Their ample shade o’er Niger’s yellow stream,
And where the Ganges rolls his sacred waves;
Or mid the central depth of blackening woods,
High raised in solemn theatre around,
Leans the huge Elephant, wisest of brutes!
O truly wise! with gentle might endowed:
Though powerful, not destructive. Here he sees
Revolving ages sweep the changeful Earth,
And empires rise and fall: regardless he
Of what the never-resting race of men