Thus spoke the GENIUS, as He stept along, And bade these lawns to Peace and Truth belong; Down the steep slopes He led with modest skill The willing pathway, and the truant rill, 55 Stretch'd o'er the marshy vale yon willowy mound, Where shines the lake amid the tufted ground, Raised the young woodland, smooth'd the wavy green, And gave to Beauty all the quiet scene.-- She comes!--the GODDESS!--through the whispering air, 60 Bright as the morn, descends her blushing car; Each circling wheel a wreath of flowers intwines, And gem'd with flowers the silken harness shines; The golden bits with flowery studs are deck'd, And knots of flowers the crimson reins connect.-- 65 And now on earth the silver axle rings, And the shell sinks upon its slender springs; Light from her airy seat the Goddess bounds, And steps celestial press the pansied grounds. Fair Spring advancing calls her feather'd quire, 70 And tunes to softer notes her laughing lyre; Bids her gay hours on purple pinions move, And arms her Zephyrs with the shafts of Love, Pleased GNOMES, ascending from their earthy beds, Play round her graceful footsteps, as she treads; 75 Gay SYLPHS attendant beat the fragrant air On winnowing wings, and waft her golden hair; Blue NYMPHS emerging leave their sparkling streams, And FIERY FORMS alight from orient beams; Musk'd in the rose's lap fresh dews they shed, 80 Or breathe celestial lustres round her head. [_Pleased Gnomes_. l. 73. The Rosicrucian doctrine of Gnomes, Sylphs, Nymphs, and Salamanders affords proper machinery for a philosophic poem; as it is probable that they were originally the names of hieroglyphic figures of the Elements, or of Genii presiding over their operations. The Fairies of more modern days seem to have been derived from them, and to have inherited their powers. The Gnomes and Sylphs, as being more nearly allied to modern Fairies are represented as either male or female, which distinguishes the latter from the Aurae of the Latin Poets, which were only female; except the winds, as Zephyrus and Auster, may be supposed to have been their husbands.]