I 



ON THE nightingale's SONG. 71 



are merry, I cannot assent to the cause assigned by Thomson 

 for her sorrowing strains, namely, that they are produced by 

 the loss of her young ; that 



" All abandoned to despair, she sings 

 Her sorrows through the night." 



Thomson's picture of the Nightingale, thus singing, may 

 do very well in poetfy, but it is quite irreconcilable with na- 

 ture and truth. See Mr. Sweet's letter forward; and also 

 the note on the I^ightingale in the first part. 



Having listened for a long time this morning, (May 10, 

 1826,) to the song of the Nightingale near Hornsey-wood 

 House, as mentioned below, I am more strongly confirmed 

 in the opinion I have here expressed concerning it. At 

 the same time it should not be forgotten, that the long- 

 drawn notes of its day-song are neither so striking, nor, 

 perhaps, so lengthened, as those which are uttered by the 

 same bird at midnight. In accordance with this, thus 

 beautifully sings Milton ; 



" Now is the pleasant time,; 

 The cool, the silent, save where silence yields 

 To the night -warbling- bird that, now awake, 

 Tunes sweetest his love-laboured song ; now reigns 

 Full-orb'd the moon, and with more pleasing light, 

 Shadowy «ets otf the face of things.'' 



Par. Losty Book v. 



Milton, we see, treats the Nightingale as a male^ while 

 most of our poets have, following the ancients, I presume, 

 echoed without discrimination their practice of calling him 

 Philomela^ and feminine, of course. It is, however, time 

 to approach and adopt the truth as it is found in nature : 

 but the temptation to, make a lady sentimental is, it 

 must be admitted, often too great to be resisted ; and in 



