DR DAK WIN. 195 



glittering bands around the finking day, 

 and when the fun retreats, confine, with 

 folds of air, his lingering fires to the cold 

 bofom of earth. 



O'er eve's pale forms diffufe phoiphoric light, 

 And deck with lambent flames the (brine of night. 



Surely there cannot be a more beautiful 

 defcription of a vernal twilight. The phof- 

 phorefcent quality of the Bolognian ftone, 

 Beccari's prifmatic fhells, and the harp of 

 Memnon, which is recorded to have 

 breathed fpontaneous chords when fhone 

 upon by the rifmg fun, are all compared to 

 the twilight glimmerings of the horizon ; 

 fo alfo the luminous infecls, the glow- 

 worm, the fire-flies of the tropics, the fa- 

 bulous ignis fatuus, and the gymnotus elec- 

 tricus, brought to England from Surinam 

 in South America, about the year 1783 ; 

 a fifh, whofe eleclric power is, on provo- 

 cation, mortal to his enemy. He is com- 

 o 2, pared 



