his advisers,
Who were Juno, his betrothed,
Fairest goddess of the council,
Who gave from her depths of knowledge
Good advisings to her chieftain.
Then were Mars, the fierce and warlike,
And Apollo, for the poets,
With Diana, his twin sister,
Who sat on the silent moonbeam,
Chaste, enchanting in her meekness.
Then stood Venus, rich in charmings,
Goddess sole of love and beauty;
And stood Mercury, the swiftest
Bearer of the council's tidings.
Then came Neptune, strong and mighty,
Ruler of the storms and tempests;
And the god of fire near him,
Who was Vulcan, rude and ready.
And to Vesta, Saturn's daughter,
Were entrusted fires also,
More refined and more celestial;
While the number was completed
By good Ceres, full of bounty,
Keeper of the corns and harvests.
Thus in council sat the great gods,
Dealing fates unto the nations;
So the simple people fancied.
Now the flight of fancy over,
She hath brought us safely homeward,
To the spot we love the fondest.
There we lay the many tokens
Of the wondrous journey by us,
And reflect now quaintly, calmly
On the great things we have witnessed
In this kingdom of Nimaera;
And, before our thoughts are settled,
We by votaries are surrounded
From the courts of every people,
From the throne of every nation,
Who, in tongues that widely vary,
And in words that sound so strangely,
Give their mission, bear their record
Of the throne of King Nimaera,
Of his ancient power and greatness,
Of his presence with the modern,
With their people of the present.
And to give its own conviction
Shall the voice of every creature,
Of the nobles of creation,
All in one together mingle,
From the feeble voice of old age
To the lisping tongue of childhood.
Grand shall be their mingled accents,
Which in verity are rising,
Telling likewise of Nimaera,
Who their every purpose ruleth,
Tends it in its first conception,
Baffles wholly and destroys it,
Or unto completion brings it,
Bringeth out its faults or virtues,
Shewing where its merit lieth.
Then shall every beast that liveth,
Every bird and every reptile,
Every fish and every insect,
Raise their own peculiar voices--
(Terrible, or sweet, or puny);
And will testify their own way
Of the powers of King Nimaera,
Who their being's fire feedeth,
Gives them space for life and glory,
With that limit ends their being;
For no hidden spirit have they
Image to the holy Maker.
Now the grave shall yield its token,
And the battle-field its