18
THE TRIUMPHS
But of those nymphs, who, delicately fair,
Draw soft attractions from my forming care,
My young Serena shines her peers above,
Pride of my hopes, and darling of my love.
Hence I to thee such mysteries unfold,
As man's pedantic eye shall ne'er behold;
Whose narrow science, tho' it proudly boast
To pierce the sky, and count the starry host,
Sees not the lucid band of airy powers,
Who flutter round him in his secret hours:
But if to me, thy guardian now display'd,
Thy duteous orisons are justly paid,
Thou to those realms shalt pass with me thy guide,
Where Spleen's pale victims, after death, reside;
Then to that orb, in vision shalt thou rise,
(Not seen by mortal astronomic eyes,
Not e'en by Herschel, whose angelic ken
Finds a mute star, and bids it speak to men)
Where I—but first let me thy soul prepare
To meet our secret foe's insidious snare!
Draw soft attractions from my forming care,
My young Serena shines her peers above,
Pride of my hopes, and darling of my love.
Hence I to thee such mysteries unfold,
As man's pedantic eye shall ne'er behold;
Whose narrow science, tho' it proudly boast
To pierce the sky, and count the starry host,
Sees not the lucid band of airy powers,
Who flutter round him in his secret hours:
But if to me, thy guardian now display'd,
Thy duteous orisons are justly paid,
Thou to those realms shalt pass with me thy guide,
Where Spleen's pale victims, after death, reside;
Then to that orb, in vision shalt thou rise,
(Not seen by mortal astronomic eyes,
Not e'en by Herschel, whose angelic ken
Finds a mute star, and bids it speak to men)
Where I—but first let me thy soul prepare
To meet our secret foe's insidious snare!
