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names of Anacreon, Petrarch, Metastasio, and La Fontaine, was a myrtle: the cypress, the yew, and the weeping willow, encircled Shakspeare, Milton, Racine, Young, and Rousseau: the laurel adorned Tasso: other emblems characterised Virgil, Gessner, and De Lille: while lilies, roses, jessamines, and beds of violets, encircled the names of Madame de Sévigné, Madame Riccobine, Madame de la Fayette, and Madame des Houlières. On this pyramid was placed the following inscription, written by De Lille :

LES DIEUX DES CHAMPS AUX DIEUX DES ARTS.

In conformity to the analogy we have alluded to, the poets not only illustrate intellectual subjects, by references and allusions to familiar objects and appearances in Nature, but they draw from the intellectual to embellish the material This faculty, of itself, is almost sufficient to prove the soul to be of etherial origin. These allusions are, however, the more pleasing, when they glance from the former to the latter; “because,” as Gilpin has remarked, "material objects, being fixed in their appearances, strike every one in the same manner ; whereas ideas, being different in most persons upon the same subjects, will seldom serve by way of illustration." Some instances, however, may be found in Shakspeare, and not a few in the metaphysic Cowley, where the contrary has been done with the happiest effect. A Welsh poet has an instance, too, in one of his pennillions::

To speak of Snowdon's head sublime,
Is far more easy than to climb:

So he, that's free from pain and care,
May bid the sick a smile to wear.

But if the poets occasionally borrow from the intellectual to illustrate the material world, they repay with interest, when they borrow of the latter to adorn the former. When is the father of poetry weary of drawing similes from birds, insects, lions, and serpents; from the phenomena of the heavens, and the more evident appearances of the earth?

When Longinus would give dignity to Homer, speaking of his "Odyssey," he compares him to the mild lustre of the setting sun and when Homer would give force and velocity to the descent of Hector, he compares it to the fall of a rock from the top of a mountain. Nothing can be more admirable than this fine simile; which is not only perfect, when applied to the subject, it would illustrate; but is also a true and finished picture from Nature. This simile has been imitated by most of the epic poets; particularly by Tasso and Milton :—that of Virgil is little less than a translation.

An Eastern poet says of the date-tree, that its head "reclines languidly, like a beautiful woman, overcome with sleep." In Milton, what can be more pathetic, than where he compares blind Thamyris, Tiresias, and Mæonides to the nightingale? And is there a finer instance of the application of the works of Nature to illustrate moral reflection, than where he likens the progress of crime to the lengthening shadows of a setting sun? What can be more grand, than where he compares Satan to Mount Teneriffe, and to the sun in eclipse? When Blair says, that men see their friends drop off like "leaves in autumn;"-when Shakspeare compares the unfortunate Richard to "the evening sun;" and a man of high reputation "to a tree, blushing with fruit;" when he likens glory to "a circle in the water;" and the fall of Wolsey to a "falling meteor ;"-how affecting, how instructive do the subjects become!

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The Epicureans illustrated their idea of happiness, by asserting, that a happy life was neither like a pool, nor a torrent; but like a gentle stream, that "glides smoothly and silently along." Rollin compares the temperate order of eloquence to a beautiful ruin, embosomed in wood; and the sublime order to an impetuous river, rolling with such violence, as to break down all that is opposed to it. One of the odes, written by Neyahualcojolt, king of Mexico,-the Howel Dha of that empire,-compares the tyrant Fezzomoe to a stately

tree, which had extended itself into many countries, and spread the shade of its branches over them; but at last, being worm-eaten, wasted, fell to the earth, and never recovered its verdure.

Sometimes the poets draw similitudes from the phenomena of the heavens. Sophocles compares the changeableness of Menelaus' fortune to the frequent waning of the moon : and Heliodorus likens Chariclea, clad in a dress of poverty, to the same luminary, rising among the clouds. Dryden has a fine metaphor in his play of "All for Love;" where Antony compares himself to a meteor ;- -an idea more than once adopted by Rowe and Congreve. Haller compares reason to the moon, and revelation to the sun. Horace affords innu

merable instances.

No poets draw more frequently from Nature than the sacred writers. The fact is, there is scarcely a simile in the Scriptures, that has not an immediate reference to natural objects. How beautiful is that passage in St. John, where Christ says

a "In ancient hieroglyphic writing," says the right reverend author of that stupendous monument of misapplied learning,-the Divine Legation of Moses, —“the sun and moon were used to represent states and empires, &c. &c.: insomuch, that in reality the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hieroglyphic."-Vol. ii. b. iv. s. 4. "The Etau rises upon a bad man,” said a New Zealand savage to Nicholas, "like a full moon; rushes upon him like a falling star; and passes him like a shot from a cannon's mouth."-Voy. to New Zealand, vol. i. 65.

b What a beautiful passage is that in the Winter's Tale, where Polyxenes, questioning the shepherd respecting the love which Florizel bears to Perdita, the shepherd replies

Never did the moon

So gaze upon the waters, as he'll stand

And read my daughter's eyes.

Plutarch also compares the accessions of glory, and the eclipses of the fortune of Demetrius, his rises and his falls, to the frequent changes of the

moon.

See the parable of the wasted vine in Ezekiel *, and of the two eagles and a vine †. An admirable instance, too, occurs in Isaiah ‡. The parable of the

* Ch. xix. v. 10.

+ Ch. xvii. v. 1.

+ Ch. xv.

to the woman of Samaria, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water, that I shall give him, shall never thirst."

Most of the similes and illustrations (if we may judge from translations) of Ferdousee, Hafiz, Sadi, and other oriental poets, are also drawn from the natural world. Tasso, too, has scarcely one that has not a similar derivation. Thus he compares Argantes to a comet; the fury of Solyman to a stormy ocean, seen at intervals through flashes of lightning; and the virtues of Rinaldo to a tree, bearing fruit and blossoms at the same time. Armida, recovering from a swoon, to a rose restored by the dew; the archangel Michael to a rainbow; the softening of Armida's anger to snows melting in the sun; and the sound of soldiers to the distant murmuring of the waves.

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Milton is equally abounding in references to natural objects; though, in his range, he likewise embraces many arts and sciences. Thus he compares the legions of Satan to the autumnal leaves, that "strew the brooks of Vallambrosa; the rising of Pandemonium to an exhalation; the applause of the darkened angels to the sound of winds, rushing from hollow rocks upon the billows; and the atoms of Chaos to the unnumbered sands of Barce or Cyrene. The countenance of Eve he compares to the first smiles of morning; the combat of Michael and Satan to two planets, rushing from their orbits, and confounding the spheres; the songs of the trees and the bramble is well known *; as is the celebrated passage in Isaiah, where the glory of Assyria is compared to a cedar. In Numbers, Balaam, seeing the tents of Jacob pitched in the plains of Moab, bursts out" How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel: as the valleys are spread forth; as gardens by the river side; as the trees of aloe, which the Lord hath planted; and as cedar trees beside the waters +.”

a This is abundantly shown in the Analysis of the Bráta Yudha, a Javan epic poem ‡.

* Judges, ch. ix. v. 8.
+ Ch. xxiv. v. 5, 6.
Raffles' Java, vol. ii. p. 437, 4to.

angels to the sound of seas; and the descent of Michael to the gliding of an evening mist. Satan to a comet; his shield to the moon; his standard to a meteor; his frown to a thunder cloud; and his recoil from the force of Michael to a mountain, sinking in an earthquake.

In Virgil, also, references to the animal, the feathered, and the vegetable world, are perpetual. Those instances where he compares Orpheus to a nightingale; the love of Dido to the anguish of a wounded stag; and the engagement of Tarchon and Venulus to the combat of an eagle and a serpent, are admirable. The last is, assuredly, the finest simile in Virgila; as the one, where the ecstacy of a good man, at the approach of death, is compared to the music of a dying swan, is the most beautiful in Plato.

Brumoy compares Eschylus to a torrent, rolling over rocks and precipices; Sophocles to a rivulet flowing through a delightful garden; and Euripides to a river, winding among flowery meads. No illustration, however, do I remember, that so justly bears upon our subject, as that, where Addison contrasts the Iliad and the Æneid by the different aspects of grand and beautiful scenery.

b

But of all writers, ancient or modern, Ossian is the poet, who may strictly be styled the Poet of Nature; since there is scarcely a single allusion, that does not expressly refer to the productions of Nature. To quote instances were to quote the whole of his poetry: but the following passage is so exquisite, that I assure myself, my dear Lelius, you will not only forgive its introduction, but hail it with pleasure. “Ullin,

a Virg. lib. iv. 1. 99. Georg. iv. 1. 511. Æn. xi. 751.

b The authenticity of Ossian's poems has been rightly questioned. They are, strictly, neither ancient nor modern. They are poems, grounded on oral and traditional fragments in Gaelic; blended with imitations of Homer, Virgil, Tasso, Shakspeare, and Milton: the whole being amalgamated, by Macpherson, with a taste, spirit, and enthusiasm, worthy the aspirations of a superior genius. Homer's Iliad, and even the Odyssey, were, perhaps, compiled and amalgamated after a similar manner. The character of Fingal is the finest in all poetry.

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