elicited sounds, because strings might have been placed in the throat, or in the mouth of the image, an objection might be raised, that if such were the cause, the image would send forth sounds at other times, as well as in the morning. Authorities are not wanting to prove that it did so. One string would act as well as five, in this instance; for modern experience assures us, that a single string will sound all the harmonic notes besides the unison. But if the wind were not permitted to perform this office, the hand of a priest, who might regularly conceal himself every morning for that purpose in the statue, most certainly might; and this is, doubtless, the more likely of the two for Pausanias says, that the sound was similar to that of a bow-string; breaking with too much tension. It is no argument to say, that it is not probable, such an artifice should be practised from the time of Strabo to that of Philostratus (two hundred years); since the hereditary practices of priests have descended from Lama to Lama, in Tartary, China, and Japan, for thousands of years.

VIII.

But it is more probable, that the sounds proceeded from gently knocking a stone, enclosed at the base, or in the bosom of the statue:-some stones naturally emitting sound upon being struck by any other body. In the labyrinth of Alcathous was a stone, that elicited sound, upon being struck ever so lightly; Grosier relates, that some streams abound in stones, which

sound on being touched'; and that they were frequently strung into beads, in order to form a kind of musical instrument. Pausanias also relates, that he saw at Megara a stone, which, when struck, produced a note like the vibration of the string of an instrument. And in one of the pyramids there is still a sarcophagus resembling an altar, which emits a peculiar sound when struck with any hard substance. I have myself seen an instance of this kind, near the chapel of St. Gowen, situated in an amphitheatre of marine rocks, in the county of Pembroke. This idea is rendered more probable by an assertion of Strabo, assuring us, that the sound issued from the pedestal, and that it resembled that produced by striking something on a hard body. From these accounts it would appear, that the actors in this pontifical drama did not always strike with the same force, nor with the same material.

CHAPTER III.

WHEN the sun has quitted the world with reluctance, and the glow of heaven sits, as it were, upon the mountains; and the whole concave is robed in purple majesty and splendour:—and when

in some sequestered vale

The weary woodman spreads his sparing meal,

2 Humboldt having heard of stones, which the missionaries of the Oroonoko call Laxas de Musica, gives rather too fanciful à probability for the music of Memnon's statue. Vide Personal Narrative, vol. iv. p.

how soft, how lulling and serene, are all the objects of the vast creation!-Then, while the eye and the imagination are indulging in the contemplation of progressive twilight, the heart vibrates with many a gentle impulse; the passions modulate to divine repose; and the soul, partaking of the general hush of Nature, and awed by its solemn imagery, exalts its meditation far beyond the orbit of the visible creation and appearing susceptible of an earthly immortality, anticipates the sacred character of that golden age, to which the virtuous will be called.

:

!

For then the serene faculties of the soul are awake, and feed on thoughts worthy of paradise. Time seems to be our own; we meditate with satisfaction on the evening of life, of which the scene is an emblem; and we feel even capable of exclaiming, "The portals of eternity are opening; my life seems closing; my heart swells with transport; and my soul feels, as if it were already starting into a new existence !"-As to men of the world!-Let them slumber in the midst of these hallowed associations :

And be their rest unmov'd

By the white moonlight's dazzling power :-
None, but the loving and belov'd,

Should be awake at this sweet hour.

Moore.

An evening calculated to elicit emotions and reflections, commensurate with these, is described by Homer (or rather by his translator), in a passage, which, for its solemnity, pathos, and picturesque imagery, can never be sufficiently admired!—

As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night!
O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light;
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll;
And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole :
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain's head:
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
And floods of glory burst from all the skies!

Such a scene as this impregnates the imagination with the unity of a sublime and pathetic moral. For when the mind is enriched and diversified with science, every object has its beauty; and every beauty adorns itself with the colouring of moral eloquence :

The passions, to divine repose,

Persuaded yield and love and joy alone

Are waking-love and joy, such as await
An angel's meditation.

II.

To worship JEHOVAH, under the hope of receiving rewards for the homage, is insulting to his benignity, and deserves, for an age of adoration, an eternity of disappointment.—Such is not the religion of the heart; nor is it the religion, that astronomy teaches us to acknowledge. The faith of astronomy insinuates itself into the soul, like the soft vibrations of the most delicate music, emanating from amid the compass and grandeur of the noblest and sublimest of harmonic sounds.

In this repose of the passions, evening diffuses a fascinating charm; and every star, as it were, become

the mother of devotion. Watching the emersion of Jupiter's satellites; contemplating the two thousand five hundred stars in the constellation of Orion; or viewing the whole capacious firmament ;-every system, that we see, hymns, as it were, a perpetual hallelujah. The mind is ravished and the soul transported.-Harmonizing with all the nobler passions, love assumes a chaster character; and we turn with delight to that beautiful passage in Milton, where Adam and his companion, arriving at their shady lodge, and beholding "the moon's resplendent globe and starry pole," burst out—

Thou also mad'st the night,

Maker omnipotent, and thou the day!

Recalling this sacred passage, the fragment of Sappho, preserved by Demetrius Phalareus,1 sinks into nothing!-And, gazing on the vast concave of the hemisphere, what are all the mausoleums, the triumphal arches, the palaces, and the pyramids in the world?

WRITTEN IN A GLEN, NEAR VALLE-CRUCIS ABBEY, IN THE COUNTY OF DENBIGH.

TIME-Sunset.

HERE let me rest!-In this sequestered glen,

Far from the tumults of a giddy world,

The joys, the hopes, the energies of life,

Pleas'd, I'd resign.

Those mountains rude, which rear their heads so high,

1 Vesper omnia fers;

Fers viuum, fers capram,

Fers matri fili»m.