So mayst thou be translated to the skies,

And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmo

nies.

Com. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould
Breathe such divine euchanting ravishment? 245
Sure something holy lodges in that breast,
And with these raptures moves the vocal air
To testify his hidden residence:

How sweetly did they float upon the wings
Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250

(242) The West India Gulf is translated into the skies by its constituting the prototype of the Sign of Gemini, the duplication of the name of which sign may be referred to perhaps by the singular epithet of resounding. The relation between the sign in question as in the heavens, and its proper prototype on the earth is further pointed to by the 244th and 245th lines.

(247) Air and wings (249) will have the same explanations as are contained above in the notes on airy and the nightingale.

At every fall smoothing the raven down

Of darkness till it smil'd! I have oft heard

My mother Circe, with the sirens, three,
Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades,

Culling their potent herbs, and baleful drugs, 255
Who, as they sung, would take the prison'd soul
And lap it in Elysium; Scylla wept,

And chid her barking waves into attention, ef ཝཱ
And fell Charibdis murmur'd soft applause :
Yet they in pleasing slumbers lull'd the sense,260
And in sweet madness robb'd it of itself;

But such a sacred and home-felt delight,
Such sober certainty of waking bliss

I never heard till now. I'll speak to her,

(251) Though the bird before pointed out and drawn in fig. 186, may he called a nightingale for the reasons above assigned, yet if the whole of the Bay of Honduras (the prototype of the lady,) be considered together, and not its upper part alone (which last constitutes the head of the nightingale), it will be seen strongly to resemble the head of a raven with its beak to the west, for which vide

the map.

And she shall be my queen. Hail, foreign won

der

265

Whom certain these rough shades did never breed,
Unless the Goddess that in rural shrine
Dwell'st here with Pan, or Sylvan, by blest song
Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog

269

To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. Lady. Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost that praise That is address'd to unattending ears.

Not

any boast of skill, but extreme shift How to regain my sever'd company,

Compell'd me to awake the courteous echo 275
To give me answer from her mossy couch.
Com. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you
thus?

Lady. Dim darkness and this leafy labyrinth. Com. Could that divide you from near-ushering guides?

(265) This line contains an evident allusion to the rivers from the Bay of Honduras becoming stagnant in le Jardin de la Reine, or the Queen's garden, at Cuba.

Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 Com. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why?

Lady. To seek i' th' valley some cool friendly spring.

Com. And left your fair side all unguarded, Lady? Lady. They were but twain, and purpos'd quick

return.

Com. Perhaps forestalling night prevented them? Lady. How easy my misfortune is to hit! 286 Com. Imports their loss beside the present need? Lady. No less than if I should my brothers lose. Com. Were they of manly prime or youthful bloom?

Lady. As smooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips.

(290) The terms, twain in the 284th line and guides in 279 refer to the Sign Gemini and the guidance furnished by its stars; and Hebe in this line conveys an oblique hint at the scene of the peem lying in the country of the Carribbees, whose lips are unrazor'd, as they are known to have little or no beards.

Com. Two such I saw, what time the labour'd

OX

291

In his loose traces from the furrow came,
And the swinkt hedger at his supper sat;
I saw them under a green mantling vine
That crawls along the side of yon small bill, 295
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots:
Their port was more than human, as they stood?:
I took it for a faery vision

Of some gay creatures of the element,

That in the colours of the rainbow live,

A

300

And play i' th' plaited clouds. I was awe-struck, And as I pass'd I worship'd: if these you seek, It were a journey like the path to heav'n

(291) I apprehend the or to be referable to the sign Taurus, whose prototype has been shown in the fifth volume to be immediately contiguous to, and formed in part by that of the Gemini.

(297) This line and the seven following it, point in a particular manner to the celestial nature of the sign Gemini and the stars of which it is composed.