Of the two last the following may be esteemed sufficient; since they are not easily to be paralleled, except in Milton, or Lucretius.

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd;

It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath."

Merchant of Venice, iv. sc. 1.

Belarius, speaking of Arviragus and Guiderius :

These princely boys! They are as gentle
As Zephyrs, blowing below the violet ;
And yet as rough as is the rudest wind,

That by the top doth take the mountain pine,
And make him stoop to the vale.

Cymbeline, iv. sc. 2.

When lightning shoots along the sky, and thunder rolls along the horizon or over the periphery of the zenith, the mere man of the world beholds and listens either with indifference or with fear: but the poet frequently recurs to that sublime scene in Eschylus, where Prometheus, after refusing to reveal the secret, entrusted to him by the Fates, is released from his bonds: when lightning strikes the rock, thunder hovers over the scene, and the unfortunate victim sinks to the regions of Tartarus amid the gigantic convulsions of nature.

Then he recurs to the storms in Lear, Macbeth, and

of the example of Turenne upon the courage of Louis the 14th, says, "As we see the thunder break out, strike, and bear down every thing, so the first fires of military ardour are scarce lighted in the king's heart, but they sparkle, break out, and strike with universal terror."-M. Turenne's Funeral Oration. These two instances afford examples of correct and vicious taste.

the Tempest; or to the passage in Darwin, where he describes Love, snatching the thunderbolt from Jupiter; bending the triple bolt upon his knee; while the fragments scattering on the floor, the gods retreat in awful trepidation; while the immortal sire,

Indulgent to his child,

Bow'd his ambrosial locks, and heaven relenting smiled.

There is a passage in Southey's poem of Madoc even superior to the celebrated " Suave mari" of Lucretius.

'Tis pleasant by the cheerful hearth to hear
Of tempests and the dangers of the deep,
And pause at times, and feel that we are safe.
Then listen to the perilous tale again,

And with an eager and suspended soul
Woo terror to delight us.

Madoc, part iv. p. 43.

Raphael is said to have embodied "the lightning" of the mind: and Gray characterizes the poetry of Dryden in a manner equally poetical.

Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car,

Wide o'er the fields of glory bear

Two coursers of ethereal race,

With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long resounding pace.

Gray.

It is impossible for a man of an elegant mind, living in Britain, not to be proud of the poetry of his native language! But let us turn to an affecting passage in

Sophocles, where the chorus, encountering a thunderstorm, associate its horrors with the anger of heaven.

Chorus. Almighty Jove! what thunders rend the air.

Awfully dreadful is this deepening roar,

Roll'd by the hand of Jove. My hoary hairs
Are rais'd through horror upright on my head,
And my soul sinks within me. There again
The rapid lightning flames along the sky.
What terrible event doth this portend!
The dread of it appals me. Not in vain,
Not unpredictive of some dreadful fate

These thunders roll.

Edipus. This, O my daughter, is the fated day
That ends my life.

Then we listen to the awful circumstances of Edipus' death.

In short space we stopp'd; we backwards turn'd
Our eyes. The man was nowhere to be found!
He was not; but we saw the king alone.
He stood, and o'er his face his hands he spread
Shading his eyes; as if with terror struck,
At something horrible to human sight.
But by what fate he died no mortal man,

Save Theseus, can declare. For not the flames,
Thick flashing from the thunders of high Jove,
Consum'd him; nor the tempest from the sea;
Then raging wild; but haply by the gods
Borne thence, or sinking through the friendly earth,
Which in her deeply rifted bosom sped

A painless passage to the realms below.

Edipus Colonus ;-Sophocles ;—Potter.

CHAPTER II.

NATURE affords not satisfaction to the eye and to the ear only, she administers, also, a sensible delight by the perfumes, which she scatters in every direction. Who, that can relish the odours of the hay-fields, the wild thyme of the heath, the roses and the woodbines, that decorate our hedge-rows, and the violet, that scents the thicket, can lament the absence of the myrrh, the cassia, and the cinnamon, which charm the poets of Persia and Arabia?" Call for wine," says Hafiz, "and scatter flowers around; what more canst thou ask from Fate?" And Mahomet, in the true spirit of his voluptuous creed, declared, that odours assimilated his soul with heaven.

Odoriferous particles are elicited by heat, and condensed by cold; and, floating on the air, rest upon the olfactory nerves, and affect them with a most agreeable sensation. These enjoyments rejoiced equally the heart of the wisest of men, and the most odious of tyrants. Solomon was accustomed to write in the praise of essences; and the kings of Tunis1 to mingle them with their food3.

Vid. Treasurie of auncient and moderne times. Book iii. c. 19. p. 282. 2 Pliny relates, that there existed a people, living near the source of the Ganges, who almost lived upon odours. "Circa fontem Ganges, Astomorum gentem, habitu tantum viventem et odore quem naribus trahant." vi. c. 2.

Holy oil, for anointing, was composed of myrrh, sweet calamus, cassia, and oil of olives. The perfume consisted of stacte, onycha, and galbanum, mixed with pure frankincense. This oil and perfume it was commanded no man to imitate. They were used solely for anointing the tabernacle, the altar, and the priests. No other men were permitted to use them; and who ever made a similar oil and essence was to "be cut off from his people 1."

In distillation, the fragrant particles rise with the steam of water, in which they are distilled, and remain with it after it is condensed. These perfumes the Persians sprinkle over their guests, while the Otaheitans frequently wear flowers in the apertures of their ears, instead of earrings. In 1780, nosegays were so frequent among our ladies of quality, that no footman would engage himself, till he knew how much a week his mistress would allow for nosegays: while in China there is no woman either so old, or so poor, but adorns her head with flowers3. Pliny assures us, that the natives of Arabia Felix' burnt no wood but what was aromatic, and ate no food that was not perfumed with spices. This is probable : but when he asserts, that a people lived on the banks of the Ganges,

1 Exodus, ch. xxx. 23. 26, 27. 30. 32, 33, 34. 38.

2 Sir G. Staunton. Vol. ii. 359.

3 Among the Hindoos it is usual on the 20th of the month, Manj, from which they date the commencement of spring, for the gardeners' wives to bring to their mistresses little offerings of early fruits, flowers, and tufts of green barley; which the ladies commonly present to their husbands. Broughton's Specimens of Hindoo Poetry.

4 Plin. Lib. xii. c. 17.