-Incedunt victæ longo ordine gentes,

Quam variæ linguis, habitu tam vestis et armis.*

As Pliny says, that, Clesilochus painted, "Jovem muliebriter ingemiscentem." And Homer, in his beautiful and lively description of the shield,

-EV d9 αρα τοισιν

Αυλοι φορμιγίες τε βοην εχον.

And again,

Μυκηθμώ δ' απο κοπρε επισσευον ο νομον δε,
Πας πόλαμον κελαδονία.

In another place,

Λίνον υπο καλον αείδε.

Upon which Clark has made an observation that surprises me "sed quomodo in scuto DEPINGI potuit, quem CANERET citharista ?"

* Lib. viii. v. 722.

↑ Iliad, lib. xviii. v. 494.

I V. 575.

-§ V. 570.

This

This passage must not be parted with, till we

have observed the artful rest upon the first syllable of the second verse:

Amphion there the loud creating lyre
Strikes.

There are many instances of such judicious pauses in Homer.

Αυταρ επείν αύλοισι βελος εχεπευκες εφιεις

Βαλλ'. *

As likewise in the great imitator of Homer, who always accommodates the sound to the sense:

These monosyllables have much force and energy. The Latin language does not admit of such. Virgil, therefore, who so well understood and copied all the secret arts and charms of Homer's versification, has afforded us no examples; yet, some of his pauses on words of more syllables in the beginning of lines are emphatical:

Vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentes,
Ingens.†

-Pecudesque locutæ,

Infandum!*

5. These stopp'd the moon, and call'd th' unbody'd shades To midnight banquets in the glimm❜ring glades; Made visionary fabrics round them rise,

And airy spectres skim before their eyes;
Of Talismans and Sigils knew the pow'r,
And careful watch'd the planetary hour.†

These superstitions of the East are highly striking to the imagination. Since the time that poetry has been forced to assume a more sober, and, perhaps, a more rational air, it scarcely ventures to enter these fairy regions. There are some, however, who think it has suffered by deserting these fields of fancy, and by totally laying aside the descriptions of magic and enchantment. What an exquisite picture has Thomson given us in his delightful CASTLE OF INDOLENCE!

As when a shepherd of the Hebrid Isles,
Plac'd far amid the melancholy Main,
(Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles,
Or that aerial beings sometimes deign

To

*

Georg. i. v. 478.

† V. 101.

To stand, embodied, to our senses plain,)
Sees on the naked hill, or valley low,
The whilst in ocean Phoebus dips his wain,

A vast assembly moving to and fro,

Then all at once in air dissolves the wonderous show.*

I cannot at present recollect any solitude so romantic, or peopled with beings so proper to the place, and the spectator. The mind naturally loves to lose itself in one of these wildernesses, and to forget the hurry, the noise and splendor of more polished life.

6. But on the South, a long majestic race

Of Egypt's priests the gilded niches grace.†

I wish POPE had enlarged on the rites and ceremonies of these Egyptian priests, a subject finely suited to descriptive poetry. Milton has touched some of them finely, in an ode not sufficiently attended to:

Nor is Osiris seen

In Memphian grove or green,

* Castle of Indolence, Stan. 30. B. 1.

Trampling

↑ V. 109.