JOSEPH'S SECOND DREAM.
How bold is innocence! how fix'd it grows!
It fears no seeming friends nor real foes.
'Tis conscious of no guilt, nor base designs,
And therefore forms no plots nor countermines:
But in the paths of virtue walks on still,
And as it does none, so it fears no ill.
Just so it was with Joseph: lately he
Had dream'd a dream, and was so very free,
He to his bretheren did the dream reveal,
At which their hatred scarce they could conceal.
But Joseph not intending any ill,
Dream'd on again, and told his bretheren still.
Methought as on my slumb'ring bed I lay,
I saw a glorious light more bright than day:
The sun and moon, those glorious lamps of heaven,
With glittering stars in number seven,
Came all to me, on purpose to adore me,
And every one of them bow'd down before me:
And each one when they had thus obedience made,
Withdrew, nor for each other longer staid.
When Joseph thus his last dream had related,
Then he was by his bretheren much more hated.
This dream young Joseph to his father told,
Who when he heard it, thinking him too bold,
Rebuk'd him thus: What dream is this I hear?
You are infatuated, child I fear,
Must I, your mother, and your bretheren too,
Become your slaves and bow down to you.
Thus Jacob chid him, for at present he,
Saw not so far into futurity:
Yet he did wonder how things might succeed,
And what for Joseph providence decreed,
For well he thought those dreams wa'nt sent in vain
Yet knew not how he should these dreams explain.
For those things oft are hid from human eyes,
Which are by him that rules above the skies
Firmly decreed; which when they come to know,
The beauty of the work will plainly shew,
And all those bretheren which now Joseph hate,
Shall then bow down to his superior fate:
Old Jacob therefore, just to make a shew,
As if he was displeased with Joseph too,
Thus seem'd to chide young Joseph, but indeed
To his strange dreams he gave no little heed;
Tho' how to interpret them he could not tell,
Yet in the meanwhile he observ'd them well.
How great's the difference 'twixt a father's love,
And brethren's hatred may be seen above.
}They hate their brother for his dreams, but he,
Observes his words, and willing is to see
What the event in future times may be.