Told to the young and bright-haired visitant And bright through every change !- he spoke of Him, And of the soul's untraceable descent From that high fount of spirit, through the grades Of intellectual being, till it mix With atoms vague, corruptible, and dark; Nor even then, though sunk in earthly dross, Quite lost, but tasting of the fountain still! And here the old man ceased-a winged train I knew my visionary soul had been ΤΟ THE world had just begun to steal I felt not as I used to feel, And life grew dark and love was gone! No eye to mingle sorrow's tear, No lip to mingle pleasure's breath, 1 Pythagoras is represented in Jamblichus as descending with great solemnity from Mount Carmel, for which reason the Carmelites have elaimed him as one of their fraternity. This Mochus or Moschus, with the descendants of whom Pythagoras conversed in Phoenicia,and from whom he derived the doctrines of atomic philosophy, is supposed by some to be the same with Moses. 2 Lactantius asserts that all the truths of Christianity may be found dispersed through the ancient philosophical sects, and that any one who would collect these scattered fragments of orthodoxy might form a code in no respect differing from that of the Christian. 'Si extitisset aliquis, qui veritatem sparsam per singulos per sectasque diffusam colligeret in unum, ac redigeret in corpus, is profecto non dissentiret a nobis.'-Inst. lib. vi. c. 7. 3 This fine Platonic image I have taken from a passage in Father Bouchet's letter upon the Metempsychosis, inserted in Picart's Cérém. Relig. tom. iv. But when I saw that gentle eye, Oh! something seemed to tell me then That I was yet too young to die, And hope and bliss might bloom again? With every beamy smile that crossed And Peace, which long had learned to roam! "Twas then indeed so sweet to live, Hope looked so new, and love so kind, That, though I weep, I still forgive The ruin which they've left behind! I could have loved you-oh, so well;- Which only lives while passion glows: But, when this early flush declines, When the heart's vivid morning fleets, You know not then how close it twines Round the first kindred soul it meets ! Last night, 'tis in vain to deny it, Your soul took a fancy to roam; For I heard her, on tiptoe so quiet, Come ask, whether mine was at home. And mine let her in with delight, And they talked and they kissed the time through; For when souls come together at night, There is no knowing what they mayn't do! And your little soul, Heaven bless her! Of how sadly you wrong and oppress her, 'If I happen,' said she, but to steal For a peep now and then to her eye, Or, to quiet the fever I feel, Just venture abroad on a sigh; 'In an instant, she frightens me ir, With some phantom of prudence or terror, For fear I should stray into sin, Or, what is still worse, into error ! 'So, instead of displaying my graces, Upon hearing this piteous confession, He did not know much of the matter; 'But, to morrow, sweet spirit!' he said, TO MRS. To see thee every day that came, But friendship's sweet and fairy strain A CANADIAN BOAT-SONG. WRITTEN ON THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE.1 Why should we yet our sail unfurl? Utawas' tide! this trembling moon The Rapids are near, and the daylight's past! men sung to us very frequently. The wind common and trifling; but I remember when we was so unfavourable that they were obliged to have entered, at sunset, upon one of those beau1 I wrote these words to an air which our boat- that are past, the melody may perhaps be thought cending the river from Kingston to Montreal, grandly and unexpectedly opens, I have heard row all the way, and we were five days in des- tiful lakes, into which the St. Lawrence so esposed to an intense sun during the day, and at this simple air with a pleasure which the finest any miserabie hut upon the banks that would given me; and now there is not a note of it night forced to take shelter from the dews in compositions of the first masters have never receive us. our oars in the St. Lawrence, the flight of our supposed to be sung by St. Lawrence repays all these difficulties. But the magnificent scenery of the which does not recall to my memory the dip of Our voyageurs had good voices, and sung pcr- boat down the Rapids, and all those new and the air, to which I adapted these stanzas, during the whole of this very interesting voyage. fectly in tune together. The original words of fanciful impressions to which my heart was alive appeared to be a long incoherent story, of which I could understand but little, from the barbarous those voyageurs who go to the Grande Portage pronunciation of the Canadians. It begins: Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontré Deax cavaliers très-bien montés; And the refrain to every verse was: The above stanzas are by the Utawas River. For an account of this wonderful undertaking, see Sir Alexander Mackenzie's General History of the Fur Trade, prefixed to his Journal. At the Rapid of St. Ann they are obliged to take out part, if not the whole, of their lading. It is from this spot the Canadians consider they take their departure, as it possesses the last Jished it. Without that charm which association tutelar saint of voyagers.'-Mackenzie's General I ventured to harmonize this air, and have pub- church on the island, which is dedicated to the gives to every little memorial of scenes or feelings History of the Fur Trade. EPISTLE IX. TO THE LADY CHARLOTTE RAWDON. FROM THE BANKS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. Nor many months have now been dreamed away 1 Avendo essi per costume di avere in veneratione gli alberi grandi ed antichi, quasi che siano spesso ricettaccoli di anime beate.'-Pietro della Valle, Part. Second. Lettera 16 da i giardini di Sciraz. 2 When I arrived at Chippewa, within three miles of the Falls, it was too late to think of visiting them that evening, and I lay awake all night with the sound of the cataract in my ears. The day following I consider as a kind of era in my life, and the first glimpse which I caught of those wonderful Falls gave me a feeling which nothing in this world can ever excite again. To Colonel Brock, of the 49th, who commanded at the Fort, I am particularly indebted for his kindness to me during the fortnight I remained at Niagara. Among many pleasant days which I passed with him and his brother officers, that of our visit to the Tuscarora Indians was not the least interesting. They received us in all their ancient costume: the young men exhibited for our amusement, in the race, the bat-game, etc.; while the old and the women sat in groups under the surrounding trees, and the picture altogether was as beautiful as it was new to me. |