Or ftern Morocco's tyrant fang efcap'd, A The wretch half-wifhes for his bonds again; While, uproar all, the wilderness resounds, i From Atlas eastward to the frighted Nile...

DR. GOLDSMITH had probably this description in his memory when he drew the following picture of the fame fubject, which, however, he has rendered fufficiently different by judiciously dwel

ling upon the natural history of the fcene, rather than the paffion it infpires.

"NOTHING Can be more terrible than "an African landscape at the clofe of evening: the deep toned roarings of "the lion; the fhriller yellings of the

tyger; the jackall, pursuing by the "fcent, and barking like a dog the

hyæna, with a note peculiarly folitary

<< and

" and dreadful; but to crown' all, the

"hiffing of the various kinds of fer"pents, that at that time begin their "call, and, as I am affured, make a "much louder fymphony than the "birds in our groves in a morning.

"

Ir is very rare that Thomson does not excel when he imitates; yet the want of an accurate idea to work upon has injured the effect of fome very fine lines, apparently intended as a free copy from the accurate defcription, already quoted, of the Cherfydrus of Virgil. The Latin poet describes a particular fpecies of ferpent; Thomson means to paint fome large and terrible creature of that tribe, but without con

*Summer, 1. 897, & feq.

fining the draught to one individual kind. His images are therefore too general and indifcriminate.

MR. ADANSON, however, furnishes fome circumstances for a defcription of the enormous gigantic ferpent of Africa, which a poet might employ with ftriking effect. He conjectures this animal to be from forty to fifty foot-long at its full growth; and thus defcribes the manner in which it feeks its prey.

"He lurks in moraffes, and places not "far from the water. His tail is curled

two or three rounds of a circle, which "include a circumference from five to fix feet diameter, over which he

which he

"rears his head with part of his body. "In this attitude, and as it were im"moveable, he throws his eyes all "round

round, and when he perceives an ani "mals within reach, heydarts upon it "by means of the circumvolutions of "his tail, which have the fame effect " as a strong spring.",iptofulq yd by

THUS does every fcene of nature, foreign or domeftic, afford objects from whence an accurate furvey may derive new ideas of grandeur or beauty. Thus, where a careless eye only beholds an ordinary and indiftinct landfkip, one accustomed to examine, compare, and difcriminate will difcern detached figures and groups, which, judicioufly brought forwards, may be wrought into the noft ftriking pictures. These fimple propofitions were not of a kind which reafon ing could render more evident.

To

give a lively impreffion and feeling of their truth by examples was the only purpose to be pursued with advantage. Taste may perhaps be fixed and explained by philofophical investigation; but it can only be formed by frequent contemplation of the objects with which it is converfant. This, it is hoped, will prove a fufficient apology for the nume rous quotations which compofe fo large a fhare of this volume. Many of these, it is probable, will be familiar to the reader; but by appearing in a particular connexion, and being brought into comparison with fimilar paffages, they may be viewed in new lights, and their beauties become more confpicuous. At least, they may renew many agreeable ideas in the reader's mind; and thus

ΟΤ

evig

fecure