dere findet man im 4ten Bunde der Eschenburgschen Beispielsammlung. Letztere ist überschrieben: Ode in Commemoration of the glorious revolution, 166, und wurde durch die sehr feierlich begangene hundertjährige Gedächtnifsfeier der grofsen Revolution veranlasst. Ausserdem führt der Verfasser seiner Biographie (im 170sten Stücke des Intelligenzblattes der Allgemeinen Literaturzeitung vom Jahre 1790, aus welchem wir die hier mitgetheilten Notizen größtentheils entlehnt haben) eine Ode to the naval Officers of Great Britain, 1779, 4, an. Mason hat sich auch durch die Herausgabe einiger Englischen Dichter Verdienste erworben. So hat man von ihm unter andern: Whitehead's poems with his life and writings in drei Bänden in 8, desgleichen eine schöne Ausgabe von Gray's Gedichten, deren wir bereits im ersten Theil dieses Handbuchs S. 247. erwähnt haben. Die besten Nachrichten über ihn soll das Monthley Magazine von 1797 (April S. 325 und Mai S. 404) enthalten, welches wir aber zu benutzen nicht Gelegenheit hatten. Eben so war es uns auch nicht möglich, eine vollständige Ausgabe seiner Werke zum Behuf unsrer Sammlung herbeizuschaffen. Die hier mitgetheilte Episode aus seinem Lehrgedicht ist nach Benzler's oben angeführtem Werke abgedruckt worden.

I) ODE TO TRUTH.

Say, will no white-rob'd Son of Light,

Swift-darting from his heav'nly height,
Here deign to take his hallow'd stand;
Here wave his amber locks; unfold
His pinions cloath'd with downy gold;
Here smiling stretch his tutelary wand?
And you, ye host of Saints, for ye

have known

disposed under proper heads, with a view to facilitate the improvement of Youth in reading and speaking, to which is prefixed an Essay on elocution, by William Enfield, London, 1786. [Enfield, geboren 1741, gestorben 1797, ist aufserdem noch durch seine Sermons for the use of families, 2 Vol. 1768. 1771. 8, und durch seine Hymns and Prayers for the use of Families, 1770, 8, bekannt; auch gab er eine Fortsetzung des angeführ ten Speaker unter dem Titel heraus: Exercises in Elocution, 1780, 8, ferner mehrere Predigten u. s. w.]

Each dreary path in life's perplexing maze, circle yon eternal throne,

Tho' now ye

With harpings high of inexpressive praise,

Will not your train descend in radiant state,
To break with Mercy's beam this gathering cloud of Fate?
'Tis silence all. No Son of Light
Darts swiftly from his heav'nly height:

No train of radiant Saints descend.,
Mortals, in vain ye hope to find,

,,If guilt, if fraud has stain'd your mind,
Or Saint to hear, or Angel to defend."

So Truth proclaims. I hear the sacred sound
Burst from the center of her burning throne:

Where aye she sits with stars - wreath'd lustre crown'd,

A bright Sun clasps her adamantine zone.

So Truth proclaims: her awful voice I hear

With many a solemn pause it slowly meets my ear.

Attend, ye Sons of Men; attend, and say,

Does not enough of my refulgent ray

Break thro' the veil of your mortality?

Say, does not reason in this form descry Unnumber'd, nameless glories, that surpass The Angel's floating pomp, the Seraph's glowing grace? Shall then your earth-born daughters vie

With me? Shall she, whose brightest eye

But emulates the diamond's blaze,

Whose cheek but mocks the peach's bloom,
Whose breath the hyacinth's perfume,

Whose melting voice the warbling woodlark's lays,
Shall she be deem'd my rival? Shall a form

Of elemental dross, of mould'ring clay,

Vie with these charms imperial? The poor worm

Shall prove her contest vain. Life's little day

Shall pass, and she is gone: while I appear

Flush'd with the bloom of youth thro' Heav'n's eternal year. Know, Mortals, know, ere first ye sprung,

Ere first these orbs in æther hung,

I shone amid the heavenly throng;

These eyes beheld Creation's day,
This voice began the choral lay,

And taught Archangels their triumphant song

Pleas'd I survey'd bright Nature's gradual birth,
Saw infant Light with kindling lustre spread,

Soft vernal fragrance clothe the flow'ring earth,
And Ocean heave on its extended bed;

Saw the tall pine aspiring pierce the sky,
The tawny lion stalk, the rapid eagle fly..

Last, Man arose, erect in youthful grace,
Heav'n's hallow'd image stamp'd upon his face,

"

And, as he rose, the high' behest was giv'n,
,, That I alone of all the host of heav'n,

Should reign Protectress of the godlike Youth:". Thus the Almighty spoke: he spoke and call'd me Truth.

2) ABDOLONYMUS *).

Pride of the year, purpureal Spring! attend,

And, in the cheek of these sweet innocents

Behold

your

beauties pictur'd. As the cloud
That weeps its moment from thy sapphire heav'n,
They frown with causeless sorrow; as the beam,
Gilding that cloud, with causeless mirth they smile,
Stay, pitying Time! prolong their vernal bliss.
Alas! ere we can note it in our song,

Comes manhood's feverish summer, chill'd full soon
By cold autumnal cars, till wintry age

Sinks in the frore severity of death.

Al who, when such life's momentary dream,
Would mix in hireling senates, strenuous there
To crush the venal Hydra, whose fell crests
Rise with recruited venom from the wound!
Who, for so vain a conflict, would forego
Thy sylvan haunts, celestial Solitude!

Where self-improvement, crown'd with self-content,
Await to bless thy votary? Nurtur'd thus

In tranquil groves, list'ning to Nature's voice,

That preach'd from whispering trees, and babbling brooks, A lesson seldom learnt in Reason's school,

*) The English Garden, Book II. v. 448

602.

The wise Sidonian liv'd *): and, tho' the pest
Of lawless tyranny around him rag'd;
Tho' Strato, great alone in Persia's gold,
Uncall'd, unhallow'd by the people's choice,
Usurp'd the throne of his brave ancestors,
Yet was his soul all peace; a garden's care
His only thought, its charms his only pride.

But now the conquering arms of Macedon
Had bumbled Persia: Now Phœuicia's realm
Receives the Son of Ammon; at whose frown
Her tributary kings or quit their thrones,
Or at his smile retain; and Sidon, now
Freed from her tyrant, points the Victor's step
To where her rightful Sov'reign, doubly dear
By birth and virtue, prun'd his garden grove.

'Twas at that early hour, when now the sun Behind majestic Lebanon's dark veil

Hid his ascending splendor; yet thro' each,
Her cedar-vested sides, his slaunting beams
Shot to the strand, and purpled all the main,
Where Commerce saw her Sidon's freighted wealth,
With languid streamers, and with folded sails,
Float in a lake of gold. The wind was hush'd;
And, to the beach, each slowly-lifted wave,"
Creeping with silver curl, just kist the shore,
And slept in silence. At this tranquil houṛ
Did Sidon's senate, and the Grecian host,..
Led by the conqueror of the world, approach
The secret glade, that veil'd the man of toil.

Now near the mountain's foot the chief arriv'd,
Where, round that glade, a pointed aloe screen,
Entwin'd with myrtle, met intangled brakes
That bar'd all entrance, save at one low gate.
Whose time-disjointed arch with ivy chain'd,
Bad stoop the warrior train. A pathway brown
Led thro' the pass, meeting a fretful brook,"

*) Abdolonymas. The fact on which this episode is founded, is recorded by Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Justin, and Q. Curtius; the last is here chiefly followed. M. de Fontenelle and the Abbé Metastasio have both of them treated the subject dramati cally.

And wandering near its channel, while it leapt
O'er many a rocky fragment, where rude Art
Had eas'd perchance, but not prescrib'd its way.
Close was the vale and shady; yet ere long
Its forest sides retiring, left a lawn

Of ample circuit, where the widening stream
Now o'er its pebbled channel nimbly tript
In many a lucid maze. From the flower'd verge
Of this clear rill now stray'd the devious path,
Amid ambrosial tufts where spicy plants,

Weeping their perfum'd tears of myrrh, and nard,
Stood crown'd with Sharon's rose; or where, apart,
The patriarch palm his load of sugar'd dates.
Shower'd plenteous; where the fig, of standard, strength,
And rich pomegranate, wrapt in dulcet pulp
Their racy seeds; or where the citron's bough
Bent with its load of golden fruit mature..
Meanwhile the lawn beneath the scatter'd shade
Spread its serene extent; a stately file
Of circling cypress mark'd the distant bound.

Now, to the left, the path ascending pierc'd
A smaller sylvan theatre, yet deck'd

With more majestic foliage.

Cedars here,

Coeval with the sky-crown'd mountain's self,

Spread wide their giant arms; whence, from a rock
Craggy and black, that seem'd its fountain head,
The stream fell headlong; yet still higher rose,
Ev'n in the eternal snows of Lebanon,

That hallow'd spring; thence, in the porous earth
Long while ingulph'd, its crystal weight here forc'd
Its way to light and freedom. Down it dash'd;
A bed of native marble pure receiv'd
The new-born Naiad, and repos'd her wave,
Till with o'er-flowing pride it skim'd ̧the lawn.
Fronting this lake there rose a solemn grot,
O'er whieh an ancient vine luxuriant flung
Its purple clusters, and beneath its roof
An unhewn altar. Rich Sabæan gums

That altar pil'd, and there with torch of pine
The venerable Sage, now first descry'd,
The fragrant incense kindled. Age had shed
That dust of silver o'er his sable locks,