Oh, lovely strangers, teach us to retain her! Oh, teach us to find favor in her sight! We long with perfumed garlands to enchain her Within our homeland, never to take flight. GENIUS A noble heart soon finds itself at home-- Creates, in stillness working, its own world: And as the tree takes hold upon the earth With eager grasping roots, and soon is fast, So will a great and doubly royal nature By its own noble deeds take hold on life. Love's tender ties soon knit themselves anew-- For where is happiness, there too is home! ALL THE COUNTRY PEOPLE Oh, handsome stranger, say how we may chain her, The fairest, in our quiet vale retain her! GENIUS Courage! The help you seek is nigh at hand. All is not strange to her in this new land. Me she will know, and my attendant train, When we have made our names and office plain. [GENIUS _comes forward. The Seven Arts follow him and form a semi-circle about him. As they do so, they display their attributes, which until this moment have been concealed beneath their robes_.] GENIUS (_addressing the Crown Princess_) Lo, I am Genius--beauty's lord alone-- And these that follow me the sister Arts. 'Tis we that deck the altar and the throne; We crown the work that springs from human hearts. Long have we dealt with thine imperial line; And she, the noble dame that gave thee birth, With spotless hand a dedicated shrine Still keeps for us, a sacred spot of earth. We follow thee obedient to her sending; For happiness through us finds perfect ending. ARCHITECTURE (_a mural crown on her head, a golden ship in her right hand_) By Neva's flood thou saw'st me sit at home: Thy great forefather called me to his side-- And there I built for him a second Rome; Through me it grew to be an empire's pride. A paradise of stately pleasure-grounds Arose beneath the magic of my wand; And now the busy hum of life resounds Where once a desert stretched on every hand. The thunder of the cannon of thy fleet Alarms the hoary Neptune in his ancient seat. SCULPTURE (_a small image of victory in her hand_) Me too hast thou beheld with wondering eyes, That did the old Olympian world restore. Upon a cliff that age and storm defies Its mighty image stands for evermore. (_Shows the Victory_) Lo, Victory's image, by my fingers shaped! Thy lordly brother grasps it in his hand: And round her form his conquering banners draped, See Alexander bear her through the land! I strive, but end with lifeless imitation-- He builds of savage hordes a mighty nation. PAINTING