and salutary diet might be presented to our seamen.  See note on Salt-rocks, in Vol.  I, Canto II.  If a person unaccustomed to much salt should eat a couple of red-herrings, his insensible perspiration will be so much increased by the stimulus of the salt, that he will find it necessary in about two hours to drink a quart of water:  the effects of a continued use of salt in weakening the action of the lymphatic system may hence be deduced.]

        By four fond swains in playful circles drawn,
        On glowing wheels she tracks the moon-bright lawn,
        Mounts the rude cliff, unveils her blushing charms,
230 And calls the panting zephyrs to her arms. 
        Emerged from ocean springs the vaporous air,
        Bathes her light limbs, uncurls her amber hair,
        Incrusts her beamy form with films saline,
        And Beauty blazes through the crystal shrine.—­
235 So with pellucid studs the ice-flower gems
        Her rimy foliage, and her candied stems. 
        So from his glassy horns, and pearly eyes,
        The diamond-beetle darts a thousand dyes;
        Mounts with enamel’d wings the vesper gale,
240 And wheeling shines in adamantine mail.

        Thus when loud thunders o’er Gomorrah burst,
        And heaving earthquakes shook his realms accurst,
        An Angel-guest led forth the trembling Fair
        With shadowy hand, and warn’d the guiltless pair;

[Ice-flower. l. 235.  Mesembryanthemum crystallinum.]

245 “Haste from these lands of sin, ye Righteous! fly,
        Speed the quick step, nor turn the lingering eye!”—­
        —­Such the command, as fabling Bards indite,
        When Orpheus charm’d the grisly King of Night;
        Sooth’d the pale phantoms with his plaintive lay,
250 And led the fair Assurgent into day.—­
        Wide yawn’d the earth, the fiery tempest flash’d,
        And towns and towers in one vast ruin crash’d;—­
        Onward they move,—–­loud horror roars behind,
        And shrieks of Anguish bellow in the wind.
255 With many a sob, amid a thousand fears,
        The beauteous wanderer pours her gushing tears;
        Each soft connection rends her troubled breast,
        —­She turns, unconscious of the stern behest!—­
        “I faint!—­I fall!—­ah, me!—­sensations chill
260 Shoot through my bones, my shuddering bosom thrill! 
        I freeze!  I freeze! just Heaven regards my fault,
        Numbs my cold limbs, and hardens into salt!—­
        Not yet, not yet, your dying Love resign!—­
        This last, last kiss receive!—­no longer thine!”—­
265 She said, and ceased,—­her stiffen’d form He press’d,
        And strain’d the briny column to his breast;
        Printed with quivering lips the lifeless snow,
        And wept, and gazed the monument of woe.—­
        So