4
BALAAM.
Numbers xxiii. 24.
IGHT'S veil of darkness slowly melts away,And rosy clouds proclaim the coming day.
Sec! gathering light illumes the castern sky, fly:
Now one by one the fading stars expire,
And all the glowing sky seems wrapped in fire,
Till, rising slowly o'er the mountain's brow,
Which shines in hues of varied beauty now,
All bright and glorious comes the orb of day,
And pours on Moab's land his golden ray.
Glad Nature smiles, and Jordan's distant streams,
Now glistening, dance beneath his fiery beams;
While in the limpid wave reflected clear,
The glowing clouds and gorgeous skies appear.
Still o'er the earth the mists of morning rest,
And shroud in silver robe the mountain's crest,
O'er every object cast a veil of snow,
And hide in mantling clouds the plains below.
Jut now the balmy zephyr gently breathes,
And slow ascending all in dewy wreathes,
The curling vapours rise from off the land,
