So spake their guide with glow of ardent love, For he whiloime had passed a winsome hour Of dear delight, the studious soul can prove Who oft hath felt its soft bewitching pow’r; When syren poesy’s lov’d charms allure, Its influence sweet doth feel like placid lake, When the sun peers thro’ clouds that passing lower; The world shut out, he doth indeed forsake Its noisy clamour loud, and quiet study take. CLX. With feelings thus attuned he led the throng To lofty entrance famed for Doric grace, Thro’ which they glided quick, nor linger’d long Its cupola to gaze and frieze-work trace, But enter’d straight that learning’s pleasant place; A noble fair apartment ’twas, I ween, Rich mouldings skilful wrought it did embrace, Pillars of porphyry polished bright were seen In graceful rows, that gave a beauty to the scene. CLXI. Here busts of noble names surmounted stood, Illustrious sons renowned in classic lore, Those whom th’ immortal sisters ardent woo’d, Or poured from intellect its richest store, The treasury of mind’s electric pow’r; ’Mong men the chief divinest Shakespeare seen; Milton, tho’ blind, sublimity his dower; Hesiod and Homer in their glories sheen; Bacon, Locke, Newton great, and Mantuan bard serene. CLXII. On num’rous shelves, arranged pile above pile, Ten thousand volumes met the student’s eye, Unique and scarce, black letter’s olden style, Rare manuscripts, and missals could descry, And pond’rous tomes of noble ancestry Heraldic, and the illuminated page, The tourney field, and martial chivalry, In costly colours drawn, did them engage, With many quaint device accordant with the age. CLXIII. In various wide compartments classified, Man’s hist’ry handed down from age to age; Geology, with strata-earth described; Arts, science, and the biographic page; With great discoveries of the olden sage; Or modern ingenuity and skill, Inventions new, and projects that engage This ever restless era’s movements still, That rolls its progress forth like waves’ resistless will. CLXIV. And there arranged were works of classic lore, Deep physical, or structure of man’s frame; The bibliopist’s and theologian’s store, Whereas none nobler, or hath higher aim; Ethics and science did assert their claim, And jurisprudence with its code of laws; With tomes of burning thought’s consuming flame-- Time’s test, and not ephemeral applause; Writers of truth divine, who own a First Great Cause. CLXV.