NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 129 



Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, 

 Fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam." 1 



Lucretius, Lib. iv. 1. 576. 



1 Sir William Jardine's edition contains a rendering of the above into English 

 by Mr. J. Mason Good (ed. "Selborne," p. 221, note), but Professor Bell gives an 

 excellent note, which I transcribe (ed. " Selborne," vol. i. p. 213) : 



"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.""' 



Professor Bell failed to discover the author of this "pleasing translation. 

 [R. B. S.] 



VOL. II. 



