104 APRIL. 



her saffron bed and ivory house, She was clothed 

 in a robe of crimson and violet colour; the cape 

 vermillion, and the border purple. She opened the 

 windows of her handsome hall, overshadowed with 

 roses and filled with balm or nard. At the same 

 time the crystal gates of heaven were thrown open 

 to illumine the world. It was glorious to see the 

 winds appeased, the sea becalmed, the soft season, 

 the serene firmament, the still air, and the beauty of 

 the watery scene. The silver-scaled fishes, on the 

 gravel gliding hastily, as it were from the heat, or 

 seen through clear streams, with fins shining brown 

 as cinnabar, and chisel-tails, darted here and there. 

 The new lustre, enlightening all the land, beamed 

 on the small pebbles on the sides of rivers, and on 

 the strands, \vhich looked like beryl, while the re- 

 flection of the rays played on the banks in variegated 

 gleams. The bladed soil was embroidered with 

 various hues. Both wood and forest were darkened 

 with boughs, which reflected from the ground gave 

 a shadowy lustre to the red rocks. Towns, turrets, 

 battlements, and high pinnacles of churches, castles, 

 and of every fair city, seemed to be painted ; and, 

 together with every bastion and story, expressed 

 their own shapes on the plains. The glebe, fearless 

 of the northern blasts, spread her broad bosom. The 

 corn crops and the new-sprung barley reclothed the 

 earth with a gladsome garment. The variegated 

 vesture of the valley clothed the cloven furrow, and 

 the barley-lands were diversified with flowery weeds. 

 The meadow was besprinkled with rivulets, and the 



