THE OLD RED SANDSTONE, 239 
death dye the scales of the dolphin, and how every various 
pang calls up a various suffusion of splendor.* Even the 
common stickleback of our ponds and ditches can put on its 
colors to picture its emotions. ‘There is, it seems, a mighty 
amount of ambition, and a vast deal of fighting sheerly for 
conquests’ sake, among the myriads of this pygmy little fish 
* The description of Falconer must be familiar to every reader, but 
I cannot resist quoting it. It shows how minutely the sailor poet 
must have observed. Byron tells us how 
“Parting day 
Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues 
With a new color, as it gasps away, 
The last still loveliest, till — tis gone, and all is gray.” 
Falconer, in anticipating, reversed the simile. The huge animal, 
struck by the “ unerring barb” of Rodmond, has been drawn on board, 
and 
«On deck he struggles with convulsive pain ; 
But while his heart the fatal javelin thrills, 
And flitting life escapes in sanguine rills, 
What radiant changes strike the astonished sight ! 
What glowing hues of mingled shade and light! 
Not equal beauties gild the lucid West 
With parting beams o’er all profusely drest ; 
Not lovelier colors paint the vernal dawn, 
When Orient dews impearl the enamelled lawn; 
Than from his sides in bright suffusion flow, 
That now with gold empyreal seem to glow; 
Now in pellucid sapphires meet the view, 
And emulate the soft celestial hue; 
Now beam a flaming crimson on the eye, 
And now assume the purple’s deeper dye. 
But here description clouds each shining ray — 
What terms of art can Nature’s powers display ?” 
