84 FASSERES. SYLVIAD.E. 



stillness of the balmy night, has been almost 

 universally admired ; but whether the notes are 

 plaintive and melancholy, or cheerful and sprightly, 

 opinions are divided. The former epithets are 

 the most commonly applied to them, especially by 

 the poets, who were perhaps influenced by their 

 classic recollections. As an example of the latter 

 judgment, Coleridge may be quoted: 



" A melancholy bird ! idle thought ! 

 In nature there is nothing melancholy : 

 But some night- wandering man, whose heart was pierced 

 With the remembrance of a grievous wrong, 

 Or slow distemper, or neglected love, 

 (And so, poor wretch ! fill'd all things with himself. 

 And made all gentle sounds tell back the tale 

 Of his own sorrow,) he, and such as he, 

 First named these notes a melancholy strain, 

 And many a poet echoes the conceit. 



We have learnt 



A different lore : we may not thus profane 

 Nature's sweet voices, always full of love 

 And joyance ! Tis the merry nightingale 

 That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates 

 With fast thick warble his delicious notes, 

 As he were fearful that an April night 

 Would be too short for him to utter forth 

 His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul 

 Of all its music ! . . . .. 



Far and near 



In wood and thicket over the wide grove 

 They answer and provoke each other's songs, 

 With skirmish and capricious passagings, 

 And murmurs musical, and swift ' jug, jug,' 

 And one low piping sound more sweet than all, . 

 Stirring the air with such a harmony, 

 That should you close your eyes you might almost 

 Forget it was not day." * 



But perhaps these opinions are not irrecon- 

 cileable ; for, as the Abbe La Pluche says, " the 

 Nightingale passes from grave to gay, from a 



* The Nightingale. 



