393 There is great spirit in the irregularity of the numbers towards the conclusion of the foregoing stanza. II. 3. "Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep, Isles, that crown th' Egean deep, Fields, that cool Ilissus laves, Or where Mæander's amber waves How do your tuneful Echoes languish, Ev'ry shade and hollow'd fountain, They sought, oh Albion ! next thy sea-encircled coast. III. 2. "Far from the sun and summer-gale, In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid, This pencil take, she said, whose colours clear, Richly paint the vernal year: Thine too these golden keys, immortal boy! This can unlock the gates of Joy; Of Horror that, and thrilling Fears, Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears." The second Ode "is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward the first, when he completed the conquest of that country, ordered all the Bards that fell into The author seems to have his hands to be put to death." taken the hint of this subject from the fifteenth Ode of the first book of Horace. Our poet introduces the only surviving Bard of that country in concert with the spirits of his murdered brethren, as prophetically denouncing woes upon the conqueror and his posterity. The circumstances of grief and horror in which the Bard is represented, those of terror in the preparation of the votive web, and the mystic obscurity with which the prophecies are delivered, will give as much pleasure to those who relish this species of composition, as any thing that has hitherto appeared in our language, the Odes of Dryden himself not excepted. (1) I. 2. "On a rock, whose haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, Rob'd in the sable garb of Woe, With haggard eyes the Poet stood; (Loose his beard and hoary hair Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air,) "Hark how each giant-oak, and desert cave, O'er thee, O King! their hundred arms they wave, Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day, To high-born Hoel's harp, or lost Llewellyn's lay. I. 3. 666 Cold is Cadwallo's tongue, That hush'd the stormy main : Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed: Modred, whose magic song Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topp'd head. On dreary Arvon's shore they lie, Smear'd with gore, and ghastly pale : Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens sail; The famished eagle screams, and passes by. Dear lost companions of my tuneful art, Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes, (1) ["One of the greatest poets of this century, the late and much lamented Mr. Gray of Cambridge, modestly declared to me, that if there was in his own numbers any thing that deserved approbation, he had learned it all from Dryden.”—BEATTIE.] On yonder cliffs, a grisly band, I see them sit, they linger yet, Avengers of their native land: With me in dreadful harmony they join, And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line. II. 1. "Weave the warp, and weave the woof, The winding-sheet of Edward's race. The characters of hell to trace."— When the prophetic incantation is finished, the Bard thus nervously concludes. "Enough for me: with joy I see The different doom our fates assign. Be thine despair, and sceptred care, To triumph, and to die, are mine.' He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height VIII-WISE'S ENQUIRIES CONCERNING THE FIRST INHABITANTS, LANGUAGE, RELIGION, LEARNING, AND LETTERS OF EUROPE. (1) [From the Monthly Review, 1758. "Some Enquiries concerning the First Inhabitants, Language, Religion, Learning, and Letters of Europe. By a Member of the Society of Antiquaries in London. Printed at the Theatre, Oxford, 4to."] EVERY search into remote antiquity inspires us with a pleasure somewhat similar to what we feel upon the recol (1) [ Francis Wise, B.D., and F.S. A., many years fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, was born in 1695. In 1726, the Earl of Guildford, who had been his pupil, presented him to the vicarage of Ellesfield, in Oxfordshire. Besides the above work, he published "Annales Ælfredi Magni," "Observations on the History and Chronology of the Fabulous Ages," &c. "He died," says Mr. Nicholls, at his favourite retreat, at Ellesfield, October 1767, aged seventy-two, universally beloved and esteemed, on account of his great merit and learning.”—Lit. Anec., vol. v. p. 527.] lection of the earlier occurrences of our younger days: dark, indeed, and very confused the remembrance; yet still we love to look back upon those scenes, in which innocence and tranquillity bear, or seem to bear, so great a proportion. But how agreeable soever enquiries of this nature may prove in gratifying our curiosity, the advantage would be trifling if they rested only here. They are further useful in promoting the advancement of other kinds of learning; for, an acquaintance with the causes whence arts and sciences had their rise, will probably direct us to the methods most conducive to their perfection. Nor is the historian less than the philosopher indebted to the antiquarian. It is from that painful collection of opinions, and the seemingly tedious inductions of the last, that the first draws his materials for the ascertainment of truth, gathers order from confusion, and justly marks the features of the age. It is true, however, that as researches into antiquity are beyond the abilities of the many, so are they calculated only for the entertainment and instruction of the few. The generality of readers regard investigations of this nature as an uninformed rustic world view one of the India warehouses; where he sees a thousand things, which, being ignorant of their uses, he cannot think convertible to any valuable purpose; and wonders why people travel so far, and run such hazards, to make so useless a collection. Experience would, however, convince him, that from such acquisitions as these, different artists take the materials of their different occupations; and that the mistake lay not with the collectors, but in the observer. The more polite every country becomes, the fonder it seems of investigating antiquity; yet it happens somewhat unfortunately for this branch of science, that it is always cultivated to most advantage at those times when a people are just beginning to emerge from primeval obscurity. The first writers have the materials of many preceding ages to choose from, and all that remains for their successors is to glean what they have left behind. From hence, therefore, we may infer, the great indulgence that should be shewn to a writer, who, in an age so enlightened as ours, continues to cultivate so laborious a part of learning. As his materials, in such a case, are not of his own choosing, he may often seem triflingly minute, many conjectures will be offered upon slight probabilities, and those opinions which he supposes peculiarly his own, may he repeated observations of former writers. As to author in particular, his learning is extensive, and his candour, good sense, and modesty, serve to adorn it. He professes himself not bigotted to any opinion, but willing to have his own examined, though not deserving of controversy: such talents cannot fail of rendering a search after truth pleasing, even though the enquiry should prove abortive. ap He draws the origin of the inhabitants of Europe from the northern parts of Asia, anciently called Scythia; whose colonies spreading southward, settled near the Euxine Sea, under the general name of Cimmerians-by whom, in all probability, the other parts of Europe were afterwards peopled. The first Europeans whose history is transmitted to us are the Greeks, who had their original from Scythia, as appears from what Strabo relates, that the Greeks were anciently called Barbarians; but Scythia and Barbarian were synonimous terms, and consequently, how much soever that polite people might have been ashamed of their rude progenitors, they could be derived from no others. Their very gods, whom they seemed so fond of making natives of Greece, were probably of Scythian original: and it deserves notice, that some of the greatest nations, in all ages, have |