130 



POETICAL HEROINES. 



the day, and admonished them ac- 

 cordingly. From this examination 

 to his study, (how long it is uncer- 

 tain, oftentimes after midnight) and 

 so to bed ; wherein, after some part 

 of an author read to him by the 

 gentlemen of his bed-chamber, com- 

 mending himself to the protection 

 of his Saviour, he took his rest." 



So it was with Fielding, Gold- 

 smith, Steele, and many others, 

 honourable in literature ; so also 

 with Handel, Mozart, and Weber, 

 in music ; and it is one of the kindly 

 recompenses of nature, by which she 

 contrives to adjust, so equitably, the 

 good and evil in this life. We owe 



that magnificent oratorio, the "Mes- 

 siah," and others of his masterly 

 productions to the author's most 

 adverse circumstances ; and it is 

 doubted whether men of genius 

 generally would have achieved half 

 as much as they have, had their 

 circumstances in life been more pro- 

 pitio us. Sir Walter Scott wrote his 

 Waverley, however, for love not 

 of pelf, but his pen. Not so his 

 subsequent romances. Beaumont 

 was of opinion that a man of genius 

 could no more help putting his 

 thoughts on paper than a traveller 

 in a burning desert can help drink- 

 ing when he sees water. 



POETICAL HEROINES. 



BTEON'S "MATD OF ATHENS." 



" Maid of Athens, ere we part, 

 Give, O give me back my heart." 



The Maid of Athens, in the very 

 teeth of poetry, has become Mrs. 

 Black, of Egina! The beautiful 

 Teresa Makri, of whom Byron 

 asked back his heart, of whom 

 Moore and Hobhouse, and the 

 poet himself, have written so much 

 and so passionately, has forgotten 

 the sweet burden of the sweetest 

 of love-songs, and taken the unro- 

 inantic name, and followed the un- 

 romantic fortunes, of a Scotchman ! 

 The commodore proposed that we 

 should call upon her on our way 

 to the temple of Jupiter, this morn- 

 ing. We pulled up to the town 

 in the barge, and landed on the 

 handsome pier built by Dr. Howe 

 (who expended thus, most judici- 

 ously, a part of the provisions sent 

 from our country in his charge), 

 and, finding a Greek in the crowd 

 "who understood a little Italian, we 

 were soon on our way to Mrs. 

 Black's. Our guide was a fine, 

 grave-looking man of forty, with a 

 small cockade on his red cap, which 

 indicated that he was some way in 



the service of the government. He 

 laid his hand on his heart when I 

 asked him if he had known any 

 Americans in Egina. " They built 

 this," said he, pointing to the pier, 

 the handsome granite posts of which 

 we were passing at the moment. 

 "They gave us bread, and meat, 

 and clothing, when we should 

 otherwise have perished." It was 

 said with a look and tone that 

 thrilled me. I felt as if the whole 

 debt of sympathy which Greece 

 owes our country were repaid by 

 this one energetic expression of 

 gratitude. We stopped opposite a 

 small gate, and the Greek went ia 

 without cards. It was a small 

 stone house of a story and a half,, 

 with a ricketty flight of wooden 

 steps at the side, and not a blade 

 of grass or sign of a flower in court 

 or window. If there had been but 

 a geranium in the porch, or a rose- 

 tree by the gate, for description's 

 sake. Mr. Black was out Mrs. 

 Black was in. We walked up the 

 creaking steps, with a Scotch ter- 

 rier barking and snapping at our 

 heels, and were met at the door 

 by, really, a very pretty woman. 

 She smiled as I apologized for our 



