Thick as the stars which stud the wintry sky.
Then let thy mind contemplative survey
That spacious region where in elder time
Earth’s unremembered conquerors held the sway
And Science trusting in her skill sublime,
With lore abstruse the sculptured walls o’erspread,
Its import now forgotten with the dead.
From Nile and Congo’s undiscovered springs
To the four seas which gird the unhappy land,
Behold it left a prey to barbarous Kings,