EPISTLES, ODES, ETC.

1 Fontenelle, in his playful rifacimento of the learned materials of Van-Dale, has related in his own inimitable

manner an adventure of this kind, which was detected and of the Isle Jonquille, assert this privilege of spiritual beings exposed at Alexandria. See l'Historie des Oracles, se- in a manner very formidable to the husbands of the island conde dissertat. chap. vii. Crebillon, too, in one of his most He says, however, "Les maris ont le plaisir de rester tou amusing little stories, has made the Génie Mange-Taupes, jours dans le doute; en pareil cas, c'est une ressource."

1 In Plutarch's Essay on the Decline of the Oracles, Cleombrotus, one of the interlocutors, describes an extraordinary man whom he had met with, after long research, upon the banks of the Red Sea. Once in every year this supernatural personage appeared to mortals, and conversed with them; the rest of his time he passed among the Genii and the Nymphs. Περί την ερυθρών θάλασσαν ευρόν, αν θρώποις ανα παν έτος απαξ εντυγχανοντα, ταλλα δε συν | ταις νυμφαις, νόμασι και δαίμοσι, ως εφασκε, He spoke in a tone not far removed from singing, and whenever he opened his lips, a fragrance filled the place: syysvou δε τον τόπον ευωδία κατείχε, του στόματος ηδιστον αποπνεOUTOS. From him Cleombrotus learned the doctrine of a plurality of worlds.

2 The celebrated Janus Dousa, a little before his death, imagined that he heard a strain of music in the air. See the poem of Heinsius "in harmoniam quam paulo ante obitum audire sibi visus est Dousa." Page 501.

EPISTLES, ODES, ETC.

Of calmer converse, he beguil'd us on
Through many a maze of garden and of porch,

ancients had a stronger claim to originality; for, in truth,
if wo examine their schools of philosophy, notwithstanding
the peculiarities which seem to distinguish them from each
other, we may generally observe that the difference is but
verbal and trifling, and that, among those various and learn-
ed heresies, there is scarcely one to be selected, whose opi-
nions are its own, original, and exclusive. The doctrine of
the world's eternity may be traced through all the sects.
The continual metempsychosis of Pythagoras, the grand
periodic year of the Stoics, (at the conclusion of which the
universe is supposed to return to its origina! order, and
commence a new revolution,) the successive dissolution and
combination of atoms maintained by the Epicureans, all
As St. Austin ex-
these tenets are but different intimations of the same gene-
ral belief in the eternity of the world.
plains the periodic year of the Stoics, it disagrees only so far
with the idea of the Pythagoreans, that instead of an endless
transmission of the soul through a variety of bodies, it re-
stores the same body and soul to repeat their former round
of existence, and "that identical Plato, who lectured in the
Academy of Athens, shall again and again, at certain inter-
vals during the lapse of eternity, appear in the same academy
and resume the same functions-".... sic eadem tempora
temporaliumque rerum volumina repeti, ut v. g. sicut in isto
sæculo Piato philosophus in urbe Atheniensi, in ea schola
qua Academia dicta est, discipulos docuit, ita per innume-
rabilia retro sæcula, multum plexis quidem intervallis, sed
certis, et idem Plato, et eadem civitas, eademque schola,
idemque discipuli repetiti et per innumerabilia deinde sæcula
repetendi sint-de Civitat. Dei. lib. xii. cap. 13. Vanini,
in his dialogues, has given us a similar explication of the
periodic revolutions of the world. "Ea de causa, qui nunc
sunt in usu ritus, centies millies fuerunt, totiesque renascen-
tur quoties ceciderunt."--52.

The Providence of the Stoics, so vaunted in their school, was a power as contemptibly inefficient as the rest. All was fate in the system of the Portico. The chains of destiny were thrown over Jupiter himself, and their deity was like Borgia, et Cæsar et nihil. Not even the language of Seneca can reconcile this degradation of divinity: le ipse omnium conditor ac rector scripsit quidam fata, sed sequitur; With respect to the difference between the Stoics, Peripasemper paret, semel jussit." Lib. de Providentid, Cap. 5. tetics, and Academicians, the following words of Cicero, other: "Peripateticos et Academicos, nominibus differentes, prove that he saw but little to distinguish them from each re congruentes; a quibus Stoici ipsi verbis magis quam sententiis dissenserunt." Academic. lib. ii. 5., and perhaps what Reid has remarked upon one of their points of controversy might be applied as effectually to the reconcilement of all the rest: "The dispute between the Stoics and Peripatetics was probably all for want of definition. The one said they were good under the control of reason, the other that they should be eradicated." Essays, vol. iii. In short, from the little which I know upon the subject, it appears to me as difficult to establish the boundaries of opinion between any two of the philosophical sects, as it would be to fix the land-marks of those estates in the moon, which Ricciolus so generously allotted to his brother astronomers. Accordingly we observe some of the greatest men of antiquity passing without scruple from school to school, according to the fancy or convenience of the moment, Cicero, the father of Roman philosophy, is sometimes an Academician, sometimes a Stoic; and, more than once, he acknowledges a conformity with Epicurus: "non sine causa igitur, Epicurus ausus est dicere semper in pluribus bonis esse sapientem, quia semper sit in voluptatibus." Tusculan. Quæst. lib. v.-Though often pure in his theology, he sometimes smiles at futurity as a fiction; thus, in his Oration for Cluentius, speaking of punishments in the life to come, he says, "Que si falsa sunt, id quod omnes intelligunt, quid ei tandem aliud mors eripuit, præter sensum doloris?" though here perhaps we should do him justice by agreeing with his commentator Sylvius, who remarks upon Horace roves like a butterfly through the schools, and now this passage, "Hæc autem dixit, ut cause sue subserviret." Rutilius, in his Itinerarium, has ridiculed the sabbath of wings along the walls of the Porch, and now basks among the Jews, as "lassati mollis imago Dei;" but Epicurus gave the flowers of the Garden; while Virgil, with a tone of mind an eternal holiday to his gods, and, rather than disturb the strongly philosophical, has left us uncertain of the sect slumbers of Olympus, denied at once the interference of a which he espoused; the balance of opinion declares him an Providence. He does not, however, seem to have been sin- Epicurean, but the ancient author of his life asserts that he gular in this opinion. Theophilus of Antioch, if he deserve was an Academician, and we trace through his poetry the any credit, in a letter to Autolycus, lib. iii. imputes a simi- cuers of almost all the leading sects. The same kind of lar belief to Pythagoras. (vtxyopas) Tε TV VTV electric indifference is observable in most of the Roman Ander porticoir; and Plutarch, though so writers. Thus Propertius, in the fine elegy of Cynthia, on hostile to the followers of Epicurus, has unaccountably his departure for Athens, adopted the very same theological error; having quoted the cpinions of Anaxagoras and Plato upon divinity, he adds, De Placit. Philosoph, Κοινως εν αμαρτάνεσιν αμφοτεροι, ότι τον θεον εποίησαν επιστεφομενον των ανθρωπίνων. lib. i. cap. 7.-Plato himself has attributed a degree of indifference to the gods, which is not far removed from the apathy of Epicurus's heaven; as thus, in his Philebus, where Protarchus asks, Ouxsv sIxos y NTE %igi Jong, STE TO EVATION; and Socrates answers, Ilavu s ou six, exμου γούν αυτών εκάτερον γιγνομενον εστιν : while Aristotle supposes a still more absurd neutrality, and concludes, by no

Die vel studiis animum emendare Platonis, Incipiam, aut hortis, docte Epicure, tuis. Lib. iii. Eleg. 21. Though Broukhusius here reads, " dux Epicure," which seems to fix the poet under the banners of Epicurus. Even the Stoic Seneca, whose doctrines have been considered so orthodox, that St. Jerome has ranked him amongst the ecclesiastical writers, and Boccaccio, in his commentary upon Dante, has doubted, (in consideration of the philosopher's supposed correspondence with St. Paul,) whether

From the pure sun, which, though refracted all
Into a thousand hues, is sunshine still,'

And bright through every change!-he spoke of Him,
The lone, eternal One who dwells above,
And of the soul's untraceable descent

From that high fount of spirit, through the grades
Of intellectual being, till it mix

With atoms vague, corruptible, and dark;
Nor even then, though sunk in earthly dross,
Corrupted all, nor its ethereal touch
Quite lost, but tasting of the fountain still!
As some bright river, which has roll'd along
Through meads of flowery light and mines of gold,
When pour'd at length into the dusky deep,
Disdains to mingle with its briny taint,
But keeps awhile the pure and golden tinge,
The balmy freshness of the fields it left!"

And here the old man ceased--a winged train
Of nymphs and genii led him from our eyes.
The fair illusion fled; and, as I wak'd,
I knew my visionary soul had been
Among that people of aerial dreams
Who live upon the burning galaxy !4

Dante should have placed him in Limbo with the rest of the Pagans-the rigid Seneca has bestowed such commendations on Epicurus, that if only those passages of his works were preserved to us, we could not, I think, hesitate in pronouncing him an Epicurean. In the same manner we find Porphyry, in his work upon abstinence, referring to Epicurus as an example of the most strict Pythagorean temperance; and Lancelotti, the author of Farfalloni degli antichi Istorici, has been seduced by this grave reputation of Epicurus into the absurd error of associating him with Chrysippus, as a chief of the Stoic school. There is no doubt, indeed, that however the Epicurean sect might have relaxed from its original purity, the morals of its founder were as correct as those of any among the ancient philosophers; and his doctrines upon pleasure, as explained in the letter to Menæceus, are rational, amiable, and consistent with our nature. M. de Sablons, in his Grands hommes vengès expresses strong indignation against the Encyclopédistes for their just and animated praises of Epicurus, and discussing the question, "si ce philosophe était vertueux," he denies it upon no other authority than the calumnies collected by Plutarch, who himself confesses that, on this particular subject, he consulted only opinion and report, without pausing to investigate their truth. Αλλα την δοξάνη ου την αλέθηκαν To the factious zeal of his illiberal rivals the

σκοπούμην.

TO

THE world had just begun to steal
Each hope that led me lightly on,
I felt not, as I us'd to feel,

And life grew dark and love was gone!
No eye to mingle sorrow's tear,

No lip to mingle pleasure's breath,
No tongue to call me kind and dear-
'Twas gloomy, and I wish'd for death!
But when I saw that gentle eye,

Oh! something seem'd to tell me then,
That I was yet too young to die,

And hope and bliss might bloom again!
With every beamy smile, that cross'd

Your kindling cheek, you lighted home
Some feeling which my heart had lost,

And peace, which long had learn'd to roam

'Twas then indeed so sweet to live,

Hope look'd so new, and love so kind,
That, though I weep, I still forgive

The ruin, which they've left behind!

I could have lov'd you-oh so well ;-
The dream, that wishing boyhood knows,
Is but a bright beguiling spell,

Which only lives, while passion glows:
But when this early flush declines,

When the heart's vivid morning fleets,
You know not then how close it twines
Round the first kindred soul it meets!

Yes, yes, I could have lov'd, as one
Who, while his youth's enchantments fall,
Finds something dear to rest upon,
Which pays him for the loss of all!

*

DREAMS.

ΤΟ

That souls are oft taking the air,
And paying each other a visit,

Stoics, Epicurus owed these gross misrepresentations of the IN slumber, I prithee how is it
life and opinions of himself and his associates, which, not-
withstanding the learned exertions of Gassendi, have still
left an odium on the name of his philosophy; and we ought
to examine the ancient accounts of Epicurus with the same
degree of cautious belief which, in reading ecclesiastical
history, we yield to the declamations of the fathers against
the heretics; trusting as little to Plutarch upon a dogma of
this philosopher, as we would to St. Cyril upon a tenet of
Nestorius. (1801.)

The preceding remarks, I wish the reader to observe, were written at a time when I thought the studies to which they refer much more important and much more amusing than, I freely confess, they appear to me at present.

1 Lactantius asserts that all the truths of Christianity may be found dispersed through the ancient philosophical sects, and that any one who would collect these scattered fragments of orthodoxy, might form a code in no respect differing from that of the Christian. "Si extitisset aliquis, qui veritatem sparsa per singulos per sectasque diffusam colligeret in unum, ac redigeret in corpus, is profecto non dissentiret a nobis."-Inst. lib. vi. c. 7.

While bodies are- -Heaven knows where?
Last night, 'tis in vain to deny it,

Your soul took a fancy to roam,
For I heard her, on tiptoe so quiet,
Come ask, whether mine was at home.
And mine let her in with delight,

And they talk'd and they kiss'd the time through
For, when souls come together at night,

There is no knowing what they may'nt do!
And your little soul, Heaven bless her!
Had much to complain and to say,
Of how sadly you wrong and oppress her
By keeping her prison'd all day.

"If I happen," said she," but to steal
For a peep now and then to her eye,
Or to quiet the fever I feel,

Just venture abroad on a sigh;

EPISTLES, ODES, ETC.

1 I wrote these words to an air, which our boatmen sung to us very frequently. The wind was so unfavourable, that they were obliged to row all the way, and we were five days in descending the river from Kingston to Montreal, exposed to an intense sun during the day, and at night forced to take

Soon as the woods on shore look dim,
We'll sing at St. Ann's our parting hymn,1
Row brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the day-light's past!
Why should we yet our sail unfurl?
There is not a breath the blue wave to curl!
But, when the wind blows off the shore,
Oh! sweetly we'll rest our weary oar.
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the day-light's past!

Utawas' tide! this trembling moon,
Shall see us float over thy surges soon:
Saint of this green isle! hear our prayers,
Oh! grant us cool heavens and favouring airs.
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the day-light's past!