Musing on ancient days-the dying storm
Moans in his lifted locks-thou, Night! the while
Dost listen to his sad harp's wild complaint,
Mother of Shadows! as to thee he pours
The broken strain and plaintively deplores
The fall of Druid fame-Hark! Murmurs faint
Breath on the wavy air! and now more loud
Swells the deep dirge accustomed to complain
Of holy Rites unpaid, and of the crowd

Whose careless steps these sacred haunts profane
O'er the wild Plain the hurrying Tempest flies
And mid the storm unheard, the song of sorrow dies.

Lucien Bonaparte seems entitled to high reputation for his recent epic poem of Charlemagne; in which the character of Satan is maintained with an energy truly Miltonic and Sublime.

Lucifer from a rock views a ship on the coast of Provence :

En achevant ces mots le sombre Lucifer

Voit unvaisseau toucher aux rives de Provence.
Sur la crime du roc il éleve s élance

Et fond eomme la foudre au milieu de la mer.
Il entr' ouvre les flots! et sa chute invisible
Dans 1 ocean paisible.

Forme un immense abîme audevant du vaisseau,
Du pilote interdit 1 áudace s intimide.
Le navire agité dún mouvement nouveau,
Du courant infernal suit la pente rapide

Having no other translation of the original, I venture to annex my own.

Silence ensued;when Lucifer descried

High from a rock, with fiendlike, scowling glance,

A ship

A ship advancing to the shore of France,
Borne by the southern breeze, and flowing tide
Rapid, as lightning from a cloud, he darts
To rend in twain the the bosom of the deep;
And with the shock, unseen, the billows parts:
Their former course no more the pennants keep,
But panic fears the pilot's skill o'erwhelm,

A dark abyss divides the azure realm ;

By force infernal urg'd, the vessel flies

Far through the gulph profound, to foreign lands and skies.

The following scene in Ossian is wonderfully adapted to excite the sublimest emotions. Oscar slowly ascends the hill. The meteors of night set on "the heath before him. A distant torrent fainlty roars. Unfrequent blasts rush through aged oaks. The half enlightened moon sinks dim and red behind her hill. Feeble voices are heard on the heath, Oscar drew his sword." Nothing can prepare the fancy more happily for the awful scene which is to follow.

"Trenmor came from his hill, at the voice of his mighty son. A cloud like the steed of the stranger, supported his airy limbs.

His robe is of the mist of Lano, that brings death to the people. His sword is a green meteor, half extinguished. His face is without form and dark. He sighed thrice over the hero. And thrice, the winds of the night roared around. Many were his words to Oscar. He slowly vanished, like a mist that melts on the sunny hills.

It were endless to proceed in selecting specimens from numberless votaries of the Muses, to display the power of Phantasies, or Visions over the imagination, Many splendid selections of this nature might be made

from

from the os Lusiadas by Camoens, concerning the Portugueze discoveries in the Indian Ocean. Of Collins's poems we may use his own Words.

"Where'er we turn, by Fancy charm'd, we find Some sweet illusion of the cheated mind."

And of the inimitable Gray, we may adopt his own sublime exclamation;

"But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height,
Descending slow their glittering skirts unroll?
Visions of glory! spare my aching sight!
Ye unborn ages! crowd not on my soul !"
Hear from the grave, great Taliesin! hear;
They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.
Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings,
Waves in the eye of heaven her many colour'd wings!"

In his friend, Mason's Tragedy of Caractacus there is a most sublime Symphony, commencing,

"Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread,

That shook the earth with giant tread ?
Twas Death," &c.

Plutarch relates in the life of Brutus, that when the mind of that noble Patriot was deeply agitated by the events of the civil War, that followed the death of Cæsar, he was reading in his tent, in solitude, and silence, till the third watch of the night. Wrapt in meditation he fancied that he heard some body approach, and looking towards the entrance of the tent, he saw a formidable, and mysterious figure, present itself before him, in silence "Brutus ventured to enquire who he might be, whether human, or superhuman? and what was his errand? he replied-" Brutus! I am thy evil Genius; and thou shalt see me at Philippi :" the Ro

man,

man, unterrified by the Phantom"-answered by repeating the word "Ooua" I shall see!-Xonophon furnishes many instances of the regard, which the most intelligent of the ancients paid to Dreams, and Apparitions.

Vide Anabasis,
Lib. 3. C. 1.

Painting as well as Poetry has pourtrayed with the happiest effects such visionary scenes as are productive of the Sublime: Raphael's picture of Ezekiel's Vision; and Salvator Rosa's of Saul, and the Witch of Endor are noble instances of this kind. But there are visions to which the pencil is inadequate, through the Muse of Poesy may render them ample justice. For example, in the Iliad, Diomed is enabled by Minerva to distinguish, in the field of battle, mortals from Immortals: and in the sacred writings we read "JEHOVAH "opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold the mountain was full of horses, and chariots of fire round about him!"

As the visions, which I have adduced in this essay on the offspring of Fancy, are not my own, but borrowed from others, I may be allowed, without presumption to subscribe myself,

YOURS.

EUPHANTASIOTOS.

SECTION