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Show [ !46 ] Thus o'er the madh aerial lights betray, And charm the unwary wanderer from his way. So when thy King, Affyria, fierce and proud, 1'hree human vit!i1ns to his idol vow' d ; Rear'd a vafi pyre before the golden ilirine Of fulphurous coal, and pitch-exfuding pine;- Loud roar the flames, the iron nofirils breathe, And the huge bellows pant and heave beneath ; Bright and more bright the blazing deluge flows, And white with feven-fold heat the furnace glows. ' And now the Monarch fix' d with dread furprife Deep in the burning vault his dazzled eyes. 55 6o '' Lo! Three unbound amid the frightful glare, 6 5 " U nfcorch' d their fandals, and unfing' d their hair ! " And now a fourth with feraph-beauty bright " Defcends, accofts them, and oudhines the light ! " Fierce flames innocuous, as they ftep, retire ! " And flow they move amid a world of fire !" 70 He fpoke,-to Heaven his arms repentant fpread, • And kneeling bow' d his gen1-incircled head: [ 147 ] Two Sifter-Nymphs, the fair A VEN As, lead Their fleecy fquadrons on the lawns of Tweed; Pafs with light fiep his wave-worn banks along, And wake his Echoes with their :filver tongue ; Or touch the reed, as gentle Love infpires, In notes accordant to their chafie de:fires. " Sweet EcHo ! fleeps thy vocal :fhell, " Where this high arch o 'erhangs the dell ; " While Tweed with fun-refleB:ing firea1ns " Chequers thy rocks with dancing beams ?- 75 So Ovena. 1. 73· Oat. The numerous families of gralfes have all three males, and tw() females, except Anthoxanthum, which gives the grateful fmell to hay, and has but two males. The herbs of this order of vegetables fupport the countlefs tribes of graminivorous animals. The feeds of the fmaller kinds of gralfes, as of aira, poa, briza, ftipa, &c. are the fufl:enance of many forts of birds. The feeds of the large gralfes, as of wheat, barley, rye, oats, fupply food to the human fpecies. It feems to have required more ingenuity to think of feeding nations of mankind with fo fmall a feed, than with the potatoe of Mexico, or the bread-fruit of the fouthern iflands; hence Ceres in Egypt, which was the birth-place of our European arts, was dcfervedly celebrated among(ttheirdivinities, a well as Ofyris, who invented the Plough. Mr. Wahlborn obferves, that as wheat, rye, and many of the gralfes, and plantain, lift up their anthers on long filaments, and thus expofe the enclofed fecundating dufl: to be wafhed away by the rains, a fcarcity of corn is produced by wet fummers; hence the neceilityof a careful choice of feed-wheat, as that, which had not received theduft of the anthers, will not grow, though it may appear well to the eye. The {l:raw of the oat feems to have been the firfl: mufical infl:rument, invente'd during the pafl:oral ages of the' world, before the difcovery of metals. Sec note on Cifius. . U2 |
