That, destitute of strength, derives its course
From thrifty urns and an unfruitful source;
Yet sung so often in poetick lays,

With scorn the Danube and the Nile surveys;
So high the deathless muse exalts her theme!
Such was the Boyne,' a poor inglorious stream,
That in Hibernian vales obscurely stray'd,
And, unobserv'd, in wild Meanders play'd;
'Till by your lines and Nassau's sword renown'd,
Its rising billows through the world resound,
Where'er the hero's godlike acts can pierce,
Or where the fame of an immortal verse.

Oh, cou'd the muse my ravish'd breast inspire
With warmth like yours, and raise an equal fire,
Unnumber'd beauties in my verse shou'd shine,
And Virgil's Italy shou'd yield to mine!

See how the golden groves around me smile,
That shun the coast of Britain's stormy isle,

1Such was the Boyne. The battle of the Boyne was as familiar an expression with the English of those days, as Waterloo in our own. The "immortal verse" here alluded to, was an epistle of Halifax on that subject; once very much admired, but which now, perhaps, is indebted to these very lines for its occasional revival.--G.

2 See how the golden groves. This description is exceedingly happy in thought and expression. "Where western gales eternally reside," is less felicitous, indeed, than Goldsmith's

"Sea-born gales their gelid wings expand,

To winnow fragrance round the smiling land."

But the contrast between the effect of the English and Italian climate is finely drawn. The American reader will observe that starve is used in the sense of perish with cold—still a common usage in England.

the original, is not uncommon in the poets: But Mr. Addison had the art to introduce this bold figure, with ease and grace, into his prose; as when he speaks of refreshment in a description of fields and meadows-of an historian's fighting his battles, and in other instances:-But see what he says himself on this subject on Messis clypeata virorum, in his notes on Ovid.

Or, when transplanted and preserved with care,
Curse the cold clime, and starve in northern air.
Here kindly warmth their mounting juice ferments
To nobler tastes, and more exalted scents:
Ev'n the rough rocks with tender myrtle bloom,
And trodden weeds send out a rich perfume.

Bear me, some god, to Baia's gentle seats,

Or

r cover me in Umbria's green retreats;
Where western gales eternally reside,

And all the seasons lavish all their pride:
Blossoms, and fruits, and flowers together rise,
And the whole year in gay confusion lies.
Immortal glories in my mind revive,

And in my soul a thousand passions strive,
When Rome's exalted beauties I descry
Magnificent in piles of ruine lye.

The closing lines deserve particular attention. Blossoms, and fruits, and flowers together rise. This thought has been used with great skill by

Tasso:

"Co' fiori eterni, eterno il frutto dura;
E mentre spunta l'un, l'altro matura.”
GER. LIB. Cant. 16-st. x.

Milton, whom our author had already studied with close attention, has

"Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue
Appeared."
PAR. LOST.

But the beautiful close-And the whole year in gay confusion lies—which gives so perfect a finish to the whole scene, is one of those happy touches which are never learned by imitation. The only passage which can be compared with it, and not lose by the comparison, is the closing couplet in the description of evening sounds in the "Deserted Village:"

"These all in sweet confusion sought the shade,

And filled each pause the nightingale had made."

a Descry, i. e. 1 discern, discover, distinctly survey.

We use a less spe

cific verb in conjunction with lye, as: "I see Rome's beauties lye in ruin;" not, I descry them lye.

An amphitheater's amazing height1
Here fills my eye with terror and delight,
That on its public shows unpeopled Rome,
And held, uncrowded, nations in its womb;
Here pillars rough with sculpture 2 pierce the skies :
And here the proud triumphal arches 3 rise,
Where the old Romans deathless acts display'd, a
Their base degenerate progeny upbraid :.

3

Whole rivers here forsake the fields below,

And wond'ring at their height through airy channels flow.
Still to new scenes my wand'ring muse retires,
And the dumb show of breathing rocks admires ;
Where the smooth chissel all its force has shown,
And soften'd into flesh the rugged stone. 5

1 An amphitheatre's, &c. The Coliseum

That on its public shows unpeopled Rome,

And held, uncrowded, nations in its womb.'

In his epistle to Mr. Addison, on his Dialogue on Medals, Pope says:'Huge theaters that now unpeopled woods,

Now drained a distant country of her floods.'

Even Warton gives the superiority in this case to Addison, whose second line is uncommonly vigorous.-G.

2 Here pillars rough with sculpture. The columns of Antonine and of Trajan.-G.

• Proud triumphal arches. Yet he must have seen them to much less advantage than the traveller of our own days, for the lower parts of them were still buried.—G.

4 Whole rivers here. The aqueducts.-G.

5 And softened into flesh the rugged stone,

a Where the old Romans deathless acts display'd, i. e. where the death

In solemn silence, a majestick band,

Heroes, and gods, and Roman consuls stand,
Stern tyrants, whom their cruelties renown,
And emperors in Parian marble frown;

While the bright dames, to whom they humble su'd,

Still show the charms that their proud hearts subdu'd.

Fain wou'd I Raphael's godlike art rehearse,

And shew th' immortal labours in my verse,
Where from the mingled strength of shade and light
A new creation rises to my sight,

Such heav'nly figures from his pencil flow,

So warm with life his blended colours glow.
From theme to theme with secret pleasure tost,
Amidst the soft variety I'm lost :

Here pleasing airs my ravisht soul confound

With circling notes and labyrinths of sound;
Here domes and temples rise in distant views,
And opening palaces invite my muse.

How has kind heav'n adorn'd the happy land,
And scatter'd blessings with a wasteful hand!
But what avail her unexhausted stores,
Her blooming mountains and her sunny shores,
With all the gifts that heav'n and earth impart,
The smiles of nature, and the charms of art,
While proud oppression in her vallies reigns,
And tyranny usurps her happy plains?

:

less acts of the old Romans being displayed-a line doubly obscure, and therefore doubly faulty. If the latter fault may be excused, the former cannot for when a plural noun is used, in what is called the genitive case, it requires to be preceded by its sign, the preposition of: above all, when the termination (as is generally the case of our plural nouns) is in s.

1

The poor inhabitant beholds in vain1

The red'ning orange and the swelling grain:
Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines,
And in the myrtle's fragrant shade repines:
Starves, in the midst of nature's bounty curst,
And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.

Oh Liberty, thou goddess heavenly bright,
Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight!
Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign,
And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train;
Eas'd of her load subjection grows more light,
And poverty looks chearful in thy sight;
Thou mak'st the gloomy face of nature gay,
Giv'st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day.
Thee, goddess, thee, Britannia's isle adores;
How has she oft exhausted all her stores,
How oft in fields of death thy presence sought,
Nor thinks the mighty prize too dearly bought!
On foreign mountains may the sun refine
The grape's soft juice, and mellow it to wine,
With citron groves adorn a distant soil,
And the fat olive swell with floods of oil :

We envy not the warmer clime, that lies
In ten degrees of more indulgent skies,
Nor at the coarseness of our heaven repine,
Tho' o'er our heads the frozen Pleiads shine:

'Tis liberty that crowns Britannia's isle,

And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile.

1 The poor inhabitant, &c. These three couplets are among the most vigorous lines Addison ever wrote. Si sic omnia-he would have stood as high in verse as he does in prose. It is almost too minute a criticism, perhaps, to say that 'red'ning' is not the proper epithet for the orange, even while it is growing.--G.