Who, through the wild waves, led'ft thy chosen race,
While the high billows ftood like walls of brafs:
Oh thou, while ocean bursting o'er the world.
Roar'd o'er the hills, and from the sky down hurl'd
Rufh'd other headlong oceans; Oh, as then
The fecond father of the race of men
Safe in thy care the dreadful billows rode,
Oh! fave us now, be now the Saviour God!
Safe in thy care, what dangers have we past!
And shalt thou leave us, leave us now at last
To perish here-our dangers and our toils
To spread thy laws unworthy of thy smiles;
Our vows unheard-Heavy with all thy weight,
Oh horror, come! and come, eternal night!

He paused; then round his eyes and arms he threw In gefture wild, and thus; Oh happy you!

You, who in Afric fought for holy faith,

And, pierced with Moorish spears, in glorious death
Beheld the smiling heavens your toils reward,
By your brave mates beheld the conquest shared;
Oh happy you, on every fhore renown'd!
Your vows refpected, and your wishes crown'd.

He fpoke; redoubled rage the mingled blasts; Through the torn cordage and the shatter'd mafts The winds loud whiftled, fiercer lightnings blazed, And louder roars the doubled thunders raised,

The

The sky and ocean blending, each on fire,
Seem'd as all Nature struggled to expire.
When now the filver ftar of love appear'd,
Bright in her east her radiant front she rear'd;
Fair through the horrid storm the gentle ray
Announced the promise of the cheerful day;
From her bright throne celeftial love beheld
The tempeft burn, and blast on blast impell'd:
And must the furious dæmon ftill, fhe cries,
Still urge his rage, nor all the paft fuffice!
Yet as the paft, fhall all his rage be vain-
She spoke, and darted to the roaring main;
Her lovely nymphs fhe calls, the nymphs obey,
Her nymphs the virtues who confefs her sway;
Round every brow fhe bids the rofe-buds twine,
And every flower adown the locks to fhine,
The fnow-white lily and the laurel green,
And pink and yellow as at ftrife be seen.
Instant amid their golden ringlets strove
Each flowret, planted by the hand of love;
At ftrife, who first th' enamour'd powers to gain,
Who rule the tempefts and the waves restrain:
Bright as a starry band the Nereids fhone,
Inftant old Eolus' fons their presence * own;
The winds die faintly, and in softest sighs
Each at his fair one's feet defponding lies.

For the fable of Eolus fee the tenth Odyssey.

The

The bright Orithia, threatening, fternly chides
The furious Boreas, and his faith derides;
The furious Boreas owns her powerful bands:
Fair Galatea, with a fmile commands.

The raging Notus, for his love, how true,
His fervent paffion and his faith she knew.
Thus every nymph her various lover chides;
The filent winds are fetter'd by their brides;
And to the goddefs of celeftial loves,

Mild as her look, and gentle as her doves

In flowery bands are brought. Their amorous flame
The queen approves, and ever burn the fame,
She cries, and joyful on the nymphs' fair hands,
Th' Eolian race receive the queen's commands,
And vow, that henceforth her Armada's fails
Should gently fwell with fair propitious gales.

And vow, that henceforth ber Armada's fails

Should gently fwell with fair propitious gales.

f

Now

-In innumerable inftances Camoëns difcovers himself a judicious imitator of the ancients. In the two great mafters of the epic are feveral prophecies oracular of the fate of different heroes, which give an air of folemn importance to the poem. The fate of the Armada thus obfcurely anticipated, refembles in particular the prophecy of the fafe return of Ulyffes to Ithaca, foretold by the fhade of Tirefias, which was afterwards fulfilled by the Phæacians. It remains now to make some observations on the machinery ufed by Camoëns in this book. The neceffity of machinery in the epopoeia, and the perhaps infurmountable difficulty of finding one unexceptionably adapted to a poem where the heroes are Chriftians, or, in other words, to a poem whose subject is modern, have already been obferved in the Preface. The defcent of Bacchus to the palace of Neptune in the depths of the fea, and his addrefs to the watery gods are noble imitations of Virgil's Juno in the first Æneid. The defcription of the ftorm is alfo masterly. In both inftances the conduct of the Eneid is joined with the descriptive exuber

ance

Now morn, ferene in dappled grey, arofe

O'er the fair lawns where murmuring Ganges flows;

Pale

ance of the Odyffey. The appearance of the star of Venus through the storm is finely imagined, the influence of the nymphs of that goddess over the winds, and their subsequent nuptials, are in the spirit of the promise of Juno to Eolus;

Sunt mihi bis feptem præftanti corpore nymphæ :
Quarum, qua forma pulcherrima, Deiopeiam
Connubio jungam ftabili, propriamque dicabo:
Omnes ut tecum meritis pro talibus annos

Exigat, & pulebra faciat te prole parentem.

And the fiction itself is an allegory exactly in the manner of Homer. Orithia, the daughter of Erecteus, and queen of the Amazons, was ravished and carried away by Boreas. Her name derived from ogos, bound or limit, and Oúa, violence, implies, fays Caftera, that the moderated the rage of her husband. In the fame manner, Galatea, derived from yáλa, milk, and bed, a goddess, fignifies the goddess of candour or innocence.

"If one would fpeak poetically, fays Bou, he must imitate Homer. Homer will not say that falt has the virtue to preferve dead bodies, or that the fea prefented Achilles a remedy to preserve the corps of Patroclus from putrefaction: he makes the sea a goddess, and tells us that Thetis, to comfort Achilles, promised to perfume the body with an ambrosia, which should keep it a whole year from corruption.-All this is told us poetically, the whole is reduced into action, the fea is made a person who speaks and acts, and this profopopæia is accompanied with paffion, tenderness, and affection." It has been obferved by the critics, that Homer, in the battle of the gods, has, with great propriety, divided their auxiliary forces. On the fide of the Greeks he places all the gods who prefide over the arts and sciences. Mars and Venus favour the adultery of Paris; and Apollo is for the Trojans, as their ftrength confifted chiefly in the use of the bow. Talking of the battle, "With what art, fays Euftathius as cited by Pope, does the poet engage the gods in this conflict! Neptune oppofes Apollo, which implies, that things moist and dry are in continual difcord. Pallas fights with Mars, which fignifies that rashness and wisdom always difagree. Juno is against Diana, that is, nothing more differs from a marriage state than celibacy: Vulcan engages Xanthus, that is, fire and water are in perpetual variance. Thus we have a fine allegory concealed under the veil of excellent poetry, and the reader conceives a double fatisfaction at the fame time, from the beautiful

Pale fhone the wave beneath the golden beam;

Blue o'er the filver flood Malabria's mountains gleam:

The failors on the main-top's airy round,

Land, land, aloud, with waving hands, refound;

Aloud the pilot of Melinda cries,

Behold, O chief, the fhores of India rife!

Elate the joyful crew on tip-toe trod,

And every breaft with fwelling raptures glow'd;
GAMA's great foul confeft the rushing fwell,
Prone on his manly knees the hero fell,

Oh bounteous heaven, he cries, and spreads his hands
To bounteous heaven, while boundless joy commands
No farther word to flow. In wonder loft,

As one in horrid dreams through whirlpools toft,
Now fnatch'd by dæmons rides the flaming air,
And howls, and hears the howlings of defpair;

Awaked,

verfes and an inftructive moral." And again, "The combat of Mars and Pallas is plainly allegorical. Juftice and wisdom demanded, that an end fhould be put to this terrible war: the god of war opposes this, but is worfted.-No fooner has our reason fubdued one temptation, but another fucceeds to re-inforce it, thus Venus fuccours Mars.-Pallas retreated from Mars in order to conquer him; this fhews us that the best way to fubdue a temptation is to retreat from it."

Thefe explications of the manner of Homer ought, in juftice, to be applied to his imitator; nor is the moral part of the allegory of Camoëns lefs exact than the mythological. In the present inftances, his allegory is peculiarly happy. The rage and endeavours of the evil dæmon to prevent the interefts of Chriftianity are strongly marked. The storm which he raises is the tumult of the human paffions; these are most effectually fubdued by the influence of the virtues, which more immediately depend upon celestial Love; and the union which the confirms between the virtues and passions, is the fureft pledge of future tranquillity.