2. NYMPHS! on that day YE shed from lucid eyes.
Celestial tears, and breathed ethereal sighs!
When RICHMAN rear'd, by fearless haste betrayed,
The wiry rod in Nieva's fatal shade;--
375 Clouds o'er the Sage, with fringed skirts succeed,
Flash follows flash, the warning corks recede;
Near and more near He ey'd with fond amaze
The silver streams, and watch'd the saphire blaze;
Then burst the steel, the dart electric sped,
380 And the bold Sage lay number'd with the dead!--
NYMPHS! on that day YE shed from lucid eyes
Celestial tears, and breathed ethereal sighs!


[_When Richman reared_. l. 373. Dr. Richman Professor of natural
philosophy at Petersburgh about the year 1763, elevated an insulated
metallic rod to collect the aerial electricity, as Dr. Franklin had
previously done at Philadelphia; and as he was observing the repulsion
of the balls of his electrometer approached too near the conductor, and
receiving the lightening in his head with a loud explosion, was struck
dead amidst his family.]


3. "YOU led your FRANKLIN to your glazed retreats,
Your air-built castles, and your silken seats;
385 Bade his bold arm invade the lowering sky,
And seize the tiptoe lightnings, ere they fly;
O'er the young Sage your mystic mantle spread,
And wreath'd the crown electric round his head.--
Thus when on wanton wing intrepid LOVE