With hideous crafh felf-open'd, and difplay'd
A fubterranean chafm, whofe yawning vault,
Deep as the pit of Acheron, forbade

All nearer access to the fhad'wy king.

Whereat the imprison'd winds, that in its womb
Were cavern'd, 'gan to heave their yeasty waves
In bubbling exhalations, till at once

Their eddying vapours working upwards, burst
From the broad vent enfranchis'd, when, behold!
The cloud that late around the throne had pour'd
More than Egyptian darkness, now began
To lift its fleecy fkirts, till through the mist
Th' imperial phantom gleam'd; moniter deform'd,
Enormous, terrible, from heel to scalp

One dire anatomy; his giant bones

Star'd through the fhrivell'd fkin, that loofely hung
On his fepulchral carcafe; round his brows
A cyprefs wreath tiara-like he wore

With nightshade and cold hemlock intertwin'd;
Behind him hung his quiver'd ftore of darts
Wing'd with the raven's plume; his fatal bow
Of deadly yew, tall as Goliath's fpear,
Propp'd his unerring arm; about his throne,
If throne it might be call'd, which was compos'd
Of human bones, as in a charnel pil'd,
A hideous group of dire difeafes ftood,
Sorrows and pains and agonizing plagues,
His ghaftly fatellites, and, ev'n than thefe
More terrible, ambition's flaught'ring fons,
Heroes and conquerors ftil'd on earth, but here
Doom'd to ignoble drudgery, employ'd
To do his errands in the loathfome vault,
And tend corruption's never-dying worm,
To haunt the catacombs and ranfack graves,
Where fome late populous city is laid waste
By the destroying peftilence, or storm'd
By murdering Rufs or Tartar blood-besmear'd
And furious in the defp'rate breach, to plant
His eagles or his crefcent on the piles
Of mangled multitudes, and flout the fky
With his victorious banners. Now a troop
Of fhrowded ghofts upon a fignal given
By their terrific monarch ftart to fight,
Each with a torch funereal in his grafp,
That o'er the hall diffus'd a dying light,
Than darkness self more horrible: The walls
Of that vait cenotaph, hung round with fpears,
Falchions and pole-axes and plumed helms,"
Shew'd like the armo'ry of fome warlike state:
There every mortal weapon might be feen,

Each

Each implement of old or new device,
Which favage nature or inventive art
Furnish'd to arm the ruffian hand of war,
And deal to man the life-destroying stroke:
And them betwixt at intervals were plac'd
The crowned skeletons of mighty kings,
Cæfars and Caliphs and barbarian Chiefs,
Monsters, whofe fwords had made creation fhrink
And frighted peace and science from the earth.

PART of the ADDRESS of the GODDESS of BOTANY to the SYLPHS; including a Description of the Marriage of CUPID and PSYCHE, and the Story of THYRSIS and ÆGLE.

A

[From the Botanic Garden, Part I.]

S when at noon in Hybla's fragrant bowers
Caçalia opens all her honey'd flowers;
Contending fwarms on bending branches cling,
And nations hover on aurelian wing;

So round the Goddefs, ere the speaks, on high
Impatient Sylphs in gawdy circlets fly,

Quivering in air their painted plumes expand,
And coloured fhadows dance upon the land.

I. "Sylphs! your light troops the tropic Winds confine,
And guide their streaming arrows to the Line;

While in warm floods ecliptic breezes rife,
And fink with wings benumb'd in colder skies,
You bid Monfoons on Indian feas refide,
And veer, as moves the fun, their airy tide;
While fouthern gales o'er weftern oceans roll,
And Eurus fteals his ice-winds from the Pele,
Your playful trains, on fultry iflands born,
Turn on fantastic toe at eve and morn;
With foft fufurrant voice alternate sweep
Earth's green pavilions and encircling deep:
Or in itinerant cohorts, borne fublime
On tides of ether float from clime to clime;
O'er waving Autumn bend your airy ring,
Or waft the fragrant bofom of the Spring.

II. "When morn, efcorted by the dancing hours,
O'er the bright plains her dewy luftre fhowers;
Till from her fable chariot eve ferene

Drops the dark curtain o'er the brilliant fcene;
You form with chemic hands the airy furge,
Mix with broad vans, with fhadowy tridents urge.

Sylphs!

Sylphs! from each fun-bright leaf, that twinkling shakes
O'er Earth's green lap, or shoots amid her lakes,
Your playful bands with fimpering lips invite,
And wed the enamour'd Oxygene to Light.-
Round their white necks with fingers interwove,
Cling the fond pair with unabating love;
Hand link'd in hand on buoyant ftep they rife,
And foar and gliften in unclouded skies.
Whence in bright floods the vital air expands,
And with concentric fpheres involves the lands;
Pervades the fwarming feas, and heaving earths,
Where teeming Nature broods her myriad births;
Fills the fine lungs of all that breathe or bud,
Warms the new heart, and dyes the gufhing blood;
With life's firft fpark infpires the organic frame,
And, as it wastes, renews the fubtile flame.

"So pure, fo foft, with fweet attraction shone
Fair Pfyche, kneeling at the etherial throne;
Won with coy fmiles the admiring court of Jove,
And warm'd the bofom of unconquer'd Love.-
Beneath a moving shade of fruits and flowers
Onward they march to Hymen's facred bowers;
With lifted torch he lights the festive train
Sublime, and leads them in his golden chain;
Joins the fond pair, indulgent to their vows,
And hides with myftic veil their blushing brows.
Round their fair forms their mingling arms they fling,
Meet with warm lip, and clafp with ruftling wing.-
-Hence plaftic Nature, as Oblivion whelms
Her fading forms, repeoples all her reams;
Soft joys difport on purple plumes unfurl'd,
And Love and Beauty rule the willing world.

III. 1. Sylphs! your bold myriads on the withering heath Stay the fell Syroc's fuffocative breath;

Arreft Simoom in his realms of fand,

The poifon'd javelin balanc'd in his hand;

Fierce on blue ftreams he rides the tainted air,

Points his keen eye, and waves his whittling hair;

While, as he turns, the undulating foil

Rolls in red waves, and billowy deferts boil,

You feize Tornado by his locks of mift,

Burft his denfe clouds, his wheeling fpires untwift;

Defcribed from an ancient gem on a fine onyx in poffeffion of the duke of Marlborough, of which there is a beautiful print in Bryant's Mythol. vol ii p 392. And from another ancient gem of Cupid and Pfyche embracing, of which there is a print in Spence's Polymetis, p. 82.

Wide o'er the Weft when borne on headlong gales,
Dark as meridian night, the monfter fails,

Howls high in air, and shakes his curled brow,

Lafhing with ferpent-train the waves below,

Whirls his black arm, the forked lightning flings,

And showers a deluge from his dæmon-wings.

2. Sylphs! with light fhafts you pierce the drowsy fog, That lingering flumbers on the fedge-wove bog,

With webbed feet o'er midnight meadows creeps,
Or flings his hairy limbs on ftagnant deeps.
You meet Contagion iffuing from afar,
And dash the baleful conqueror from his car;
When, gue of Death! from charnel vaults he fteals,
And bathes in human gore his armed wheels.

"Thus when the Plague, upborne on Belgian air,
Look'd through the mift and fhook his clotted hair,
O'er fhrinking nations fteer'd malignant clouds,
And rain'd deftruction on the gasping crouds;
The beauteous Ægle felt the venom'd dart,
Slow roll'd her eye, and feebly throbb'd her heart;
Each fervid figh feem'd fhorter than the laft,
And ftarting friendship fhunn'd her, as fhe pafs'd.
-With weak unfteady step the fainting maid
Seeks the cold garden's folitary fhade,
Sinks on the pillowy mofs her drooping head,
And prints with lifelefs limbs her leafy bed.

-On wings of love her plighted fwain pursues,
Shades her from winds, and shelters her from dews,
Extends on tapering poles the canvas roof,
Spreads o'er the ftraw-wove matt the flaxen woof,
Sweet buds and bloffoms on her bolster strows,
And binds his kerchief round her aching brows;
Sooths with foft kifs, with tender accents charms,
And clafps the bright infection in his arms.-
With pale and languid fmiles the grateful fair
Applauds his virtues, and rewards his care;
Mourns with wet cheek her fair companions fled
On timorous step, or number'd with the dead;
Calls to her bofom all its scatter'd rays,
And pours on Thyrfis the collected blaze;
Braves the chill night, careffing and carefs'd,
And folds her hero-lover to her breast.

When the plague raged in Holland in 1636, a young girl was feized with it, had three carbuncles, and was removed to a garden, where her lover, who was betrothed to her, attended her as a nurse, and flept with her as his wife. He remained uninfected, and the recovered, and was married to him. The story is related by Vinc. Fabricius in the Mifc. Cur. Ann. II. Obf. 188.

Lefs bold, Leander at the dusky hour
Eyed, as he fwam, the far love-lighted tower;
Breafted with ftruggling arms the toffing wave,
And funk benighted in the watery grave.
Lefs bold, Tobias claim'd the nuptial bed,
Where seven fond lovers by a fiend had bled;
And drove, inftructed by his angel-guide,
The enamour'd Demon from the fatal bride.-
Sylphs! while your winnowing pinions fann'd the air,
And fhed gay vifions o'er the fleeping pair;
Love round their couch effufed his rofy breath,
And with his keener arrows conquer'd death.

RINALDO in the VALLEY of DESPAIR.

[From Rinaldo, a Poem, tranflated from the Italian of Torquato Taffo, by JOHN HоOLE.]

R

INALDO thence a different track purfu'd,

Uncertain where, and while in heaven he view'd
Eight times Aurora from her treffes shed

The morning dews and tinge the clouds with red,
The warrior rov'd: at length when Phoebus' ray
Had brought on earth the ninth revolving day,
A ftraight and level path his fleed convey'd
To reach a valley black with dreary fhade.
There fate a fhape, that feem'd of human kind,
On his fad arm his drooping head reclin'd.
Squalid his mien; tears trickled from his eyes
With upward gaze directed to the skies;
While from his lips, in chill affliction's tone,
He breath'd the loud complaint and mingled groan.
Soon as the knight approach'd this mournful vale,
He felt increasing pangs his heart affail:
Such pangs he never till that day confefs'd,
Such pangs as all his vital powers opprefs'd.
Onward he pafs'd, and filent fill purfu'd
The guiding path, till nearer now he view'd
This child of woe; and, as he gaz'd, he drew
Infectious grief, that deep and deeper grew.

Between two hills conceal'd the valley lies,
Two hills that intercept the cheering fkies
With horrid gloom, where fcarce a joyless ray
Through lazy vapours gives a doubtful day,
Such as we fee ere yet reviving light
Reftores the colour'd tints obfcur'd by night.
The earth around displays a baleful fcene,
With plants and herbage of funereal green:

There