fied. However, Time, the
great Arbiter, will finally decide the equity of my claims.

I

Thou Sovran Queen of Afric's sunny strands,
I smite my lyre to sing thy praise unsung;
In strains far sweeter than seraphic bands,
A lay deep in my bosom's core is sprung.
Fair Queen, although my years as yet be young,
Deep thoughts and musings of thy history old,
Where odes and fiery epics long have hung,
Live centuries in my immortal soul
And strike sweet Lydian measures on my harp of gold.

II

Therefore, my song floats softly up to thee,
Full soft as those sweet zephyrs of the spring,
Of which it was and is and still must be,
The sweetest of aeolian strains that ring!
I breathe it on the soft sea winds which bring
Their cooling treasures from the rolling deep;
They 'fresh my brow and make my sad heart sing
And ever lure my drowsy eyes from sleep,
And bid thy vesper chorist strictest vigil keep.

III

Of all the nations that have trod the earth,
In civil states or in the forest wild,
Thou wast the first of real enlightened birth,
Born in fair Egypt on the spreading Nile.
In valleys fertile, sunny climates mild,
Thou sternly taught the "chosen" Hebrew race--
Madonna sheltered with her Holy Child,
Who came to plead man's all unworthy case,
And drained His sacred heart, earth's vilest sin efface!

IV

Long ere the Grecian oped his classic lids
Or mould' true beauty with artistic hands,
Thou reared upon thy plains the lofty pyramids,
With sphinx and obelisks 'decked thy burning sands.
Aye! Queen, thou then wast hailed in all the lands
Long ere vain Babel 'fused the human tongue
In dialects rude of wild barbaric bands;
Thou soared to Wisdom's realm, her sceptre wrung,
And reigned the wisest queen the nations all among.

V

Thou first taught man the mystic sciences probe,
To scan earth's apex, median, and base;
Thou, too, inscribed the belt around the globe,
And made deep tracings on its hoary face.
Well fixed each angle, arc, and line in place,
Then soared thou far into the "milky way,"
Far in the bright, celestial span of space,
Where orbs and planets all their homage pay
Unto the sun, the ever reigning "King of Day."

VI

Once in great splendor did thy Pharaohs rule
In Egypt, with her glory flown of yore;
They laid foundations of the mundane school,
And taught the art of governmental lore.
And then from thy great military store
T