méet ; Nor touch'd by envy, nor by passion tost ; Fain the fond charms of folitude I'd greet; And woo, with ardent vow, thee, Meditation fweet! All ftill and filent is the fcene ;- No step unlicens'd, or unholy treads, No voice unhallow'd interrupts the reign Ruftling amid the tufted trees, Before yon facred thrine bows down their rev'rent heads: Save where the zephyrs, foft as infant love, Wake the ftill murmurs of the grove; And at the hallow'd, and fequefter'd bier, Shake from th' impending leaf, for aye, the honey'd tear. Save, in the darken'd covert of the dell, Long woo'd by woe, and melancholy pale. The nightingale anon repeats her tale;Save where, at diftance, tolls the village bell, VoL. IV. November 1794, Calling to mafs around the neighb'ring poor;→→→ Or, iffuing deep from yonder wood, Some fwain forlorn, in hapless mood, Tells, from the plaintive lute, his Delia is no more. Eye of the foul! whofe vivid orb pervades Each part of Nature's inmoft fhades;Form'd of an effence, fo divinely pure, Too tender, vifion to endure, Thine organs tremble at the fight of day; Feel at each glance, and thrill at ev'ry ray; O! come, with looks fo mild, and voice fo fair, And eyes fo fweetly melting on the view; Come and my fond affociate be; Wrought from the pureft threads of ev'ry Drawn from the effence of each feeling fair; And wove with art, and tend'reft care, Too nice for human touch, by hands divine. Of love's warm rapture formed, and friendfhip's glow, And all the joys that heav'n-born bofoms know; The breath of praife, the fenfe of honeft fame, The gen'rous transport, and the pitying flame; Each blifs that arms, each ecstasy intense; With all thy lovely charms, fupreme benevolence! Thus form'd; throw round thy veil fo wond 'rous fine, Genius! thou pow'r fupreme! whom oft I've fought With ceafelefs toil, and conftant care; And wak'd my utmoft force of thought To court thy infpiration fair; In vain, I've woo'd thee by the morning light, And wafted on the early fun-beam's wings My firft-born pray'rs, and virgin vows; And ftruck to thee the matin ftrings Beneath the dew-diftilling bougasIn vain, at even's folitary fade Within the gloomy covert of the glade My fupplicating ftrings I tune; And rapt in fixt attent out-watch the waning The poplars round their waving foliage fpread, The lake diffufes ftill a placid fmile; The lake, that, widening round in lengthen'd way, Adorns the fpot that once could boast thy love; Where, on its margin, thou wert wont to ftrav, Or reft beneath the umbrage of the grove. The banks, fair-deck'd in verdure, edge the fream; The trees, above, o'erhang their branches wide; The bilis, arifing round, ambitious feem To gaze, with tow'ring front, on every fide. It cannot be--ah! now, his fpirit foars; And light, and love, and joy, and virtue fair, AS VARIETY. SK what prevailing pleafing pow'r To roam, untir', from flower to flower, Allures the fportive, wand'ring bec, He'll tell you 'tis variety. Look nature round--her features trace- For me, ye gracious pow'rs above! Still let me rove, unfix'd and free; In all things-but the nymph I love, I'll change and tafte variety. T A HYMN TO SERESWATY, From the Afiatick Mifcellany. THE ARGUMENT. HE Hindù goddesses are uniformly reprefented as the fubordinary powers of their refpective lords: thus Lacfhmy, the confort of Vishnu the preferver, is the Goddefs of abundance and profperity: Bhavány, the wife of Mahadev, is the genial power of fecundity: and Serefwaty, whofe husband was the creator Brehma, poffeffes the power of imagination and invention, which may justly be termed creative. She, is, therefore, adored as the patronefs of the fine arts, especially of mufic and rhetoric, as the inventrefs of the Sanfcrit language, of the Dévanágry letters, and of the fciences, which writing perpetuates: fo that her attributes correfpond with thofe of Minerva Mutica in Greece and Italy, who invented the Aute 3 B 2 an and prefided over literature. In this character fhe is addreffed in the following ode, and particularly as the goddefs of harmony, fince the Indians ufually paint her with a mufical inftrument in her hand: the feven notes, an artful combination of which conftitutes mufic and variously affects the paffions, are feigned to be her earliest production; and the greateft part of the hymn exhibits a correct delineation of the Rágmálá or necklace of mufical modes, which may be confidered as the most pleasing invention of the ancient Hindus, and the most beautiful union of painting with poetical mythology and the genuine theory of mufic.-The different pofition of the two femitones in the fcale of feven notes gives birth to feven primary modes; and as the whole feries confifts of twelve femitones, every one of which may be made a modal tone or tonick, there are in nature (though not univerfally in practice) seventyfeven other modes, which may be called derivative all the eighty-four are diftributed by the Perfians, under the notion of locality, in three claffes: but the Hindu arrangement is elegantly formed on the variations of the Indian year, and the affociation of ideas: a powerful auxiliary to the ordinary effect of modulation. The modes in this fyftem are deified: and, as there are fix feafons in India, namely, two fprings, fummer, autumn, and two winters, an original Rág, or God of the mode, is conceived to prefide over a particular seafon: each principal mode is attended by five Rágnys, or nymphs of harmony: each has eight fons or genii of the fame divine art; and each Rág, with his family, is appropriated to a diftinct feafon, in which alone his melody can be fung or played at prefcribed hours of the day and night: the mode of Deipec, or Cupid the inflamer, is fuppofed to be loft, and a tradition is current in Hindoftan, that a mufician who attempted to restore it, was confumed by fire from heaven. The natural diftribution of modes would have been feven, thirty-three and fortyfour, according to the number of minor and major fecondary tones, but this order was varied for the fake of the charming fiction abovementioned. Nared, who is defcribed in the third stanza, was one of the first created beings, correfponding with the Mercury of the Italians, inventor of the Vene, a fretted instrument, fupported by two large gourds, and confeff. edly the fineft ufed in Afia. WEET grace of Brehma's bed! Sev'n fprightly notes, to hail th' auspicious And, in fublime accord, A full difcuffion of fo conious a subject would require a feparate differtation: but here it will be fufficient to fay, that almost every epithet in the poets, as well as the names, are felected from approved treatifes, either originally Per. fian, or tranflated from the Sanferit, which contain as lively a display of genius as human imagination ever exhibited. The laft couplet alludes to the celebrated place of pilgrimage, at the confluence of the Gangá and Yamná, which the Serefwaty, another facred river, is fuppofed to join under ground. hour, Ledft from their facred bow'r : Young paffions at the found O'er hearts, yet uncreated, fure to reign: Grief, that in filence grows, Hope, that with honey blends the cup of pain, Grim wrath's avenging band, That, like full Ganga, pours her stream diving To fix the flying fenfe of words, thy daughters, by the varied line Th' unfading bloom of youth, |