THE WHITE WATER LILY. 
109 
“ A form cerulean flutter’d o’er the deep, 
Brightest of beings, greatest of the great: 
Who, not as mortals steep 
Then.' eyes in dewy sleep, 
But, heavenly-pensive, on the lotos lay, 
That blossom’d at his touch, and shed a golden ray. 
Hail, primal blossom ! hail, empyreal gem ! 
Kernel or Pedma*, or whate’er high name 
Delight thee, say, what four-form’d godhead came, 
With graceful stole and beamy diadem, 
Forth from thy verdant stem ? ” 
And again, in the hymn to Bhavani, the Indian Isis, 
there are the following lines : — 
“ Whilst on the placid waters blooming, 
The sky perfuming, 
An opening lotos rose, and smiling spread 
His azure skirts and vase of gold, 
While o’er his foliage roll’d 
Drops that impearl Bhavani’s orient bed. 
\ 
“ Mother of gods ! rich nature’s queen ! 
Thy genial fire emblazed the bursting scene : 
For, on the expanded blossom sitting, 
With sunbeams knitting 
That mystic veil for ever unremoved, 
Thou bad’st the softly-kindling flame 
Pervade this peopled frame, 
And smiles, with blushes tinged, the work approved.” 
* Sanscrit name for the lotos. 
