Saw those luxuriant beauties sink Amid the liquid sparkles of the morn! An image of their rosy idol, laid Upon a diamond shrine! Which had pursued the flying fair, And sweetly twined Its spirit with the breathing rings Of her ambrosial hair, Soar'd as she fell, and on its ruffling wings (Oh wanton wind!) 'Heraclitus (Physicus) held the soul to be a spark of the stellar "Scintilla stellaris essentiæ.-MACROBIUS, in Somn. Scip. lib. i. cap. 14. essence: The country of the Hyperboreans; they were supposed to be placed so far north that the north wind could not affect them ;they lived longer than any other mortals; passed their whole time in music and dancing, etc. etc. But the most extravagant fiction related of them is that to which the two lines preceding allude. It was imagined that instead of our vulgar atmosphere, the Hyperboreans breathed nothing but feathers! According to HERODOTUS and PLINY, this idea was suggested by the quantity of snow which was observed to fall in those regions; thus the former. Ta Y птεрa εixαζοντας την χιονα τους Σκύθας τε και τους περιοίκους δοκέω λέγειν. Ηenopor. lib. iv, cap. 31. Orip tells the fable otherwise see Metamorph. lib. xv. Mr O'Halloran, and some other Irish Antiquarians, have been at great expense of learning to prove that the strange country, where they took snow for feathers, was Ireland, and that the famous Abaris was an Irish Druid. Mr Rowland, however, will have it, that Abaris was a Welshman, and that his name is only a corruption of Ap Rees! 3 I believe it is SERVIUS who mentions this unlucky trip which Hebe made in her occupation of cup-bearer; and HOFFMAN tells it after him: Cum Hebe pocula Jovi administrans, perque lubricum minus caute incedens, cecidisset, revolutisque vestibus-in short, she fell in a very awkward manner, and though (as the Encyclopédistes think) it would have amused Jove at any other time, yet, as he happened to be out of temper on that day, the poor girl was dismissed from her employment. Fell glowing through the spheres, Now, with a humid kiss, Of heaven's illumined lyre, 3 Descending through the waste of night, The child of day, Within his twilight bower, Lay sweetly sleeping On the flush'd bosom of a lotos-flower; 4 'The arcane symbols of this ceremony were deposited in the cista, They were generally carried in the procession by an ass; and hence where they lay religiously concealed from the eyes of the profase. portat mysteria.-See the Divine Legation, book ii, sect. 4. the proverb, which one may so often apply in the world, asinus In the Geoponica, lib. ii, cap. 17, there is a fable somewhat like this descent of the nectar to earth. Εν ουρανῳ των θεών ενώ χουμένων, και του νέκταρος πολλού παρακειμένου, ανασκίρτησαι χορεία του Ερωτα και σύσσεισαι πτερω του κρατήρος την βάσιν, και περιτρέψαι μεν αυτόν το δε νεκταρ εις την γην εκχυθεν, κ. τ. λ. See Autor, de Re Rust. edit. Cantab. 1704. --- The constellation Lyra. The astrologers attribute great virtues to this sign in ascendenti, which are enumerated by PONTANO, in his Urania: ➖➖➖➖ Ecce novem cum pectine chordas 4 The Egyptians represented the dawn of day by a young boy seated upon a lotos. Είτε Αιγυπτους έωρακως αρχήν ανατολής παιδίον νεογνόν γράφοντας ἐπὶ λωτώ και θεζόμενον. ΡLUTARCH. περί του μη χραν έμμετρ See also his treatise de Isid. et Osir. Observing that the lotos showed its head above water at sun-rise, and sank again at his setting, they conceived the idea of consecrating it to Osiris, or the sun. This symbol of a youth sitting upon a lotos, is very frequent on the Abraxases, or Basilidian stones.-See MONTFAUCON, tom. ii, planche 158, and the Supplément, etc. tom. ¡¡, lib. vii, chap. 5. 'The ancients esteemed those flowers and trees the sweetest upon which the rainbow had appeared to rest: and the wood they chiefly burned in sacrifices, was that which the smile of Iris bad consecrated, -PLUTARCH. Sympos. lib. iv, cap. 2, where (as Vossius remarks) 72101st, instead of xaλovat, is undoubtedly the genuiue reading. -See Vossius for some curious particularities of the rainbow, De Ori gin, et Progress, Idololat. lib. iii, cap. 13. I took the harp, and would have sung That kiss for which, if worlds were mine, A world for every kiss I'd give her; Those floating eyes, that floating shine Like diamonds in an eastern river! That mould, so fine, so pearly bright, Of which luxurious Heaven hath cast her, Through which her soul doth beam as white As flame through lamps of alabaster' Of these I sang, and notes and words Were sweet as if 't was LAMIA's hair That lay upon my lute for chords, And LAMIA's lip that warbled there! But when, alas! I turn'd the theme, False harp! false woman!-such, oh! such Are lutes too frail and maids too willing; Every hand's licentious touch Can learn to wake their wildest thrilling! And when that thrill is most awake, And when you think Heaven's joys await you, The nymph will change, the chord will breakOh Love, oh Music! how I hate you! TO MRS ON SOME CALUMNIES AGAINST HER CHARACTER. Is not thy mind a gentle mind? Is not thy heart a heart refined? Hast thou not every blameless grace, That man should love or Heaven can trace? And oh art thou a shrine for Sin No, no, be happy-dry that tear Though some thy heart hath harbour'd near Though man, who ought to shield thy fame, Though the whole world may freeze around thee, Which, bright, within the crystal's sphere Though all had grown congeal'd around; 'This alludes to a curious gem, upon which Claudian bas left us some pointless epigrams. It was a drop of pure water inclosed within a piece of crystal.-See CLAUDIAN. Epigram. de Chrystallo cui aqua inerat. ADDISON mentions a curiosity of this kind at Milan; he also says, It is such a rarity as this that I saw at Vendôme in France, which they there pretend is a tear that our Saviour shed over Lazarus, and was gathered up by an angel, who put it in a little crystal vial and made a present of it to Mary Magdalen.-ADDISON'S Remarks on several Parts of Italy. RINGS AND SEALS. HYMN OF A VIRGIN OF DELPHI, AT THE TOMB OF HER MOTHER. On! lost, for ever lost!-no more To hymn the fading fires of day! In holy musings shall we roam, Through summer's glow and winter's gale, To bear the mystic chaplets home! 'T was then my soul's expanding zeal, By Nature warm'd and led by thee, In every breeze was taught to feel The breathings of a deity! Guide of my heart! to memory true, Thy looks, thy words, are still my ownI see thee raising from the dew Some laurel, by the wind o'erthrown, Shall flourish on the Delphie shrine! Though sunk awhile the spirit lies, A viewless hand shall cull it thence, To bloom immortal in the skies!» Thy words had such a melting flow, And spoke of truth so sweetly well, They dropp'd like heaven's serenest snow, And all was brightness where they fell. Fond soother of my infant tear! Fond sharer of my infant joy! When meeting on the sacred mount, And danced around Cassotis' fount; As then, 't was all thy wish and care That mine should be the simplest mien, My lyre and voice the sweetest there, My foot the lightest o'er the green; So still, each little grace to mould, Around form thine eyes are shed, my Arranging every snowy fold, And guiding every mazy tread! And, when I lead the hymning choir, Thy spirit still, unseen and free, Hovers between my lip and lyre, And weds them into harmony! Flow, Plistus, flow! thy murmuring wave Shall never drop its silvery tear Upon so pure, so blest a grave, To memory so divinely dear! 'The laurel, for the common uses of the temple, for adorning the altars and sweeping the pavement, was supplied by a tree near the fountain of Castalia: but upon all important occasions, they sent to Tempe for their laurel. We find in PAUSANIAS, that this valley sup plied the branches of which the temple was originally constructed; and PLUTARCH says, in his Dialogue on Music, The youth who brings the Tempic laurel toDelphi is always attended by a player on the flute. Αλλά μην και τῳ κατακομίζοντε παιδι την Τεμπικήν δαφνη εις Δελφους παρομαρτει αυλητης. Ώσπερ σφραγίδες τα φιλήματα. ACHILLES TATIUS, lib. ii. Go! said the angry, weeping maid, The charm is broken!-once betray'd, Oh! never can my heart rely On word or look, on oath or sigh. Oh! I have thought, and thinking sigh'd- CLORIS AND FANNY. CLORIS! if I were Persia's king, I should, in some unlucky minute, 'There is a dreary and savage character in the country immediately above these falls, which is much more in harmony with the wildness of such a scene, than the cultivated lands in the neighbourbood of Niagara. See the drawing of them in Mr WELD's book. According to him, the perpendicular beight of the Cohos Fall is fifty feet; but the Marquis de Chastellux makes it seventy-six. The fine rainbow, which is continually forming and dissolving as the spray rises into the light of the sun, is perhaps the most interesting beauty which these wonderful cataracts exhibit. TO MISS WITH woman's form and woman's tricks One knows not where to take you : Yet stay-you need not take the pains- As boy too green, as girl too stale— ΤΟ ON HER ASKING ME TO ADDRESS A POEM TO HER. Sine Venere friget Apollo. EGID. MENAGIUS. How can I sing of fragrant sighs I ne'er have felt from thee? How can I sing of smiling eyes That ne'er have smiled on me? The heart, 't is true, may fancy much, But, oh! 'tis cold and seemingOne moment's real, rapturous touch Is worth an age of dreaming! From the corpse of him he slew, Think'st thou, when Julia's lip and breast Inspired my youthful tongue, No, no, the spell that warm'd so long Then beam one burning smile on me, Let me but feel a breath from thee, That rosy mouth alone can bring SONG OF THE EVIL SPIRIT OF THE WOODS.' Qua via difficilis, quaque est via nulla........ Now the vapour, hot and damp, Hither, sprites, who love to harm, 3 Torpid, to his wintry sleep: While upon his poison'd food, 1 The idea of this poem occurred to me in passing through the very dreary wilderness between Batavia, a new settlement in the midst of the woods, and the little village of Buffalo upon Lake Erie. This is the most fatiguing part of the route, in travelling through the Genesee country to Niagara. 1. The Five Confederated Nations (of Indians) were settled along the banks of the Susquehannah and the adjacent country, until the year 1779, when General Sullivan, with an army of 4,000 men, drove them from their country to Niagara, where, being obliged to live on salted provisions, to which they were unaccustomed, great numbers of them died. Two hundred of them, it is said, were buried in one grave, where they had encamped.» — MORSE's American Geography. The alligator, who is supposed to lie in a torpid state all the winter in the bank of some creek or pond, having previously swallowed a large number of pine knots, which are his only sustenance, during the time. Hither bend you, turn you hither Say, Love! in all thy spring of fame, When piety confess'd the flame, Did ever Muse's hand so fair A glory round thy temple spread? Such perfume o'er thy altars shed? One maid there was, who round her lyre The mystic myrtle wildly wreathed— The myrtle wither'd as she breathed! We find also collars of porcelain, tobacco, ears of maize, skins etc., by the side of difficult and dangerous ways, on rocks, or by the side of the falls; and these are so many offerings made to the spirits which preside in these places.-See CHARLEVOIX's Later on the Tra This was the mode of punishment for murder (as Father CHARLEditions and the Religion of the Savages of Canada, vorx tells us) among the Hurons. They laid the dead body upon poles at the top of a cabin, and the murderer was obliged to remain several days together, and to receive all that dropped from the carcass, not only on himself but on his food.. Father HENNEPIN, too, mentions this ceremony; he also says, - We took notice of one barbarian, who made a kind of sacrifice upon an oak at the Cascade of St Antony of Padua, upon the river Missiasipi.-See HENNEPIN'S Voyage into North America. |