When Heaven's eternal orbs their midnight music Walks o'er the great string of my Orphic Lyre,5 roll'd! Oh! seek it, wheresoe'er it floats; Of thrilling numbers to thy soul be dear, When Luna's distant tone falls faintly on his ear!2 That, through the circle of creation's zone, Murmuring o'er beds of pearl; 1 In the Histoire naturelle des Antilles, there is an account of some curious shells, found at Curacoa, on the back of which were lines, filled with musical characters so distinct and perfect, that the writer assures a very charming trio was sung from one of them. On le nomme musical, parce qu'il porte sur le dos des lignes noirâtres pleines de notes, qui ont une espèce de clé pour les mettre en chant, de sorte que l'on dirait qu'il ne manque que la lettre à cette tablature naturelle. Ce curiens gentilhomme (M. du Montel) rapporte qu'il en a vu qui avaient einq ligues, une clé, et des notes, qui formaient un accord parfait. Quelqu'un y avait ajouté la lettre, que la nature avait oubliée, et la faisait chanter en forme de trio, dont l'air était fort agréable.. Chap. 19. art. 11. The author adds, a poet might imagine that these shells were used by the Syrens at their concerts. According to CICERO, and his commentator, MACROBIUS, the lunar tone is the gravest and faintest on the planetary heptachord. Quam ob causam summus ille cœli stellifer cursus, cujus conversio est concitatior, acuto et excitato movetur sono; gravissimo autem hic lunaris atque infimus.. Somn. Scip. Because, says Macrobius, spiritu ut in extremitate languescente jam volvitur, et propter angustias quibus penultimus orbis arctatur impetu leniore convertitur.» In Somn. Scip. lib 2. cap. 4. It is not very easy to understan i the ancients in their musical arrangement of the heavenly bodies. See ProLEM. lib. 3. LEONE HEREEO, pursuing the idea of ARISTOTLE, that the heavens are animal, attributes their harmony to perfect and reciprocal love. Non però manca fra loro il perfetto e reciproco amore: la causa principale, che ne mostra il loro amore, è la lor amicizia armoniaca e la concordanza, che perpetuamente si trova in loro. Dialog. 2. di Amore. P. 58. This reciproco amores of LEONE is the Q10The of the ancient EMPEDOCLFs, who seems, in his Love and Hate of the Elements, to have given a glimpse of the principles of attraction and repulsion. See the fragment to which I allude in LABRIUS, AXXOTE MEV φιλότητι, συνερχομεν'. κ. τ. λ. lib. 8. cap. 2. n. 12. 3 Leveries, the atomist, iniguard a kind of contices in the head. vens, which he borrowed from AVAXAGORAS, and possibly suggested to DESCARTES. Or guides around the burning pole The winged chariot of some blissful soul !6 While thou! Oh, son of earth! what dreams shall rise for thee; Beneath Hispania's sun, Thou It see a streamlet rub, Which I have warm'd with dews of melody;7 Listen!-when the night wind dies Down the still current, like a harp it sighs! An airy plectrum every breeze that blows!8 1 HERACLIDES, upon the allegories of Howen, conjectures that the idea of the harmony of the spheres originated with this poet, whe, ia representing the solar beams as arrows, supposes them to emit a pe culiar sound in the air. In the account of Africa which d'ABLANCOURT has translated. there is mention of a tree in that country, whose branches when i shaken by the hand produce very sweet sounds. Le même auteur (AEENZEGAR) dit, qu'il y a un certain arbre, qui produit des gaules comme d'osier, et qu'en les prenant à la main et les branlant, elles font une espèce d'harmonie fort agreable, etc. etc.—L'Afrique de MARMOL. 3 Alluding to the extinction, or at least the disappearance, of some of those fixed stars, which we are taught to consider as suns, attended each by its system. DESCARTES thought that our earth might formerly have been a suu, which became obscured by a thick incrustation over its surface. This probably suggested the idea of a central fire. 4 PORPHYRY says, that PRIRAGOBAs held the sea to be a tear. Tay θάλατταν μεν εκάλει είναι δακρυον. — De Fic. And some one else, if I mistake not, has added the Planet Saturn as the source of it. with similar affectation, called the sea EMPEDOCLES • the sweat of the earth.idpara ons gns. See RITTERSHESTER Upon PORPHYRY, Num. 41. The system of the harmonised orbs was styled by the ancients the Great Lyre of Orpheus, for which Lucian accounts, de Auga: έπταμιτος εούσα την των κινουμένων αστών αρμονία» JUVECANλETO. X. T. X. in Astrolog. Ο Δειλε ψυχάς ισάριθμους τοις αφροις, έτοιμο τ Ex of ex×501, και εμβίβασας ὩΣ ΕΙΣ ΟΧΗΜΑ. PLATON. Timaus. 7 This musical river is mentioned in the romance of Achilles Tatius. ETH TOTAμou και ην δε ακουσαι θέλης του ύδατος λαλούντος. The Latin version, in supplying the hiatus, which In Hispania is in the original, has placed the user in Hispania. quoque fluvius est, quem primo aspectu, etc. etc. 3 These two lines are translated from the words of Achilles Tatias. Εάν γάρ ολόγος ανεμος εις τας δίνας έμπεση, το μετ ύδωρ ὡς χορδη κρούεται. το δε πνεύμα του ύδατος πλήκτρου γίνεται, το ρευμα δε ὡς κιθαρα λαλει. Lib. 2. 1 Orpheus. 3 They call his lyre αρχαιότροπον επταχορδον Ορφέως. See a curious work by a professor of Greek at Venice, intitled Hebdomades, sive septem de septenario libri. Lab. 4. cap. 3. p. 177. 3 ERATOSTRENEs, telling the extreme veneration of Orpheus for Apollo, says that he was accustomed to go to the Pangran mountain at day-break, and there wait the rising of the sun, that he might be the first to hail its beams. Επεγειρόμενες τε της νυκτός, κατά την έωθινην επί το όρος το καλούμε τον Παγ γαίον, προσέμενε τας ανατολας, ένα ιδή τον Ήλιον πρωτον. Καταςερισμ. 24. 4 There are some verses of Oaratus preserved to us, which contain sublime ideas of the unity and magnificence of the Deity. As those which JUSTIN MARTER has produced. Ούτος μεν χαλκείον ες ουρανον εστήρικται It is thought by some, that these are to be reckoned amongst the fabrications which were frequent in the early times of Christianity, Still it appears doubtful to whom we should impute them; they are teo pious for the Pagans, and too poetical for the Fathers. In one of the Hymns of Oarnus, be attributes a figured seal to Apollo, with which be imagines that deity to have stamped a variety of forms upon the universe. Alluding to the cave near Samos, where Pythagoras devoted the greater part of his days and nights to meditation and the mysteries of his philosophy. Jamblich. de Fit. This, as HousTENIUS remarks, was in imitation of the Magi. ? The tetractys, or sacred number of the Pythagoreans, on which they solemnly swore, and which they callel ragav asraso Cuts, the fountain of perennial nature.. LUCIAN has ridie aled this religious arithmetic very finely in his Sale of Philosophers. * This diadem is intended to represent the analogy between the notes of music and the prismatic colours. We find in Plutarch a vague intimation of this kindred harmony in colours and sounds. Ofic σε και ακού, μετα φωνης τε και φωτος την αρμονίαν επιφαινούσι. De Musica. Cassioponts, whose idea I may be supposed to have horrowed, savs, in a letter upon music to Boetius, Ut diadema oculis, varia luce gemmarum, sic eythara diversitate soni, blanditur au litat, indeed the only tolerable thought in the letter. Lib. 2. Fariar. This is EPISTLE IV. TO GEORGE MORGAN, ESQ. OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA." ΚΕΙΝΗ Δ' ΗΝΕΜΟΕΣΣΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΤΡΟΠΟΣ, ΟΙΑ CALLIMACH. Hymn. in Del. v. 11. Ou what a tempest whirl'd us hither!3 And even our haughty main-mast bow'd! In songs elysian lapp'd my mind! gems of poesy, Which time has saved from ancient days! I wrote it while my hammock swung, SWEETLY3 you kiss, my LAIS dear! This gentleman is attached to the British consulate at Norfolk. His talents are worthy of a much higher sphere, but the excellent dispositions of the family with whom he resides, and the cordial repose be enjoys amongst some of the kindest hearts in the world, should be almost enough to atone to h m for the worst caprices of fortune. The consul himself, Colonel Hamilton, is one among the very few instances of a man, ardently loyal to his king, and yet be loved by the Americans. His house is the very temple of hospitality, and I sincerely pity the heart of that stranger who, warm from the welcome of such a board, and with the taste of such Madeira still upon his lips, col dolce in bocca, could sit down to write a libel on tis host, in the true spirit of a modern philosophist. See the Travels of the DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT LIANCOUST, vol. 2. We were seven days on our passage from Norfolk to Bermuda, during three of which we were forced to lay-to in a gale of wind. The Driver sloop of war, in which I went, was built at Bermuda of cedar, and is accounted an excellent sea-boat. She was then commanded by my very regretted friend Captain Compton, who in July last was killed aboard the Lilly, in an action with a French privateer. Poor Compton! he fell a victim to the strange impolicy of allowing such a miserable thing as the Lilly to remain in the service; so small, crank, and unmanageable, that a well-manned merchantman was at any time a match for her. 1. This epigrams by PAULUS SILENTIARIUS, and may be found in the Analecta of Batxes, vol. 3. p. 72 But as the reading there is somewhat different from what I have followed in this translation, I shall give it as I had it in my memory at the time, and as it is in HEISSIUS, who, I believe, first produced the epigram. See his Poeπατα. Ηδυ μεν εστι φίλημα το Λαίδος· ήδη δε αυτών Και πολύ κιχλίζουσα συξεις ευβοστρυχον αιγλην Bitter as those when lovers part, Our last-go, false to Heaven and me! SUCH, while in air I floating hung, Such was the strain, Morgante mio! The Muse and I together sung, With Boreas to make out the trio. But, bless the little fairy isle! How sweetly, after all our ills, We saw the dewy morning smile Serenely o'er its fragrant hills! And felt the pure clastic flow Of airs, that round this Eden blow With honey freshness, caught by stealth Warm from the very lips of health? Oh! could you view the scenery dear, That now beneath my window lies, You'd think that Nature lavish'd here Her purest wave, her softest skies, To make a heaven for Love to sigh in, For bards to live and saints to die in! Close to my wooded bank below. In glassy calm the waters sleep, And to the sun-beam proudly show The coral rocks they love to steep!' That languish idly round the mast. To him, who in his heaven-ward flight, Μυρομένην δ' εφίλησαν τα δ' ώς δροσερης από πηγής, The water is so clear around the island, that the rocks are seen beneath to a very great depth, and, as we entered the barbour, they appeared to us so near the surface, that it seemed impossible we should not strike on them. There is no necessity, of course, for heaving the lead, and the negro pilot, looking down at the rocks from the bow of the ship, takes her through this difficult navigation, with a skill and confidence which seem to astonish some of the oldest sailors. 2 In KIRCHE's Ecstatic Journey to Heaven, Cosmiel, the enius of the world, gives Theodidactus a beat of asbestos, with which Sail'd, o'er the Sun's ethereal wave, To planet-isles of odorous light! Sweet Venus, what a clime he found Within thy orb's ambrosial round!' There spring the breezes, rich and warm, That pant around thy twilight car; There angels dwell, so pure of form, That each appears a living star! 2 These are the sprites, oh radiant queen! Thou send'st so often to the bed Of her I love, with spell unseen, Thy planet's brightning balm to shed; To make the eye's enchantment clearer, To give the cheek one rose-bud more, And bid that flushing lip be dearer, Which had been, oh! too dear before! But, whither means the Muse to roam? he embarks into the regions of the sun. Vides (says Cosmiel) bane asbestinam naviculam commoditati tue præparatam.. Itinerar 1. dial. 1. cap. 5. There are some very strange fancies in this work of Kircher. When the genius of the world and his fellow-traveller arrive at the planet Venus, they find an island of loveliness, full of odours and intelligences, where angels preside, who shed the cosmetic influence of this planet over the earth; such being, according to astrologers, the vis influxiva of Venus. When they are in this part of the heavens, a casuistical question occurs to Theodidactus, and be asks Whether baptism may be performed with the waters of Venus An aquis globi Veneris baptismus institui possit. which the genius answers, Certainly. 2 This idea is FATHER KIRCHEA'S. Itinerar. 1. dial. cap. 5. Tot animatos soles disasses. I cannot warn thee! every touch, Oh! quite as much, as thou dost mine! Yet stay, dear love-one effort yet- The light that leads my soul astray! Thou say'st that we were born to meet, That our hearts bear one common seal,Oh, lady think, how man's deceit Can seem to sigh and feign to feel! When o'er thy face some gleam of thought, Like day-beams through the morning air, Hath gradual stole, and I have caught The feeling ere it kindled there: The sympathy I then betray'd, Perhaps was but the child of art; Though few the years I yet have told, With loveless heart or senses cold? For many a maid, my soul hath proved; To theirs hath been as fondly laid; To them have been as warmly said. Then scorn at once a languid heart, Which long hath lost its early spring; Think of the pure bright soul thou art, And-keep the ring, oh! keep the ring. Enough-now, turn thine eyes again ; What, still that look and still that sigh! Dost thou not feel my counsel then? Oh no, beloved!-nor do I. While thus to mine thy bosom lies, While thus our breaths commingling glow, Twere more than woman to be wise, Twere more than man to wish thee so! Did we not love so true, so dear, This lapse could never be forgiven; But hearts so fond and lips so near Give me the ring, and now-Oh heaven! ΤΟ ON SEEING HER WITH A WHITE VEIL AND A RICH GIRDLE. Put off the fatal zone you wear; The lucid pearls around it Are tears that fell from Virtue there The hour that Love unbound it. THE RESEMBLANCE. -—-— vo cercand' io Donna, quint' e possibile, in altrui La desiata vostra forma vera. PETRARC. Sonett. 14 YES, if 't were any common love That led my pliant heart astray, I grant, there's not a power above So fair there are but thou and she! Whate'er may be her angel birth, She was thy lovely perfect twin, And wore the only shape on earth That could have charm'd my soul to sin! Your eyes-the eyes of languid doves Resemble less their warm-eyed mother! Her lip-oh, call me not false-hearted, When such a lip I fondly press'd; T was Love some melting cherry parted, Gave thee one half and her the rest! And when, with all thy murmuring tone, They sued, half open, to be kiss 'd, I could as soon resist thine own And them, Heaven knows! I ne'er resist. Then, scorn me not, though false I be, 'T was love that waked the dear excess; My heart had been more true to thee, Had mine eye prized thy beauty less! ΤΟ WHEN I loved you, I can't but allow I had many an exquisite minute; But the scorn that I feel for you now Hath even more luxury in it! Thus, whether we're on or we're off, Some witchery seems to await you; To love you is pleasant enough, And, oh! 't is delicious to hate you! ΜΑΡΓΑΡΙΤΑΙ ΔΗΛΟΥΣΙ ΔΑΚΡΥΩΝ POON. Ap. Nicephor. in Oneirocritico. Put off the vestal veil, nor, oh! Let weeping angels view it; Your cheeks belie its virgin snow, And blush repenting through it. FROM THE GREEK OF MELEAGER.' FILL high the cup with liquid flame, Εγχει, και παλιν είπε, πάλιν, ταλιν, Ηλιόδωρος Είπε, συν ακρητῳ το γλυκυ μιση όνομα. Give me the wreath that withers there, It hung upon her wavy hair, And caught her eyes' reflected light! Oh! haste, and twine it round my brow; It breathes of Heliodora now! The loving rose bud drops a tear, To see the nymph no longer here, No longer, where she used to lie, Close to my heart's devoted sigh! LINES, WRITTEN IN A STORM AT SEA. THAT Sky of clouds is not the sky Of her he loves The swell of yonder foaming billow, Resembles not the happy sigh That rapture moves. Yet do I feel more tranquil now In this dark hour, Than when, in transport's young emotion, Oh! there's a holy calm profound "T is as a solemn voice from heaven, And the soul, listening to the sound, Lies mute and still! 'Tis true, it talks of danger nigh, Where pleasure's throb or tears of sorrow Well-there are some, thou stormy bed, Whose lip hath drain'd life's cup of pleasure, Yes-he can smile serene at death: Kind Heaven! do thou but chase the weeping Tell them that he lies calmly sleeping, ΝΕΑ ΤΥΡΑΝΝΕΙ. EURIPID. Medea, v. 967. NAY, tempt me not to love again: Dear Nea! had I known thee then, So many a time the rounds of pain, If there be climes where never yet Should bring no more their bliss, their pain, Dear absent girl! whose eyes of light, As when they first enamouring shone! Say, Nea dear! couldst thou, like her, Till all my heart should burn with shame, Could make such virtue false at last! Must thrill a soul more pure than mine. Tale iter omne cave. I PRAY you, let us roam no more Along that wild and lonely shore, |