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But what are the principles of this extra- | Lucretius has drawn of religion, in order to ordinary composition?

Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosa Addiderant; rutili tres ignis, et alitis austri: Fulgores nunc terrificos, sonitumque, metumque Miscebant operi, flammisque sequacibus iras.

This seems to me admirably sublime; yet if we attend coolly to the kind of sensible images which a combination of ideas of this sort must form, the chimeras of madmen cannot appear more wild and absurd than such a picture. "Three rays of twisted showers, three of watery clouds, three of fire, and three of the winged south wind; then mixed they in the work terrific lightnings, and sound, and fear, and anger, with pursuing flames." This strange composition is formed into a gross body; it is hammered by the Cyclops, it is in part polished, and partly continues rough. The truth is, if poetry gives us a noble assemblage of words corresponding to many noble ideas which are connected by circumstances of time or place, or related to each other as cause and effect, or associated in any natural way, they may be moulded together in any form, and perfectly answer their end. The picturesque connection is not demanded; because no real picture is formed; nor is the effect of the description at all the less upon this account. What is said of Helen by Priam and the old men of his council, is generally thought to give us the highest possible idea of that fatal beauty.

Οὐ νέμεσις, Τρῷας καὶ ἐϋκνήμιδας Αχαιούς,
Τοῇ δ' ἀμφὶ γυναικὶ πολὺν χρόνον ἄλγεα πάσχειν
Αἰνῶς δ ̓ ἀθανάτῃσι θεῇς εἰς ἀπα ἔοικεν.

They cried. No wonder such celestial charms
For nine long years have set the world in arms;
What winning graces! what majestic mien!
She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen.

POPE.

Here is not one word said of the particulars of her beauty; nothing which can in the least help us to any precise idea of her person; but yet we are much more touched by this manner of mentioning her, than by those long and laboured descriptions of Helen, whether handed down by tradition, or formed by fancy, which are to be met with in some authors. am sure it affects me much more than the minute description which Spenser has given of Belphebe; though I own that there are parts in that description, as there are in all the descriptions of that excellent writer, extremely fine and poetical. The terrible picture which

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display the magnanimity of his philosophical hero in opposing her, is thought to be designed with great boldness and spirit.

Humana ante oculos fœdè cum vita jaceret,
In terris, oppressa gravi sub religione,
Qua caput e cali regionibus ostendebat
Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans;
Primus Graius homo mortales tollere contra
Est oculos ausus.-

What idea do you derive from so excellent a picture? none at all, most certainly: neither has the poet said a single word which might in the least serve to mark a single limb or feature of the phantom, which he intended to represent in all the horrors imagination can conceive. In reality, poetry and rhetoric do not succeed in exact description so well as painting does: their business is, to affect rather by sympathy than imitation; to display rather the effect of things on the mind of the speaker, or of others, than to present a clear idea of the things themselves. This is their most extensive province, and that in which they succeed the best.

THE FLIGHT OF VENUS WITH ASCANIUS.

Broad lights were in the Tyrian hall,
From golden urns the perfumes breathed;
Round silken couch and broidered pall
The Tyrian rose and lily wreathed;

And hidden music stole between
The love-sighs of the Tyrian queen.
And round the royal banquet lay
Troy's martial sons, with garlands crowned;
Survivors of the mighty fray,
When, with a midnight tiger's bound,

Sprang the fierce Greek on Ilion's lair,
But found the wakened lion there.

The toil was past, the havoc done,

The fires of ruin blazed no more;

No more on Ilion's portals shone
The banner wet with Grecian gore;
Nor warrior's trump nor charger's tread
Profaned the silence of the dead.

No more at morn, her glittering power
Rushed like a torrent to the field;
No more at eve, the royal bower
Welcomed the bearers of the shield:
Now moaned the melancholy wave
The only dirge above the brave.

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But on that eve, Troy's warrior sons, Storm-tost, and weary of the main, Lay lapsing on their banquet-thronesLay quaffing the celestial rain

That the pressed grape, on Afric's shores,
In drops of purple fragrance pours.

And there, beside th' impassioned Queen,
Their Chieftain tells his lofty tale;
Her bosom burning with the scene,
Her cheek with more than terror pale,
Her eye like lightning through the gloom,
Her thoughts of exile, woe, the tomb!

For in her arms an infant lies,

The loveliest eye e'er looked upon
The little King of smiles and sighs,

Who makes of human hearts his throne:
Once fettered in his viewless chain,
Wit, wisdom, valour, all are vain!

There Cupid, by his mother laid

Where young Ascanius should have lain,
Plays with her tresses' perfumed braid,
Yet steeps her soul in subtle pain;
Seems to her lip in sport to cling,
Yet, aspic-like, there leaves the sting.

But where is gone the guileless child

That should in those white arms repose?
O'er forest deep and desert wild,

He's gone, to bowers of deathless rose;
By Venus borne on wings of wind,
Leaving her fatal son behind.

Now o'er the Grecian sunset-main
High wheels the pomp its bright career;
Till sparkles far Cythera's fane,-
Seen o'er the water's azure sphere,
Through evening cloud and ocean haze,
Rich as some new-born planet's blaze.

And now, upon the silver strand,

The train of beauty fold the wing;
And, myrtle-crowned, and harp in hand,
Wreath round his couch the mystic ring;
And fill with dreams of love and joy
Thy slumbers, infant hope of Troy!

COUNT FITZ-HUM.

ARATUS.

FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHULZE.

The town-council were sitting, and in gloomy silence: alternately they looked at each other; and at the official order (that morning received) which reduced their perquisites and salaries by one-half. At length the chief burgomaster rose, turned the mace-bearer out of the room, and bolted the door. That worthy man, how2D SERIES, VOL. II.

ever, was not so to be baffled: old experience in acoustics had taught him where to apply his ear with most advantage in cases of the present emergency; and as the debate soon rose from a humming of gentle dissent to the stormy pitch of downright quarrelling, he found no difficulty in assuaging the pangs of his curiosity. The council, he soon learned, were divided as to the course to be pursued on their common calamity; whether formally to remonstrate or not, at the risk of losing their places; indeed, they were divided on every point except one, and that was, contempt for the political talents of the new prince, who could begin his administration upon a principle so monstrous as that of retrenchment.

How

At length, in one of the momentary pauses of the hurricane, the council distinguished the sound of two vigorous fists playing with the utmost energy upon the panels of the door outside. "What presumption is this?" exclaimed the chairman, immediately leaping up. ever, on opening the door, it appeared that the fury of the summons was dictated by no failure in respect, but by absolute necessitynecessity has no law-and any more reverential knocking could have no chance of being audible. The person outside was Mr. Commissioner Pig; and his business was to communicate a despatch of pressing importance which he had that moment received by express.

"First of all, gentlemen," said the pursy commissioner, "allow me to take breath:" and, seating himself, he began to wipe his forehead. Agitated with the fear of some unhappy codicil to the unhappy testament already received, the members gazed anxiously at the open letter which he held in his hand; and the chairman, unable to control his impatience, made a grasp at it: "Permit me, Mr. Pig."-"No!" said Mr. Pig: "it is the postscript only which concerns the council: wait one moment, and I will have the honour of reading it myself." Thereupon he drew out his spectacles; and, adjusting them with provoking coolness, slowly and methodically proceeded to read as follows: "We open our letter to acquaint you with a piece of news which has just come to our knowledge, and which it will be important for your town to learn as soon as possible. His Serene Highness has resolved on visiting the remoter provinces of his new dominions immediately: he means to preserve the strictest incognito; and we understand will travel under the name of Count Fitz-Hum, and will be attended only by one gentleman of the bedchamber, viz. Mr. Von Hoax. The carriage he will use on this occasion is a plain landau,

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the body painted dark blue; and for his highness in particular, you will easily distinguish him by his superb whiskers. Of course we need scarcely suggest to you, that if the principal hotel of your town should not be in comme-il-faut order, it will be proper to meet the illustrious traveller on his entrance with an offer of better accommodations in one of the best private mansions, amongst which your own is reputed to stand foremost. Your town is to have the honour of his first visit; and on this account you will be much envied, and the eyes of all the country turned upon you."

"Doubtless, most important intelligence!" said the chairman, "but who is your correspondent?"-" The old and eminent house of Wassermuller and Co.; and I thought it my duty to communicate the information without delay.' "To be sure, to be sure: and the council is under the greatest obligation to you for the service."

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So said all the rest: for they all viewed in the light of a providential interference on behalf of the old system of fees, perquisites, and salaries, this opportunity so unexpectedly thrown in their way of winning the prince's favour. To make the best use of this opportunity, however, it was absolutely necessary that their hospitalities should be on the most liberal scale. On that account it was highly gratifying to the council that Commissioner Pig loyally volunteered the loan of his house. Some drawback undoubtedly it was on this pleasure, that Commissioner Pig, in his next sentence, made known that he must be paid for his loyalty. However, there was no remedy; and his demands were acceded to. For not only was Pighouse the only mansion in the town at all suitable for the occasion, but it was also known to be so, in the prince's capital, as clearly appeared from the letter which had just been read-at least when read by Pig himself.

All being thus arranged, and the council on the point of breaking up, a sudden cry of "Treason!" was raised by a member; and the mace-bearer was detected skulking behind an arm-chair, perfidiously drinking in the secrets of the state. He was instantly dragged out, the enormity of his crime displayed to him (which under many wise governments, the chairman assured him, would have been punished with the bowstring or instant decapitation), and after being amerced in a considerable fine, which paid the first instalment of the Piggian demand, he was bound over to inviolable secrecy by an oath of great solemnity. This oath, on the suggestion of a member, was afterwards administered to the whole of the

| senate in rotation, as also to the commissioner: which done, the council adjourned.

"Now, my dear creatures," said the commissioner to his wife and daughter, on returning home, "without a moment's delay send for the painter, the upholsterer, the cabinetmaker, also for the butcher, the fishmonger, the poulterer, the confectioner: in one half-hour let each and all be at work; and at work let them continue all day and all night.'

"At work! but what for? what for, Pig?" "And, do you hear, as quickly as possible," added Pig driving them out of the room. "But what for?" they both repeated, reentering at another door.

Without vouchsafing any answer, however, the commissioner went on:-"and let the tailor, the shoemaker, the milliner, the—”

"The fiddlestick end, Mr. Pig. I insist upon knowing what all this is about."

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No matter what, my darling. Sic volo, sic jubeo: stat pro ratione voluntas." Hark you, Mr. Commissioner.

Matters are at length come to a crisis. You have the audacity to pretend to keep a secret from your lawful wife. Hear, then, my fixed determination. At this moment there is a haunch of venison roasting for dinner. The cook is so ignorant that, without my directions, the haunch will be scorched to a cinder. Now I swear that, unless you instantly reveal to me the secret without any reservation whatever, I will resign the venison to its fate. I will, by all that is sacred!"

The venison could not be exposed to a more fiery trial than was Mr. Commissioner Pig; the venison, when alive and hunted, could not have perspired more profusely, nor trembled in more anguish. But there was no alternative. His "morals" gave way before "his passions;" and after binding his wife and daughter by the general oath of secrecy, he communicated the state mystery. By the

same or similar methods so many other wives assailed the virtue of their husbands, that in a few hours the limited scheme of secrecy adopted by the council was realized on the most extensive scale: for before nightfall, not merely a few members of the council, but every man, woman, and child in the place, had been solemnly bound over to inviolable secrecy.

Meantime some members of the council, who had an unhappy leaning to infidelity, began to suggest doubts on the authenticity of the commissioner's news. Of old time he had been celebrated for the prodigious quantity of secret intelligence which his letters communicated, but not equally for its quality. often it stood in unhappy contradiction to the

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