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, Her evening blushes, ere they fade! These are the pencil's grandest theme, That light the Muse's flowery dream, And these, oh Prince! are richly thine! Yet, yet, when Friendship sees thee trace, 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 eye, that tells the bosom's truth; While o'er each line, so brightly true, Her soul with fond attention roves, She feels the value of thy art, 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. “Oн! love the Lamp (my Mistress said), * It was not very difficult to become a philosopher amongst the ancients. A moderate store of learning, with a consider "Beside thy Lais' lonely bed "Has kept its little watch of light! "Full often has it seen her weep, "Oft has it known her cheek to burn able portion of confidence, and wit enough to produce an occasional apophthegm, were all the necessary qualifications for the purpose. The principles of moral science were so very imperfectly understood, that the founder of a new sect, in forming his ethical code, might consult either fancy or temperament, and adapt it to his own passions and propensities; so that Mahomet, with a little more learning, might have flourished as a philosopher in those days, and would have required but the polish of the schools to become the rival of Aristippus in morality. In the science of nature too, though they discovered some valuable truths, yet they seemed not to know they were truths, or at least were as well satisfied with errors; and Xenophanes, who asserted that the stars were igneous clouds, lighted up every night and extinguished again in the morning, was thought and styled a philosopher, as generally as he who anticipated Newton in developing the arrangement of the universe. For this opinion of Xenophanes, see PLUTARCH de Placit. Philosoph. lib. ii. cap. 13. It is impossible to read this treatise of Plutarch without alternately admiring and smiling at the genius, the absurdities of the philosophers. “And, in a murmur, wish thee there, "That kiss to feel, that thought to share! "Then love the Lamp 'twill often lead 66 Thy step through Learning's sacred way; “And, lighted by its happy ray, "Whene'er those darling eyes shall read "Of all that's bright in Heaven or earth, "Oh! think that she, by whom 'twas given, "Adores thee more than earth or Heaven!" Yes-dearest Lamp! by every charm On which thy midnight beam has hung; The heaving bosom, partly hid, Along the cheek of roses lies: * The ancients had their lucernæ cubiculariæ, or bedchamber lamps, which, as the EMPEROR GALIENUS said, " nil cras meminere;" and with the same commendation of secrecy, Praxagora addresses her lamp, in ARISTOPHANes, Exxλys. We may judge how fanciful they were in the use and embellishment of their lamps, from the famous symbolic Lucerna which we find in the Romanum Museum MICH. ANG. CAUSEI, p. 127. By these, by all that bloom untold, My Lamp and I shall never part! And often, as she smiling said, Thy flame shall light the page refined, Where still we catch the Chian's breath, Or, o'er thy humbler legend shine, Pluck'd from the greenest tree that shades * HESIOD, who tells us in melancholy terms of his father's flight to the wretched village of Ascra. Egy. xai 'Husę. v. 251. † Εννυχίαι τείχον, περικαλλέα οσσαν ιείσαι,-Theog. ν. 10. 5 Και μοι σκηπτρον εδόν, δαφνης εριθηλια οζον Ιd. v. 3o. |