Mr. Davis on the Poetry of the Chinese. 453 



our gardens have already been indebted to China for a few choice flowers, 

 who knows but our poetry may some day lie under a similar obligation ? 

 However small the prospect of advantage, every scrap of novelty may turn 

 out to be a real gain ; — the declining age of some of the finest literature 

 the world ever saw having borne witness, that ordinary topics of poetry will 

 at last grow threadbare, and become tiresome through much use. 



" Nota magis nulli domus est sua, quam mihi lucus 

 Martis, et j?ioliis vicinum rupibus antrum 

 Vulcaui — quid agant venti, quas torqueat umbras 

 iliacus — unde alius furiivse devehat aurum 

 Pelliculae — quantas jaculetur Monychus ornos : 

 — Exspectes eadera a summo, minimoque poeta." 



MISCELLANEOUS POETRY. 



m ^ ^k ^ M w ^ ^ 

 m M m. ^f> ^ ^ Mi m 



^ S S II ^ >] # A 



" On ascending the highest Peak of the Leushan."* 

 " There falls a precipitous cascade of three thousand feet ; 

 Here the Hibiscus shades every rising summit : 

 The mountain touches the sky, and separates the orbs ; 

 The drifting snows fly amidst the thunder. 

 I am lilte the white bird among the clouds, 

 I insult the winds, and invade the profound abyss. 

 — As I turn and look down on each neighbouring province. 

 The evening smoke of the dwellings rises in blue specks." 



• A mountain visited by the Embassy in 1816. 



Vol. II. 3 N 



