600 SONNET. 



stowed profusely on the populace, and as Caesar now had no compe- 

 titor with whom to litigate the chief authority, the people gladly 

 acquiesced in an ascendant, under which the fierce commotions of the 

 empire might subside. The senate, with its customary adulation, 

 bowed to the usurper, and bestowed all titles, privileges, and distinc- 

 tions on " the Saviour of his Country." He was created consul, 

 tribune, censor ; and, as the dignities of earth were totally exhausted, 

 the appellation of Augustus was conferred on him to place him with 

 the gods. The consummate flattery was trusted to the practised skill 

 of Plaucus,* who had won the favour of Octavius by treachery to 

 Antony and Cleopatra. He discharged the servile duty with the ease 

 peculiar to his principles ; and Horace, Virgil, and contemporary 

 poets lent the splendour of their genius to adorn the impious sugges- 

 tions of a mean apostate : and here in reality commenced the imperial 

 character of Caesar. The immoderate honours offered to himself were 

 showered on Livia with similar profusion. A city was erected to 

 commemorate her virtues ; the members of the senate studied to ap- 

 plaud her in orations of extravagant servility. She was called 

 Augusta, and the mother of her country. The poets, in the celebra- 

 tion of her fame, extolled her as a goddess ; temples and altars rose to 

 her divinity ; and Livia, the most aspiring woman of her age, beheld 

 the dreams of her ambition realized, and the turbulence of Roman 

 liberty supplanted by a tranquil acquiescence in the despotism of an 

 usurper. (To be continued in our next.) 



SONNET: TO SUMMER. 



MAIDEN ! with sun-dyed locks and brow of flowers, 

 O how I love thy laughing eyes to see ; 

 Sweet-breathing Summer ! thou art dear to me. 

 What bliss to sit within thy leaf-roofed bowers, 

 And list the sleep-voiced bee, or patting showers 

 Dropping on fragrant rose, or green-robed tree ; 

 Wood-waking birds seem made alone for thee, 

 And welcome in the violet-captured hours. 

 The clouds above, roll like soft forms of light, 



And gold-steeped vallies sleep beneath thy gaze, 

 While basking hills, pillow thine image bright ; 



Deep brooks shine clearer 'neath thy skiey gaze, 

 And glide along in music through the night, 

 Singing for aye with liquid tongues thy praise. 



Author of Songs of the Sea Nymphs. 



* If we were to form our estimate of Plaucus by his correspondence with Ci- 

 cero, we should imagine him a hero, a philosopher, a politician, and a patriot. 

 It is painful, after such an ample evidence of elegance, sagacity, and courage, to 

 contrast that splendid iudex of his character with the meanness of his conduct 

 at the court of Cleopatra ; his defection from the republican cause ; his intimacy 

 with Antony ; his subsequent desertion to Octavius, and his adulation of the 

 august usurper. See the greater part of the 10th Book of Cicero's letters, and 

 the ode of Horace (1. 1.) extolling the Tiburtine villa, and dissuading Plaucus 

 from his projected retirement to the Grecian Isles. 



