II. "Ah," replied my gentle fair; "Dear one, what are names but air?- SLY Beelzebub took all occasions But Heaven, that brings out good from evil, His servants, horses, oxen, cows- HOARSE Mævius reads his hobbling verse And finds them both divinely smooth, But folks say Mævius is no ass; THERE comes from old Avaro's grave A deadly stench-why, sure, they have Immured his soul within his grave! SWANS sing before they die-'twere no bad thing Did certain persons die before they sing. THE GARDEN OF BOCCACCIO. Of late, in one of those most weary hours, I sate and cower'd o'er my own vacancy! The love, the joyance, and the gallantry! Gazed by an idle eye with silent might In selfless boyhood, on a new world tost Or fateful hymn of those prophetic maids, And, like a gift from heaven, in lifeful glee, Fair cities, gallant mansions, castles old, Prattled and play'd with bird, and flower, and stone, See! Boccace sits, unfolding on his knees As with elfin playfellows well known, And life reveal'd to innocence alone. Thanks, gentle artist! now I can descry With old Boccaccio's soul I stand possest, The brightness of the world, O thou once free, The new-found roll of old Mæonides ;* But from his mantle's fold, and near the heart, Long be it mine to con thy mazy page, Still in thy garden let me watch their pranks, *Boccaccio claimed for himself the glory of having first introduced the works of Homer to his country. + I know few more striking or more interesting proofs of the overwhelming influence which the study of the Greek and Roman classics exercised on the judgments, feelings, and imaginations of the literati of Europe at the commencement of the restoration of literature, than the passage in the Filocopo of Boccaccio: where the sage instructer, Racheo, as soon as the young prince and the beautiful girl, Biancafiore had learned their letters, sets them to study the Holy Book, Ovid's Art of Love. "Incominciò Racheo a mettere il suo officio in essecuzione con intera sollecitudine. E loro, in breve tempo, insegnato a conoscer le lettere, fece legere il santo libro d' Ovvidio, nel quale il sommo poeta mostra, come i santi fuochi di Venere si debbano ne freddi cuori occendere." JAMES MONTGOMERY. JAMES MONTGOMERY was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, in 1771. His parents belonged to the church of the United Brethren, commonly called Moravians, a sect by no means numerous in England, and still more limited in Scotland. Having previously sojourned for a short time at a village in the Irish county of Antrim, they placed the future poet at the school of their society at Fulnick, near Leeds, and embarked for the West Indies as missionaries among the negro slaves. They were the victims of their zeal and humanity; the husband died in Barbadoes, and the wife in Tobago. by the upright and unimpeachable tenor of his life— even more than by his writings-the persuasive and convincing advocate of religion. In his personal appearance, Montgomery is rather below than above the middle stature: his countenance is peculiarly bland and tranquil; and but for the occasional sparklings of a clear gray eye, it could scarcely be described as expressive. Very early in life, Montgomery published 1 volume of poems. They were not, it would appear, favourably received by the public; and he writes, the disappointment of his premature poetical hopes brought with it a blight which his mind has never recovered. "For many years," he adds, "I was as mute as a moulting bird; and when the power of song returned, it was without the energy, selfconfidence, and freedom which happier minstrels among my contemporaries have manifested.” Wanderer of Switzerland was published in 1806; the West Indies, in 1810; the World before the Flood, in 1813; Greenland in 1819; the Pelican Island, in 1827: he has since contented himself with the production of occasional verses. The Those who can distinguish the fine gold from the "sounding brass" of poetry, must place the name of James Montgomery high in the list of British After remaining two years at Fulnick, and, like other men of genius, disappointing the expectations of his friends as a student, "from very indolence," he was placed by them in a retail shop at Mirfield near Wakefield. This ungenial employment he considered himself-not being under indentures at liberty to relinquish at the end of two years, with a view to try his fortune in the great world. After spending other two years at a village near Rotherham, and a few months with a bookseller in London, he engaged as an assistant with Mr. Joseph Gales of Sheffield, who, published a newspaper; to the management of which, in 1794, he succeeded. This, though conducted with comparative moderation, exposed him to much enmity-poets; and those who consider that the chiefest rather inherited from his predecessor than actually incurred by himself. The liberty of the press in those days was, like faith," the substance of things hoped for;" a sentence of condemnation, or even a word of reproach, against men in " high places," was punished as libellous. Montgomery did not indeed share the fate of some of his stern sectarian forefathers; but in lieu of maiming and pillory, he had to endure fine and imprisonment. Within eighteen months, and when he had scarcely arrived at manhood, his exertions in the cause of rational freedom had twice consigned him to a jail. During the thirty years that followed, however, he was permitted to publish his opinions, without being the object of open persecutions. Wearied out, at length, he relinquished his newspaper, in 1825. Recently one of the government grants to British worthies has been conferred upon him; and-it must be recorded to his honour-by Sir Robert Peel. The poet continues to reside in Sheffield, esteemed, admired, and beloved: a man of purer mind, or more unsuspected integrity, never existed. He is an honour to the profession of letters; and duty of such is to promote the cause of religion, virtue, and humanity, must acknowledge in him one of their most zealous and efficient advocates. He does not, indeed, often aim at bolder flights of imagination; but if he seldom rises above, he never sinks beneath, the object of which he desires the attainment. If he rarely startles us, he still more rarely leaves us dissatisfied; he does not attempt that to which his powers are unequal, and therefore is at all times successful. To the general reader, it will seem as if the early bias of his mind and his first associations had tinged-we may not say tainted-the source from whence he drew his inspirations, and that his poems are "sicklied o'er’with peculiar impressions and opinions which fail to excite the sympathy of the great mass of mankind. We should, however, recollect, that, although he has chiefly addressed himself to those who think with him, his popularity is by no means confined to them; but that those who read poetry for the delight it affords them, and without any reference to his leading design, acknowledge his merit, and contribute to his fame. 572 574 "By a hundred winters piled, When the glaciers, dark with death, Hang o'er precipices wild, Hang-suspended by a breath: "If a pulse but throb alarm, Headlong down the steeps they fall; For a pulse will break the charm, Bounding, bursting, burying all. "Struck with horror stiff and pale, When the chaos breaks on high, All that view it from the vale, All that hear it coming, die :"In a day and hour accurst, O'er the wretched land of Tell, Thus the Gallic ruin burst, Thus the Gallic glacier fell!" SHEPHERD. "Hush that melancholy strain; Wipe those unavailing tears. WANDERER. "Nay-I must, I will complain; "Tis the privilege of years: ""Tis the privilege of wo Thus her anguish to impart : And the tears that freely flow Ease the agonizing heart." SHEPHERD. "Yet suspend thy griefs a while; See the plenteous table crown'd; And my wife's endearing smile Beams a rosy welcome round. "Cheese, from mountain dairies prest, PART II. After supper, the Wanderer, at the desire of his host, relates the sorrows and sufferings of his country during the invasion and conquest of it by the French, in connexion with his own story. WANDERER. "Stranger-friend, the tears that flow Which no human tongue can speak. Rich in every rural charm! Glid along, yet seem'd at rest; On the waking mother's breast. Into hopeless ruin hurl'd All this aching heart held dear. "On the princely towers of Berne Fell the Gallic thunder-stroke; Thrice o'erthrew his country's foes.t "Happy then were those who fell Fighting on their father's graves! Wretched those who lived to tell Treason made the victors slaves! * Brunnen, at the foot of the mountains, on the borders of the Lake of Uri, where the first Swiss patriots, Walter Furst of Uri, Werner Stauffacher of Schwitz, and Arnold of Melchtal in Underwalden, conspired against the ty ranny of Austria in 1307, again in 1798, became the seat of the diet of these three forest cantons. + On the plains of Morgarthen, where the Swiss gained thereby secured the independence of their country; Aloys their first decisive victory over the force of Austria, and Reding, at the head of the troops of the little cantons, Uri, Schwitz, and Underwalden, repeatedly repulsed the invading army of France. General Schawenbourg was compelled to respect their By the resistance of these small cantons, the French independence, and gave them a solemn pledge to that |