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Notices in Natural History.
[March
How thy hair with rage did rise!
What a glare in those dull eyes!
What a quivering in thy spine,
And those shapeless paws of thine!
What a glare in those dull eyes!
What a quivering in thy spine,
And those shapeless paws of thine!
Alas! more grieved still I am,
To think of thee, poor piteous Lamb!
Thy bleat of fear, thy shriek of pain,
Haunt, like a vengeful ghost, my brain.
To think of thee, poor piteous Lamb!
Thy bleat of fear, thy shriek of pain,
Haunt, like a vengeful ghost, my brain.
He, the monster, nothing heeding,
Thy tender breast beneath him bleeding,
Plucked with one clutch thy soul away,
And made the throbbing heart his prey.
Thy tender breast beneath him bleeding,
Plucked with one clutch thy soul away,
And made the throbbing heart his prey.
He feasts not aye on Lambs and Bears;
Even men, the Lords of Earth, he tears.
In evil hour he sees the light,
Who moves the Brown-plumed Condor's spite.
Even men, the Lords of Earth, he tears.
In evil hour he sees the light,
Who moves the Brown-plumed Condor's spite.
Beneath some dismal planet's glow
Did he come forth, that child of woe!
I saw thee plunge thy savage beak
In the stripling's pallid cheek.
Did he come forth, that child of woe!
I saw thee plunge thy savage beak
In the stripling's pallid cheek.
How sunken gleamed his coward eye!
How shook his lip convulsively!
How ghastly blue the sockets grew!
Lord! let me such ire eschew!
How shook his lip convulsively!
How ghastly blue the sockets grew!
Lord! let me such ire eschew!
With pity still my soul remembers
The writhing of those feeble members,
The horrid cries and curses shrill
Which did that lonely mountain fill.
The writhing of those feeble members,
The horrid cries and curses shrill
Which did that lonely mountain fill.
No friend was there his eye to close,
Or drop a tear o'er all his woes;
No tender maid to burial bore
That stripling of the western shore.
Or drop a tear o'er all his woes;
No tender maid to burial bore
That stripling of the western shore.
E'en gentle Robin did not bring
One leaf above thy corse to fling,
But I heard the Raven's hoarse saluting,
And the foul mouth'd Owl above thee hooting;
One leaf above thy corse to fling,
But I heard the Raven's hoarse saluting,
And the foul mouth'd Owl above thee hooting;
And Dogs were there, to pick thee bare;
Rats drew thy fragments to their lair;
On the bald skull of the mangled youth
Grinding screamed the Ferret's tooth.
Rats drew thy fragments to their lair;
On the bald skull of the mangled youth
Grinding screamed the Ferret's tooth.
At stated terms to Courtland went
His Ghost, in rueful punishment;
Then afar off was seen to glide,
Like the lank Kelpie of the Kleide.
His Ghost, in rueful punishment;
Then afar off was seen to glide,
Like the lank Kelpie of the Kleide.
O ne'er may fate like his consign
To timeless dust these bones of mine!
Ne'er let my restless ghost be given
A plaything to the winds of heaven!
To timeless dust these bones of mine!
Ne'er let my restless ghost be given
A plaything to the winds of heaven!
Far, far in quiet let me rest
From the torn stripling of the West!
Shield us, O Almighty Fo!
Shield us from the bird of Woe![1]
From the torn stripling of the West!
Shield us, O Almighty Fo!
Shield us from the bird of Woe![1]
NOTICES IN NATURAL HISTORY.
No II.
It is singular to observe the surprising discoveries which frequently result from the most casual observations, and to reflect on the uses which the philosophers of an enlightened age have made of the scanty knowledge of a barbarous people.
Chaldean shepherds, ranging trackless fields,
Beneath the concave of unclouded skies,
Spread like a sea in boundless solitude,
Look'd on the polar star as on a guide
And guardian of their course, that never closed
His stedfast eye. The Planetary Five
With a submissive reverence they beheld:
Watched from the centre of their sleeping flocks
Those radiant Mercuries, that seemed to move,
Carrying through ether, in perpetual round,
Decrees and resolutions of the gods;
And, by their aspects, signifying works
Of dim futurity to man revealed.
And, thus
Led on, those shepherds made report of stars
In set rotation passing to and fro.
Beneath the concave of unclouded skies,
Spread like a sea in boundless solitude,
Look'd on the polar star as on a guide
And guardian of their course, that never closed
His stedfast eye. The Planetary Five
With a submissive reverence they beheld:
Watched from the centre of their sleeping flocks
Those radiant Mercuries, that seemed to move,
Carrying through ether, in perpetual round,
Decrees and resolutions of the gods;
And, by their aspects, signifying works
Of dim futurity to man revealed.
And, thus
Led on, those shepherds made report of stars
In set rotation passing to and fro.
With what mingled sensations of astonishment and delight would the author of a Chaldee MS. listen to the sublime discoveries of Newton or La Place,—of Herschel or Delambre? Or what would be the feelings of that man,—
qui fragilem truci
Commisit pelago ratem
Primus,—
Commisit pelago ratem
Primus,—
were he to witness the fearless courses of Cook, Vancouver, or Bougainville?
Indeed, says Cuvier, it could not be expected that those Phœnician sailors,
- ↑ The above very close translation of an ancient Chinese ode of Koo-ri-tsan-koo, the great poet of Pekin, is submitted to our readers, in the expectation that those of them who are acquainted with the most obscure of all literature, will honour us by contributing to the series of "Horæ Sinicæ." The bird celebrated in the Ode has been, as orientalists well know, the occasion of much controversy among the philosophers and divines of India, China, and Tartary; some asserting that the Condor is animated by a devil; the other and more orthodox sect maintaining, that his enormous carcase is a favourite vehicle of the king of the good genii. Koo-ri-tsan-koo we suspect to have been of the heterodox party; at least, the view he presents of the Great Bird is by no means an amiable one. We remember to have seen another Chinese poem, in the same measure, but evidently not by the same hand, in which the murders of the lamb, the bear, and the stripling of the west, are represented to have been acts, not of gratuitous violence, but of salutary vengeance. We cannot at present lay our hands on it; but we may perhaps translate it in some following Number. Editor.