a little more principle in his writings, for he has really a most original vein of humour,-such a mixture of simplicity, archness, and power of language, with an air of Irish helplessness running throughout, as is irresistibly amusing, and constitutes him a class by himself. He is the Fontaine of lampooners.-I know not whether any body ever thought of turning to him for his versification; but the lovers of the English heroic would be pleased, as well as surprised, to find in his management of it a more easy and various music than in much higher poets.

2.4. Tom Campbell's with willow and poplar was twin'd, And Southey's with mountain-ash pluck'd in the wind, And Scott's with a heath from his old garden stores, And with vine-leaves and Jump-up-and-kiss-me, Tom Moore's,

The meaning of all these intercoronations is not as obvious, I am afraid, as it might be. The poplar is intended to imply a kind of artificial appearance in the midst of nature,-and may stand for a set elegance as well as an emblem of strength:-the "moun

tain-ash pluck'd in the wind" has an air of mightiness with it, that vanishes when you come to look at it's elegant flimsiness; and the heath from the old garden stores would suggest a sort of nursery for what ought to grow wild, and something too much of the gardener's trade. The willow, the vine-leaves, and the Jump-up-and-kiss-me, want no explanation, except that the last is one of the variety of names, which the fondness of popular admiration, in all countries, has lavished upon the beautiful little tri-coloured violet, commonly called the Heart's-ease*.

It is pleasant to light upon an universal favourite, whose merits answer one's expectation. We know little or nothing of the common flowers among the ancients; but as violets in general have their due mention among the poets that have come down to us, it is to be concluded that the heart's-ease could not miss it's particular admiration,-if indeed it existed among

* The crowns, with these explanations, are still not complete. Mr. Campbell, for his naval odes, should have had some oak in his wreath; and it is a great piece of injustice to Mr. Moore's to have left out the shamrock.

them in it's perfection. The modern Latin name for it is Flos Jovis or Jove's Flower, an appellation rather too worshipful for it's little sparkling delicacy, and more suitable to the greatness of an hydrangia or to the diadems of a rhododendron.

Quæque per irriguas quærenda Sisymbria valles
Crescunt, nectendis cum myrto nata coronis;
Flosque Jovis varius, folii tricoloris, et ipsi
Par violæ, nulloque tamen spectatus odore.

Rapini Hortorum, lib. 1.

With all the beauties in the valljes bred,

Wild Mint, that's born with myrtle crowns to wed,
And Jove's own Flow'r, that shares the violet's pride,
It's want of scent with triple charm supplied.

The name given it by the Italians is Flammola, the Little Flame ;-at least, this is an appellation with which I have met, and it is quite in the taste of that ardent people. The French are perfectly aimable with theirs :-they call it Pensee, a Thought, from which comes our word Pansy :—

"There's rosemary," says poor Ophelia; "that's for remembrance ;-pray you, love, remember ;and there is pansies,-that's for thoughts." Dray

I

ton, in his world of luxuries, the Muse's Elysium, where he fairly stifles you with sweets, has given, under this name of it, a very brilliant image of it's effect in a wreath of flowers the nymph says

Here damask roses, white and red,

Out of my lap first take I,

Which still shall run along the thread;
My chiefest flow'r this make I.
Amongst these roses in a row,
Next place I pinks in plenty,
These double-daisies then for show;
And will not this be dainty?
The pretty Pansy then I'll tye,

Like stones some chain enchasing;

The next to them, their near ally,
The purple violet placing.

Nymphal 5th.

Milton, in his fine way, gives us a picture in a word,

the Pansy freak'd with jet.

Another of it's names is Love-in-idleness, under which it has been again celebrated by Shakspeare, to whom we must always return, for any thing and for every thing;-his fairies make potent use of it in the Midsummer-Nights' Dream. The whole passage is full of such exquisite fancies, mixed with such noble

expressions and fine suggestions of sentiment, that I will indulge myself and lay it before the reader at once, that he may not interrupt himself in his chair :

OBERON. My gentle Puck, come hither:-thou rememberest, Since once I sat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maids music?

PUCK.

I remember.

OBERON. That very time I saw (but thou could'st not,) Flying betwixt the cold earth and the moon,

:-a certain aim he took

Cupid all arm'd:

At a fair vestal, throned by the west,

And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts:
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon;
And the imperial votaress pass'd on,

In maiden meditation, fancy free,

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound,-
And maidens call it Love-in-idleness.

Fetch me that flow'r,-the herb I shew'd thee once:

The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid,

Will make or man or woman madly dote