Yes, yes, it would-for thou'rt as cold
As ever yet allured or sway'd,
And wouldst, without a sigh, behold
The ruin which thyself had made!

Yet-could I think that, truly fond,

That but once would smile on me, eye

Good Heaven! how much, how far beyond
Fame, duty, hope, that smile would be?

Oh! but to win it, night and day,
Inglorious at thy feet reclined,

I'd sigh my dreams of fame away,
The world for thee forgot, resign'd!

But no, no, no-farewell-we part,
Never to meet, no, never, never—
Oh woman! what a mind and heart
Thy coldness has undone for ever!

FROM

THE HIGH PRIEST OF APOLLO,

ΤΟ

A VIRGIN OF DELPHI.*

CUM DIGNO DIGNA.....

SULPICIA.

"WHO is the maid, with golden hair,
"With eyes of fire and feet of air,
"Whose harp around my altar swells,

"The sweetest of a thousand shells?"

* This poem requires a little explanation. It is well known that, in the ancient temples, whenever a reverend priest, like the supposed author of the invitation before us, was inspired with a tender inclination towards any fair visitor of the shrine, and at the same time felt a diffidence in his own powers of persuasion, he had but to proclaim that the God himself was enamoured of her, and had signified his divine will that she should sleep in the interior of the temple. Many a pious husband connived at this divine assignation, and even declared himself proud of the selection with which his family had been distinguished by the deity. In the temple of Jupiter Belus there was a splendid bed for these occasions. In Egyptian Thebes the same mockery was practised, and at the oracle of Patara in Lycia, the priestess never could prophesy till an interview with the deity was allowed her. The story which we read in JOSEPHUS (lib. xviii. cap. 3.), of the Roman matron Paulina, whom the priests of Isis, for a bribe, betrayed in this manner to Mundus, is a singular instance of the impudent excess to which credulity suffered these impostures

"Twas thus the deity, who treads
The arch of Heaven, and grandly sheds
Day from his eye-lids!—thus he spoke,
As through my cell his glories broke :

"Who is the maid, with golden hair,
“With eyes of fire and feet of air,
"Whose harp around my altar swells,
"The sweetest of a thousand shells?"

Aphelia is the Delphic fair,*

With eyes of fire and golden hair,

Aphelia's are the airy feet,

And hers the harp divinely sweet;

to be carried. This story has been put into the form of a little novel, under the name of La Pudicitia Schernita, by the licentious and unfortunate PALLAVICINO. See his Opere Scelte, tom. i. I have made my priest here prefer a cave to the temple.

In the 9th Pythic of PINDAR, where Apollo, in the same manner, requires of Chiron some information respecting the fair Cyrene, the Centaur, in obeying, very gravely apologizes for telling the god what his omniscience must know so perfectly already:

Ει δε γε χρη και παρ σοφον αντιφεριξαι

Ερεω

For foot so light has never trod
The laurel'd caverns* of the god,
Nor harp so soft has ever given

A strain to earth or sigh to Heaven!

"Then tell the virgin to unfold,
"In looser pomp, her locks of gold,
"And bid those eyes with fonder fire
"Be kindled for a god's desire; †
"Since He, who lights the path of years-
"Even from the fount of morning's tears,
"To where his setting splendours burn

Upon the western sea-maid's urn"Cannot, in all his course, behold "Such eyes of fire, such hair of gold! "Tell her he comes in blissful pride, "His lip yet sparkling with the tide “That mantles in Olympian bowls, "The nectar of eternal souls!

* Αλλ' εις δαφνωδη γυαλα βησομαι ταδε.-EURIPID. Ion. v. 76.

Ne deve partorir ammiratione ch' egli si pregiasse di haver una Deità concorrente nel possesso della moglie; mentre anche nei nostri secoli, non ostante così rigorose legge d'onore, trovasi chi s'ascrive à gloria il veder la moglie honorata da gl'amplessi di un Principe.-PALLAVICINO.

"For her, for her he quits the skies,
"And to her kiss from nectar flies.
"Oh! he would hide his wreath of rays,

"And leave the world to pine for days,

66

Might he but pass the hours of shade "Imbosom'd by his Delphic maid— "She, more than earthly woman blest,

66

He, more than god on woman's breast!"

There is a cave beneath the steep,*
Where living rills of crystal weep
O'er herbage of the loveliest hue
That ever spring begemm'd with dew,
There oft the green bank's glossy tint
Is brighten'd by the amorous print

Of

many a

That still

faun and naiad's form,

upon the dew is warm

When virgins come at peep of day

To kiss the sod where lovers lay!
"There, there," the god, impassion'd, said,
"Soon as the twilight tinge is fled,

* The Corycian Cave, which PAUSANIAS mentions. The inhabitants of Parnassus held it sacred to the Corycian nymphs, who were children of the river Plistus.