*148) ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
‘The mystic veil, that wraps the hallow’d shrines 
Of India’s deities, ’twas thine to rend; ¢ 
With brighter fires each radiant altar shines, 
To Nature’s awful god those fires ascend. 
Sound the deep conch; dread Veshnu’s power proclaim, 
And heap with fragrant woods the blazing urn ; 
I see, sublime Devotion’s noblest flame 
’Midst Superstition’s glowing embers burn ! 
°Twas thine, with daring wing, and eagleeyc, 
To pierce Antiquity’s profoundest gloom ;* 
To search the dazzling records of the sky, 
And bid the stars the sacred page illume.+ 
Nor did the instructive orbs of heav’n, alone, 
Absorb thy soul ’mid yon ethereal fields ; 
To thee the vegetable world was known, e 
And all the blooming tribes the garden yields. 
From the tall cedar on the mountain’s brow, 
Which tlfe fierce tropic storm in vain assails, 
Down to the humblest shrubs that beauteous blow : 
And scent the air of Asia’s fragrant vales. 
But talents—fancy—ardent, bold, sublime— 
_ Unbounded science—form’d thy meanest fame ; 
Beyond the grasp of death, the bound of time, 
On wings of fire religion wafts thy name. { 
And long as stars shall shine, or planets roll, 
To kindred virtue shall that name be dear ; 
Still shall thy genius charm the aspiring soul, 
- And distant ages kindle at thy bier. 
* See thetwo profound Dissertations on the Indian Chronolegy in Asiatic 
Researches, vol. il. p, 111, and 389. 2 
+ Consult various astronomical passages in the treatises above-mentioned, and 
the discourse on the Lunar Year of the Hindus, in the same publication, vol. iii. 
p. 249, They are all made smbservient to the cause of the national theology, and 
the illustration of the grand truths delivered in the sacred writings. 
ft Alluding to some circumstances of devotion, which occurred in the moments 
of sir William’: dissolution. 
ODE 
