46 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
And then, at last, comes the change. She forgets self, and sees 
the larger meaning of her death: 
Were it not great to die fon israel 
To free a father from a flood of woe ? 
Having cast the die, she turns to her maidens and takes leave of 
them: 
Now is the burden of it all “No more.” 
No more shall, wandering, we go gather flowers, 
Nor tune our voices by the river’s brink, , 
Nor in the grctto-fountain cool our limbs. 
The priests enter, and she begs for a short respite. 
Spare me some little moments more of life 
Hark ! how the wood awakes, and starts to sing 
A solemn anthem, and remotely hums 
The mellow tumbling of the waterfall. 
All beats with life, all yet is youthful, and 
Rejoicing in the trust of coming days. 
Then, as she makes ready to go with the priests, she says: 
Brief are the pangs of death; the bliss enduring 
Of having bought my country her repose, 
My sire some peace, and left him undishonoured. 
Jephthah, in his agony, urges the priests to search the law, if there 
be not some way of escape from the sacrifice. 
They reply: 
Nothing, once dedicate to Heaven, returns ; 
Nought, so to Heaven devoted, is withdrawn, 
However costly, or however dear :— 
Jephthah’s daughter takes leave of her father, and urges him to 
comfort her mother. 
Farewell, farewell, 
To both, to all 
And then the gates of the future are unlocked, and she sees herself 
shrined in the hearts of youth and maiden,— 
Recording how, inviolable, stood 
The bounds of Israel, by my blood secured. 
Nor more shall they thus celebrate myself 
Than laud my sire; who, in his day of might, 
Swore, not in vain, unto the Lord, who gave 
Him victory, although he tcok his child :— 
Took her, but gave him, in her stead, his country, 
With a renowned, imperishable name. 

*There is great art in the development of the daughter’s feelings from 
her first naturai terror of death to the hallowed resignation with which she 
finally prepares for it, still casting a sad, submissive glance on the fair world 
she quits . . . . There is a sense, too, of noble pride in her sacrifice ; she 
gives herself for her country no less than for her father. . . . . There is 
no need after our quotations, to say that the character of Jephthah’s daughter 
displays both imagination and feeling.’’—Athenaeum (London). 
