220 
CEREtJS. 
Rise upon the brow of night! 
Haste, thy transient lustre shed f 
Night has dropped her dusky veil— 
All vain thoughts be distant far, 
While, with silent awe, we hail 
Flora’s radiant evening star. 
See to life her beauties start; 
Hail ! thou glorious, matchless flower f* 
Much thou sayest to the heart, 
In the solemn, fleeting hour. 
Ere we have our homage paid, 
Thou wilt bow thine head and die ;■ 
Thus our sweetest pleasures fade. 
Thus our brightest blessings fly. 
Sorrow’s rugged stem, like thine, 
Bears a flower thus purely bright ; 
Thus, when sunny hours decline, 
Friendship sheds her cheering light. 
Religion, too, that heavenly flower, 
That joy of never-fading worth, 
Waits, like thee, the darkest hour, 
Then puts all her glories forth. 
Then thy beauties are surpassed, 
Splendid flower that bloom’st to die > 
For Friendship and Religion last, 
When the morning beams on high. 
