380 Her sapphire mantle swam diffus’d in air.—­
        O’er the grey matted moss, and pansied sod,
        With step sublime the glowing Goddess trod,
        Gilt with her beamy eye the conscious shade,
        And with her smile celestial bless’d the maid.
385 “Come to my arms,” with seraph voice she cries,
        “Thy vows are heard, benignant Nymph! arise;
        Where yon aspiring trunks fantastic wreath
        Their mingled roots, and drink the rill beneath,
        Yield to the biting axe thy sacred wood,
390 And strew the bitter foliage on the flood.” 
        In silent homage bow’d the blushing maid,—­
        Five youths athletic hasten to her aid,
        O’er the scar’d hills re-echoing strokes resound,
        And headlong forests thunder on the ground.
395 Round the dark roots, rent bark, and shatter’d boughs,
        From ocherous beds the swelling fountain flows;
        With streams austere its winding margin laves,
        And pours from vale to vale its dusky waves. 
        —­As the pale squadrons, bending o’er the brink,
400 View with a sigh their alter’d forms, and drink;
        Slow-ebbing life with refluent crimson breaks
        O’er their wan lips, and paints their haggard cheeks;
        Through each fine nerve rekindling transports dart,
        Light the quick eye, and swell the exulting heart.
405 —­Thus ISRAEL’s heaven-taught chief o’er trackless lands
        Led to the sultry rock his murmuring bands. 
        Bright o’er his brows the forky radiance blazed,
        And high in air the rod divine He raised.—­
        Wide yawns the cliff!—­amid the thirsty throng
410 Rush the redundant waves, and shine along;
        With gourds and shells and helmets press the bands,
        Ope their parch’d lips, and spread their eager hands,
        Snatch their pale infants to the exuberant shower,
        Kneel on the shatter’d rock, and bless the Almighty Power.

415 Bolster’d with down, amid a thousand wants,
        Pale Dropsy rears his bloated form, and pants;
        “Quench me, ye cool pellucid rills!” he cries,
        Wets his parch’d tongue, and rolls his hollow eyes. 
        So bends tormented TANTALUS to drink,
420 While from his lips the refluent waters shrink;
        Again the rising stream his bosom laves,
        And Thirst consumes him ’mid circumfluent waves. 
        —­Divine HYGEIA, from the bending sky
        Descending, listens to his piercing cry;
425 Assumes bright DIGITALIS’ dress and air,
        Her ruby cheek, white neck, and raven hair;
        Four youths protect her from the circling throng,
        And like the Nymph the Goddess steps along.—­
        —­O’er Him She waves her serpent-wreathed wand,
430 Cheers with her voice, and raises with her hand,
        Warms with rekindling bloom his visage wan,
        And charms the shapeless monster into man.