Ordine, quo discunt pueri describe per oras
Extremas orbis; medioque repone jacentem,
Qui tetigit magneta, stylum; ut versatilis inde
Literulam quamcunque velis, contingere possit.
Hujus ad exemplum, simili fabrica veris orbem
Margine descriptum, munitumque indice ferri,
Ferri quod motum magnete accepit ab illo.
Hunc orbem discessurus sibi portet amicus,
Conveniatque priùs, quo tempore, queisve diebus
Exploret, stylus an trepidet, quidve indice signet.
His ita compositis, si clam cupis alloqui amicum,
Quem procul a tete terrai distinet ora;
Orbi adjunge manum, ferrum versatile tracta.
Hic dispôsta vides elementa in margine toto:
Quies opus est ad verba notis, huc dirige ferrum;
Literulasque, modò hanc, modò et silam cuspide tange,
Dum ferrum per eas iterumque iterumque rotando,
Componas sigillatim sensa omnia mentis.

Mira fides longè qui distat cernit amicus
Nullius impulsu trepidare volubile ferrum,
Nunc huc, nunc illuc discurrere: conscius hæret,
Observatque styli ductum, sequiturque legendo
Hinc atque hinc elementa, quibus in verba coactis
Quid sit opus sentit, ferroque interprete discit.
Quin etiam cum stare stylum videt, ipse vicissim
Si qua respondenda putet simili ratione

Literulis variè tactis, rescribit amico.

O utinam hæc ratio scribendi prodeat usu: Cautior, et citior properaret epistola, nullas Latronum verita insidias, fluviosque morantes. Ipse suis Princeps manibus sibi conficeret rem; Nos soboles scribarum emersi ex æquore nigro, CONSECRAREMUS CALAMUM MAGNETIS AD ORAS.

STRADA. Prol. Lib. II, Prol. VI.

Feels her young nerves dilate: the plastic powers
Labour for action: blind emotions heave
His bosom, and with holiest frenzy caught,
From earth to heaven, he rolls his daring eye,
From heaven to earth.”

Thus Shakspeare:

"The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

B. III. l. 880.

Glances from earth to heaven, from heaven to earth,
And as imagination," &c.

As when a cloud

Of gathering hail with limpid crusts of ice
Enclosed, and obvious to the beaming sun,
Collects his large effulgence, straight, the heavens
With equal flames present on either hand
The radiant visage; PERSIA stands at gaze
Appall'd; and on the brink of GANGES doubts
The snowy vested seer, in Mithra's name,
To which the fragrance of the south shall burn,
To which his warbled orisons ascend."

B. III. v. 427.

This very sublime simile stands a chance of not being exactly understood by some readers; but

In the MS. corrected poem we are directed to read:

with holiest frenzy caught

From earth to heaven, he darts his searching eye
From heaven to earth."

when they are reminded, that Akenside alludes to the two suns, one real, the other fictitious, so often beheld in very hot, as well as in very cold, temperatures, the sublimity will be so striking, that a critic, perhaps, might be justified in placing it in a rank, second only to Milton's simile of Satan to the Sun during the time of an eclipse.

This whole passage seems to have been founded on the following description in the Spectator, No. 413. "We are every where entertained with pleasing shows and apparitions, we discover imaginary glories in the heavens and in the earth, and see some of this visionary beauty poured out upon the whole creation. But what a rough unsightly sketch of nature should we be entertained with, did all her colouring disappear, and the several distinctions of light and shade vanish! In short, our souls are, at present, delightfully lost and bewildered in a pleasing delusion; and we walk about like the enchanted hero in a romance, who sces beautiful castles, woods and meadows, at the same time hears the warbling of birds and purling of streams; but upon

the finishing of some secret spell, the fantastic scene breaks up, and the disconsolate knight finds himself on a barren heath, or in a solitary forest."

"What then is TASTE?"

B. III. v. 515.

Akenside here traces the causes to which may be referred the pleasure, which is received from all, that strikes us in the material world with the sensation of beauty. These are traced to the conclusion, that "the beauty and sublimity of the qualities of matter arise from their being the signs or expressions of such qualities, as are fitted by the constitution of our nature, to produce emotion." The passage is thus rendered by the Italian translator.

"Dunque il Gusto ch'è mai, se non l'interne
Potenze agili e forti, e a sentir pronte
Ogn' impulso leggiero? un retto senso
Il Decente a discernere, e' l Sublime,
E in ogni spezie a ripulsar ben presto
Deformi obbietti, inordinati e rozzi?
Questo prestar non pon gemme, o tesori,
Di porpora splendor, industria; e solo
Dio solo, allor che l'efficace destra
La secreta dell' alme indole impronta,
Egli può sol l'Omnipossente Padre
Prudente, giusto, libero, siccome
L'aura di vita e la luce del Cielo,
Le bellezze svelar della Natura."

See BETTINELLI's Dell' Entusiasmo delle bell Arti. This work is very little known in this country; and yet it is worthy of being so. The author seems to have been acquainted with Milton, Ossian, and other British writers; but I do not remember his having once alluded to Akenside; a circumstance, rather extraordinary, when we consider the nature of his work.

"Ask the SWAIN,

Who journeys homeward from a summer day's
Long labour," &c.

B. III. v. 526.

Beattie has a fine passage, in some degree associating with this:

"From silent mountains, straight with startling sound,
Torrents are hurl'd; green hills emerge; and lo,
The trees with foliage, cliffs with flowers are crown'd;
Pure rills through vales of verdure warbling go,
And wonder, love, and joy, the PEASANT's heart o'erflow."

"Amid the mighty uproar, while below

The nations tremble, SHAKSPEARE looks abroad,

From some high cliff superior, and enjoys

The clemental war."

B. III. v. 555.

"Horace regards it as the last effort of philoso