As bitter is the burning tear,

With which I now the gift resign!

Yet go and could she still restore,

As some exchange for taking thee,

The tranquil look which first I wore,
When her eyes found me wild and free:

Could she give back the careless flow,
The spirit which my fancy knew-
Yet, ah! 'tis vain-go, picture, go-
Smile at me once, and then-adieu !

FRAGMENT

OF A MYTHOLOGICAL HYMN TO LOVE.*

BLEST infant of eternity!

Before the day-star learn'd to move,

* Love and Psyche are here considered as the active and passive principles of creation, and the universe is supposed to have received its first harmonizing impulse from the nuptial sympathy between these two powers. A marriage is generally the first step in cosmogony. Timæus held Form to be the father, and Matter the mother of the World; Elion and Berouth, I think, are Sanchoniatho's first spiritual lovers, and Manco-capac and his wife introduced creation amongst the Peruvians. In short, Harlequin seems to have studied cosmogonies, when he said "tutto il mondo è fatto come la nostra famiglia."

In pomp of fire, along his grand career,
Glancing the beamy shafts of light

From his rich quiver to the farthest sphere,
Thou wert alone, oh Love!

Nestling beneath the wings of ancient night, Whose horrors seem'd to smile in shadowing thee!

No form of beauty soothed thine eye,

As through the dim expanse it wander'd wide; No kindred spirit caught thy sigh,

As o'er the watery waste it lingering died!

Unfelt the pulse, unknown the power,
That latent in his heart was sleeping;

Oh Sympathy! that lonely hour

Saw Love himself thy absence weeping!

But look what glory through the darkness beams! Celestial airs along the water glide:

What spirit art thou, moving o'er the tide

So lovely? art thou but the child

Of the young godhead's dreams,

That mock his hope with fancies strange and wild? Or were his tears, as quick they fell,

Collected in so bright a form,

Till, kindled by the ardent spell

Of his desiring eyes,

And all impregnate with his sighs,

They spring to life in shape so fair and warm?

'Tis she!

Psyche, the first-born spirit of the air,

To thee, oh Love! she turns,

On thee her eye-beam burns:
Blest hour of nuptial ecstasy !
They meet-

The blooming god-the spirit fair-
Oh! sweet, oh heavenly sweet!
Now, Sympathy, the hour is thine;
All Nature feels the thrill divine,

The veil of Chaos is withdrawn,

And their first kiss is great Creation's dawn!

TO HIS SERENE HIGHNESS

THE DUKE OF MONTPENSIER,

ON HIS PORTRAIT OF THE LADY ADELAIDE F-RB-S.

Donington Park, 1802.

To catch the thought, by painting's spell,

Howe'er remote, howe'er refined,

And o'er the magic tablet tell
The silent story of the mind;

O'er Nature's form to glance the eye,
And fix, by mimic light and shade,
Her morning tinges, ere they fly,

Her evening blushes, ere they fade !

These are the pencil's grandest theme,
Divinest of the powers divine

That light the Muse's flowery dream,

And these, oh Prince! are richly thine !

Yet, yet, when Friendship sees thee trace,
In emanating soul express'd,

The sweet memorial of a face

On which her eye delights to rest ;

While o'er the lovely look serene,

The smile of peace, the bloom of youth, The cheek, that blushes to be seen,

The eye, that tells the bosom's truth;

While o'er each line, so brightly true,

Her soul with fond attention roves, Blessing the hand whose various hue Could imitate the form it loves;

She feels the value of thy art,
And owns it with a purer zeal,

A rapture, nearer to her heart
Than critic taste can ever feel!

THE PHILOSOPHER ARISTIPPUS*

TO A LAMP WHICH WAS GIVEN HIM BY LAIS.

DULCIS CONSCIA LECTULI LUCERNA.

MARTIAL, lib. xiv. epig. 39.

"OH! love the Lamp (my Mistress said),
“The faithful Lamp that, many a night,

* It was not very difficult to become a philosopher amongst the ancients. A moderate store of learning, with a consider