And name of her-Drusilla the Divine!* As Jove the Cloud-compeller, o'er my head His judgment thunders ever vainly sped, So do I shake my tameless spirit free
From all thy funeral threats, mysterious Deity! Again-why stays the dotard?-soft-he's here- Thrasyllus, soothsayer, dismiss the fear
That blanches in thy cheek, it mocks the snow Of thy most reverend tresses' scanty flow. Approach and mark me-quick-thy laggard foot Treads onward as reluctantly and mute,
As thou wert bidden to those glorious feasts Where I and Torture pledge the white-lipp'd guests; As if the domes that lean in radiant line Their ponderous gold upon the Palatine O'erhung thee now, filled with the festal state
I love to fling around the gulf of fate.
Thou start'st, as if thy moon-bewilder'd sight Saw not this spacious audience-hall aright:
Look round thee, priest, perchance thou'lt dare to say This is not Naples-that Sarrentum's bay ;
And there Misenum's cape, from whence-come near, I saw what none e'er saw but me-what ear
Was cursed not with till now,-THE MIGHTY SEA,
AS LIVE THE IMMORTAL GODS! HAS SPOKEN UNTO ME! And lifted up its thousand tongues, and shook All its wide deeps into one stormy look ;
And cast the thunder of its voice's roll,
And aspect's fierceness on both sense and soul.
"List to the portent.-Scarce an hour is past, Since, on yon emerald promontory cast,
I look'd along broad ocean's hush'd expanse Fill'd with the strength of midnight's countenance : Boundlessly slept the deep; nor sail nor oar Broke from the far horizon to the shore The stretch of waves that, lapsing calmly even, Drank the dark glory of the sapphire heaven; And far, away afar, Prochyta's isle Hoarded one hue of day's departed smile, One flush of rose-light that, I know not why, Long as it linger'd, fix'd my feverish eye; At length it faded into night, and then I faced the giant loneliness again!
I listen'd-'twas the rushing through my heart Of the hot blood in many a fiery start ;-
I listen'd-'twas the sedges' whispering speech, Kiss'd by the waters on the silver beach ;-
Once more I dream, or else the sounds that surge Still louder, break from ocean's circling verge! 'Twas even so-at first a mingling hum, Like that of nations meeting as they come, And then a loud hubbub-a sullen roar,
And dash of waves on every sounding shore- And billows rose and rose, without a breeze,
And the stars shrank before the howling seas
His favourite sister. He caused temples to be erected to her divinity-and upon
all occasions of unusual solemnity he swore by her name.
And mighty clouds came upward from afar, Like the old giants crowding on to war; And Heaven was hid, and hurrying voices high, Calling and answering from the upper sky,
Shook the wild air: At length, when fiercest raged The strife the waters with stunn'd Nature waged, At once the whole tremendous Ocean heaved Up in one wide convulsion!-Earth, relieved, Reel'd to her centre ;-still the growing sea Rear'd to the zenith its immensity,
And whirlwinds girt its limbs in stormy crowds, While from above career'd the thunder-clouds, And helm'd its shadowy head, as with the gloom And dreadful tossing of a battle-plume;
And the broad lightnings leap'd about, and pour'd Their terrors round it like a fiery sword!
_Thou tremblest, slave,—well, Caïus may confess That he, for one brief moment, did no less: Upward I strain'd my gaze to meet the brow Whose glance I felt was burning through me now. In vain for still the thunder's streamy scowl Muffled the features with a mighty cowl;
And, though at times the madd'ning winds would sweep That veil aside, I could not bear the deep
And wrathful face reveal'd and wrapp'd so soon -Lurid and dim, like an eclipsed moon! Fatigued I sank; but, mark me, not subdued By aught that savours of a weaker mood. Then on my ear a voice, whose accents spoke
With earthquake's hope-destroying loudness, broke;
At once o'er continent and islands spread
A calm, than even that warring din more dread;
And thus-Bis-Ultor Mars! what boots it what was said? Fierce words that told of some great Spirit still Claiming ascendance o'er my sceptred will— Some nameless God, who deem'd the Julian line
Were not so guiltless, not so all-divine
As slaves would hold; denouncements, too, that urge
To madness, lash'd as with a brazen scourge
My soul, and bared the future as the past,
And menaced of an hour, when on the blast Of glory's heaven, no more our Eagle's wings Should darken wide earth with their shadowings, But cower and stoop before the iron hail That broods even now in some far Polar gale ! -I bore no more-but sprang and faced the sea With a proud Roman's conscious majesty; And saw but there the fast-subsiding flood Through eyes bedimm'd as with a film of blood.
"And I had still to suffer: in the east
The breeze that freshen'd o'er the billow's breast Dash'd them to foam that, far as night prevails Gleam'd like the canvass of a thousand sails; And sails were there, that forward fast and free As those white billows, bounded countlessly; Strange spectre ships in many a ghastly fleet Crowding, and wafting one portentous freight, Which the rude barks demonstrate came from far -The Spear's stern merchandsie-barbarian War!
They near'd; each vessel burden'd with its group Of savage warriors at the shielded poop; Tall fire-eyed men, like the Athlete we Feed for the Arena's sportive butchery:
And still they swarm'd, and anchor'd, and outpour'd On wailing shores that devastating Horde! And a red haze swept o'er the groaning hills, And every sound and sight, whose horror thrills Perception, seem'd, by Hell's own black decision, Roll'd on my soul in one chaotic vision!
Jove! what a blinding scroll was there unfurl'd, The last wild throes of my own Roman World! The ravaged Province-slaughter'd people-Fanes Blazing and tumbling on the famish'd plains;
Even Rome, the god-built, belted round with war
And lo! the worse than Gauls burst through her every bar! And, 'mid the Plague's rank steam, mad Famine's roar,
And woman ravish'd and man's rushing gore,
The savage feasted in our palace halls
Aye, by the jasper founts, whose lulling falls Bless my Velitrian villa with their rain,' Beneath its shadows of luxuriant plane
Grim Scythia styed and quaff'd each priceless cup The Scipios' suppliant children proffer'd up!- It was too much-a whirling in my brain-
A snapping of each hot distended vein- And then oblivion-and that hour of fear Was o'er-and thou, dull prophet, thou art here! Aye, I remember all—while I have spoken, Back on my sense reality has broken.
I have but dream'd-and yonder guarded shades Shroud in 'mid Rome those glittering colonnades: And I am safe-have called thee, crafty Greek, To read the purport of my vision-speak!"
Slowly that bow'd and listening sage arose, And, though a century's consecrating snows Had whiten'd o'er his head, he stood as tall In the rich shadows of that sinful hall, And with as dauntless look, as he who read The words Jehovah the Avenger traced Before Belshazzar, in the hour the Mede Burst in red valour on that godless feast.
"Caïus!" thus calmly spoke the prescience-gifted, In accents solemn as sepulchral breeze
Through some lone cypress, while his hands uplifted Seem'd to attest immortal witnesses :-
"Caïus! my words are few; but, though the gloom Enwraps me of inexorable doom;
Though to my searching eye thy stern intent, Fang'd with all tortures tyrants can invent, Is not unknown, as I have yet conceal'd
No truth thy wilful race would see reveal'd ;
The Imperial Villa at Velitræ was his favourite retreat. It was celebrated for its gigantic plane-trees; one of which was capable of containing in its branches a large table, with the Emperor, attendants, &c.-PLINY.
So do I now unshrinkingly to thee
Pronounce my last and parting prophecy :- :---
SIN STALKS THE LEP'ROUS EARTH FROM SHORE TO SHORE, HER BUBBLING CHALICE WILL CONTAIN NO MORE ;
THE SHUDDERING Gods yield their derided poweER
TO THE GREAT ANGEL OF THE COMING HOUR ;
SOME ONE ALMIGHTY, THAT FROM COUNTLESS ELD HIS FACE IN CLOUDLESS DARKNESS HAS WITHHELD; HIS WRATH SHALL SWEEP THE NATIONS, AND THE SEA
BE THE STERN SERVANT OF THAT MINISTRY! *
IN BLOOD SHALL SINK EACH CESAR'S BLOOD-STAIN'D FORM- YE SOW'D THE WHIRLWIND-GO REAP THE STORM!
The first serious irruption of the barbarians took place by sea.
They descended the Ister to the Euxine, and pouring through the Hellespont, inundated the coasts of Greece, Africa, and Italy.
Adolphus, John, Esq., his memoir of John Bannister, comedian, reviewed, 392. Eschylus, his Eumenides, translated by Mr Chapman, 695.
Afghanistan, India, and Persia, 93. Alcove, Christopher, in his, 538. Alderley, the Iron Gate, a legend of, 271. Ancient Scottish Music, the Skene MS., an account of, 1.
Angelo, Michael, remarks on the peculiari- ties of thought and style in his picture of the last judgment, 267.
Assassins and Bull Fights, 656. Australia, Major Mitchell's, expeditions into that country, reviewed, 113. Aytoun, William E., his translation into English Trochaics, of the twenty-second book of the Iliad, 634.
Bannister, the comedian, his memoirs by Adolphus reviewed, 392.
Ben-na-groich, a tale, 409-Chap. II., 411 Chap. III., 413.
Browne, Washington, of New York, his sonnets, 300.
Bull-fight at Valencia, described, 664. Burnet's engravings of the cartoons, eulo gised, 390.
Caligula, Vision of, by B. Simmons, 849. Cantilena, translated into song, 537. Carew's poetry characterised, 783. Chapman, Mr, his translation of the Eume. nides of Eschylus, 695. Chambers, our, 831.
Cheminant, Louis de, his Farewell to Eng- land, 586.
Christopher in his Alcove, 538. Client, my first, 733. Consciousness, Introduction to the Phi- losophy of, Part VI., Chap. I., 201— Chap. II., 205-Part VII., The Con- clusion, Chap. I., 419-Chap. II., 424 -Chap. III., 426.
Corn-law question, dilemmas in regard to it stated, 170.
Cornwall, Barry, his edition of Ben Jonson, reviewed, 146.
Dauney, Mr, his edition of the Skene MS. of Ancient Scottish Musie, reviewed, 3. Desultory dottings down upon Dogs, 475. Dii Minorum Gentium, No. I., Carew and Herrick, 782.
Dilemmas on the corn-law question, 170. Dogs, desultory dottings down upon, 475. Domett, Alfred, his poem from Lake Wal- lenstadt in Switzerland, entitled Kate, 301.
Education, religious and secular, 275. Egypt the Trojan horse-Homer, 366. Elections, France and her, 431. English language, the, 455.
Family, Prospectus of a history of our, 669.
Farewell to England, by Louis de Chemi- nant, 586.
France and her elections, 431-the defeat of Louis Philippe would be the defeat of the French monarchy, ib.—a rapid review of the events of the last nine years taken, ib.fickleness is the characteristic, and no reliance can be placed in French assur
ances and conduct, 436-What are the reasons of this fickleness? First, moral, 487-second, political, 438-the French have always prepared themselves most for revolution when most prosperous, ib.- their situation now is precisely similar to that in 1830, 439-the coalition now formed is against monarchy, proved--first, by the address of the 221 deputies in 1830, 440-by the alteration, made in 1830, of the charter of 1814, 441-by the restraints imposed on royalty at, and since 1830, 442-by the complaints made by the coalition against Louis-Philippe in 1839, 443-of his wishing to form a part of the European family of sovereigns, ib.- of maintaining peace, ib.-of wishing to establish an absolute monarchy, 443-of wishing to perpetuate a line of policy fatal to the liberties of the country, 445--the coalition have adopted the same cant phrases as the English Radicals in regard to elec- toral reform, 477-the elections of 1839 the most momentous that ever occurred in France, 452-its evil consequences de- scribed, 453-all parties seemed to have combined for the purpose of attacking Louis Philippe, and, through him, the throne, 454.
Gardiner, William, his work of Music and Friends, or Pleasant Recollections of a dilettanti, reviewed, 480.
German, the life of a speculative, 837 Gods, hymns to the, No. 1. To Neptune, 819-No. II. to Apollo, 820-No. III. to Venus, 822-No. IV. to Diana, 824 -No. V. to Mercury, 825-No. VI. to Bacchus, 826.
Goethe and the Germans, a discourse on them, 247.
Hallowed Ground, a poem by George
Paulio, parish schoolmaster of Newlands, Part I., 595- Part II. 598 Herrick's poetry, characterised, 791. Homer-Egypt-the Trojan horse, 366. House on the Hills, the, a tale in verse, 654.
Hymns to the Gods. No I. To Neptune, 819-No. II. to Apollo, 820-No. III. to Venus, 822-No. IV. to Diana, 824 -No. V. to Mercury, 825-No. VI. to Bacchus, 826.
Iliad, the twenty-second book of it translated into English Trochaics, by William E. Aytoun, 634.
India, Persia, and Afghanistan, 93. Ireland under the Triple Alliance-the po- pular party, the Roman Catholic priests, and the Queen's Ministers, 212- the agrarian calendar of crimes furnished by this alliance is, 1st, Enforcement, &c., of the rights of property, 214-landlords,
ib.-agents, 218-bailiffs, 219-tenants, 220-Unpopular exercise of elective fran- chise, 222-evidence, ib.-jury, obnox- ious verdict, 223-Protestantism, 224- refusal to enter secret societies, 227- 2d, proofs of agrarian crimes continued, Baron Richard's charge, 341-elective franchise, 345-evidence in court of law, ib.-obligations of a juror, 346-the crime of Protestantism, or, conversion from Rome, 347-the landlord crime, 348 -elective franchise, ib.-evidence, ib.- jury, 359- Protestantism, 350-Rib- bonism, 352.
Iron gate, the, a legend of Alderley, 271. Italy as it was, 62.
Kate, a poem, from Lake Wallenstadt in Switzerland, 301.
Lamartine, Alphonse de, his life and literary character, characterised, 76. Legend of the Lido, the, 755. Legendary Lore, by Archæus, No. V., The
Onyx Ring. Part III., Chap. I. 17- Chap. II., 20-Chap. III., 23-Chap. IV., 26-Chap. V., 27-Chap. VI., 30 Chap. VII., 35- Chap. VIII., 36— Chap. IX., 38- Chap. X., 40-Chap. XI., 43-Chap. XII., 46. Lido, the Legend of the, 755.
Manchester, a week at, 481.
Mathews, the comedian, his memoirs by Mrs Mathews, reviewed, 229.
Mérimée on oil painting, reviewed, 747. Mildmay, A. Murray, his letter to Chris- topher North, Esq., on Scotch nationality, 643.
Milne's, R. M., on the Goddess Venus in the middle ages, 613.
Mitchell, Major, his second and third ex-
pedition into the interior of Eastern Australia, reviewed, 113.
Moral songs and poems, on the earlier English, 303.
Morals and manners, reflections on them, 190.
Music and friends, or Pleasant recollections of a Dilettanti, by William Gardiner, re- viewed, 480.
My after-dinner adventures with Peter Schlemihl, 467. My first client, 733.
Nationality, on Scotch, in a letter to Chris-
topher North, Esq., 643.
Notes of a traveller-leaving London, 682 -Dover, the reveillé, 683-Dover, the detenu, 685-concerning parrots, and our parrot, ib.-cheap French dinners, 687-wet weather in Paris, 689-a dog-day in a diligence, 691-souvenirs of Baden, 693.
Old Roger, a poem, 106.
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