Give vigour to the wasting fire,
And with the world, too soon, expire.

XIII.

Once more her bloom the earth renews,
Smoothed into green eternal vales;
Her glebe still moist with fragrant dews,
Her air still rich with balmy gales:
No change her flowery seasons breed,
But springs retire, and springs succeed.

XIV.

O say, thou great, thou sacred name,

What scenes thy thoughtful breast employ;
Capacious as that mighty frame,

You raise with ease, with ease destroy.
Each world with thy fair glories filled,
The earth you burn, and that you build.

SKATING: A POEM.

*This Poem, 'Cursus Glacialis,' Anglice Skating,' although printed in the Muse Anglicane as the production of PHILIP FROWDE, and signed by him, is asserted by Mr. George Sewell, in his preface to Curll's volume 1725, to be certainly' written by Addison. The same assertion is repeated in a rare volume of Addison's Miscellaneous works,' printed for Cogan, 1750. The Latin original is found in every edition of the Muse Anglicane, a very common book. It will be sufficient here to give the English.]

SEE nature round a hoary prospect yields,

And beds of snow conceal the whiten'd fields:
Bleak winter blasts, congealing where they fly,
Shoot their keen darts, and mingling fill the sky.
The silent streams in murmurs cease to move,
Locked in their shores by icy bands above:
No more through vales they draw their hardened train,
But form, unmoved, a silent, silver plain:
The watery gods, who dwell in courts below,
Lament their stubborn waves no longer flow:
Each sad to view the empire where he reigns,
Enclosed above, and bound with crystal chains.

Yet this bleak season of th' inclement year
Can boast delights the smiling youth to cheer;
With vigorous sports the winter rage defy,
New brace the nerves, and active life supply.

Each now the labour hardy to endure,
Who boast a steady strength, and tread secure,
With panting joy the frozen kingdom gain,
Rush to the shore, and hide the crackling plain :
Now in long tracks with sailing speed they shoot,
And tire unarmed the vigour of the foot:
Now o'er the race in winding circles wheel,
Drove round, and carried on their shining steel.1
See! there the youth with eager passion glow,
Bound from above, and fill the plains below;
Skim lightly o'er the waves, and scarce deface
With beauteous prints the silver-shining race.
See! in the midst of their smooth journey, skilled,
They stop, and turn, and mark the glittering field;
Razing the surface, on they wheel around,

Which bends, and yields, and cracks beneath the wound;
They o'er the chace with easy labour drove,
Now here, now there, in endless mazes move.
If we such pleasures from its rigour gain,
The winter sheds its keenest rage in vain,
While with full joy the panting heart o'erflows,
And the fair cheek with fairer purple glows.
Here, if by chance, unable to convey
Too great a weight, the parting ice give way;
Or the bright knots, which on its surface rise,
O'erturn the hasty racer as he flies;

What shouts, what laughter, fill the echoing skies!
No pity in one merry face appears,

The wretch o'erwhelmed with jokes instead of tears:
His treacherous feet, and garments, as they flow,
Augment his fellows' joy, the hero's woe.

But if, descending on the slippery plain,
The rival youth for fame and glory strain;
Shoot from the barrier, and, with wishful eye,
To reach the goal, bend forward as they fly:
Breathless, around their eager arms they throw,
And lend new swiftness to their feet below.
No even tracks confess their winding way,
Confused they cross, and in meanders play;
Orb within orb, their sportive toil we view,
Whitening with steel the circles where they flew.

1 Skates.

So when a swallow wantons in the air,
The spring arrived, and smiling season fair;
In doubtful mazes she her flight pursues,

Now sips the stream, now drinks the fragrant dews;
Now skims the flowery meadows, but to rise
Anon more lofty, and regain her skies.
Her airy windings each with joy surveys,
Views her quick turns, and wonders as she plays.
Skilled in these arts, (if not by fame belied,)
When chilling winters bind the solid tide;
Their ancient tracks the Belgian realms disdain,
For nearer paths along the frozen main :
The sliding traveller will now no more
Regard the mazes of the winding shore;
Pleased, o'er the waves, his pleasures does
pursue,
With longing eyes some absent friend to view;
Or gaze on distant cities which arise

In foreign realms, and warmed by foreign skies.
Now to the faithful sea the matron dares
Herself commit, and trust her brittle wares;
Fearless the flying dame, lest she, or they,
By chance o'erturned, should sink the ocean's prey;
With shining furrows all the plain abounds,
Her icy journey marked with silver wounds.

DISSERTATIO DE INSIGNIORIBUS

ROMANORUM POETIS.

(AUCTORE JOS. ADDISON.)1

OMNIUM, in re poeticâ, maxime inclaruerunt Romani, et Romanorum Virgilius: optimæ quæque regulæ, huic arti

TRANSLATION,

By Mr. Christopher Hayes.

Of all the nations in the world, the Romans have most excelled in the art of poetry, and even among the Romans Virgil has been

1 Dr. Parr set great value on this Dissertation, which he says is "not inserted in the quarto edition of Addison's Works, and but little known." (Bibl. Parr, p. 628.) In another part of his Catalogue he says he was many years in search of it, and adds: "I am at a loss to account for the omission both of the Latin and the English in the variorum edition of Addison's Works." Bibl. Parr, p. 285. There appear to be at least five editions, viz. 1692, 1698, 1718, 1725, and 1750.

inservientes, non tam criticorum præceptis, quam Maronis exemplo, sunt depromendæ. Ut ideo de reliquis heroici carminis scriptoribus, recte statuamus virtutes et vitia, quæ apud singulos occurrunt, lectioni conferamus Virgilianæ ; qui, si ullibi defecerit Bucolicis, nonnunquam puriorem immiscuit styli elegantiam, quam quæ pastoribus conveniat ; et sæpe grandior sonat carminum majestas, quam quæ tenui avenæ consona videatur. Apud quemlibet Georgicorum librum, inimitabili quâdam sermonis elegantiâ, res rustica explicantur; sed ultimus, de Apum Naturâ, valde, præter cæteros, animum delectat; ubi, dum in tenui argumento procedit poema, solennem quandam sententiarum et verborum pompam studiose affectat poeta. Apum ideo opera Cyclopum assimulat laboribus, nec majori carminum tumultu Æneæ et Turni recitat certamina, quam hasce insectorum turmas inter sese depræliantes. Ubique exiguæ reipublicæ duces, populi, studia, mores, et tenue illud imperium, quod intra alvearii angustias exercetur, venustâ, nescio quâ, carminis magnificentiâ exprimuntur: Quin hoc certe in toto opere præcipue occurrit admirandum, quomodo, dum plantationis, pastionis, et agriculturæ curas exequitur poeta,

TRANSLATION.

the most deservedly celebrated; from whom the justest rules of this art are rather to be taken, than from the dry precepts of the critics. To the end, therefore, that we may the more truly ascertain the beauties and faults which occur among the rest of the writers of Heroic Poetry, let us compare them with the style of Virgil; who if he be in anything deficient, it is, when he has sometimes in his Eclogues mingled such a purity of style as is not entirely agreeable with the dialect of shepherds; and frequently the dignity of his verse seems no way consonant to the rural pipe. In every book of his Georgics, he treats of country affairs with an inimitable elegancy of style; but, above all, we are most delighted with his last book, of the Nature of Bees; where, in a poem on so inconsiderable a subject, our author purposely affects a peculiarly solemn and pompous style. In this piece he compares the labours of the bees to those of the Cyclops; and in the same lofty numbers recounts the skirmishes of these little insects among themselves, as he does the rencounters of Æneas and Turnus. All along, the generals of this small republic, the populace, the factions, the customs and forms of government exercised within the narrow limits of the bee-hive, are described with an inexpressible beauty and magnificence. Throughout the whole work, what mostly raises our admiration is, that in the pursuit of his discourse on planting, grazing, and agriculture,

omissis usitatioribus loquendi formulis, materiæ tam incultæ locutionem poeticam accommodaret; quomodo ignobiliori depressus argumento nunquam ad stylum plebeium orationem demiserat: sed tanta undique apparet locutionum vis, ut multi (quamvis temere) Georgicos etiam Æneidi prætulisse non dubitarint; sed in hoc opere, per argumentum, non licuit alias poeseus partes præstitisse, quam styli et descriptionum elegantiam. Quod ad utrumque attinet, illud sibi proprium semper vendicat Maronis pagina, ut, quicquid exprimat, mirâ quâdam dulcedine animum ingrediatur, et quod describat, melius quam si oculis subjiciatur, tanquam præsens intueamur.

In styli puritate proxime accedit Lucretius, cujus dictio, si obsoletæ aliquando verborum antiquitati, et numeris pene solutis agnoscas, illorum palato, qui Romane sapiunt, persuavis videatur. In descriptionibus tamen Claudiano secundus debeter honos, qui amœnas rerum imagines ubique venustissimâ contexuit oratione, in hoc solummodo vitiosus, quod fusius, quam par est, semper expatietur, eosdemque versus diversis exponat loquendi modis. In hac arte sese maxime profecisse satis noverat Claudianus; de quacunque enim re satagit, assidue semper quærit quæ describenda sunt, imo. plurima sumpsit argumenta, quæ tota in descriptionibus oc

TRANSLATION.

(waiving the common forms of speech,) he suits his poetic diction to so unpolite a theme; how, seemingly depressed with the meanness of his subject, he never sinks into a plebeian style; but the force and energy of his expression are so conspicuous, that many, too rashly indeed, have not scrupled to prefer the Georgics to the Eneid: but, in a work of this nature, no other parts of poetry could be displayed, except an elegance of style and description: in both these ways Virgil has this peculiar to himself, that he captivates the soul with his wonderful sweetness, and his descriptions are as lively as if we had the object placed before our eyes.

In the purity of his style next follows Lucretius, whose diction, allowing for his obsoleteness, and numbers almost prosaic, may challenge a share of praise in those who have any taste of the Roman eloquence. For descriptions, however, the second post of honour is due to Claudian, who has throughout, in a most beautiful style, interwoven his agreeable images; faulty in this alone, that he expatiates upon his subjects beyond all decency, and frequently gives us the same thoughts, diversified only in expression. Claudian well knew what a master he was in this art, for, on whatsoever topic he is engaged, he diligently searches out matter for