25 So on the shoreless air the intrepid Gaul
        Launch’d the vast concave of his buoyant ball.—­
        Journeying on high, the silken castle glides
        Bright as a meteor through the azure tides;
        O’er towns and towers and temples wins its way,
30 Or mounts sublime, and gilds the vault of day. 
        Silent with upturn’d eyes unbreathing crowds
        Pursue the floating wonder to the clouds;
        And, flush’d with transport or benumb’d with fear,
        Watch, as it rises, the diminish’d sphere.
35 —­Now less and less!—­and now a speck is seen!—­
        And now the fleeting rack obtrudes between!—­
        With bended knees, raised arms, and suppliant brow
        To every shrine with mingled cries they vow.—­
        “Save Him, ye Saints! who o’er the good preside;
40 “Bear Him, ye Winds! ye Stars benignant! guide.” 
        —­The calm Philosopher in ether fails,
        Views broader stars, and breathes in purer gales;
        Sees, like a map, in many a waving line
        Round Earth’s blue plains her lucid waters mine;
45 Sees at his feet the forky lightnings glow,
        And hears innocuous thunders roar below.
        ——­Rife, great MONGOLFIER! urge thy venturous flight
        High o’er the Moon’s pale ice-reflected light;
        High o’er the pearly Star, whose beamy horn.
50 Hangs in the east, gay harbinger of morn;
        Leave the red eye of Mars on rapid wing;
        Jove’s silver guards, and Saturn’s dusky ring;
        Leave the fair beams, which, issuing from afar;
        Play with new lustres round the Georgian star;
55 Shun with strong oars the Sun’s attractive throne,
        The sparkling zodiack, and the milky zone;
        Where headlong Comets with increasing force
        Through other systems bend their blazing course.—­
        For thee Cassiope her chair withdraws,
60 For thee the Bear retracts his shaggy paws;
        High o’er the North thy golden orb shall roll,
        And blaze eternal round the wondering pole. 
        So Argo, rising from the southern main,
        Lights with new stars the blue etherial plain;
65 With favoring beams the mariner protects,
        And the bold course, which first it steer’d, directs.

        Inventress of the Woof, fair LINA flings
        The flying shuttle through the dancing strings;

[For thee the Bear. l. 60.  Tibi jam brachia contrahit ardens Scorpius.  Virg.  Georg. l. 1. 34.  A new star appeared in Cassiope’s chair in 1572.  Herschel’s Construction of the Heavens.  Phil.  Trans.  V. 75. p. 266.]

[Linum. l. 67.  Flax Five males and five females.  It was first found on the banks of the Nile.  The Linum Lusitanicum, or portigal flax, has ten males:  see the note on Curcuma.  Isis was said to invent spinning and weaving:  mankind before that time were clothed with the skins of animals.  The fable of Arachne was to compliment this new art of spinning and weaving, supposed to surpass in fineness the web of the Spider.]