ved with a smile, that it would be hard if two such friends as he and the cup should part, at least without kissing, and then expired.”

Walker, in his account of the Irish Bards, inserts a letter, which states that " Carolan, at an early period of his life, contracted a fondness for spirituous liquors, which he retained even to the last stage of it. His physicians assured him, that, unless he corrected this vicious habit, a scurvy, which was the consequence of his intemperance, would soon put an end to his mortal career. He obeyed with reluctance; and seriously resolved upon never tasting that forbidden, though (to him) delicious cup. The town of Boyle, in the county of Roscommon, was at that time his principal place of residence; there, while under so severe a regimen, he walked, or rather wandered about, like a rêveur. His usual gaiety forsook him; no sallies of a lively imagination escaped him; every moment was marked with a dejection of spirits, approaching to the deepest melancholy; and his favourite harp lay in some obscure corner of his habitation neglected and unstrung.

Passing, one day, by a spirit-store in the town, our Irish Orpheus, after a six weeks' quarantine,

was tempted to step in-undetermined whether he should abide by his late resolution, or whether he should yield to the impulse which he felt at the moment. 'Well, my dear friend,' cried he to the young man who stood behind the compter, you see I am a man of constancy; for six long weeks I have refrained from whiskey. Was there ever so great an instance of self-denial? But a thought strikes me, and surely you will not be cruel enough to refuse one gratification which I shall earnestly solicit. Bring hither a measure of my favourite liquor, which I shall smell to, but, indeed, shall not taste.' The lad indulged him on that condition; and no sooner did the fumes ascend to his brain, than every latent spark within him was rekindled, his countenance glowed with an unusual brightness, and the soliloquy, which he repeated over the cup, was the effusion of a heart newly animated, and the rambling of a genius great and untutored.

"At length, to the great peril of his health, and (contrary to the advice of his medical friends,) he once more quaffed the forbidden draught, and renewed the brimmer, until his spirits were sufficiently exhilarated, and until his mind

had fully resumed its former tone. He then set about composing that much-admired song which goes by the name of 'Carolan's (and sometimes Stafford's) Receipt.' For sprightliness of sentiment, and harmony of numbers, it stands unrivalled in the list of our best modern drinking songs. He commenced the words, and began to modulate the air, in the evening at Boyle; and, before the following morning, he sung and played this noble offspring of his imagination in Mr. Stafford's parlour, at Elfin.

"Carolan's inordinate fondness," continues Walker, "for Irish Wine (as Pierre le Grand used to call whiskey) will not admit of an excuse; it was a vice of habit, and might therefore have been corrected. But let me say something in extenuation. He seldom drank to excess; besides, he seemed to think-nay, was convinced from experience, that the spirit of whiskey was grateful to his muse, and for that reason generally offered it when he intended to invoke her."

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They tell me," says Dr. Campbell in his Survey of the South of Ireland, "that in his (Carolan's) latter days, he never composed without the inspiration of whiskey, of which, at that critical hour, he always took care to have a bottle beside him.” "Nor was Carolan," continues

Walker, "the only bard who drew inspiration from the bottle; there have been several planets in the poetical hemisphere, that seldom shone, but when illuminated by the rays of rosy wine." He then proceeds to infer the advantages of a state of demi-drunkenness, as far as regards poetic composition, and instances Cunningham, Addison, and Homer, as three authors whose works bear ample testimony to the efficacy of so pleasing a method of procuring inspiration. That Carolan was not indifferent to advice of this description, he proved most satisfactorily; and, in all probability, both he and Mr. Walker thought true talent similar to those richly painted vases in the east, the most brilliant tints of which could not be discovered unless wine were poured into them.

MILTON'S LOVE OF MUSIC.

MILTON, we suspect, is generally believed by the gay and thoughtless to have been an austere crabbed Puritan, hostile to all the elegancies and enjoyments of life; but this is a great mistake. His love of music, for instance, was glowing and profound. From among other testimonials in its praise, take the following fine passage in his "Tractate on Education," which, of itself, is music.

"The interval of convenient rest after meat, may both with profit and delight be taken up in recreating and composing the travailed spirits, with the solemn and divine harmonies of music, heard or learnt: either while the skilful organist plies his grave and fancied descant in lofty figures, or the whole symphony, with artful and unimaginable touches, does adorn and grace the well-studied chords of some choice composer; sometimes the lute, or soft organ-stop, waiting on elegant voices, either to religious, martial, or civil ditties, which have power over dispositions and manners, to smooth and make them gentle, from rustic harshness and distempered passions."

VOL. III.

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