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, 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, No train of radiant Saints descend., ,,If guilt, if fraud has stain'd your mind, So Truth proclaims. I hear the sacred sound 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 melting voice the warbling woodlark's lays, 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, And taught Archangels their triumphant song Pleas'd I survey'd bright Nature's gradual birth, Soft vernal fragrance clothe the flow'ring earth, Saw the tall pine aspiring pierce the sky, Last, Man arose, erect in youthful grace, " And, as he rose, the high' behest was giv'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 Comes manhood's feverish summer, chill'd full soon Sinks in the frore severity of death. Al who, when such life's momentary dream, Where self-improvement, crown'd with self-content, 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 But now the conquering arms of Macedon 'Twas at that early hour, when now the sun Behind majestic Lebanon's dark veil Hid his ascending splendor; yet thro' each, Now near the mountain's foot the chief arriv'd, *) 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 Of ample circuit, where the widening stream Weeping their perfum'd tears of myrrh, and nard, Now, to the left, the path ascending pierc'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 That hallow'd spring; thence, in the porous earth That altar pil'd, and there with torch of pine |