be made the subject of an article, ones almost (will vanity let me own it) too. and every part deserving notice much. Milton is a capital painter of them ; would be extracted or compressed in, and Cowley, when he does mention them, the account, so that the original work does it finely, often in spite of his conceits. need not be published. Candid cri- Our Shakspeare-no, the world will not let tics !-But what will become of the him be ours any longer-well, the

world's anthor ?--Oh, poor fellow ! he will shakspeare sounds better--he has some bebe the sooner * put out of his mi- it is possible) than Nature herself: and my

witching pictures of them, sweeter even (if sery,” as we say of insects when they favourite Thomson shall not yield to any are trodden upon.

one, either ancient or modern, in my opi. Our readers will peruse with some nion-only mine perhaps. See how he interest the following unaffected re- paints the white hyacinth : marks on the Flora Domestica, con

Hyacinths of purest virgin white tained in a letter from a Correspon- Low bent, and blushing inward! dent, whose poems furnish many of

The Author is mistaken about the Cow. the illustrations. We trust our friend will pardon the liberty we have taken slip, as it is a very favoured Aower, and no in printing it without his permis- neither : it is as great a favourite as the

cottager's garden is without it, nor farmer's sion.

single Daisy, and the Dwarf ButtercupI am pleased with the mention the au- the “ little Celandine” of botanists. All thor has made of me, and not only pleased, spring flowers are beloved with us; but the but proud of it: I will make a few re- summer ones seem hardly to claim any nomarks while I am hot, for I shall be soon tice, their names are lost in their number. cold perhaps. How pretty is the allusion The ox-eye is summer Daisy;" and, to poor Keats's grave! Hazlitt says, the I believe, it is the only flower, almost, early writers described flowers the best ; that the shepherd, ploughman, and milkperhaps they do; and, I think, they are maid know by name, among the summer mentioned too sparingly, and the living multitude.

our

TWO SONNETS TO MARY.
I met thee like the morning, though more fair,

And hopes 'gan travel for a glorious day ;
And though night met them ere they were aware,

Leading the joyous pilgrims all astray--
Yet know I not, though they did miss their way

That joy'à so much to meet thee,-if they are
To blame or bless the fate that bade such be.

Thou seem'dst an angel when I met thee first,
Nor has aught made thee otherwise with me.

Possession has not cloy'd my love, nor curst
Fancy's wild visions with reality.

Thou art an angel still ; and Hope, awoke
From the fond spell that early raptures murst,

Still feels a joy to think that spell ne'er broke.
The flower that's gather’d, beauty soon forsakes;

The bliss grows feeble as we gain the prize;
Love dreams of joy, and in possession wakes,

Scarce time enough to hail it ere it dies :
Life intermingles, with its cares and sighs,

And rapture's dreams are ended. Heavenly flower !
It is not so with thee:-still fancy's power

Throws rainbow-halos round thee; and thine eyes,
That once did steal their sapphire blue from even,

Are beaming on—thy cheeks' bewitching dye,
Where partial roses all their blooms had given,

Still in fond memory with the rose can vie;
And thy sweet bosom which to view was leaven-
No lily yet a fairer hue supplies.

PERCY GREEN.

THE MARRIAGE ACT OF OLYMPUS.

1.
In those remote, forgotten times

We never hear of but at college,
Y clept the golden age in rhymes,
Because of gold it had no knowledge;

2.
When laws were few and lawyers none,

To give to simple words a sly sense,
A law there was-a solemn one,
No marriage without Cupid's licence.

3.
How happy then was human life,

How worthy of a poet's blessing;
When all the days of man and wife
Were spent in loving and caressing !

4.
And yet in time complaints were made,

For mortals ever will be grumbling;
“ Brothers, beware," a croaker said,
“ The social edifice is tumbling;

5.
“ For marriage here so rare is grown,

We can't keep up our population."
Malthus's book was then unknown,
So no one thought of refutation.

6.
Indeed the counsel was well-meant,

Nor quite untrue—the world grew vicious, -
And Cupid never gave consent
To join the old and avaricious.

7.
Then Jupiter, good easy God,

Framed a new Marriage Act to suit us ;
And gave, by his celestial nod,
Joint powers of licensing to Plutus.

8.
But Love swore men should rue the day

They first shook off his sweet dominion:
Now Love could do as well as say,
Nor spared his bow, nor flagg'd his pinion.

9.
To prove Sir Cupid kept his word,

Needs not, alas! my tedious rhyming ;
Flames of all sorts are now preferr'd

To that which comes froin torch of Hymen.

10.

Ah! hapless days of human life,

Ah! days of wretchedness and fury!
When the de facto man and wife
Differ so much from the de jure.

11.
Would we might olden times restore,

And call past ages with a wish up,
Marriage should flourish as of yore,
And Cupid be the sole Archbishop!

L

HANNIBAL

Aug. 1823.

VISIT TO THE CITY OF SORRENTO.

(Continued frum our last Number.) The next morning we were awaken- good telescope, the massy columns ed at an early hour by our parsonale ; of those ponderous ruins may be and, apt as we are to indulge our discovered. From this flat, a rocky, selves in the morning (for late din- bushy, and precipitous path leads ners, and theatres, and city hours down the glen to the arco ;-we despoil a man sadly), we arose imme- scended through tall and fragrant diately, and in a few minutes were wild myrtles, which formed the walking in the open air. We ac- greater part of a sort of thicket, companied our friend Natale, the which filled the dell, growing thicker parsonale, to his cottage ; here we and more luxuriant as we went found all the family a-foot, and va- down; we observed on either hand, riously employed. Natale’s cottage, long ranges of rude, warm coloured like the other peasants' cottages, was rocks, disposed in vertical strata ; divided into two parts; the habitable and, after descending some ten mihalf, to which you ascended by a nutes, we caught sight of the upper flight of stone steps, was formed into part of the arch, which looked like two rooms, one of which served as a a rude bridge, and seemed to open sleeping-room to the greater part of and rise as we descended: we soon the family, and the other was at once afterwards saw through its broad kitchen, parlour, and store-room; the span the sea, the rocks, and the olive lower half was divided into various plantations on the other side. As offices, as stalls for cattle, barns, &c. we approached the basis of the arch, and one large room was filled with we quitted the little winding path, presses, and other machinery for mak- and pushed in through the bushes ing wine and oil. We observed here, and dwarf trees to a place where as about all this part of the country, we had a pleasant seat and a good that the people were very frugal, ro- point of view. This arco di Sant' Elia bust, and hardy, tolerably industri- is a natural arch of great height and ous, and not very cleanly: among span; there are, in truth, two arches, many things, illustrative of the latter one of which is inconsiderable when fact, we might mention that the ap- compared with the enormous height proach to the door was defended, or and stride of the other: the top of adorned, or what you please, by an the grand arch is very thin and narimmense dunghill, which, standing row, and the stones which compose immediately in front of the cottage, it seem, seen from below, to be loose furnished its inhabitants with a con- slabs laid by the hands of man; the stant subject of contemplation. mountain to which it is attached on

When the heats of the day were one side, is covered with olives, and over we set out to see the Arco di indeed all the neighbouring slopes are Sant Elia, which had been mention- covered with the same plant; a few of ed to us as una cosa degna da vedere: a them even fringe a part of the top of strapping lad, the son of the country- the arch. On these very slopes are man, was our guide; our road lay produced the finest olives of the kingalong the ridge of the hill for about dom of Naples, and this is just the a quarter of a mile, and then, passing soil and situation which ancient and through some masserie, we entered a modern agriculturists consider the wooded lane running along under a best for those trees. The dell dishill, which led us to a little open moor, charges itself through the main arch, just abovea glen descending to the sea. and opens on slopes which run down Here we saw the Galli (Sirenum sco- in terraces to cliffs above the sea. puli) the broad bay of Salerno full be- While we were sitting here, a litfore us, the mountains that hide the tle troop of peasants came toiling up city of Salerno, and, afar off, under the steep, bending beneath loads of the blue bills, the melancholy flat dried fern, brushwood, grass, and on which Pæstum is situated, fringed corn; they wound under the arch in towards its extremities by woods, and the most picturesque manner imashut in by mountains and sea; we ginable, at times entirely hid by have been told, that hence, with a projections of rocks, or interwoven boughs, and, at times, showing only The peasants on these hills we their burdened heads : as they drew found very devout, and we had frenear to where we lay, we were for- quent opportunities of observing how cibly attracted by an old, decrepid, punctually they attended the chapel witch-like woman; she bowed low which stood on the ridge of the Conti, beneath a large bundle of fern, some of a short distance from our house, the withered branches of which hung and whither we ourselves sometimes dangling down, and partially con- repaired. Every Sunday morning cealed her wrinkled sun-burnt face; an old priest came up from the her skin was dark brown, a quan- Piano to say mass; at a very early tity of black, or rather grizzled hair hour a small tinkling bell began to hung about her neck and shoulders; ring, to warn the peasants in the cother long arms, bare and skinny, were tages around, who presently sallied held above her head to grasp her out, adorned in their little finery, and burden; her feet were naked, and repaired to the house of prayer. We seemed as insensible as the stones frequently saw the old priest going she trod on. When they drew near along in all his humble importance, us, they heard our voices, and paused mounted on an ass, and surrounded by a moment to listen ; we were so com- respectful country people, to whom, pletely concealed that they could not ever and anon, he put a question or discover us, though they pryed very imparted a piece of advice. Stragcuriously about, and at length, not gling groups came towards the chabeing able thus to satisfy their curio- pel by different paths, all clean and sity, one of them called out to know decently attired, and with seriousness who was there ; as we did not an- in their looks. Mass was said in the swer they repeated the question; place to a devout and attentive auand as we were still silent, a certain dience, and the priest was afterwards alarm seized them, they quickened remunerated for his services by a getheir steps, hastily threaded the green neral collection, to which each person thicket, and we lost sight of them in subscribed his grain, or two or three a minute. We afterwards arose and grains, according to his circumdescended through the arch ; at al- stances. Sometimes, in fine weather, most every step, right or left, up- the priest remained upon the hill all ward or downward, we were charm- day, and in the evening gave a brief ed with a new combination of rocks sermon in the chapel, which was aland verdure, sea, islands, and hills; ways very well attended. While he the objects which deserve particular remained on the hill he was enterremark, are the Galli, the mountains tained by some one or other of the of Calabria across the bay, and the most substantial peasants, to whom, lofty and noble hills, near Amalfi, in return for good fare, he imparted which dip so boldly into the water. good advice, not only spiritual, but We lingered about here, sketching, temporal. We observed that a great &c. till the evening, and then slowly deal of cordiality existed between returned home; as we passed along the priest and the peasantry, and we heard at every cottage the pea- this was equally creditable to both, sants muttering the ave-maria ; they and at the same time very natural, sat out-side their doors, enjoying the as the priest, besides his clerical digfreshness of the hour, the cadence of nity, was the adviser and comforter of their voices harmonized with the sub- all the community. His evening disdued sounds of some church and courses were not altogether bad, but convent bells which floated upwards generally savoured somewhat of a from the Piano, and the united effect pecuniary affection for la madre of these soft prayers, the distant chiesa, an interest, apparently, not by murmur of the bells, the coolness of any means of opinion, but very real the breeze, the masses of mountains and tangible: his discourses were, of and woods, the scattered cottages, course, calculated for the meridian of these latter growing more grotesque his auditors' intellects; he was exin the increasing obscurity, with many ceedingly fond of elucidating his subother little particulars, formed a ject with tropes and figures, which scene so romantic and picturesque as were always, as may be supposed, of to retard our progress and baffle our a very homely nature. A part of powers of description.

minds at this moment: “ The grace of here and there, feathered with a few God," said he, “ is like a fire in a small trees. The extent of view from bruciere, which always requires to this elevation is immense, embracing be watched and renewed and fanned the two bays, the line of Apennines, to be kept alive ; thus, per via di running across the Sarnia, and ending esempio, if you want a fire to cook (to our view) at the cape, that divides your dinner, you do not light it the gulph of Policastro from the bay of and go away and leave it to itself, Salerno, being bounded on one side for then, you know it would go out; by Mount Sant Angelo, and on the but you stand over it and fan it, other by the blue arch of the hoand stir it, and trim it, and take rizon beyond the island of Ponza. all care of it, and thus it burns From this height we looked down brightly; so does the grace of God into the higher valleys, and all the require care and watching, and fann- secrets of the mountains were reing, and stirring to keep it alive with- vealed; we saw little villages, and in you, otherwise it is also soon ex- vineyards, and flocks, in solitary tinguished."

and almost unknown defiles: looking Another of our excursions, which, one way we had before us the Monte perhaps, it may be worth while to comune, very brown and bleak; some mention, was to a bold hill called scattered flocks of sheep and goats Vicarvano, which rises abruptly from browsed on its side, and near its the ridge of the Conte Fontanella. summit stood a solitary hut; beyond This hill is the most romantic of any we saw the higher head of Sant in the neighbourhood; it is exceed. Angelo still more wild and bleak and ingly lofty, and so steep that the path forlorn; it appears to have been shatis merely a series of rude steps from tered by some violence, as its strata the bottom to the top ; the ascent is on the side towards us are all laid very bushy, and every moment we bare; a little white hermitage is lost sight of one another, behind placed in a rocky corner on its sumthick screens of broom, fern, myrtle, mit, at least three quarters of a mile dwarf-oak, and other hardy shrubs, above the sea. From one point of the which, rooted in the fissures of the hill we looked down on a large derocks, and encouraged by soil and serted Camaldolese convent, which is sun, and rain, would soon form an situated at the edge of Monte Camal. impassable wilderness, but that the doli,-on the little old city of Vico, persons to whom the property be- which stands behind Monte Chiaro, longs employ peasants to cut down and on the whole of the Piano with the brushwood every year, and to its gardens and villages. We could burn it to charcoal at the foot of the see also the disposition of the hills on hill, and the flames and smoke of the other side of the Piano; Malathose large fires may be seen at in- cocola, St. Angelo, and the Deserto, tervals all the way up. On our way forming, as it were, a fork, which is we met, every now and then, country- presented towards Naples, and inpeople descending, some bearing long cludes in its span the city of Sorrento. poles and branch of trees, bu the Beyond these we saw Capri peering greater part carrying large loads of over Cape Minerva, now Cape Camnewly cut grass. In about three panella, and a little further to the quarters of an hour, we came up to right, the islands of Ischia, Procida, a wall of rocks, so lofty and so abrupt, and Nisita, while just below us, in that it seemed impossible to pass the bay of Salerno, lay the Galli

. them; an immense block, a little de- So many objects, so wide and beautached from the principal mass, as tiful a view, fully occupied our attenwe approached it, appeared to stand tion for some time, and would proimmediately in our path, but on reach- bably have done so much longer, ing it we found the track wound but that our two guides, stout hearty round its base, and afterwards crept lads, sons of Natale, who had, while between a parcel of huddled rocks we were gazing on the landscape, until it reached a rude and narrow been sitting apart among the bushes, gap in the main strata, which brought seriously and diligently employed us to the summit of the hill. We with a basket of provisions which found the top a large irregular flat, we had ordered up, observed it was covered with grass and bushes, and, time to go home, for the basket