274 OCTOBER. 



Soon doom'cl herself a ruthless foe to find, 

 When in Actinia's arms she lies entwined. 

 Here, prison'd by the vase's crystal bound, 

 Impassable as Styx's nine-fold round, 

 Quick she projects, as quick retracts again, 

 Her flexile toils, and tries her arts in vain ; 

 Till languid grown, her fine machinery worn 

 By rapid friction, and her fringes torn, 

 Her full round orb wanes lank, and swift decay 

 Pervades her frame, till all dissolves away. 

 So wanes the dew conglobed on rose's bud ; 

 So melts the ice-drop in the tepid flood : 

 Thus, too, shall many a shining orb on high 

 That studs the broad pavilion of the sky, 

 Suns and their systems fade, dissolve, and die." 1 



1 Dr. Drummond, in Trans. Roy. Irish Acad. for 1839. 



