over, the easy and natural order of our speech was distorted by the frequent use of forced inversions, which are utterly improper in an uninflected language. Even if the subjects for the experiment had been judiciously chosen, and well composed in all other respects, these errors must have been fatal; but Sydney, whose prose is so full of imagery and felicitous expressions that he is one of our greatest poets in prose, and whose other poems contain beauties of a high order, seems to have lost all ear for rhythm, and all feeling of poetry, when he was engaged in metrical experiments. What in Sydney's hands was uncouth and difficult, was made ridiculous by Stanihurst, whose translation of the four first books of the Æneid into hexameters is one of the most portentous compositions in any language. No satire could so effectually have exposed the measure to derision. The specimens which Abraham Fraunce produced were free from Stanihurst's eccentricities, and were much less awkward and constrained than Sydney's. But the mistaken principle upon which the metre was constructed was fatal, and would have proved so even if Fraunce had possessed greater powers of thought and of diction. The failure therefore was complete 2, and for some generations it seems to have prevented any thought of repeating the experiment. its favour, observing, that all the feet of the ancient poetry are still found in the versification of living languages, and that it is impossible the same mea sure, composed of the same times, should have a good effect upon the ear in one language, and a bad effect in another. He had seen, he says, several late specimens of English hexameters and sapphics, so happily composed, that they were, in all respects, as melodious and agreeable to the ear as the works of Virgil and Horace. What these specimens 4 were I have not discovered: . . the sapphics may possibly have been those by Dr. Watts. Proofs of the practicability of the hexameter were given about twenty years ago, by some translations from the Messiah of Klopstock, which appeared in the Monthly Magazine; and by an eclogue, entitled The Showman, printed in the second volume of the Annual Anthology. These were written by my old friend Mr. William Taylor of Norwich, the translator of Burger's Lenora: . . of whom it would be difficult to say, whether he is more deservedly admired by all who know him for the variety of his talents, the richness and ingenuity of his discourse, and the liveliness of his fancy, or loved and esteemed by them for the goodness of his heart. repeating the experiment upon a more adequate scale, and upon a subject suited to the movement, I have fulfilled one of the hopes and intentions of Goldsmith, in later days, delivered 9 an opinion in my early life. In opprest with ruinous conceits by the help of an outcry. 1 That the reader may not suppose I have depreciated Sydney and his followers, by imputing to the faults of their execution a failure which the nature of the metre itself might explain, I have added a few fair samples at the end of the poem. 2 A writer in the Censura Literaria (vol. iv. 386.) has said, that hexameters were "much in vogue, owing to the pernicious example of Spenser and Gabriel Harvey." They were never in vogue. There is no reason to believe that Spenser ever wrote an English hexameter. Gabriel Harvey's example only incurred ridicule; and as for Spenser, the only specimen which he is known to have produced is the following Tetrasticon: See ye the blindefoulded pretie God, that feathered arches, Gabriel Harvey was one of the great promoters of the attempt; and Spenser, who was his intimate friend, is believed to have sanctioned it by his opinion, . . certainly not by his example. That great master of versification has left only one piece which is not written in rhyme. It was printed in Davison's Poetical Rhapsodie, and is inserted in Warton's Observations on the Faery Queen, vol. ii. p. 245. The author has called it an Iambic Elegy, but neither by any rule of quantity, or violence of accentuation, can it be reduced to iambics. genius of the English language will not admit of Greek or Latin measure; but this, we apprehend, is a mistake owing to the prejudice of education. It is impossible that the same measure, composed of the same times, should have a good effect upon the ear in one language, and a bad effect in another. The truth is, we have been accustomed from our infancy to the numbers of English poetry, and the very sound and signification of the words disposes the ear to receive them in a certain manner; so that its disappointment must be attended with a disagreeable sensation. In imbibing the first rudiments of education, we acquire, as it were, another ear for the numbers of Greek and Latin poetry; and this being reserved entirely for the sounds and significations of the words that constitute those dead languages, will not easily accommodate itself to the sounds of our vernacular tongue, though conveyed in the same time and measure. In a word, Latin and Greek have annexed to them the ideas of the ancient measure from which they are not easily disjoined. But we will venture to say, this difficulty might be surmounted by an effort of attention and a little practice; and in that case we should in time be as well pleased with English as with Latin hexameters."-Goldsmith's Essays, vol. ii. p. 265. 4 Mr. Park (Censura Literaria, vol. iv. 233.) mentions an attempt to revive what he calls "this obsolete whimsey by an anonymous writer in 1737, who translated the first and fourth Eclogues of Virgil, &c. into hexametrical verse, and prefixed a vindication of his attempt, with directions for the reader's pronunciation." I venture to hope that this excellent English scholar will no longer think the scheme of writing English hexameters a mere whimsey. Glad indeed should I be, if my old acquaintance were to be as well pleased with the present attempt as I have been with some of his Morning Thoughts and Midnight 3" It is generally supposed," says Goldsmith, "that the Musings. A VISION OF JUDGEMENT. L THE TRANCE. "TWAS at that sober hour when the light of day is receding, And from surrounding things the hues wherewith day has adorn'd them While in the west beyond was the last pale tint of the twilight: 1 This effect of twilight, and in the very scene described, has been lately represented by Mr. William Westall, in one of his Views of the Lakes, with the true feeling and power of genius. The range of mountains which is described in these introductory lines, may also be seen in his View of the Vale of Keswick from the Penrith road. ce pas par la réverbération d'un sol composé de fer, que la planète de Mars nous réfléchit, en tout temps, une lumière rouge? N'est-il pas plus naturel d'attribuer ces couleurs constantes aux réverbérations du sol, des mers, et des végétaux de ces planètes, plutôt qu'aux réfractions variables des rayons du soleil dans leurs atmosphères, dont les couleurs devroient changer à toute heure, suivant leurs différens aspects avec cet astre! Comme Mars apparoit constamment rouge à la terre, il est possible que la terre apparoisse à Mars comme une pierrerie brillante des couleurs de l'opale au pole nord, de celles de l'aigue-marine au pole sud, et, tourà-tour, de celles du saphir et de l'émeraude dans le reste de sa circonférence. Mais, sans sortir de notre atmosphère, je crois que la terre y renvoie la couleur bleue de son océan avec des reflets de la couleur verte de ses végétaux, en tout temps dans la zone torride, et en été seulement dans nos climats, par la méme raison que ces deux poles y réfléchissent des aurores boréales différentes, qui participent des couleurs de la terre, ou des mers qui les avoisinent. 2 St. Pierre, who is often a fanciful, generally a delightful, but always an animated and ingenious writer, has some characteristic speculations concerning this green light of evening. He says, “Je suis porté à attribuer à la couleur verte des végétaux qui couvrent en été une grande partie de notre hémisphère, cette belle teinte d'émeraude que l'on aperçoit quelquefois dans cette saison au firmament, vers le coucher du soleil. Elle est rare dans nos climats; mais elle est fréquente entre les tropiques, où l'été dure toute l'année. Je sais bien qu'on peut rendre raison de ce phénomène par la simple réfraction des rayons du soleil dans l'atmosphère, ce prisme sphérique de notre globe. Mais, outre qu'on peut objecter que la couleur verte ne se voit point en hiver dans notre ciel, c'est que je peux apporter à l'appui de mon opi. nion d'autres faits qui semblent prouver que la couleur mème azurée de l'atmosphère n'est qu'une réflexion de celle de l'océan. En effet, les glaces flottantes qui descendent tous les ans du pole nord, s'annoncent, devant de paroître sur l'horizon, par une lueur blanche qui éclaire le ciel jour et nuit, et qui n'est qu'un reflet des neiges cristallisées qui les composent. Cette lueur paroît semblable à celle de l'aurore boréale, dont le foyer est au milieu des glaces même de notre pole, mais dont la couleur blanche est mélangée de jaune, de rouge, et de vert, parce qu'elle participe des couleurs du sol ferrugineux et de la verdure des forêts de sapins qui couvrent notre zone glaciale. La cause de cette variation de couleurs dans notre aurore boréale est d'autant plus vraisemblable, que l'aurore australe, comme l'a observé le Capitaine Cook, en diffère en ce que sa couleur blanche n'est jamais mélangée que de teintes bleues, qui n'ont lieu, selon moi, que parce que les glaces du pole austral, sans continent et sans végétaux, sont entourées de toutes parts de l'océan, qui est bleu. Ne voyons-nous pas que la lune, que nous sup-yantes des glaces polaires? posons couverte en grande partie de glaciers très-élevés, nous renvoie en lumière d'un blanc bleuâtre les rayons du soleil, qui sont dorés dans notre atmosphère ferrugineuse? N'est "Peut-être même notre atmosphère réfléchit-elle quelquefois les formes des paysages, qui annoncent les îles aux navigateurs bien long temps avant qu'ils puissent y aborder. Il est remarquable qu'elles ne se montrent comme les reflets de verdure qu'à l'horizon et du côté du soleil couchant. Je citerai, à ce sujet, un homme de l'Ile de France qui apercevoit dans le ciel les images des vaisseaux qui étoient en pleine mer: le célèbre Vernet, qui m'a atteste avoir vu une fois dans les nuages les tours et les remparts d'une ville située à sept lieues de lui; et le phénomène du détroit de Sicile, connu sous le nom de Fee-Morgane. Les nuages et les vapeurs de l'atmosphère peuvent fort bien réfléchir les formes et les couleurs des objets terrestres, puisqu'ils réfléchissent dans les parélies l'image du soleil au point de la rendre ardente comme le soleil lui-même. Enfin, les eaux de la terre répètent les couleurs et les formes des nuages de l'atmosphère: pourquoi les vapeurs de l'atmosphère, à leur tour, ne pourroient-elles pas réfléchir le bleu de la mer, la verdure et le jaune de la terre, ainsi que les couleurs chato "Au reste, je ne donne mon opinion que comme mon opinion. L'histoire de la nature est une édifice à peine commencé ; ne craignons pas d'y poser quelques pierres d'attente: Earth was hush'd and still; all motion and sound were suspended: Thus as I stood, the bell which awhile from its warning had rested, Fell on the conscious ear its deeper and mournfuller import, nos neveux s'en serviront pour l'agrandir, ou les supprimeront comme superflues. Si mon autorité est nulle dans l'avenir, peu importera que je me sois trompé sur ce point: mon ouvrage rentrera dans l'obscurité d'où il étoit sorti. Mail s'il est un jour de quelque considération, mon erreur en physique sera plus utile à la morale, qu'une vérité d'ailleurs indifférente au bonheur des hommes. On en conclura avec raison qu'il faut être en garde contre les écrivains même accrédités."- Harmonies de la Nature, t. i. 129. "I am inclined to attribute to the green colour of the vegetables with which, during the summer, a great part of our hemisphere is covered, that beautiful emerald tint which we sometimes perceive at that season in the firmament, towards the setting of the sun. It is rare in our climates, but is frequent between the tropics, where summer continues throughout the year. I know that this phenomenon may be explained by the simple refraction of the rays of the sun in the atmosphere, that spherical prism of our globe. But to this it may be objected, that the green colour is not seen during the winter in our sky; and moreover, I can support my opinion by other facts, which appear to prove that even the azure colour of the atmosphere is only a reflection of that of the ocean. In fact, the floating ice which descends every year from the North Pole, is announced before it appears upon the horizon, by a white blink, which enlightens the heaven day and night, and which is only a reflection of the crystallized snows, of which those masses are composed. This blink resembles the light of the aurora borealis, the centre of which is in the middle of the ice of our pole, but the white colour of which is mixed with yellow, with red, and with green, because it partakes of the colour of a ferruginous soil, and of the verdure of the pine forests which cover our icy zone. This explanation of these variations of colour in our aurora borealis, is so much the more probable, because that of the aurora australis, as Captain Cook has observed, differs in that its white colour is mixed with blue tints alone, which can only be, according to my opinion, because the ice of the austral pole (where there is no continent and no vegetation) is surrounded on all parts with the ocean, which is blue. Do we not see that the moon, which we suppose to be covered in great part with very elevated glaciers, sends back to us, in a light of a bluish white, the rays of the sun, which are golden in our ferruginous atmosphere? Is it not by the reverberation of a soil composed of iron, that the planet Mars reflects upon us at all times a red light? Is it not more natural to attribute these constant colours to the reverberation of the soil, of the seas, and of the vegetables of these planets, rather than to the variable refractions of the rays of the sun in their atmospheres, the colours of which ought to change every hour, according to their different aspects with regard to that star. As Mars appears constantly red to the earth, it is possible that the earth might appear to Mars like a brilliant jewel, of the colour of the opal towards the North Pole, of the agoa marina at the South Pole, and alternately of the sapphire in the rest of its circumference. But without going out of our atmosphere, I believe that the earth reflects there the blue colour of its ocean with the green of its vegetation, at all times in the torrid zone, and in summer only in our climate, for the same reason that its two poles reflect their different auroras, which participate of the colours of the earth or the seas that are near them. "Perhaps our atmosphere sometimes reflects landscapes, which announce islands to the sailors long before they reach them. It is remarkable that they show themselves, like the reflections of verdure, only in the horizon and on the side of the setting sun. I shall cite, on this subject, a man of the Isle of France, who used to perceive in the sky the images of vessels, which were out in full sea; the celebrated Vernet, who related to me that he had once seen in the clouds the ramparts of a town, situated seven leagues distant from him, and the phenomenon of the straits of Sicily, known under the name of the Fata Morgana. The clouds and the vapours of the atmosphere may very well reflect the forms and the colours of earthly objects, since they reflect in parhelions the image of the sun, so as to render it burning as the sun itself. In fine, if the waters of the earth repeat the colours and the forms of the clouds of the atmosphere, why then should not the vapours of the atmosphere, in their turn, reflect the blue of the sea, the verdure and the yellow of the earth, as well as the glancing colours of the polar ices? "I advance my opinion, however, only as my opinion. The history of nature is an edifice which, as yet, is scarcely commenced; let us not fear to carry some stones towards the building; our grandchildren will use them, or lay them aside if they be useless. If my authority is of no weight hereafter, it will import little that I have deceived myself upon this point; my work will enter into obscurity, from whence it came; but if it should be, in future, of some consideration, my error, in physics, will be more useful to morals than a truth, otherwise indifferent to the happiness of mankind. For it will be inferred with reason, that it is necessary to regard even writers of credit with caution.” In one point of fact, St. Pierre is certainly mistaken. The green evening light is seen as often in winter as in summer. Having been led to look for it in consequence of suspecting the accuracy of his remarks, I noticed it on the very day when this extract was transcribed for the press, (late in December,) and twice in the course of the ensuing week; and I observed it, not in the evening alone, and in the west, (in which quarter, however, and at which time, it is most frequently seen,) but in different parts of the sky, and at different times of the day. Come, and behold!... methought a startling Voice from the twilight Answered; and therewithal I felt a stroke as of lightning, With a sound like the rushing of winds, or the roaring of waters. If from without it came, I knew not, so sudden the seizure; Or if the brain itself in that strong flash had expended All its electric stores. Of strength and of thought it bereft me; Hearing, and sight, and sense were gone; and when I awaken'd "Twas from a dream of death, in silence and uttermost darkness; Knowing not where or how, nor if I was rapt in the body, Nor if entranced, or dead. But all around me was blackness, Utterly blank and void, as if this ample creation Had been blotted out, and I were alone in the chaos. Yet had I even then a living hope to sustain me Under that aweful thought, and I strengthen'd my spirit with prayer. Comfort I sought and support, and both were found in retiring Be of good heart, it said, and think not that thou art abandon'd; II. THE VAULT. So by the Unseen comforted, raised I my head in obedience, Whence came the light whereby that place of death was discover'd? For there was there no lamp, whose wondrous flame inextinguish'd, As with a vital power endued, renewing its substance, Age after age unchanged, endureth in self-subsistence : Nor did the cheerful beam of day, direct or reflected, Penetrate there. That low and subterranean chamber Saw not the living ray, nor felt the breeze; but for ever Closely immured, was seal'd in perpetual silence and darkness. Whence then this lovely light, calm, pure, and soft, and cerulean, Such as the sapphire sheds? And whence this air that infuses Strength while I breathe it in, and a sense of life, and a stillness, Filling the heart with peace, and giving a joy that contents it? Not of the Earth that light; and these paradisiacal breathings, Not of the Earth are they! These thoughts were passing within me, Then as it swell'd and rose, the thrilling melody deepen'd; When with her dying eyes she sees the firmament open, Lifts from the bed of dust her arms towards her beloved, Well could I then believe such legends, and well could I credit Faded away; the Grave was gone, and the Dead was awaken'd. THEN I beheld the King. His reverend form uprose: III. THE AWAKENING. From a cloud which cover'd the pavement Heavenward his eyes were raised, and heavenward his arms were extended. Presently one approach'd to greet him with joyful obeisance; Thou, said the Monarch, here? Thou, Perceval, summon'd before me?... Peace is obtain'd then at last, with safety and honour! the Monarch Cried, and he clasp'd his hands;... I thank Thee, O merciful Father! Now is my heart's desire fulfill'd. With honour surpassing All that in elder time had adorn'd the annals of England, For his own defaults the men who too faithfully served him; Frets and complains and intrigues, and abuses the mercy that spared him. Oh that my King could have known these things! could have witness'd how England Check'd in its full career the force of her enemy's empire, Singly defied his arms and his arts, and baffled them singly, Roused from their lethal sleep with the stirring example the nations, |