And, if the power Of thrilling numbers to thy soul be dear, When Luna's distant tone falls faintly on his ear!2 That, through the circle of creation's zone, From the pellucid tides, 3 that whirl Murmuring o'er beds of pearl; In the « Histoire naturelle des Antilles, there is an account of some curious shells, found at Curaçoa, on the back of which were lines, filled with musical characters so distinct and perfect, that the writer assures us a very charming trio was sung from one of them. On le nomme musical, parce qu'il porte sur le dos de lignes noirâtres pleines de notes, qui ont une espèce de clé pour les mettre en chant, de sorte que l'on dirait qu'il ne manque que la lettre à cette tablature naturelle. Ce curieux gentilhomme (M. du Montel) rapporte qu'il en a vu qui avaient cinq lignes, une clé, et des notes, qui formaient un accord parfait. Quelqu'un y avait ajouté la lettre, que la nature avait oubliée, et la faisait chanter en forme de trio, dont l'air était fort agréable. Chap. 19, art. 11, The author adds, a poet might imagine that these shells were used by the Syrens at their concerts. According to CICERO, and his commentator, MACROBIUS, the lunar tone is the gravest and faintest on the planetary heptachord. Quam ob causam summus ille coli stellifer cursus, cujus conversio est concitation, acuto et excitato movetur sono; gravissimo autem hic lunaris atque infimus. Somn Scip. Because, says MACROBIES, spiritu ut in extremitate languescente jam volvitur, et propter angustias quibus penultimus orbis arctatur impetu leniore convertitur.. In Soma. Scip. lib. 2, cap. 4. It is not very easy to understand the ancients in their musical arrangement of the heavenly bodies. See PTOLEM. lib. 3. LEONE HEBREO, pursuing the idea of ARISTOTLE, that the heavens are animal, attributes their harmony to perfect and reciprocal love. « Non pero manca fra loro il perfetto e reciproco amore : la causa principale, che ne mostra il loro amore, è la lor amicizia armoniaca e la concordanza, che perpetuamente si trova in loro. Dialog. 2. di Amore, p. 58. This reciproco amore of Leoxx is the pilotns of the ancient EMPEDOCLES, who seems, in his Love and Hate of the Elements, to have given a glimpse of the principles of attraction and repulsion. See the fragment to which I allude in Laerties, Άλλοτε μεν φιλότητι, συνερχομεν. κ. τ. λ. Lib. 8, cap. 2, D. 12. 3 LEUCIPPES, the atomist, imagined a kind of vortices in the hea vens, which he borrowed from ΑΝΑΣΑGORAS, and possibly suggested to DESCARTES. Welcome, welcome, mystic shell! Many a star has ceased to burn, 3 Many a tear has Saturn's urn O'er the cold bosom of the ocean wept, Hath in the waters slept! 4 With the bright treasure to my choral sky, Walks o'er the great string of my Orphic Lyre, 5 The winged chariot of some blissful soul!6 Oh, son of earth! what dream shall rise for thee; Thou 'lt see a streamlet run, Which I have warm'd with dews of melody; 7 HERACLIDES, upon the allegories of HOMER, conjectures that the in representing the solar beams as arrows, supposes them to emit a idea of the harmony of the spheres originated with this poet, who, peculiar sound in the air. In the account of Africa which D'ABLANCOURT has translated there is mention of a tree in that country, whose branches when shaken by the hand produce very sweet sounds. Le méme auteur (ABENZEGAR) dit, qu'il y a un certain arbre, qui produit des gaules comme d'o ier, et qu'en les prenant à la main et les branlant, elles font une espèce d'harmonie fort agréable, etc. etc.-L Afrique de MARMOL. Alluding to the extinction, or at least the disappearance, of some of those fixed stars, which we are taught to consider as suns, attended each by its sys em. DESCARTES thought that our earth might formerly have been a sun, which became obscured by a thick inc astation over its surface. This probably suggested the idea of a central tire. 4 PORPHYRY says, that PYTHAGORAS held the sea to be a tear.Tyy alattav μev exxhet ecvat danpoov. De Vit. And some one else. if I mistake not, has added the Planet Saturn as the source of it. EMPEDOCLES, with similar affectation, called the sea the sweat of the earth: toputa Tn5775. See RITTERSHUSIUS upon PORPHYRY, Num. 4.. The system of the harmonised orbs was styled by the ancients the Great Lyre of Orpheus, for which Lucian accounts, ʼn de Aupn ἑπταμιτος εουσα την των κινουμένων ας των αρμονιαν ouve6xλsto. x. T. λ. in Astrolog. 6 Διειλε ψυχας ισάριθμους τους αςροις, ένειμε τ' εκάςην προς έκασον, και εμβίβασας ΩΣ ΕΙΣ ΟΧΗΜΑ. PLATON. Timerus. 1 And I will send thee such a god-like dream, 3 From which his soul had drunk its fire! Wafted his prayer to that eternal Power, Or, dost thou know what dreams I wove, From every earthly chain, From wreaths of pleasure and from bonds of pain, Drank at the source of Nature's fontal number. 7 EPISTLE IV. TO GEORGE MORGAN, ESQ. OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA.1 FROM BERMUDA, JANUARY, 1804. Κείνη δ' ηνεμόεσσα και άτροπος, δια ν' αλιπληξ, αι θυίης και μάλλον επιδρομος πεπερ ίπποις, ποντω ενεςηρίκται. CALLIMACH. Hymn. in Del. v. II. On what a tempest whirl'd us hither! 3 And even our haughty main-mast bow'd! Which time has saved from ancient days! Take one of these, to LAIS sung, I wrote it while hammock swung, my SWEETLY 3 you kiss, my LAIs dear! But, while you kiss, I feel a tear, 3 ERATOSTHENES, telling the extreme veneration of Orpheus for Apollo, says that he was accustomed to go to the Pangean mountain at day-break, and there wait the rising of the sun, that he might be the first to bail its beams. Enerpoμevos te TYS VUXTOS, κατά την έωθινην επί το όρος το καλούμε τον Παγ γαιον, προσέμενε τας ανατολας, ίνα ίδη τον Ήλιον dispositions of the family with whom he resides, and the cordial πρώτον. Καταφέρισμ. 24. 4 There are some verses of ORPHEUS preserved to us, which contain sublime ideas of the unity and magnificence of the Deity. As those which JUSTIN MARTYR has produced: Ούτος μεν χαλκείον ες ουρανον εστήρικται Xpusei Eve Spovos, x. v. λ. Ad Græc. cohortat. It is thought by some, that these are to be reckoned amongst the fabrications which were frequent in the early times of Christianity. Still it appears doubtful to whom we should impute them; they are too pious for the Pagans, and too poetical for the Fathers. In one of the Hymns of Ogrants, be attributes a figured seal to Apollo, with which he imagines that deity to have stamped a variety of forms upon the universe. Alluding to the cave near Samos, where Pythagoras devoted the greater part of his days and nights to meditation and the mysteries of his philosophy. Jamblich. de Vit. This, as HOLSTENIUS remarks, was in imitation of the Magi. The tetractys, or sacred number of the Pythagoreans, on which they solemnly swore, and which they called у EVKOU puses, the fountain of perennial nature. LeCIAN has ridicaled this religious arithmetic very finely in his Sale of Philosophers. * This diadem is intended to represent the analogy between the notes of music and th prismatic colours. We find in Plutarch a vague intimation of this kindred harmony in colours and sounds. Ofts Te naι avov, peta pavys te nai patos typ apportar De Musica. επιφαίνουσι. CASSIODORUS, whose idea I may be supposed to have borrowed, says, in a letter upon music to Boetius, Ut diadema oculis, varia luce gemmarum, sic cythara diversitate soni, blanditur auditui. This is indeed the only tolerable thought in the letter. Lib. 2, Variar. This gentleman is attached to the British consulate at Norfolk. His talents are worthy of a much higher sphere, but the excellent repose he enjoys amongst some of the kindest hearts in the world, should be almost enough to atone to him for the worst caprices of fortune. The consul himself, Colonel Hamilton, is one among the very few instances of a man, ardently loyal to his king, and yet beloved by the Americans. His house is the very temple of hospitality, and I sincerely pity the heart of that stranger who, warm from the welcome of such a board, and with the taste of such Madeira still upon his lips, col dolce in bocca, could sit down to write a libel on his host, in the trae spirit of a modern philosophist. See the Travels of the Duke de LA ROCHEFOUCAULT LIANCOURT, vol. 2. We were seven days on our passage from Norfolk to Bermuda, during three of which we were forced to lay-to in a gale of wind. The Driver sloop of war, in which I went, was built at Bermuda of cedar, and is accounted an excellent sea-boat. She was then commanded by my very regretted friend Captain Compton, who in July last was killed aboard the Lilly, in an action with a French privateer. Poor Compton! he fell a victim to the strange impolicy of allowing such a miserable thing as the Lilly to remain in the service; so small, crank, and unmanageable, that a well-manned merchantman was at any time a match for her. This epigram is by PACLES SILENTIARIUS, and may be found in the Analects of BRUNCK, vol. 3, p. 73. But as the reading there is somewhat different from what I have followed in this translation, I shall give it as I had it in my memory at the time, and as it is in HEINSICS, who, I believe, first produced the epigram. See his Poemata. που μεν εστι φιλημα το Λαίδος ήδν δε αυτών Η πιοδίνητων δακρυ χεείς βλεφάρων, και πολύ κιχλίζουσα σοβεις ευβοστρυχον αιγλην Ήμετερα κεφαλην δηρον ερεισαμένη. Bitter as those when lovers part, Our last-go, false to Heaven and me! SUCH, while in air I floating hung, Such was the strain, Morgante mio! The Muse and I together sung, With Boreas to make out the trio. But, bless the little fairy isle! How sweetly, after all our ills, Serenely o'er its fragrant hills! Oh! could you view the scenery dear, That now beneath my window lies, In glassy calm the waters sleep, The coral rocks they love to steep!' That languish idly round the mast. Oh! for the boat the angel gave1 To him, who in his heaven-ward flight, Sail'd, o'er the Sun's ethereal wave, To planet-isles of odorous light! Thy planet's brightning balm to shed; Which had been, oh! too dear before! But, whither means the Muse to roam? Long may the bowl that pleasures bloom in, When cups are flowing to the brim, Μυρομενην δ' εφίλησαν τα δ' ὡς δροσερης απο πηγής, he embarks into the regions of the sun. Δάκρυα μιγνυμένων πιπτε κατα στομάτων The water is so clear around the island, that the rocks are seen beneath to a very great depth, and, as we entered the harbour, they appeared to us so near the surface, that it seemed impossible we should not strike on them. There is no necessity, of course, for heaving the lead, and the negro pilot, looking down at the rocks from the bows of the ship, takes her through this difficult novigation, with a skill and confidence which seem to astonish some of the oldest sailors. 2 In KIRCHER's Ecstatic Journey to Heaven. Cosmiel, the ge nius of the world, gives Theodidactus a boat of asbestos, with which Vides (says Cosmiel) hanc asbestinam naviculam commoditati tuæ præparatam. Itinerar. 1, dial. 1, cap. 5. There are some very strange fancies in this work of Kircher. When the genius of the world and his fellow-traveller arrive at the planet Venus, they find an island of loveliness, full of odours and intelligences, where an, els preside, who shed the cosmetic influence of this planet over the earth; such being, according to astrologers, the « vis influxivas of Venus. When they are in this part of the heavens, a casuistical question occurs to Theodidactus, and he asks Whether baptism may be performed with the waters of Venus? An aquis globi Veneris baptisms institui possit? to which the genius answers, Certainly. This idea is FATHER KIRCHER'S. Tot animatos soles dixisses.» I cannot warn thee! every touch, That brings my pulses close to thine, Tells me I want thy aid as much, Oh! quite as much, as thou dost mine! Yet stay, dear love-one effort yet- The light that leads my soul astray! Thou say'st that we were born to meet, That our hearts bear one common seal, Oh, lady! think, how man's deceit Can seem to sigh and feign to feel! When o'er thy face some gleam of thought, Like day-beams through the morning air, Hath gradual stole, and I have caught The feeling ere it kindled there : The sympathy I then betray'd, Perhaps was but the child of art; With loveless heart or senses cold? No-many a throb of bliss and pain, To theirs hath been as fondly laid; To them have been as warmly said. Which long hath lost its early spring; While thus to mine thy bosom lies, Did we not love so true, so dear, This lapse could never be forgiven; But hearts so fond and lips so near Give me the ring, and now-Oh heaven! ΤΟ ON SEEING HER WITH A WHITE VEIL AND A RICH GIRDLE. Μαργαρίται δηλουσι δακρύων ρόον. Put off the vestal veil, nor, oh! Put off the fatal zone you wear; The lucid pearls around it Are tears that fell from Virtue there The hour that Love unbound it. THE RESEMBLANCE. vo cercand' io Donna, quant'è possibile, in altrui La desiata vostra forma vera, YES, if 't were any common love That led my pliant heart astray, 83 PETRARC. Sonett. 13. I grant, there's not a power above But, 't was my doom to err with one In So fair there are but thou and she! Whate'er may be her angel birth, She was thy lovely perfect twin, And wore the only shape on earth That could have charm'd my soul to sin! Your eyes!-the eyes of languid doves Resemble less their warm-eyed mother! Her lip!-oh, call me not false-hearted, And when, with all thy murmuring tone, I could as soon resist thine own- Then, scorn me not, though false I be, 'Twas love that waked the dear excess; My heart had been more true to thee, Had mine eye prized thy beauty less! ΤΟ WHEN I loved you, I can't but allow I had many an exquisite minute; But the scorn that I feel for you now Hath even more luxury in it! Thus, whether we 're on or we're off, Some witchery seems to await you; To love you is pleasant enough, And, oh! 't is delicious to hate you! FROM THE GREEK OF MELEAGER.' FILL high the cup with liquid flame, And speak my Heliodora's name! Εγχει, και παλιν είπε, παλιν, παλιν, Ηλιόδωρος Είπε, συν ακρητῳ το γλυκυ μισγ' όνομα. ODES TO NEA; WRITTEN AT BERMUDA. Nex TupaVVEL. EURIPID. Medea, v. 967. NAY, tempt me not to love again : So many a time the rounds of pain, Would I endure such pangs again. If there be climes where never yet Should bring no more their bliss, their pain, Dear absent girl ! whose eyes of light, Though little prized when all my own, As when they first enamouring shone! O moments! simply, vainly fled, Sav, Nea dear! couldst thou, like her, Could make such virtue false at last! Nea! the heart which she forsook, For thee were but a worthless shrineGo, lovely girl, that angel look Must thrill a soul more pure than mine. Oh! thou shalt be all else to me, That heart can feel or tongue can feign; I'll praise, admire, and worship thee, But must not, dare not, love again. Tale iter omne cave. I PRAY you, let us roam no more Along that wild and lonely shore, |