University of Virginia Library


215

SCIENCE. An ODE.

Science! bright Beam of Light Divine!
Dawn of immortal Day!
On this thy new-built Temple shine,
And all thy Charms display.
Where wild untutor'd Ignorance
Her savage Revels kept;
And led the rude ferocious Dance,
While gentle Reason slept;
Where howling through her native Wood,
With kindred Beasts of Prey,
She rous'd her furious Sons to Blood,
More wild and fierce than they:
Thy Temple, there, expands in Gates
To thee, celestial Guest!
And each of thy young Vot'ries waits
To hail thee to thy Rest.
Hail, Science! Heaven born Stranger! hail!
Adorn thy humble Shrine:
Deign in this Western World to dwell,
And its wide Wastes refine.