Light clouds in fleeting livery gay,
Hung painted in grotesque array
Upon the western sky.
Forgetful of the approach of dawn,
The
peasants danced upon the lawn,
In every measure light and free,
The very soul of harmony.

Light as the dewdrops of the morn,

That hang upon the blossomed thorn."

The second is a description of morning :

66

Fled were the vapours of the night,

Faint streaks of rosy-tinted light
Were painted on the matin grey;

And as the sun began to rise,

To pour his animating ray,
Glowed with fire the eastern skies,

The distant rocks, the far off bay.
The ocean's sweet and lovely blue,
The mountain's variegated breast

Blushing with tender tints of dawn,
Or with fantastic shadows drest,

The waving wood, the opening lawn,
Rise to existence, waked anew,
In colours, exquisite of hue."

More particularly does Shelley's well-known creed seem to find its first utterance in the opening of the fourth canto, the strong belief

of man's capabilities of rendering himself happy, imbued with deep natural religion.

'Ah! why does man, whom God hath sent

As the Creator's ornament,

Who stands amid his works confest,

The first, the noblest, and the best,
Whose vast, whose comprehensive eye,
Is bounded only by the sky,

O'erlooks the charms which nature yields,

The garniture of woods and fields,

The sun's all.vivifying light,

The glory of the moon by night;

And to himself alone a foe,

Forget from whom these blessings flow?
And is there not in friendship's eye,
Beaming with tender sympathy,
An antidote to every woe?

And cannot woman's love bestow
A heavenly paradise below?

Such joys as these to man are given,
And yet you dare to rail at Heaven ;
Vainly oppose the Almighty's cause,
Transgress his universal laws,
Forfeit the pleasures that await

The virtuous in this mortal state."

This poem also contains the fragment of a

song which is very musical:

"See yon opening flower

Spreads its fragrance to the blast;

It fades within an hour,

Its decay is pale, is fast.

"Paler is yon maiden,

Faster is her heart's decay;

Deep, with sorrow laden,

She sinks in death away."

It will be seen that there is but little power or originality in the foregoing specimens, though in the last there is a considerable amount of pathos. Compared with many of his tuneful brethren, Shelley appears to have been late in the development of his genius; and while Cowley, Pope, and Chatterton gave to the world compositions of great promise at the respective ages of ten or twelve, and while Byron and Scott were writing graceful stanzas at thirteen or fourteen, Shelley's powers did not expand till his fifteenth, or perhaps his sixteenth year, nor did they exhibit great promise even then.

It is worthy of note, that this poem, in its incomplete state, was forwarded to Thomas Campbell, with a request that he would favour its author with his candid opinion upon its merits. Campbell "good-naturedly read it," says a reviewer, "and with pardonable disho

nesty pronounced that there were but two good lines in the whole piece, which ran thus:

"It seemed as if some angel's sigh,

Had breathed the plaintive symphony ;".

a verdict which so far damped the ardour of the young enthusiast, as to make him for the present resign all hope of a poetical career.

Zastrozzi

CHAPTER VII.

St. Irvyne, or the Rosicrucian

General

view of those productions-Shelley's correspondence with Felicia Browne-Its abrupt termination.-His matriculation at Oxford,

On the ill success of this effort we find Shelley engaged in the less difficult task of prose composition, in the form of a wild and extravagant romance entitled "Zastrozzi." This also was a joint authorship; but instead of Medwin, he had chosen, in this instance, his beautiful cousin, Harriette Grove, to share his literary labours. That such a partnership was more congenial to his temperament there can be but little doubt; that it gave a colouring to his