202 FALCON ER^S SHIPWRECK. 



" The King's son Ferdinand, 

 He was the first that leaped, crying hell is empty 

 And all the devils are here." 



In the natural working of that all pervading 

 passion — love, at such a season, Falconer meets him 

 with actual experience, for his vantage ground : the 

 dying youth bids Arion touch lightly on the dire 

 scene of the shipwreck to his Anna; but 



" Say that my love inviolably true 

 No change no diminution ever knew : 

 Lo! her bright image pendant on my neck 

 Is all Palemon rescued from the wreck." 



Arion escapes by keeping himself seated on the 

 floating mainmast: — turn to where Telemachus is 

 found in a similar situation at the close of the sixth 

 book. 



" We held ourselves firm," says he, "as the sea 

 broke over our heads, being fearful, lest the violence 

 of the shock might deprive us of our only hope — 

 the mast on which we floated." 



You will observe that Falconer calls in the figure 

 alliteration to express the wild fury of the surge ; — 



'* Another billow bursts in boundless roar, 

 Arion sinks, and Memory views no more — 

 But see, emerging from the watery grave, 

 Again they float." 



Persius, in his 5th satire, remarks that there is 

 nothing like a thirst for wealth to make a man an 

 early riser: — Falconer, with a fine moral on this 

 universal pursuit, tells us, that Albert, with all his 

 virtues, was still but 



" A captive fettered to the oar of Gain." 



It is time to make an end. 



I have essayed in our progress through the main 

 action, to point out its scenes of paternal affection, 

 of warm but chastened love, of high yet patient re- 

 solve under distress, of mutual regard in youth and of 

 compassion in a strong mind. The devout turn per- 

 ceptible in Falconer's work shall bring my observa- 

 tions on it to a close. 



