صفحة 649 من 896

It sheared off heads so many, that it, and the ground it most

polluted, were a rotten red. It was taken to pieces, like a

toy-puzzle for a young Devil, and was put together again when the

occasion wanted it. It hushed the eloquent, struck down the

powerful, abolished the beautiful and good. Twenty-two friends of

high public mark, twenty-one living and one dead, it had lopped

the heads off, in one morning, in as many minutes. The name of

the strong man of Old Scripture had descended to the chief

functionary who worked it; but, so armed, he was stronger than

his namesake, and blinder, and tore away the gates of God's own

Temple every day.