"I GLADLY inspire those who are constantly employed in my service, with that use of reason by which they come unto me; and in compassion I stand in my own nature, and dissipate the darkness of their ignorance with the light of the lamp of wisdom."-Ibid. THE crop of heads on their deities is merely a palpable metaphor of "the eternal God whose countenance is turned on every side."-Ibid. "As a single sun illuminateth the whole world, even so doth the spirit enlighten every body."—Ibid. "THERE are these three passages to Narak (the infernal regions), lust, anger, and avarice, which are the destroyers of the soul: wherefore a man should avoid them; for, being freed from these gates of sin, at length he goeth the journey of the Most High."— Ibid. "WHENCE should men out of place have wealth, which makes others give way to the fangrooms of their horses? Whence should they procure white umbrellas with long sticks, horses, elephants, and a troop of attendants?"-HITOPADESA. "BEFORE the sun had put on his crown of rays."-Life of Creeshna. "THY anger was but mercy, which gave us an occasion of beholding thy power."Ibid. "HELL, called Yemalogu, is a large fiery cellar, where there are fiery leeches.”—Letters to the Dan. Miss. “THOU art pleasanter than sweet Samarcand in her vallies of jonquils."-Translated from the Persian and Arabic by the author of Gebir. 1 ROUALEYN GORDON CUMMING in his Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Fur Interior of South Africa, speaks of the ostrich shells as used for water-vases by the "bush-girls and ing Bechuana tribes of the Kalahari desert."Bakalahari women who belong to the wanderVol. 1, p. 113. I do not know whether this can be used in illustration, neither do I know what authority is due to the book quoted. He rodotus, in the old time, and Bruce, in more recent days, told stories equally wonderful, which have turned out true. One cannot, how. ever, but lament that Mr. Cumming's narrative should be so needlessly blood-stained as it is at times-neither is mawkish sentimentality at all to be admired.-J. W. W. back, thick and diffused like bunches of dates clustering on the palm tree.” "A LEG both as white and as smooth as the stem of a young palm, or a fresh reed, bending over the rivulet.” "O FRIEND, seest thou the lightning? the fire of it gleams like the lamps of a hermit, when the oil poured on them shakes the cord by which they are suspended."—Ibid. "THE Betele maketh the mouth and lips of a vermillion colour, and the breath sweet and pleasing."-Bernier. "IT well becomes thee, who art soft as the fresh-blown Mallica, to fill with water the canals which have been dug round these tender shrubs."-SACONTALA. "My friend Priyamvada has tied this mantle of bark so closely over my bosom that it gives me pain."—Ibid. "THE venerable sage must have an unfeeling heart, since he has allotted a mean employment to so lovely a girl, and has dressed her in a coarse mantle of woven bark."-Ibid. "Now then I deliver to the priests this bundle of fresh Cusa grass, to be scattered round the place of sacrifice."-Ibid. The "THERE has been a happy omen. young Brahman who officiated in our morning sacrifice, dropped the clarified butter (though his sight was impeded by clouds of smoke) into the very centre of the adorable flame." "THE delighted genii have been collecting, among the trees of life, those crimson and azure dyes, with which the celestial damsels tinge their beautiful feet, and they now are writing thy actions in verses worthy of divine melody.”—Ibid. WHEN S. Roberto reformed the Bene dictines at Molismo, part of the regular business of the day was "cortar folhas de palma, & tecer dellas os habitos que traziao."-Brito. Chro. de Cister. HODGES speaks of peacocks in abundance, “which, sitting on the vast horizontal branches, and displaying their varied plumage to the sun, dazzle the eyes of the traveller as he passes." "A REYSHEE whose austerities were such that he subsisted entirely on the drops of milk which fell from the mouths of calves in the act of calving."-Life of Creeshna. "THE two children learned to walk together, either round their beds, or by holding a calf's tail in their hands." "THUS did the Gopias admire him who had on a yellow robe, a peacock's feather on his head, a brilliant rosary round his neck, and a flute on his lip." "THE peacocks on the house-tops were rejoicing and singing in the smoke which arose from the constant burning of aromatics in such quantity as to form a cloud that resembled the rainy season." "ON her sitting down or rising up, the Devates became mad with admiration at the tinkling that proceeded from the golden "ANOTHER prest the juice of Lacsha, to bells that adorned her feet and ankles.”— stain her feet exquisitely red." Ibid. S Sonnets. UNLESS strikingly good, immediately forgotten. They please us like the scenery of a tame country; we look with pleasure upon a green field, and the light ash that bends over its hedges, and the grey alders along its clear brook side. But the next copse, or the little arch that spans the brook, effaces the faint impression; and they in their turn yield to the following picture. But the woods of the Wye, and the rocks of Avon, even these we long remember, and years will scarcely blunt the recollection of the Tagus, and the heights of Lisbon, and the thousand-fold beauties of Cintra. THE heroic writers of these countries must not be meted by the Epic measure; they are as our Drayton and Daniel in their plans. Writers that never can be popular yet ought not to be despised. The analogy indeed of language fails. Ours has been the slow-growing oak; theirs of so rapid a growth, that it never has exceeded sapling KETT has well observed the likeness of strength. This is disadvantageous. A little the sonnet to the Greek epigram. UPON amatory poems a general condemnation may be past. It is unfortunate that men will write nonsense, as well as talk it, to the women, with whom they amuse themselves; this is little honourable to the common sense of either sex. Cupid was very well in his day, on a cameo or a bas-relief, but his bastard descendants are insufferable that figure in a song or sonnet on an upholsterer's shop card, or a hair-dresser's shop sign at a watering-place. PERSONAL Sonnets form a large class; lords, dukes, kings, queens, and poets have had their share. Of these, the most are utterly worthless; some only useful as hints to the literary history of the times-like our old introductory verses-mementos of who and who associated together-of the names we know. Literary Observations. Ar the revival of letters, almost every poet was proud of imitating the ancients; the manner and the matter were new to an unlearned people, and they produced a bet ter taste. COPYING from obscure writers. If there rust would hide the poorness of the medal. POETICAL ornaments. These are not enough. If the groundwork be bad, they are like the rich colouring of a dauber's picture, like the jewels that bedizen a clumsy church-idol. To lard a good story with prettinesses, were like periwigging and powdering the Apollo Belvidere-and dressing the Venus of Florence in a hoop. In poetry, as in painting, mediocrity is probably attainable by all. In these countries the poets resemble missal-painters ;their colours often rich, their pencilling delicate; but no knowledge of design or perspective, and often as deformedly incorrect in outline as the pictures of the Mexicans. There are masons enough, but no architect. They have raised huge edifices, but faced them with a confused mixture of mud and marble. DEVOTIONAL poetry usually unsuccessful, not because the subject is bad, but because it has usually been managed by blockheads. NARRATIVE. Milton. Klopstock. Gessner. Bodmer. G. Fletcher. St. Isidro. The Antony-poems. Vida. Sannazarius. Marino. HYMNS. Surely no worse a subject than old Pagan faith. necessary; and it has ever been the plan of priestcraft to keep the people ignorant. A writer of original genius must wield MYSTICAL. The Orientals. Crashaw. St. language at his will. The syntax must bend The modern languages were scarcely formed. There were no conventional phrases of poetry; no beaten road which the imitator might follow. The mediocre poets, as in their vernacular works, have such. Have the better ones speculated amiss? Would Vida Fracastorius-above all, Flaminius, have been now so generally known, had they written in Italian? Could Erasmus have made Dutch readable? Yet among the modern Latinists is no one poet of great and original genius. The reason is obvious. The Jesuit system had its influence. A club composed of all nations conspiring for universal rule. A common language was to him. He must sometimes create-who else are the makers of language? Much as I shall do, much will remain. Many a pleasant bye-path remains, into which chance may lead the future traveller. Many a store of hidden treasure is to be found among the mouldering libraries. Many a conquest yet to be made from the worms and spiders. I omit no labour; but the traveller of most anxious curiosity wants a guide. I am not parsimonious; but there are bounds which independence must not pass. God has given me abundant talents, which have not been buried; but from society I have not received capital enough to produce interest. [Spanish Bombast.] "Tu auras les conceptions grandes et hautes, et non monstrueuses ny quintessencieuses comme sont celles des Espagnols. Il faudroit a un Apollon pour les interpreter, encor il y seroit bien empesché avec tous ses oracles et Trepieds."-RONSARD. Pref. to the Franciade, p. 25 [Outcast.] Is our word outcast in any way traceable to Hindostan ? [Gothic Genius.] GOTHIC genius improved every fiction which it adopted. Like torch-light in a cathedral, its strong lights and shades made every thing terrible, and as it were living. See now the Seven Sleepers. "In the weste syde of Germania is a people called Scribonius, that hath snowe all the somer tyme, and eteth rawe flesshe, and ben clothed in ghoot buck skynnes. In theyr countrees whan the nyght is short |