Seite 190 von 239

Which when the Lord God heard, without delay

To judgment he proceeded on the accused

Serpent, though brute, unable to transfer

The guilt on him who made him instrument

Of mischief, and polluted from the end

Of his creation; justly then accursed,

As vitiated in nature. More to know

Concerned not man—since he no further knew—

Nor altered his offence. Yet God at last

To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied,

Though in mysterious terms, judged as then best;

And on the serpent thus his curse let fall:

Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed

Above all cattle, each beast of the field;

Upon thy belly grovelling thou shalt go,

And dust shalt eat all the days of thy life.

Between thee and the woman I will put

Enmity, and between thine and her seed;

Her seed shall bruise thy head, thou bruise his heel.

So spake this oracle, then verified,

When Jesus, Son of Mary, second Eve,

Saw Satan fall, like lightning down from heaven,

Prince of the air; then, rising from his grave,

Spoiled Principalities and Powers, triumphed

In open show; and, with ascension bright,

Captivity led captive through the air,

The realm itself of Satan, long usurped;

Whom He shall tread at last under our feet,

Even He, who now foretold his fatal bruise.

And to the woman thus his sentence turned:

Thy sorrow I will greatly multiply

By thy conception; children thou shalt bring

In sorrow forth; and to thy husband's will

Thine shalt submit, he over thee shall rule.

Because thou hast. -Gen. iii. 14, 15.