Page:Livingstone in Africa.djvu/29

Stands of thy glory, Heliopolis!
Earliest seat of learning, where the seer,
Illustrious Plato, came from Academe,
And sweet Ilissus; fairest star of all
The fair young band who follow'd one wise master.
Here a stone astrolabe explored the night,
Measuring solemn wanderings of stars.
Here laboratory furnaces were glowing;
While some astrologer with mystic rites
Drew horoscopes, or cast nativities:
But then our Earth, who in her equable
And proud obeisant motion round the sun
Hath in twice ten millennial periods
Her inclined axle measurably perturb'd,
Lean'd otherwise her pole among the skies;
Another Polestar ruled the mariner;
Another Ocean shrined thy radiance,
O Christian constellation of the Cross!
While otherwhere in every tranquil night,
Among cool calm abysses of pure space,
Shone Sirius, Arcturus, and Orion.