The counsellors and judges of the land

Bow to the throne, and rang'd around it stand.

Then deputies from many a city fair,

Whose splendid train and gifts their wealth declare;

And royal companies of merchants pour

From earth's remotest bounds, a precious store.

The empire, where the yellow river flows,

And cruel sires their progeny expose,

Its glossy silk, and rich with varied dyes

And varied forms, its porcelain supplies:

Her lacquer'd ware Japan: Arabia yields
The perfume of her fam'd Sabean fields:
The gorgeous east her glitt'ring gems bestows,

Her fragrant wood that emulates the rose,
Her precious gums: the Arctic region cold,

Her furs; and Afric, elephant and gold.

This proud procession pass'd, lo, next advanc'd Those three fair nymphs. Each heart with rapture danc'd.

The first came forth, and graceful mov'd along,

Confess'd a goddess by the gazing throng.

Upon her brow a laurel wreath she wore,

A golden wand in her fair hand she bore;

While, like the am'rous turtle's varying breast,
The colours shifted of her airy vest;

A dazzling lustre sparkled from her eyes;

Earth, the unfathom'd sea, and boundless skies

Her glance pervades, and, 'midst the realms of light,
New modes of being sees in vision bright.

She wav'd the golden wand, and straight to view
The spacious halls more large and splendid grew,

Fair columns rise, and graceful arches bend,
And rich with gold the fretted roofs ascend.
Not Corinth, when in all her pride she shone ;
Not fam'd Palmyra, great Zenobia's throne;
Minerva's city, queen of arts refin'd;

Or Rome, the mighty mistress of mankind;
So proud a structure saw, so nobly grac'd
With rich materials, and-proportions chaste.
She wav'd the golden wand, and, at her call,
Obedient colours clothe the lofty wall:

All forms, all hues, which nature owns display;
The shades of ev'ning, and the blaze of day:
While wond'ring eyes with holy awe behold
Kings, heroes, patriots, sages, fam'd of old:
Jove bends his sable brows; and breathing joy,
The queen of beauty meets the Syrian boy :

The queen of beauty in her Paphian bowers,
When love has dress'd her fragrant couch with flowers.

Again she waves her wand,-the ductile brass

Flows into shape, and lives the marble mass.
The gods their majesty no more conceal,

And beauty's perfect form to mortal sense reveal.
The second nymph with mien more awful came,
About her temples play'd a lambent flame,

Witness of heav'nly birth. Yet mark of pow'r,

Sceptre, or rod, or circlet, none she bore.

But by one hand sustain'd a book appear'd,

A polish'd mirror in her right she rear'd.

There, to th' inquiring mind, the goddess brings,

In clear reflexion, all created things.

VOL. II.

S

She stood before the footstool of the queen:

She spoke, and lo, a mimic heav'n was seen.
There the great father of the circling years,
The glorious sun in all his state appears.
Round him, rejoicing in his vital force,
The planets roll in their appointed course.
Earth meets exulting his prolific ray,

And opens all her bosom to the day.

Then shone the mistress of the peaceful hour, Of softer influence, not inferior pow'r:

She from each clime collected brings the dew, Whose fragrant show'rs the fertile glebe renew, The mighty waters flow beneath her sway, And swelling tides her constant rule obey. Next see the nymph the sacred page disclose,

Where past events in order just repose.

Before the royal seat appears unroll'd

The long succession of the years of old.

"Whatever change beyond the reach of thought,

'In earth or heav'n, the wizard Time has wro

k Collins.

Whate'er of science patient search has scann'd;

Whate'er vain man's unresting mind has plann'd ;
The statesman's labours, and the warrior's rage;
Recorded stand in that illumin'd page,

Which gives, unbought by danger or by pain,
The wisdom for which thousands toil in vain.
The goddess then invokes th' immortal nine,
Daughters of memory, of race divine.

Sweet, yet sonorous, was the varied song,

And still the echoing roofs the strain prolong.

Arms were the theme, and wealth and mighty sway,

And sovereign beauty, which ev'n gods obey.

The throng assenting loud applauses raise,

With smiles the queen receives the artful praise.

Then fresh and radiant as the early dawn,

When first with glitt'ring drops it decks the lawn; And as the southern air, on fluttering wing,

Kisses the tender blossoms of the spring;

So lightly forth that third fair sister trips,

A smile like Hebe's on her rosy lips.