on a throne of gold; now in a chariot drawn by swift horses, and bearing along with her the day; and at other times she is ushered in by the star which is her harbinger, and which gives the signal of the morning's approach.

On this, as a ground, the poets following Homer have run their divisions of fancy: this will appear by the following instances out of Virgil, which I shall present to the reader in Mr. Dryden's translation :—

Aurora now had left her saffron bed,

And beams of early light the heavens o'erspread.

The Morn began from Ida to display

Her rosy cheeks, and Phosphor led the day.

And now the rosy Morn began to rise,

And waved her saffron streamer through the skies.

Now rose the ruddy Morn from Tithon's bed,
And with the dawn of day the skies o'erspread;
Nor long the Sun his daily course with-held,
But added colours to the world reveal'd.

The Morn ensuing from the mountain's height
Had scarcely spread the skies with rosy light;
Th' ethereal coursers, bounding from the sea,
From out their flaming nostrils breath'd the day.

I have not room here to multiply examples out of the ancient poets, but shall shew how the same images have been copied or diversified by

the moderns.

The following description is

Tasso's, as it is very closely traced in the old translation of Mr. Fairfax:

The purple Morning left her crimson bed,
And donn'd her robes of pure vermilion hue;
Her amber locks she crown'd with roses red,
In Eden's flowery gardens gather'd new.

And our own Spenser, who excels in all kinds of imagery, following the same originals, represents the morning after the like manner :

Now when the rosy-fingered Morning fair,
Weary of aged Tithon's saffron bed,
Had spread her purple robes through dewy air,
And the high hills Titan discovered;
The royal virgin shook off drowsy-head,
And rising forth out of her baser bower,
Look'd for her knight

The Day, forth dawning from the east,
Night's humid curtains from the heavens withdrew,
And early calling forth both man and beast,

Commanded them their daily works renew.

But of all descriptions of the Morning as a person, it is impossible to find a more beautiful one than that of Shakspeare:

Look where the Morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill.

VOL. I.

The same author has in another place embellished his subject thus:

Look what streaks

Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
Night's tapers are burnt out, and jocund Day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

The two following descriptions likewise, by the same hand, are very poetical:

The glow-worm shews the Matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

The wolves have prey'd; and look, the gentle Day,
Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about,

Dapples the drowsy East with spots of grey.

In Milton's Paradise Lost, the descriptions of the Morning are drawn with exquisite beauty: yet some of them retain (though in a Christian poem) a mixture of the same mythology:

Now Morn her rosy steps in th' eastern clime
Advancing, sow'd the earth with orient pearl.

The Morn,

Wak'd by the circling Hours, with rosy hand
Unbarr'd the gates of light

And now went forth the Morn,
Such as in highest heav'n, array'd in gold
Empyreal: from before her vanish'd Night,
Shot through with orient beams

Mean while,

To resalute the world with sacred light,
Leucothoe wak'd, and with fresh dews embalm'd
The earth

Now sacred Light began to dawn

In Eden, on the humid flowers that breath'd
Their morning incense; when all things that breathe
From the earth's high altar, send up silent praise
To the Creator, and his nostrils fill

With grateful smell

In some of these poetical pictures which I have here set before the reader, the heavens only are shewn, and the first springing of light there; in others, the earth is taken into the prospect, with her flowers wet with dew, and her rising vapours; and sometimes the occupations of living creatures proper to the season are represented, and afford a yet greater diversity of amusing images. Such is that admirable description in Otway's Orphan :

the plains

Wish'd Morning's come; and now upon
And distant mountains, where they feed their flocks,
The happy shepherds leave their humble huts,
And with their pipes proclaim the new-born day.
The lusty swain comes with his well-filled scrip
Of healthful viands, which, when hunger calls,
With much content and appetite he eats,

To follow in the field his daily toil,

And dress the grateful glebe that yields him fruits..

The beasts, that under the warm hedges slept,
And weathered out the cold bleak night, are up,
And, looking tow'rds the neighb'ring pastures, raise
Their voice, and bid their fellow brutes good-morrow,
The cheerful birds too, on the tops of trees,

Assemble all in choirs, and with their notes
Salute and welcome up the rising sun.

I shall conclude this paper with a remark, which, I believe, will be allowed by all impartial critics; that whoever will take the pains to look into the several descriptions of this kind, which may be found in the works of ancient and modern writers, will find that the English poets have described the Morning with at least as much elegance of fancy as any others have done, and with more variety.

LAY-MONASTERY, No. 39, Feb. 12, 1713.

As the juxta-position of descriptions thus beautiful forms an elegant entertainment to the lovers of poetry, I shall beg leave to enlarge the list of parallelisms by the adduction of a few more passages:

Primum Aurora novo quam spargit lumine terras,
Et variæ volucres, nemora avia per volitantes
Aëra per tenerum, liquidis loca vocibus obplent;
Quam subito soleat Sol ortus tempore tali

Convestire suâ perfundens omnia luce,

Omnibus in promptu manifestumque esse videmus.

When first Aurora o'er the dewy earth

LUCRETIUS.

Spreads her soft light, and through the pathless grove