Pleased GNOMES, ascending from their earthy beds,
Play round her graceful footsteps, as she treads;
75 Gay SYLPHS attendant beat the fragrant air
On winnowing wings, and waft her golden hair;
Blue NYMPHS emerging leave their sparkling streams,
And FIERY FORMS alight from orient beams;
Musk'd in the rose's lap fresh dews they shed,
80 Or breathe celestial lustres round her head.


[_Pleased Gnomes_. l. 73. The Rosicrucian doctrine of Gnomes, Sylphs,
Nymphs, and Salamanders affords proper machinery for a philosophic poem;
as it is probable that they were originally the names of hieroglyphic
figures of the Elements, or of Genii presiding over their operations.
The Fairies of more modern days seem to have been derived from them, and
to have inherited their powers. The Gnomes and Sylphs, as being more
nearly allied to modern Fairies are represented as either male or
female, which distinguishes the latter from the Aurae of the Latin
Poets, which were only female; except the winds, as Zephyrus and Auster,
may be supposed to have been their husbands.]


First the fine Forms her dulcet voice requires,
Which bathe or bask in elemental fires;
From each bright gem of Day's refulgent car,
From the pale sphere of every twinkling star,
85 From each nice pore of ocean, earth, and air,
With eye of flame the sparkling hosts repair,
Mix their gay hues, in changeful circles play,
Like motes, that tenant the meridian ray.--