Each potent spell thou bad'st him know. By thee inspired, on India's sands, Full in the sun the Bramin stands; And, while the panting tigress hies To quench her fever in the stream, His spirit laughs in agonies, Smit by the scorchings of the noontide beam. Mark who mounts the sacred pyre, Blooming in her bridal vest: She hurls the torch! she fans the fire! To die is to be blest: She clasps her lord to part no more, * And, sighing, sinks! but sinks to soar. O'ershadowing Scotia's desert coast, The Sisters sail in dusky state, t And, wrapt in clouds, in tempests tost, Weave the airy web of Fate; While the lone shepherd, near the shipless main, Sees o'er her hills advance the long-drawn funeral train. * The funeral rite of the Hindoos. The Fates of the Northern Mythology. See MALLET'S Anti- quities. II. 1. Thou spak'st, and lo! a new creation glowed. Each unhewn mass of living stone Was clad in horrors not its own, And at its base the trembling nations bowed. Grasped the globe with iron hand. Circled with seats of bliss, the Lord of Light * Springs from its parent earth, and shakes the spheres; The indignant pyramid sublimely towers, And braves the efforts of a host of years. Sweet Music breathes her soul into the wind; And bright-eyed Painting stamps the image of the mind. II. 2. Round their rude ark old Egypt's sorcerers rise! A timbrelled anthem swells the gale, And bids the God of Thunders hail; † See that fine description of the sudden animation of the Palla dium in the second book of the Æneid. + The bull, Apis. With lowings loud the captive God replies. Clouds of incense woo thy smile, Scaly monarch of the Nile! * But ah! what myriads claim the bended knee? † Proud land! what eye can trace thy mystic lore, What eye those long, long labyrinths dare explore, § Again to visit her cold cell of clay, Charmed with perennial sweets, and smiling at decay? II. 3. On yon hoar summit, mildly bright || With purple ether's liquid light, High o'er the world, the white-robed Magi gaze On dazzling bursts of heavenly fire; The Crocodile. + According to an antient proverb, it was less difficult in Egypt to find a god than a man. The Hieroglyphics. The Catacombs. "The Persians," says Herodotus, " have no temples, no altars, or statues; sacrificing on the tops of the highest mountains." I. 131. Start at each blue, portentous blaze, But say, what sounds my ear invade From Delphi's venerable shade? The temple rocks, the laurel waves! Her figure swells! she foams, she raves! Streams of rapture roll along, Silver notes ascend the skies: Wake, Echo, wake and catch the song, Oh catch it, ere it dies! The Sibyl speaks, the dream is o'er, In vain she checks the God's controul; His madding spirit fills her frame, And moulds the features of her soul, Breathing a prophetic flame. The cavern frowns; its hundred mouths unclose! And, in the thunder's voice, the fate of empire flows! * En. VI. 46. &c. III. 1. Mona, thy Druid-rites awake the dead! Rites thy brown oaks would never dare Even whisper to the idle air; Rites that have chained old Ocean on his bed. Shivered by thy piercing glance, Pointless falls the hero's lance. Thy magic bids the imperial eagle fly, * Where late she sate and scowled on the black wave below. III. 2. Lo, steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears! The red-cross squadrons madly rage,† *See Tacitus, 1. xiv. c. 29. + This remarkable event happened at the siege and sack of Jeru salem in the last year of the eleventh century. Matth. Paris, p. 34. |