to that of John. The character of John the Galilean was that of excessive sensuality. I have therefore considered him as belonging to the sect of the Sadducees; Simon, on the other hand, I have represented as a native of Jerusalem, and a strict Pharisee, although his soldiers were chiefly Edomites. The Christians, we learn from Eusebius, abandoned the city previous to the siege (by

divine command, according to that author), and took refuge in Pella, a small town on the further side of the Jordan. The constant tradition of the Church has been that no one professing that faith perished during all the havoc which attended on this most awful visitation.

"It has been my object," adds Dean Milman," also to show the full completion of prophecy in this great event; nor do I conceive that the public mind (should this poem. merit attention) can be directed to so striking and so incontestable an evidence of the Christian faith without advantage."

The poem opens at even-time, on the sacred Mount of Olives, the scene of some of the most tragical and pathetic incidents in our Lord's passion. Here Titus and his generals are assembled, and discourse upon the stubborn courage of the Jews in defence of their beloved city, whose beautiful aspect, as seen in the glow of the rich sunset, is thus described by the Roman commander: :

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"" How boldly doth it front us! how majestically!
Like a luxurious vineyard, the hill-side'

Is hung with marble fabrics, line o'er line,

Terrace o'er terrace, nearer still, and nearer

To the blue heavens. Here bright and sumptuous palaces,

With cool and verdant gardens interspersed ;

Here towers of war that frown in massy strength.

While over all hangs the rich purple eve,

As conscious of its being her last farewell
Of light and glory to that fated city.
9

And, as our clouds of battle dust and smoke
Are melted into air, behold the Temple,
In undisturbed and lone serenity

Finding itself a solemn sanctuary

In the profound of heaven! It stands before us
A mount of snow fretted with golden pinnacles!
The very sun, as though he worshipped there,
Lingers upon the gilded cedar roofs;
And down the long and branching porticoes,
On every flowery-sculptured capital

Glitters the homage of his parting beams."

His generals would fain persuade Titus to spare this glorious city when it falls into his power; but he tells them that this may not be. He feels impelled by some mysterious power to decree its destruction; a voice within him commands him to yield it up to carnage and desolation. He therefore gives directions for the military operations which that very night are to close the siege, and dismisses his generals to their respective posts.

We are conducted in the second scene to the Fountain of Siloe, which was just without the walls of the Upper City. Here Juvan, a Jew who has accepted the religion of the Saviour, has come by night to meet the beautiful Miriam, a daughter of Simon the Zealot, who has also become a proselyte

To the high creed of Him who died for men."

But the principles of her new faith have only deepened and strengthened her filial love, and one of her objects in meeting Juvan, her lover, is to receive from his hands a

gift of fruit to revive her father's toil-worn and famished frame. Juvan, seeing how close at hand is the doom of rebellious Jerusalem, urges her to fly with him, before it is too late, to Pella, the town beyond the Jordan, where are met "the neglected Church of Christ." His pleadings, however, fall vainly on her ears:—

66 6 'Oh, cease!' she cries; 'I pray thee cease!
Juvan! I know that all men hate my father;
Juvan! I fear that all should hate my father;
And, therefore, Juvan, must his daughter's love,
Her dutiful, her deep, her fervent love,

Make
up to his forlorn and desolate heart
The forfeited affections of his kind.
Is't not so written in our law? and He
We worship came not to destroy the Law.
Then let men rain their curses, let the storm
Of human hate beat on his rugged trunk,
I will cling to him, starve, die, bear the scoffs
Of men upon my scattered bones with him.'"

Juvan cannot refuse his admiration to this noble example of a daughter's devotion, and with a sad farewell the true Christian lovers separate.

We accompany Miriam to her father's house, where she meets her sister Salone, who, in the midst of trumpet sounds, and groans of dying men, and crash of falling houses, is cheered by ecstatic visions swift-hurrying across her fevered brain. She suspects, however, Miriam's apostasy, and is upbraiding her with it when Simon's entrance compels her into silence.