Consider also the description of Evander's court, and the picture of ancient manners it affords, one of the most striking parts of the Æneid. The mind delights to be carried backward into those primitive times when Passimque armenta videbant Romanoque foro & lautis mugire carinis. And the view of those places and buildings in their first rude and artless state, which became afterwards so magnificent and celebrated, forms an amusing contrast. I have frequently wondered that our modern writers have made so little use of the druidical times, and the traditions of the old bards, which afford subjects fruitful of the most genuine poetry, with respect both to imagery and sentiment. Mr. Gray, however, has made ample amends, by his last noble ode on the expulsion of the Bards from Wales: Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-top'd head. On dreary Arvon's shore they lie, The ancients constantly availed themselves of the mention of particular mountains, rivers, and other objects of nature; and, indeed, almost confine themselves to the tales and traditions of their respective countries: whereas we have been strangely neglectful in celebrating our own SEVERN, THAMES, or MALVERN, and have therefore fallen into trite repetitions of classical images, as well as classical names. Our muses have seldom been playing on the steep Where our old bards, the famous Druids, lie,† Nor yet where Deva spreads her wisard stream.‡ * Dodsley's Miscellanies, Vol. VI. p. 327. Milton, ↑ Supposed to be a place in the mountains of Denbighshire, called Druids Stones, because of the many stone chests and coffins found there. Lycidas, Ver. 55. Milton, we see, was sensible of the force of such imagery, as we may gather from this short but exquisite passage; and so were Drayton and Spenser. What pictures would a writer of the fancy of Theocritus, have drawn from the scenes and stories of the Isle of Anglesey! Yet, still enamour'd of their ancient haunts, Once girt with spreading oaks; mysterious rows I cannot conclude this article, without inserting two stanzas of an old Runic ode † preserved by Olaus Wormius, containing the dying words of Ludbrog, who reigned in the north above eight hundred years ago, and who is supposed to be just expiring by the mortal bite of a serpent. * See a fine dramatic poem, by Mr. West, entitled, The Institution of the Order of the Garter. Cited in Dr. Hickes's valuable Thesaurus. XXV. Pugnavimus ensibus. Hoc ridere me facit semper, Non venio desperabundus, verbis ad Odini aulam. XXIX. Fert animus finire: Invitant me Dysæ, Quas ex Odini aula Odinus mihi misit. Lætus cerevisiam, cum Asis, in summa sede bibam. These stanzas breathe the true spirit of a barbarous old warrior. The abruptness and brevity of the sentences are much in character; as is the noble disdain of life expressed by the two last words, Ridens moriar. To this brave and valiant people is mankind indebted for one of the most useful deliverances it ever received; I mean, the destruction of the universal empire of Rome. The great prerogative of Scandinavia, and which ought to place the nations which inhabit it above all the people of the world, is, that this country has been the source of the liberty of Europe; 1 that that is to say, of almost all the liberty that is to be found among men. Jornandes, the Goth, has called the North of Europe the magazine or work-shop of human-kind: I should rather call it the magazine of those instruments which broke in pieces the chains which were forged in the South. There those heroic nations were formed, who issued from their country to destroy the tyrants and slaves of the earth, and to teach men, that Nature having made them equal, Reason could not make them dependent, but only for the sake of their own happiness.* Liberty and courage are the offspring of the northern, and luxury and learning of the southern, nations. Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war; And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway, Their arms, their kings, their gods, were roll'd away. The blue-ey'd myriads from the Baltic coast. A a 4 *See L'Esprit de Loix, liv. XIV. and liv. XVII. With |