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. images. Such is that admirable description in Otway's Orphan :

Wish'd Morning's come; and now upon the plains
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 locą 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

A thousand songsters ope their liquid throats,
All ether charming-sudden we survey
Th' effusive Sun, as with a garment, deck
With his own radiance all created things;
Instant in speed, unbounded in his blaze.

Good,

Sæpe videmus,

Aurea quam primum, gemmanteis rore, per herbas Matutina rubent radiati lumina Solis ;

Exhalantque lacus nebulam, fluvieique perennes; Ipsaque et interdum tellus fumare videtur: Omnia quæ, sursum quam conciliantur in alto, Corpore concreto, subtexunt nubila cœlum,

LUCRETIUS.

Full oft we view,

When, at the dawn, the golden-tressed sun
Flames o'er the meadows rich with rory gems,
And from the mountains, lakes, and teeming glebes,
Draws many a vapour, which when once aloft
By the chill air condens'd, to clouds concretes,
And with its filmy drap'ry veils the heavens,

observant of approaching Day,

Good.

The meek ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews;
At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east s
Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow;
And from before the lustre of her face,

White break the clouds away with quicken'd step;
Brown Night retires; young Day pours in apace,
And opens all the lawny prospect wide.
The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top,
Swell on the sight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue, thro' the dusk, the smoking currents shine;
And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps awkward; while along the forest glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning, gaze
At early passenger. Music awakes
The native voice of undissembled joy;
And thick around the woodland hymns arise.
Rous'd by the cock, the soon-clad shepherd leaves
His mossy cottage, where with peace he dwells ;

And from the crowded fold in order drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the Morn.

THOMSON.

The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,

The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed, The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

GRAY.

No. VIII.

Infert se septus nebulâ, mirabile dictu!
Per medios, miscetque viris; neque cernitur ulli.
VIRGILIUS.

strange to tell! he mingled with the crowds,
And past unseen, involv'd in mantling clouds.

PITT.

THERE

HERE was a king, whose name was Alfarute; feared by all his neighbours, and loved by all his subjects; he was wise, good, just, valiant, and deficient in no quality requisite in a great prince. A fairy came to him one day, and told him that he would soon find himself plunged into great difficulties, if he did not make use of the ring which she then put on his finger. When he turned the stone of the ring to the inside of his hand, he became invisible; and when he turned the diamond outward, he became visible again.

He was mightily pleased with this present, and soon grew sensible of the inestimable value of it. When he suspected any one of his subjects, he went into that man's house and closet, with his diamond turned inward, and heard and saw all the secrets of the family, without being perceived. When he mistrusted the designs of