Page:Oriental Sketches Dramatic Sketches and Tales.pdf/213

And Satire lightly laughs at Folly's cause,
And Virtue wins the heart to Virtue's laws?
'Tis woman's smile!—She raised her potent wand,
And this fair structure rose at her command;
She blessed the wilderness, and each ravine
Transformed at once, became a brilliant scene:
And the lone exiles from a distant coast
No longer mourn for all that they have lost;
But pleased, and pleasing, to this arid sand
Have brought the treasures of their native land.
And never yet beneath the arch of heaven
To lovelier forms was man's obedience given,
Nor homage ever paid to eyes more bright,
Than those which grace our Theatre to-night.

    Oh! still vouchsafe the soft approving smile,
Still by your presence gild this honoured pile.
For when did radiant beauty ever own
A fairer realm, a more appropriate throne,