in triumph to Jerusalem, carried olive branches in their hands, and sang songs in honour of her. By analogy, we associate good fortune with a fine morning; ignorance with darkness; youth with spring; manhood with summer; and autumn with that season of life, when, as Shakspeare observes, in a fine vein of melancholy, we are fallen into "the sere and yellow leaf." Winter we associate with age. It is this striking analogy, which enables Thomson and Young so intimately to connect the seasons with each other a. We associate Summer and Winter, too, with good and ill fortune; an instance of which occurs in Cymbeline . Even the art of war has some analogies with natural objects; hence in Behold, fond man! See here thy pictured life: pass some few years, Thy flowery spring, thy summer's ardent strength, And pale concluding winter comes at last, And shuts the scene! Dante metaphorically compares the dispensations of Fortune to the progress Vide Inferno, canto vii. st. 14.-Thus Ford :— of the seasons. Here, in this mirror, Let man behold the circuit of his fortunes. And knits up all felicity in folly : Winter at last draws on the night of age.-The Sun's Darling. The seasons were represented in Egypt by a rose, an ear of corn, and an apple spring, summer, and winter. The Egyptians, like the ancient Germans, are said to have divided their year into three seasons only, autumn being unknown. Macrobius *, however, states to the contrary; for he says that the Egyptians drew the sun at the winter solstice as an infant; at the vernal equinox as a youth; at the summer solstice as a man in the highest state of vigour; and at the autumnal equinox as an old man." The analogy, therefore, between the seasons and human life may be traced to Egypt. b Act iii. sc. 6.—Also, Richard 1II., act i. sc. 2. * Saturnalia, lib. i. gunnery, when ordnance, from being ill-cast, is spongy, it is called honey-comb: and hence among generals, it is no unfrequent practice, to encamp forces in a form, which they descriptively call the "rose-bud ;" the works flanking and covering each other, like the lips of roses ". Pythagoras was the first, among the Greeks, who compared the four ages of man to the four seasons :---other philosophers had divided them into three only; the green age; the ripe age; and the mellow age. And, here, perhaps, we may be permitted to observe, that the colouring of Rubens has been likened to spring; that of Claude to summer; Titian's to autumn; and Vanderveldt's to winter. The Four Seasons of Haydn exhibit more sublimity, in respect to music, than any of his works, if we except the Creation. The poets associate wisdom and content with vales; philosophy with shades; and ambition with mountains. Availing ourselves of similar analogical licenses, we may compare a dingle to a smiling infant; a glen to a beautiful girl; a valley to a captivating virgin; and when the valley opens into a vale, it may, not inelegantly, be associated with the idea of a well-formed, finished matron. In speaking of the sun, if we may be allowed to indulge in flowers of rhetoric, so excursive, we might almost be excused for saying, that it rises from behind rocks of coral, glides in a universe of sapphire over fields of emerald, mounts its meridian among seas of crystal; and, tinging every cloud with indigo, sinks to slumber among beds of amethysts. a Cæsar speaks of a military disposition, in the form of a lily. Hippocrates and Galen compared' youth to summer, and manhood to winter. THE IRON AGE THE SILVER AGE-THE GOLDEN AGE. AFTER the same manner, the three first periods of society were allegorically distinguished by different aspects of Nature, and fecundity of soil. Thus the IRON AGE was deformed by clouds and storms; the bowels of the earth were searched for minerals; while its surface was utterly neglected; untilled by the husbandman, and ungrazed by the shepherd. Every morning was gloomy, and every night tempestuous. In the SILVER AGE, the year was divided into seasons. Then were first experienced the heat of summer, and the vicissitudes of winter. Serpents were then endued with poison; wolves began to prowl; and the sea to be agitated by storms. Honey was shaken from the leaves of trees; and rivers, which, in the golden age, ran with wine, overflowed with water; and then was invented the art of catching beasts in toils, birds with lime, and fish with nets. In the GOLDEN AGE, when men lived on fruits and vegetables, the seasons were distinguished by perpetual temperature; the air shone with a light allied to purple; the earth was profusely fertile; and flowers, vines, olives, and every luxury of Nature, had consequent effects upon the minds, manners, and morals of mankind. In Nature all was blooming and captivating; among men all was virtue, security, and happiness. The names of master and servant were unrecognized; and every one having Nature for his guide, love and friendship were inheritances, and law and property were alike unheard of and unknown. Grapes grew upon brambles; oaks distilled honey; alders bloomed with the narcissus; and tamarisks oozed with amber. Wolves and sheep drank at the same stream; owls rivalled swans; and sheep dyed their own fleeces. Bees then first. gained their intelligence; trees produced fruits twice a year; milk watered the plains, and rivers rolled with nectar; while lilies covered the wilderness, and fountains fertilized the deserta. The golden period, in which the Christian Messiah first came upon earth, so finely foretold by Isaiah, and so admirably described in Virgil's "Pollio," and in Pope's "Messiah," is strikingly in character with the first coming of Buddha, the great god of the Cingalese. The golden age, however, has not always been rendered attractive by the poets. Juvenal's picture is neither elegant nor imposing; and that of Tasso in the "Aminta" is too metaphysical by far. The general impression on the imagination, however, is delightful in the fullest extent; and strongly associates the period with that happy age, in which our primeval parents enjoyed the bounties of Paradise". b NATURAL AND MORAL ANALOGIES RESUMED. HORTENSIA,-who, as you are well aware, is endowed with every quality of the heart, and with every accomplishment of the mind; whose eyes are more beautiful than the eyes of an antelope; and in whom are concentrated the polished breeding of France, the dignity of Spain, the modesty of England, and the grace of Italy,-discerns the likenesses a In honour of this age, a feast was held among the ancient Latins (Macrob. Saturn. i. c. 7, &c.); and continued for many ages after by the Italians generally. On that day no offender was executed; children had a holiday; masters waited on their servants; no war was permitted to be declared; and friends sent presents to each other. All was harmony and happiness. This festival was instituted by Janus. The Hindoos have also their golden age. It is called in Sanscrit Setye Yug. b Burnet supposes that, in the time of the antediluvians, there was a perpetual equinox, and one continued spring, all over the globe; the position of the earth to the sun being perpendicular, and not oblique, as in the present times. Hence he infers the vigorous constitutions, the strong intellects, and the long lives of that fortunate race. Compare Georg. i.-Ecl. iv. 6.-Æn. vii. 202.—Met. i. 15.-A passage in Catullus, in Nupt. Thet. et Pelæi.-Strabo, lib. xv.-With Genesis, and Isaiah, xi. 1.-Vide Grotius de Verit. Relig. Christ. i. sect. xvi. St. Jerom, lib. ii. adv. Jovinian. of her friends in the features of particular flowers. If, therefore, she wishes to indulge the pleasure of thinking of them, she contemplates with satisfaction the flowers, which bear imaginary resemblances to the objects of her reflections. When she waters them, therefore, she appears to caress them. This idea of Hortensia has often reminded me of a passage in one of the poets, where he inquires the title of that happy land, where the names of its kings, and ladies, are engraven on the flowers. It reminds us, too, of that book of the "Jerusalem Delivered," where Tasso represents Erminia, when under the protection of the shepherd, driving her flock into the forest; and amusing her grief, with engraving on every tree the name of Tancred and the history of her misfortunes. In an Afghaun tale, too, Doorkhaunee is described, as deriving her only pleasure, during the long absence of her lover, from cultivating two flowers; to one of which she gave the name of her lover, and to the other that of herself a. The Princess Czartorinska signalised her love of poetry in a curious manner. This princess was one of a small party, who resided in a hamlet, in Poland, and who gave themselves up to every species of innocent amusement. Among these, they devoted a considerable portion of time to erecting a marble pyramid; on each side of which were inscribed the names of those writers, who had contributed to their pleasure, or instruction. Each side was ornamented with appropriate emblems. On the compartment, which recorded the a We are also reminded of two passages in Ovid; where, in reference to the hyacinth, he says— Ipse suos gemitus fóliis inscripsit, et ai ai Met. lib. x. 215. Litera communis mediis, pueroque, viroque Inscripta est foliis; hæc nominis, ille querelæ. Lib. xiii. 397. * On the flower Delphinium Ajacis are the letters AIAIA. |