PINKERTON has said that a good history and description of the Bermudas might afford a pleasing addition to the geographical library; but there certainly are not materials for such a work. The island, since the time of its discovery, has experienced so very few vicissitudes, the people have been so indolent, and their trade so limited, that there is but little which the historian could amplify into importance; and, with respect to the natural productions of the country, the few which the inhabitants can be induced to cultivate, are so common in the West Indies, that they have been described by every naturalist who has written any account of those islands. It is often asserted by the transatlantic politicians, that this little colony deserves more attention from the mother-country than it receives, and it certainly possesses advantages of situation, to which we should not be long insensible if it were once in the hands of an enemy. I was told by a celebrated friend of Washington, at New York, that they had formed a plan for its capture, towards the conclusion of the American War; with the intention (as he expressed himself) of making it a nest of hornets for the annoyance of British trade in that part of the world. And there is no doubt, it lies so fairly in the track to the West Indies, that an enemy might with ease convert it into a very harassing impediment. The plan of Bishop Berkeley for a college at Bermuda, where American savages might be converted and educated, though concurred in by the government of the day, was a wild and useless speculation. Mr Hamilton, who was governor of the island some years since, proposed, if I mistake not, the establishment of a marine academy for the instruction of those children of West Indians, who might be intended for any nautical employment. This was a more rational idea, and for something of this nature the island is admirably calculated. But the plan should be much more extensive, and embrace a general system of education, which would entirely remove the alternative in which the colonists are involved at present, of either sending their sons to England for instruction, or entrusting them to colleges in the States of America, where ideas by no means favourable to Great Britain are very sedulously inculcated. The women of Bermuda, though not generally handsome, have an affectionate languor in their look and manner, which is always interesting. What the French imply by their epithet aimante seems very much the character of the young Bermudian girls-that predisposition to loving, which, without being awakened by any particular object, diffuses itself through the general manner in a tone of tenderness that never fails to fascinate. The men of the island, I con To the kindest, the dearest-oh! judge by the tear, 'T was thus, by the shade of a calabash-tree, Oh! say, do you thus, in the luminous hour Last night, when we came from the calabash-tree, Oh, magic of love! unembellish'd by you, Like the vista that shines through the eye to the heart? Alas! that a vision so happy should fade! While the friends, who had seem'd to hang over the stream, And to gather the roses, had fled with my dream! But see, through the harbour, in floating array, fess, are not very civilized; and the old philosopher, who imagined that, after this life, men would be changed into mules, and women into turtle-doves, would find the metamorphosis in some degree anticipated at Bermuda. Mountains of Sicily, upon which Daphnis, the first inventor of bucolic poetry, was nursed by the nymphs. See the lively description of these mountains in DIODORUS SICULUS, lib. iv. Hpacz jap opn κατά την Σικελίαν εςιν, ο φασι καλλει, κ. τ. λ. A ship, ready to sail for England. What can we wish, that is not here For me, there's not a lock of jet Along your temples curl'd, Within whose glossy, tangling net, My soul doth not, at once, forget All, all the worthless world! 'T is in your eyes, my sweetest love! My only worlds I see; Let but their orbs in sunshine move, And earth below and skies above May frown or smile for me! ASPASIA. 'Twas in the fair Aspasia's bower, There, as the listening statesman hung Was plann'd between two snowy arms! Sweet times! you could not always lastAnd yet, oh! yet, you are not past; THE GRECIAN GIRL'S DREAM OF THE BLESSED ISLANDS. TO HER LOVER. όχι τε καλος Πυθαγόρης, όσσοι τε χορον στηριξαν ερωτος. Апoddwy пept Пartvov. Oracul. Metric. a JOAN. OPSOP. collecta. WAS it the moon, or was it morning's ray, While thus I lay, in this voluptuous calm, It was imagined by some of the ancients that there is an ethereal ocean above us, and that the sun and moon are two floating luminous islands, in which the spirits of the blessed reside. Accordingly, we find that the word Oxɛ205 was sometimes synonymous with anp, and death was not unfrequently called Nxzavoto Toрos, or the passage of the ocean." 2 EUNAPIUS, in his Life of Jamblichus, tells us of two beautiful little spirits or loves, which Jamblichus raised by enchantment from And rise at midnight, from the tepid rill, Through paths of light, refresh'd with starry dew, Thou know'st, my love, beyond our clouded skies, So often guides thee to my arms at night, Floating in splendour through those seas above! the warm springs at Gadara; dicens astantibus (says the author of I find from CELLARIES, that Amatha, in the neighbourhood of Gadare, was also celebrated for its warm springs, and I have preferred But think, my Theon, how this soul was thrill'd, To fly, to clasp, and worship it for thee! But, by a throb to spirits only given, We met-like thee the youthful vision smiled; it as a more poetical name than Gadara. CELLARIES quotes HIERO-Oh my beloved! how divinely sweet This belief of an ocean in the heavens, or waters above the firmament, was one of the many physical errors in which the early fathers bewildered themselves. Le P. BALTUS, in his Défense des saints Pères accusés de Platonisme, taking it for granted that the ancients were more correct in their notions (which by no means appears from what I have already quoted), adduces the obstinacy of the fathers in this whimsical opinion, as a proof of their repugnance to even truth from the hands of the philosophers. This is a strange way of defending the fathers, and attributes much more than they deserve to the philosophers. For an abstract of this work of Baltus (the opposer of Fontenelle, Van Dale, etc. in the famous oracle controversy), see Bibliothèque des Auteurs Ecclesiast, du vŝième siècle, › part. tom. ii. There were various opinions among the ancients with respect to their lunar establishment; some made it an elysium, and others a purgatory; while some supposed it to be a kind of entrepôt between heaven and earth, where souls which had left their bodies, and those that were on their way to join them, were deposited in the valleys of Hecate, and remained till further orders. Tots Rept osanny αερι λέγειν αυτάς κατοικείν, και απ' αυτής κάτω χωpety Els Try Replyslov yevesty, -STOв. lib. 1. Eclog. Physic. The pupil and mistress of Epicurus, who called ber his dear little Leontium (Acouτxptov), as appears by a fragment of one of bis hetters in Laertius. This Leontium was a woman of talent; she had the impudence (says CICERO) to write against Theopbrastns; and, at the same time, CICERO gives her a name which is neither polite nor translatable. • Meretricula etiam Leontium contra Theophrastum scribere ausa est. De Natur. Deor. She left a daughter, called Danae, who was just as rigid an Epicurean as her mother; something like WIELAND's Danae in Agathon. It would sound much better, I think, if the name were Leontia, as it occurs the first time in Laertius, bat M. Menage will not hear of this reading. Pythias was a woman whom Aristotle loved, and to whom, after her death, be paid divine honours, solemnizing her memory by the same sacrifices which the Athenians offered to the goddess CeresFor this impious gallantry the philosopher was, of course, censured it would be well however if some of our modern Stagyrites had a lie tle of this superstition about the memory of their mistresses. Socrates; who used to console himself in the society of Aspasia for those less endearing ties which he found at home with Xartippe. For an account of this extraordinary creature, Aspasia, and her school of erudite luxury at Athens, see L'Histoire de l'Académie, etc. tom. xxxi, p. 69. SEGUR rather fails on the subject of Aspasia: « Les Femmes,» tom. i, p. 122. The author of the Voyage du Monde de Descartes has also placed these philosophers in the moon, and has allotted Seigneuries to them, as well as to the astronomers (2 part. p. 143), but he ought not to have forgotten their wives and mistresses; curæ non ipsa in morte relinquunt.» 3 There are some sensible letters extant under the name of this fair Pythagorean. They are addressed to her female friends upon the education of children, the treatment of servants, etc. One, in particular, to Nicostrata, whose husband had given her reasons for jealousy, contains such truly considerate and rational advice, that it ought to be translated for the edification of all married ladies. See GALE'S Opuscul. Myth. Phys. p. 741. 4 Pythagoras was remarkable for fine hair, and Doctor TRIKES (in his Histoire des Perruque) seems to take for granted it was all bis own, as he has not mentioned him among those ancients who were obliged to have recourse to the coma apposititia.-L'Hist. des Perruques, chap. 1. The Elean god,' whose faithful waters flow, Think, when he mingles with his fountain-bride, But, Theon, 't is a weary theme, Thy lip shall teach me something more than dreams! THE SENSES. A DREAM. IMBOWER'D in the vernal shades, And circled all by rosy fences, I saw the five luxurious maids, Whom mortals love, and call The Senses. Many and blissful were the ways In which they seem'd to pass their hoursOne wander'd through the garden's maze, Inhaling all the soul of flowers; Like those who live upon the smell Of roses, by the Ganges' stream,2 With perfume from the flowret's bell, She fed her life's ambrosial dream. Another touch'd the silvery lute, To chain a charmed sister's ear, Who hung beside her, still and mute, Gazing as if her eyes could hear! The nymph who thrill'd the warbling wire Would often raise her ruby lip, As if it pouted with desire Some cooling, nectar'd draught to sip. Nor yet was she who heard the lute Unmindful of the minstrel maid, The river Alpheus; which flowed by Pisa, or Olympia, and into which it was customary to throw offerings of different kinds, during the celebration of the Olympic games. In the pretty romance of Chitophon and Leucippe, the river is supposed to carry these offerings as bridal gifts to the fountain Arethusa. Και επι την Αρεθούσαν οὕτω του Αλφειον νυμφαςόλει. όταν ουν ἡ των Ολυμ πιων έορτη, κ. τ. λ. lib. 1. Circa fontem Gangis Astomorum gentem balitu tantum viventum et odore quem naribus trahant. PLIN. lib. vii, cap. 2. |