THE GLOW-WORM.

The Glow-Worm is a female CATERPILLAR, the male of which is a FLY, whom she attracts in the night by the splendor of her train.

WHEN Evening closes Nature's eye,
The Glow-worm lights her little spark,
To captivate her favorite Fly,
And tempt the rover thro' the dark.

Conducted by a sweeter star,
Than all that deck the fields above,
The wanderer hastens from afar,
To soothe her solitude with love.

Thus HERO hung her lamps to guide
The daring youth who sought her charms;
And thus LEANDER stemm'd the tide,
Led by its lustre to her arms.

SHEFFIELD, 1804.

ALCAUS.

THE LOTOS OF EGYPT,

A POEM.

BY THE REV. T. MAURICE

EMBLEM sublime of that primordial Power That brooded o'er the vast chaotic wave, Accept my duteous homage, holy flower! As in thy favourite flood my limbs I lave.

From Ethiopia's lofty mountains roll'd,

Where Nile's proud stream thro' gladden'd Egypt

pours,

In raptur'd strains thy praise was hymn'd of old, And still resounds on Ganges' faithful shores!

Within thy beauteous corol's full-blown bell Long since th' Immortals fixed their fond abode, There Day's bright source, OSIRIS, loved to dwell, While by his side enamour'd Isis glow'd.

Hence, not unconscious to his orient beam, At dawn's first blush thy radiant petals spread, Drink deep the effulgence of the solar stream, And, as he mounts, still brighter glories shed.

When, at their noon-tide height, his fervid rays In a bright deluge burst on CAIRO's spires;

With what new lustre then thy beauties blaze, Full of the God, and radiant with his fires!

Brilliant, thyself, in stole of dazzling white, Thy sister plants more gaudy robes unfold;

This flames in purple-that, intensely bright,
Amid th' illumin'd waters burns in gold *.

To brave the Tropic's fiery beam is thine,
"Till in the distant west his splendors fade;
Then, too, thy beauty and thy fire decline,
With morn to rise in lovelier charms array'd.

Thus from Arabia borne, on golden wings,
The Phoenix on the sun's bright altar dies;

But from his flaming bed, refulgent, springs, And cleaves, with bolder plume, the sapphire skies! What mystic treasures, in thy form conceal'd, Perpetual transport to the sage supply;

Where Nature in her deep designs reveal'd, Awes wondering man, and charms th' exploring eye." In thy prolific cup, and fertile seeds,

Are traced her grand regenerative powers +;

Life springing warm from loath'd putrescence breeds,

And lovelier germs shoot forth, and brighter flowers!

*The LOTOS, or Water-Lily, of Egypt, the proper subject of this Poem, has a beautiful white flower; there are two other species, the one bears a bright purple, the other an intensely yel low flower.

+ See Mr. Knight's curious Dissertation on the Phallic Worship of the Antients, where this subject is fully explained.

Nor food to the enlighten'd mind alone
Substantial nutriment thy root bestow'd *;
In Famine's vulture fangs did Egypt groan,
From thy rich bounteous horn †, abundance flow'.'

Hence the immortal race in Thebes revered,
Thy praise the theme of endless rapture made,
Thy image on an hundred columns rear'd,
And veil'd their altars with thine hallow'd shade!

But far beyond the bounds of Afric borne,'
Thy honours flourish'd mid Thibetian snows,
Thy flowers the LAMA's gilded shrines adorn ‡,
And BooDH and BRAHMA on thy stalk

repose.

Where'er fair Science dawn'd, on Asia's shore,
Where'er her hallow'd voice Devotion raised,
We see thee graven on the glowing ore,
And on a thousand sparkling gems emblazed!

The Egyptians fed on the roots, which are said by Herodotus to grow to the size and form of an apple, and they made a kind of bread of the seed, dried in the sun, and afterwards baked. Herodot.

The stalk and the seed-cup together nearly resemble a Cornucopia, and might possibly have furnished the ancients with their first idea of that sculptural ornament; it is far more likely to have done so than the horn of Amalthea, a more recent Greek fable.

The principal Deity in Thibet, Mr. Turner informs us, is the same as the Buddha of Bengal. The Hindoos make frequent pilgrimages to the sacred places in Thibet, and the Thibetians regard, and visit with holy reverence, Benares, and other sacred cities of Hindostan. In the ninth Indian Avatar, Buddha is represented sitting on the expanded calyx of the Lotos, as Brahma in the Hindoo cosmogony, is also pourtrayed on those sculptures that represent what is directly denominated the Lotos Creation; to distinguish it from other creations in their extensive system of the formation and destruction of worlds.

Child of the Sun, why droops thy withering head, While high in Leo flames thy radiant Sire; With Egypt's glory is thy glory fled?

And with her genius quench'd thy native fire?

For, direr than her desert's burning wind, Gaul's furious legions sweep yon ravag'd vale; Death stalks before, grim Famine howls behind, And screams of horror load the tainted gale.

Nile's crimson'd waves with blood polluted roll, Her groves, her fanes, devouring fire consumes; But mark-slow rising near the distant pole, A sudden splendour all her shores illumes!

Fatal to Gaul-'tis Britain's rising star, That in the South the bright ascendant gains; Resplendent! as her Sirius shines from far, And with new fervors fires the Lybian plains.

A race, as Egypt's ancient warriors brave, For her insulted sons indignant glows,

Defies the tropic storm, the faithless wave, Aud hurls destruction on their haughty foes.

Exulting to his source old Nilus hears The deepening thunder of the British line; Again its lovely head the Lotos rears, Again the fields in rainbow glories shine.

Still wider, beauteous Plant! thy leaves extend, Nor dread the eye of an admiring Muse; In union with the rising song ascend,

Spread all thy charms, and all thy sweets diffuse.