ASPASIA.

"Twas in the fair Aspasia's bower,
That Love and Learning, many an hour,
In dalliance met; and Learning smil'd
With pleasure on the playful child,
Who often stole, to find a nest
Within the folds of Learning's vest.

There, as the list'ning statesman hung
In transport on Aspasia's tongue,
The destinies of Athens took
Their colour from Aspasia's look.
Oh happy time, when laws of state,
When all that rul'd the country's fate,
Its glory, quiet, or alarms,

Was plann'd between two snow-white arms!

Blest times! they could not always last And yet, ev'n now, they are not past. Though we have lost the giant mould, In which their men were cast of old, Woman, dear woman, still the same, While beauty breathes through soul or frame, While man possesses heart or eyes, Woman's bright empire never dies!

No, Fanny, love, they ne'er shall say, That beauty's charm hath pass'd away; Give but the universe a soul Attun'd to woman's soft control, And Fanny hath the charm, the skill, To wield a universe at will.

It was imagined by some of the ancients that there is an ethereal ocean above us, and that the sun and moon are two floating, luminous islands, in which the spirits of the blest reside. Accordingly we find that the word Nzig was sometimes synonymous with arg, and death was not unfrequently called tavolo Toges, or "the passage of the ocean."

2 Eunapius, in his life of Iamblichus, tells us of two beautiful little spirits or loves, which Iamblichus raised by enchantment from the warm springs at Gadara; "dicens astantibus (says the author of the Dii Fatidici, p. 160.) illos esse loci Genios:" which words, however, are not in Eunapius.

I find from Cellarius, that Amatha, in the neighbourhood of Gadara, was also celebrated for its warm springs, and I have preferred it as a more poetical name than Gadara. Cellarius quotes Hieronymus. "Est et alia villa in vicinia Gadaræ

THE

GRECIAN GIRL'S DREAM

OF THE BLESSED ISLANDS.1

TO HER LOVER.

όχι τε καλος

Πυθαγόρης, όσσοι τε χορον στηρίξαν ερωτός.

Amoλλшr wigs Пλ@rive. Oracul. Metric, a Joan.
Opsop, collecta.

WAS it the moon, or was it morning's ray,
That call'd thee, dearest, from these arms away?
Scarce had'st thou left me, when a dream of night
Came o'er my spirit so distinct and bright,
That, while I yet can vividly recall

Its witching wonders, thou shalt hear them all.
Methought I saw, upon the lunar beam,
Two winged boys, such as thy muse might dream,
Descending from above, at that still hour,
And gliding, with smooth step, into my bower.
Fair as the beauteous spirits that, all day,
In Amatha's warm founts imprison'd stay, 2
But rise at midnight, from th' enchanted rill,
To cool their plumes upon some moonlight hill.

At once I knew their mission ;- 'twas to bear My spirit upward, through the paths of air, To that elysian realm, from whence stray beams So oft, in sleep, had visited my dreams. Swift at their touch dissolv'd the ties, that clung All earthly round me, and aloft I sprung; While, heav'nward guides, the little genii flew Thro' paths of light, refresh'd by heaven's own dew, And fann'd by airs still fragrant with the breath Of cloudless climes and worlds that know not death.

Thou know'st, that, far beyond our nether sky, And shown but dimly to man's erring eye, A mighty ocean of blue ether rolls, 3 Gemm'd with bright islands, where the chosen souls, Who've pass'd in lore and love their earthly hours, Repose for ever in unfading bowers.

nomine Amatha, ubi calidæ aquæ erumpunt."- Geograph. Antiq. lib. iii. cap. 13.

3 This belief of an ocean in the heavens, or "waters above the firmament," was one of the many physical errors in which the early fathers bewildered themselves. Le P. Baltus, in his "Défense des Saints Pères accusés de Platonisme," taking it for granted that the ancients were more correct in their notions (which by no means appears from what I have already quoted), adduces the obstinacy of the fathers, in this whimsical opinion, as a proof of their repugnance to even truth from the hands of the philosophers. This is a strange way of defending the fathers, and attributes much more than they deserve to the philosophers. For an abstract of this work of Baltus, (the opposer of Fontenelle, Van Dale, &c. in the famous Oracle controversy,) see" Bibliothèque des Auteurs Ecclésiast. du 180 Siècle," part. 1. tom. ii.

That very moon, whose solitary light
So often guides thee to my bower at night,
Is no chill planet, but an isle of love,

Floating in splendour through those seas above,
And peopled with bright forms, aërial grown,
Nor knowing aught of earth but love alone.
Thither, I thought, we wing'd our airy way:-
Mild o'er its valleys stream'd a silvery day,
While, all around, on lily beds of rest,
Reclin❜d the spirits of the immortal Blest.1
Oh there I met those few congenial maids,
Whom love hath warm'd, in philosophic shades;
There still Leontium 2, on her sage's breast,
Found lore and love, was tutor'd and carest;
And there the clasp of Pythia's 3 gentle arms
Repaid the zeal which deified her charms.
The Attic Master+, in Aspasia's eyes,
Forgot the yoke of less endearing ties,
While fair Theano 3, innocently fair,
Wreath'd playfully her Samian's flowing hair, 6
Whose soul now fix'd, its transmigrations past,
Found in those arms a resting-place, at last;
And smiling own'd, whate'er his dreamy thought
In mystic numbers long had vainly sought,

My fancy's eye beheld a form recline,
Of lunar race, but so resembling thine
That, oh! 'twas but fidelity in me,
To fly, to clasp, and worship it for thee.
No aid of words the unbodied soul requires,
To waft a wish or embassy desires;

But by a power, to spirits only given,

A deep, mute impulse, only felt in heaven, Swifter than meteor shaft through summer skies, From soul to soul the glanc'd idea flies.

Oh, my beloved, how divinely sweet Is the pure joy, when kindred spirits meet! Like him, the river-god 7, whose waters flow, With love their only light, through caves below, Wafting in triumph all the flowery braids, And festal rings, with which Olympic maids Have deck'd his current, as an offering meet To lay at Arethusa's shining feet. Think, when he meets at last his fountain-bride, What perfect love must thrill the blended tide! Each lost in each, till, mingling into one, Their lot the same for shadow or for sun, A type of true love, to the deep they run.

But think, my Theon, with what joy I thrill'd, When near a fount, which through the valley

rill'd

There were various opinions among the ancients with respect to their lunar establishment; some made it an elysium, and others a purgatory; while some supposed it to be a kind of entrepól between heaven and earth, where souls which had left their bodies, and those that were on their way to join them, were deposited in the valley of Hecate, and remained till further orders. Τους περί σεληνην αερὶ λέγειν αυτας κατά 21, 22, 25' ZUTTY ZATW XWęƐN EIS TYY WERIVSION yevroly. Stob. lib. i. Eclog. Physic.

* The pupil and mistress of Epicurus, who called her his ** dear little Leontium " (Asovragiov), as appears by a fragment of one of his letters in Laertius. This Leontium was a woman of talent; "she had the impudence (says Cicero) to write against Theophrastus ;" and Cicero, at the same time, gives her a name which is neither polite nor translatable. "Meretricula etiam Leontium contra Theophrastum scribere ausa est."-De Natur. Deor. She left a daughter called Danae, who was just as rigid an Epicurcan as her mother; something like Wieland's Danae in Agathon.

It would sound much better, I think, if the name were Leontia, as it occurs the first time in Laertius; but M. Mé. mage will not hear of this reading.

Pythia was a woman whom Aristotle loved, and to whom after her death he paid divine honours, solemnizing her memory by the same sacrifices which the Athenians offered to the Goddess Ceres. For this impious gallantry the philosopher was, of course, censured; but it would be well if certain of our modern Stagyrites showed a little of this superstition about the memory of their mistresses.

• Socrates, who used to console himself in the society of Aspasia for those less endearing ties " which he found at

But, Theon, 'tis an endless theme, And thou grow'st weary of my half-told dream. Oh would, my love, we were together now, And I would woo sweet patience to thy brow, And make thee smile at all the magic tales Of starlight bowers and planetary vales,

home with Xantippe. For an account of this extraordinary creature, Aspasia, and her school of erudite luxury at Athens, see L'Histoire de l'Académie, &c. tom. xxxi. p. 69. Ségur rather fails on the inspiring subject of Aspasia. — “Les Femmes," tom. i. p. 122.

The Author of the "Voyage du Monde de Descartes" has also placed these philosophers in the moon, and has allotted seigneuries to them, as well as to the astronomers (part ii. p. 143.); but he ought not to have forgotten their wives and mistresses; "curæ non ipsâ in morte relinquunt."

5 There are some sensible letters extant under the name of this fair Pythagorean. They are addressed to her female friends upon the education of children, the treatment of servants, &c. One, in particular, to Nicostrata, whose husband had given her reasons for jealousy, contains such truly considerate and rational advice, that it ought to be translated for the edification of all married ladies. See Gale's Opuscul. Myth. Phys. p. 741.

6 Pythagoras was remarkable for fine hair, and Doctor Thiers (in his Histoire des Perruques) seems to take for granted it was all his own; as he has not mentioned him among those ancients who were obliged to have recourse to the "coma apposititia." L'Histoire des Perruques, chapitre i.

7 The river Alpheus, which flowed by Pisa or Olympia, and into which it was customary to throw offerings of different kinds, during the celebration of the Olympic games. In the pretty romance of Clitophon and Leucippe, the river is supposed to carry these offerings as bridal gifts to the fountain Arethusa. Και επι την Αρεθούσαν ούτω τον Αλφειον νυμ φοστολες. όταν ουν ή των ολυμπίων έορτη, κ. τ. λ.

Lib. i.

For I have thought of former hours, When he who first thy soul possess'd, Like me awak'd its witching powers,

Like me was lov'd, like me was blest.

Upon his name thy murm'ring tongue Perhaps hath all as sweetly dwelt ; Upon his words thine ear hath hung, With transport all as purely felt.

For him-yet why the past recall,

To damp and wither present bliss? Thou'rt now my own, heart, spirit, all,

And Heaven could grant no more than this!

Forgive me, dearest, oh! forgive;

I would be first, be sole to thee, Thou shouldst have but begun to live, The hour that gave thy heart to me.

Thy book of life till then effac'd,

Love should have kept that leaf alone On which he first so brightly trac'd

That thou wert, soul and all, my own.

ΤΟ

'S PICTURE.

Go then, if she, whose shade thou art, No more will let thee sooth my pain; Yet, tell her, it has cost this heart

Some pangs, to give thee back again.

Tell her, the smile was not so dear,

With which she made thy semblance mine, As bitter is the burning tear,

With which I now the gift resign.

Yet go- and could she still restore,

As some exchange for taking thee, The tranquil look which first I wore, When her eyes found me calm and free;

Could she give back the careless flow,

The spirit that my heart then knew Yet, no, 'tis vain-go, picture, go— Smile at me once, and then-adieu!

I Love and Psyche are here considered as the active and passive principles of creation, and the universe is supposed to have received its first harmonizing impulse from the nuptial sympathy between these two powers. A marriage is gene rally the first step in cosmogony. Timæus held Form to be the father, and Matter the mother of the World; Elion and

FRAGMENT

OF

A MYTHOLOGICAL HYMN TO LOVE.1

BLEST infant of eternity!

Before the day-star learn'd to move, In pomp of fire, along his grand career, Glancing the beamy shafts of light From his rich quiver to the farthest sphere, Thou wert alone, oh Love!

Nestling beneath the wings of ancient Night, Whose horrors seem'd to smile in shadowing thee.

No form of beauty sooth'd thine eye,

As through the dim expanse it wander'd wide; No kindred spirit caught thy sigh,

As o'er the watery waste it ling'ring died.

Unfelt the pulse, unknown the power,

That latent in his heart was sleeping, Oh Sympathy! that lonely hour

Saw Love himself thy absence weeping.

:

But look, what glory through the darkness beams!
Celestial airs along the water glide:
What Spirit art thou, moving o'er the tide

So beautiful? oh, not of earth,
But, in that glowing hour, the birth
Of the young Godhead's own creative dreams.
'Tis she!

Psyche, the firstborn spirit of the air.

To thee, oh Love, she turns,

On thee her eyebeam burns:

Blest hour, before all worlds ordain'd to be!
They meet-

The blooming god-the spirit fair

Meet in communion sweet.
Now, Sympathy, the hour is thine;
All nature feels the thrill divine,

The veil of Chaos is withdrawn,

And their first kiss is great Creation's dawn!

Berouth, I think, are Sanchoniatho's first spiritual lovers, and Manco-capac and his wife introduced creation amongst the Peruvians. In short, Harlequin seems to have studied cosmogonies, when he said "tutto il mondo è fatto come la nostra famiglia."