OF SELBORNF. 213 



" Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti 

 " Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, 

 " Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, 

 " Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum : 

 " Et genus agricoltim late sentiscere, quoni Pan 

 " Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, 

 " Unco saspe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 

 " Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." 



Lucretius, Lib. iv. 1. 670*. 



LETTER XXXIX. 



TO THE SAME. 



Selborne, May 13, 1778. 

 DEAR SIR, 



AMONG the many singularities attending those amusing birds 

 the swifts, I am now confirmed in the opinion that we have 



* [The following sonnet appeared in a review of White's ' Selborne ' in 

 the ' Topographer,' shortly after the publication of the first edition. It 

 forms a note on the above quotation from Lucretius. 



"This beautiful passage appeared with the following translation in 

 Sonnets and other Poems/ printed for Wilkie, 1785. 



" Wand'ring amid deep woods and mountains dark, 

 Wilder'd by night, my comrades lost to guide, 



Oft through the void I raised my voice ; and hark ! 

 The rocks with twenty mimic tones replied. 



Within these sacred haunts, 'tis said, abide 

 Fauns, nymphs, and satyrs, who delight to mark 

 And mock each lonely sound : but ere the lark 



Wakes her shrill note, to secret cells they glide. 



" Night- wand'ring noises, revelry and joke 

 Disturb the air ('tis said by rustics round, 



Who start to hear the solemn silence broke), 



And warbling strings and plaintive pipes resound ; 



And oft they hear, when Pan his reed hath woke, 



Hills, vales, and woods and glens the harmony rebound." 



I have not succeeded in discovering who was the author of this 

 pleasing translation. T. B.] 



