XXXIV.

A scene of joy and wonder to behold
That river's shapes and shadows changing

ever:

Where the broad sunrise filled with deepening

gold

Its whirlpools where all hues did spread and

quiver,

And where melodious falls did burst and shiver Among rocks clad with flowers, the foam and

spray

Sparkled like stars upon the sunny river;

Or when the moonlight poured a holier day, One vast and glittering lake around green islands lay.

XXXV.

Morn, noon, and even, that boat of pearl

outran

The streams which bore it, like the arrowy

cloud

Of tempest, or the speedier thought of man, Which flieth forth and cannot make abode; Sometimes through forests, deep like night, we

glode,

Between the walls of mighty mountains crowned With Cyclopean piles, whose turrets proud, The homes of the departed, dimly frowned O'er the bright waves which girt their dark foundations round.

XXXVI.

Sometimes between the wide and flowering

meadows

Mile after mile we sailed, and 'twas delight
To see far off the sunbeams chase the shadows
Over the grass; sometimes beneath the night
Of wide and vaulted caves, whose roofs were
bright

With starry gems, we fled, whilst from their deep And dark green chasms, shades beautiful and white

Amid sweet sounds across our path would sweep. Like swift and lovely dreams that walk the waves of sleep.

XXXVII.

And ever as we sailed, our minds were full
Of love and wisdom, which would overflow
In converse wild, and sweet, and wonderful;
And in quick smiles whose light would come
and go

Like music o'er wide waves, and in the flow
Of sudden tears, and in the mute caress:

For a deep shade was cleft, and we did know, That virtue, though obscured on Earth, not less Survives all mortal change in lasting loveliness.

XXXVIII.

Three days and nights we sailed, as thought and feeling

Number delightful hours-for through the sky

The sphered lamps of day and night, revealing
New changes and new glories, rolled on high.
Sun, Moon, and moonlike lamps, the progeny
Of a diviner Heaven, serene and fair;
On the fourth day, wild as a wind-wrought sea,
The stream became, and fast and faster bare
The spirit-winged boat, steadily speeding there.

XXXIX.

Steadily and swift, where the waves rolled like mountains

Within the vast ravine, whose rifts did pour Tumultuous floods from their ten thousand

fountains,

The thunder of whose earth-uplifting roar Made the air sweep in whirlwinds from the

shore,

Calm as a shade, the boat of that fair child
Securely fled, that rapid stress before,

Amid the topmost spray, and sunbows wild, Wreathed in the silver mist: in joy and pride we smiled.

XL.

The torrent of that wide and raging river
Is passed, and our aërial speed suspended.
We look behind; a golden mist did quiver
When its wild surges with the lake were blended.
Our bark hung there, as by one line suspended
Between two heavens, that windless, waveless
lake,

*Read where?

Which four great cataracts from four vales,

attended

By mists, aye feed; from rocks and clouds they

break,

And of that azure sea a silent refuge make.

XLI.

Motionless resting on the lake awhile,
I saw its marge of snow-bright mountains rear
Their peaks aloft, I saw each radiant isle,
And in the midst, afar, even like a sphere
Hung in one hollow sky, did there appear
The Temple of the Spirit; on the sound
Which issued thence, drawn nearer and more

near,

Like the swift moon this glorious earth around, The charmed boat approached, and there its haven found.

NOTE ON THE REVOLT OF ISLAM.

BY THE EDITOR.

SHELLEY possessed two remarkable qualities of intellect - a brilliant imagination and a logical exactness of reason. His inclinations led him (he fancied) almost alike to poetry and metaphysical discussions. I say "he fancied," because I believe the former to have been paramount, and that it would have gained the mastery even had he struggled against it. However, he said that he deliberated at one tine whether he should dedicate himself to poetry or metaphysics, and resolving on the former, he educated himself for it, discarding in a great measure his philosophical pursuits, and engaging himself in the study of the poets of Greece, Italy, and Eug land. To these may be added a constant perusal of portions of the Old Testament-the Psalms, the book of Job, the Prophet Isaiah, and others, the sublime poetry of which filled him with delight.

As a poet, his intellect and compositions were powerfully influenced by exterior circumstances, and especially by his place of abode. He was very fond of travelling, and ill health increased this restlessness. The sufferings occasioned by a cold English winter, made him pine, especially when our colder spring arrived, for a more genial climate. In 1816 he again visited Switzerland, and rented a house on the banks of the lake of Geneva; and many a day, in cloud or sunshine, was passed alone in his boat-sailing as the wind listed, or weltering on the calm waters. The majestic aspect of nature ministered such thoughts as he afterwards enwove in verse. His lines on the Bridge of the Arve, and his Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, were written at this time. Perhaps during