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IN these beautiful verfes we must admire the postures of Zamolxis and Odin, which exactly point out the characters of these famous legiflators, and inftructors, of the Northern nations.

As expreffive, and as much in character, are the figures of the old heroes, druids and bards, which are reprefented as standing on iron pillars of barbarous workmanship: they remind one of that group of perfonages, which Virgil, a lover of antiquity, as every real poet must be, has judiciously placed before the palace of Latinus.

Quinetiam veterum effigies ex ordine avorum,
Antiqua e cedro, Italufque, paterque Sabinus
Vitifator, curvam fervans fub imagine falcem ;
Saturnufque fenex, Janique bifrontis imago,
Veftibulo aftabant *.-

CONSIDER also the description of Evander's court, and the picture of ancient manners it affords, one of the most striking parts of the

* Ver. 177. Æn. 1. 7.

Æneid.

Æneid. The mind delights to be carried backward into those primitive times when

Paffimque armenta videbant

Romanoque foro & lautis mugire carinis.

And the view of thofe places and buildings in their first rude and artless state, which became afterwards fo magnificent and celebrated, forms an amusing contrast.

Hinc ad Tarpeiam fedem, & Capitolia ducit
AUREA nunc, olim fylveftribus HORRIDA dumis *.

I HAVE frequently wondered that our modern writers have made fo little use of the druidical times, and the traditions of the old bards, which afford fubjects fruitful of the most genuine poetry, with respect both to imagery and sentiment. Mr. Gray however has made amends by his last noble ode on the expulfion of the bards from Wales.

Cold is Cadwallo's tongue,

That hufh'd the ftormy main:

Brave Urien fleeps upon his craggy bed:

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Mountains, ye mourn in vain

Modred, whofe magic Song

Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-top'd head.
On dreary Arvon's fhore they lie,
Smear'd with gore, and ghaftly pale!
Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens fail;
The famish'd eagle fcreams, and paffes by *.

THE ancients constantly availed themselves of the mention of particular mountains, rivers, and other objects of nature; and indeed almost confine themselves to the tales and traditions of their respective countries: whereas we have been strangely neglectful in celebrating our own SEVERN, THAMES, OF MALVERN, and have therefore fallen into trite repetitions of claffical images, as well as claffical names. Our mufes have seldom been

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Where our old bards, the famous Druids, lie t,

* Dodfley's Mifcellanies, Vol. VI. p. 337.

+ Supposed to be a place in the mountains of Denbighshire, called Druids fones, because of the many stone chefts and

coffins found there.

Vol. II.

E

Nor

Nor on the fhaggy top of Mona high,

Nor yet where Deva spreads her wifard ftream *. Milton, we fee, was fenfible of the force of fuch imagery, as we may gather from this fhort, but exquifite paffage; and fo were Drayton and Spenser. What pictures would a writer of the fancy of Theocritus, have drawn from the scenes and ftories of the inle of Anglesey!

Yet ftill enamour'd of their ancient haunts,
Unfeen of mortal eyes, they hover round
Their ruin'd altars, confecrated hills

Once girt with spreading oaks, myfterious rows
Of rude enormous obelisks, that rife
Orb within orb, ftupendous monuments
Of artless architecture, fuch as now
Oft-times amaze the wandering traveller,

By the pale moon discern'd on Sarum's plain †.

I CANNOT Conclude this article without inserting two stanzas of an old Runic ode ‡ preferved by Olaus Wormius, containing the Lycidas, Ver. 55.

See a fine dramatic poem, by Mr. Weft, entitled The Inftitution of the Order of the Garter.

↑ Cited in Dr. Hickes's Thefaurus.

dying words of Ludbrog, who reigned in the north above eight hundred years ago, and who is fuppofed to be juft expiring by the mortal bite of a ferpent.

XXV.

Pugnavimus enfibus.

Hoc ridere me facit femper,

Quod Balderi Patris Scamna,
Parata fcio in aula.

Bibemus cerevifiam

Ex concavis crateribus craniorum.
Non gemit vir fortis contra mortem !
Magnifici in Odini domibus,

Non venio defperabundus,

Verbis ad Odini aulam.

XXIX.

Fert animus finire:

Invitant me Dyfæ,

Quas ex Odini aula

Odinus mihi mifit.

Lætus cerevifiam, cum Afis,
In fumma fede bibam.

Vitæ elapfæ funt horæ !

Ridens moriar!

THESE ftanzas breathe the true spirit of a barbarous old warrior. The abruptness and brevity of the sentences are much in charac

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