QUANTUM EST QUOD DESIT?

Ovid. Metam. Lib. ix, v. 559.

"TWAS a new feeling-something more

Than we had dar'd to own before,

Which then we hid not;

We saw it in each other's eye,
And wish'd in every broken sigh
To speak, but did not!

She felt my lip's impassion'd touch;
"Twas the first time I dar'd so much;

And yet, she chid not;

But whisper'd o'er my burning brow, "Oh! do you doubt I love you now?” Sweet soul! I did not!

Warmly I felt her bosom thrill,
I prest it closer, closer still,

Though gently bid not;

Till-oh! the world hath seldom heard

Of lovers, who so nearly err'd,

And yet who did not!

ASPASIA.

"TWAS in the fair ASPASIA'S bower
That Love and Learning, many an hour,
In dalliance met, and Learning smil'd
With rapture on the playful child,
Who wanton stole, to find his nest
Within a fold of Learning's vest!

There, as the listening statesman hung
In transport on ASPASIA'S tongue,
The destinies of Athens took

Their colour from ASPASIA's look.
Oh happy time! when laws of state,
When all that rul'd the country's fate,
Its glory, quiet, or alarms,

Was plann'd between two snowy arms!

Sweet times! you could not always lastAnd yet, oh! yet, you are not past; Though we have lost the sacred mould In which their men were cast of old,

Woman, dear woman, still the same, While lips are balm, and looks are flame, While man possesses heart or eyes, Woman's bright empire never dies!

FANNY, my love, they ne'er shall

No-give the universe a soul

say

That beauty's charm hath pass'd away;

Attun'd to woman's soft control,

And FANNY hath the charm, the skill,

To wield a universe at will!

WAS it the moon, or was it morning's ray,
That call'd thee, dearest, from these arms away?
I linger'd still, in all the murmuring rest,
The langour of a soul too richly blest!

Upon my breath the sigh yet faintly hung;
Thy name yet died in whispers o'er my tongue;
I heard thy lyre, which thou hadst left behind,
In amorous converse with the breathing wind;

*It was imagin'd by some of the ancients that there is an ethereal ocean above us, and that the sun and moon are two floating luminous islands, in which the spirits of the blest reside. Accordingly we find that the word Leaves was sometimes synonymous with ang, and death was not unfrequently called NxɛavOLG Togos, or "the passage of the ocean."

Quick to my heart I prest the shell divine,
And, with a lip yet glowing warm from thine,
I kist its every chord, while every kiss

Shed o'er the chord some dewy print of bliss.
Then soft to thee I touch'd the fervid lyre,
Which told such melodies, such notes of fire
As none but chords, that drank the burning dews
Of kisses dear as ours, could e'er diffuse!
Oh, love! how blissful is the bland repose,
That soothing follows upon rapture's close,
Like a soft twilight, o'er the mind to shed
Mild melting traces of the transport fled!

While thus I lay, in this voluptuous calm, A drowsy languor steep'd my eyes in balm, Upon my lap the lyre in murmurs fell, While, faintly wandering o'er its silver shell, My fingers soon their own sweet requiem play'd, And slept in music which themselves had made! Then, then, my THEON, what a heavenly dream!I saw two spirits, on the lunar beam, Two winged boys, descending from above, And gliding to my bower with looks of love. Like the young genii, who repose their wings All day in Amatha's luxurious springs,*

* Eunapius, in his life of Iamblichus, tells us of two beautiful little spirits, or loves, which Iamblichus raised by enchantment from the warm springs at Gadara; "dicens astantibus (says the

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