"O'er those blest isles no ice-crown'd mountains tower'd, 40 No lightnings darted, and no tempests lower'd; Soft fell the vesper-drops, condensed below, Or bent in air the rain-refracted bow; Sweet breathed the zephyrs, just perceiv'd and lost; And brineless billows only kiss'd the coast; 45 Round the bright zodiac danced the vernal hours, And Peace, the Cherub, dwelt in mortal bowers! "So young DIONE, nursed beneath the waves, And rock'd by Nereids in their coral caves, Charm'd the blue sisterhood with playful wiles, 50 Lisp'd her sweet tones, and tried her tender smiles. Then, on her beryl throne by Triton's borne, Bright rose the Goddess like the Star of morn; When with soft fires the milky dawn He leads, And wakes to life and love the laughing meads;-- 55 With rosy fingers, as uncurl'd they hung Round her fair brow, her golden locks she wrung; O'er the smooth surge on silver sandals flood, And look'd enchantment on the dazzled flood.-- The bright drops, rolling from her lifted arms, 60 In slow meanders wander o'er her charms, Seek round her snowy neck their lucid track, Pearl her white shoulders, gem her ivory back, Round her fine waist and swelling bosom swim, And star with glittering brine each crystal limb.-- 65 --The immortal form enamour'd Nature hail'd, And Beauty blazed to heaven and earth, unvail'd. [_So young Dione_. l. 47. There is an antient gem representing Venus rising out of the ocean supported by two Tritons. From the formality of the design it would appear to be of great antiquity before the introduction of fine taste into the world. It is probable that this beautiful allegory was originally an hieroglyphic picture (before the invention of letters) descriptive of the formation of the earth from the ocean, which seems to have been an opinion of many of the most antient philosophers.] III. "You! who then, kindling after many an age, Saw with new fires the first VOLCANO rage, O'er smouldering heaps of livid sulphur swell 70 At Earth's firm centre, and distend her shell, Saw at each opening cleft the furnace glow, And seas rush headlong on the gulphs below.-- GNOMES! how you shriek'd! when through the troubled air Roar'd the fierce din of elemental war; 75 When rose the continents, and sunk the main, And Earth's huge sphere exploding burst in twain.-- GNOMES! how you gazed! when from her wounded side Where now the South-Sea heaves its waste of tide, Rose on swift wheels the MOON'S refulgent car, 80 Circling the solar orb; a sister-star, Dimpled with vales, with shining hills emboss'd, And roll'd round Earth her airless realms of frost.