The glance to catch, the patience to inquire,

The sages temper and the poet's fire.

In him, the wealth of Greece and Latium shone,
Their Themis, Clio, Erato his own;

And his, reveal'd in all their dazzling hues,
The luscious charms of Asia's florid Muse:
With her o'er Schiraz' roseate plain he roved,
Where Hafiz revell'd, and where Sadi loved;
On Roenabad's green marge delighted stray'd,
Heard her soft lute in Mozellay's sweet shade:
Then pierced the mazy depths of Sanscrit lore,
While Brahmins own'd a light unseen before;
Bow'd to their master-pupil, and confest
With humbled brow, the genius of the West.

But nobler cares are his: for human kind *

He plies his restless energies of mind.

Stung by that orb, beneath whose flaming ray
Inferior nature's crumble to decay,

With growing speed he presses to the goal,
And his fleet axles kindle as they roll.
'Twas his to bid admiring India see,

In law, pure reason's ripen'd progeny :

x These studies surely, if we may adopt his own criterion of moral magnitude (as given in the Proem of the Commenta ries above referred to) place him among the very greatest of mankind. Si enim quæratur, Ecquis hominum sit maximus? Ille, inquam, qui optimus: si rursus interroger, Quis optimus bominum sit? respondeam, Is qui de humano genere sit optimè meritus. I cannot bear to subjoin his unaccomplished anticipations, which immediately follow, of a literary old age in the academia dilectissimi recessus!

Law, which in heaven and earth holds sovereign sway;
Whose rule the bad endure, the good obey;
Whose giant grasp o'er whirling spheres extends,
Whose tender hand the insect-speck befriends;
Her voice of quiring worlds th' harmonious mode,
And her high throne the bosom of her God.
Ah! short the blessing, of ethereal fire,

One vivid burst, to lighten and expire!

In vain the Christian crown'd the learned name, And boundless knowledge form'd his meaner fame.— He falls!........

Bursts from yon valley's side the lightning's gleam,
Or breaks from Leila's cheek unveil'd the beam?
Flames the bright fire in Gadha's spicy grove,
Or darts young Solima her glance of love?
Khozami's nard, or Mecca's violets bloom,
Or Azza's sighs th' ambrosial breeze perfume!
O say, still dwells she in that lonely vale,
Where her sad lover told the stars his tale?
Glooms the dark cloud o'er steep Lalao's brow?
Purl at his foot refreshing streams below?
And shall I still, as once kind fortune gave,
With morn's first blush quaff Azib's cooling wave?
Swells still 'mid Argan's sands the knoll of green,
And shall I hail once more the happy scene;
On pastoral pipe, in Naidi's echoing grove,
Still breathe the simple notes of rural love?
On Salai's summit pensively reclined,
Does some dear comrade call me to his mind;

And sighing ask, "where now does Faredh stray,
With love alone companion of his way?"

Still sheds the myrtle bough its silvery shower?
Still glows the fruit in Hegia's blushing bower?
Scathed in their pride by no malignant eyes,
Grace yet the sunny slope the floweret's dies?
And true or false-if false so fair can be-
Are Alija's soft train to love and me?

In lightsome gambols fearless bounds the fawn,
Cropping by turns, and coursing o'er the lawn?
And will some maid, who knows the dear retreat,
Conduct me to Noama's vernal seat?
Spreads Dharija's wild lotus still its shade-
Ah! lotus, by my tears luxuriant made?
Is Ameri's vale still haunted by the swain,
And shall I trace its verdant glades again?
Are Mecca's isles by blooming Arabs trod?
Seeks horsed Chaldea Mahomet and God?
Frisks the young camel in her pilgrim track,
And shakes the ivory castle on her back?
The well-remembered stone does Azza bless,
And with soft palm our love's pure altar press? y
Haply my friends, in Mecca's pleasant bower,
To absent Soleiman devote the hour-
Return, return, ye moments of delight,
The evening revel and the rapturous night;
When Love shall shake afresh his golden chain,
And these light numbers sooth the listening swain!

F. R. S.

> The preceding six lines are omitted in Sir William Jones's Latin Version.

N° XCVII.

On the Government of Imagination.

IMAGINATION, according as it is regulated, proves the bane or the blessing of life. Without it, all is "weary, flat, stale and unprofitable;" but with it, unless it is regulated by numberless auxiliary endowments and strenuous exertion, the spectre forms of dread reality are aggravated instead of being concealed, and the victim of genius perishes under the restless workings of his own phantasy.

How contemptible is that intellect which cannot distinguish between culpable deception, and that delicious power by which a celestial colouring, a "sort of purple light," is thrown over the sad realities of life, by which vice and folly are for a while concealed from the view, and spectres and imagery of horror converted into "Elysian gardens," and angels of innocence and beauty!

But how many cautions and auxiliary virtues are necessary for the preservation and due regulation of our imaginative powers! "The seasons of care, of grief, or of business," observes Mr. Alison," have other occupations, and destroy, for the time at least,

our sensibility to the beautiful and sublime, in the same proportion that they produce a state of mind unfavourable to the indulgence of imagination." In order to avoid as much as possible the seasons of care and of grief," how indispensably requisite is prudence; and how difficult is it for an individual endowed with fancy and feeling, to possess at the same time in a high degree the reasoning powers!

Yet these powers are indispensably requisite for the conservation of a highly endowed mind. The tranquil and cheerful performance of duty in whatever situation we are placed, by the conduct, whether prudent or imprudent, either of ourselves or of others, is also indispensable. But how difficult is cheerfulness when imagination aggravates every evil, and when the chilling realities of life force themselves on the view!-A genuine love of virtue and fame and duty, for their own sakes in the first place, and the soothing confidence so beautifully expressed by Dr. Beattie, that there is a future state where "all shall yet be well," in the second, afford the best consolations of which our present existence is capable.

H. R.