Yet jarring sects convulse a sister isle,

And light with maddening hands the mutual pile.

"Tis done, 'tis past, since Pallas warns in vain ; The Furies seize her abdicated reign:

Wide o'er the realm they wave their kindling brands,
And wring her vitals with their fiery hands.
But one convulsive struggle still remains,
And Gaul shall weep ere Albion wear her chains.
The banner'd pomp of war, the glittering files,
O'er whose gay trappings stern Bellona smiles;
The brazen trump, the spirit-stirring drum,
That bid the foe defiance ere they come;
The hero bounding at his country's call,
The glorious death that consecrates his fall,
Swell the young heart with visionary charms,
And bid it antedate the joys of arms.
But know, a lesson you may yet be taught,
With death alone are laurels cheaply bought:
Not in the conflict Havoc seeks delight,
His day of mercy is the day of fight.

But when the field is fought, the battle won,
Though drench'd with gore, his woes are but begun:
His deeper deeds as yet ye know by name;
The slaughter'd peasant and the ravish'd dame,
The rifled mansion and the foe-reap'd field,
Ill suit with souls at home, untaught to yield.
Say with what eye along the distant down
Would flying burghers mark the blazing town?
How view the column of ascending flames
Shake his red shadow o'er the startled Thames?
Nay, frown not, Albion! for the torch was thine
That lit such pyres from Tagus to the Rhine:
Now should they burst on thy devoted coast,
Go, ask thy bosom who deserves them most.
The law of heaven and earth is life for life,
And she who raised, in vain regrets, the strife."

NOTES TO THE CURSE OF MINERVA.

1.-Page 261, line 22.

That closed their murder'd sage's latest day!

SOCRATES drank the hemlock a short time before sunset (the hour of execution), notwithstanding the entreaties of his disciples to wait till the sun went down.

2.-Page 262, line 6.

The queen of night asserts her silent reign;

The twilight in Greece is much shorter than in our own country; the days in winter are longer, but in summer of less duration.

3.-Page 262, line 16.

The gleaming turret of the gay kiosk,

The kiosk is a Turkish summer-house; the palm is without the present walls of Athens, not far from the temple of Theseus, between which and the tree the wall intervenes. Cephisus' stream is indeed scanty, and Ilissus has no stream at all.

4.-Page 262, line 20.

And dull were his that pass'd them heedless by.

[The Temple of Theseus is the most perfect ancient edifice in the world. In this fabric, the most enduring stability, and a simplicity of design peculiarly striking, are united with the highest elegance and accuracy of workmanship.-HOBHOUSE.]

5.-Page 263, line 30.

Thy country sends a spoiler worse than both.

[In the original MS.

"Ah, Athens! scarce escaped from Turk and Goth.
Hell sends a paltry Scotchman worse than both."]

6.-Page 263, line 33.

These Cecrops placed, this Pericles adorn'd,

This is spoken of the city in general, and not of the Acropolis in particular. The temple of Jupiter Olympius, by some supposed the Pantheon, was finished by Hadrian; sixteen columns are standing, of the most beautiful marble and architecture.

7.- Page 263, line 38.

The insulted wall sustains his hated name:

[On the original MS. is written

"Aspice quos Pallas Scoto concedit honores
Infra stat nomen-facta supràque vide."]

8.-Page 264, line 12.

When Venus half avenged Minerva's shame."

His lordship's name, and that of one who no longer bears it, are carved conspicuously on the Parthenon; above, in a part not far distant, are the torn remnants of the basso-relievos, destroyed in a vain attempt to remove them. [In another place there was deeply cut in a plaster wall the words

"QUOD NON FECERUNT GOTI,
HOC FECERUNT SCOTI."]

9.-Page 264, line 21.

And well I know within that bastard land

"Irish bastards," according to Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan.

10.-Page 265, line 26.

And own himself an infant of fourscore.

Mr. West, on seeing the "Elgin Collection," (I suppose we shall hear of the "Abershaw" and "Jack Shephard" collection) declared himself a mere tyro" in art.

66

11.-Page 265, line 30.

And marvel at his lordship's' stone shop' there.

Poor Crib was sadly puzzled when the marbles were first exhibited at Elgin House; he asked if it was not "a stone shop?"-He was right; it is a shop.

12.-Page 266, line 20.

Your old ally yet mourns perfidious war.

[The affair of Copenhagen.]

13.-Page 267, line 11.

'Blest paper credit;' who shall dare to sing?

66 Blest paper credit! last and best supply,
That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly."-- POPE.

14.-Page 267, line 30.

And pirates barter all that's left behind.

The Deal and Dover traffickers in specie.

THE WALTZ:

AN APOSTROPHIC HYMN.

"Qualis in Eurota ripis, aut per juga Cynthi, Exercet Diana choros."-VIRGIL.

"Such on Eurota's banks, or Cynthia's height,
Diana seems: and so she charms the sight,
When in the dance the graceful goddess leads
The quire of nymphs, and overtops their heads."
DRYDEN'S VIRGIL.