424 COSMOS. 



nature ; thus it is supposed that the finest descriptive stanzas 

 in the Gerusalemma Liber ata* may be traced to impressions 

 derived from the poet's recollection of the beautiful scenery oi 

 Sorrento by which he was surrounded. 



The power of stamping descriptions of nature with the im- 

 press of faithful individuality, which springs from actual 

 observation, is most richly displayed in the great national 

 epic of Portuguese literature. It seems as if a perfumed 

 Eastern air breathed throughout this poem, which was written 

 under a tropical sky in the rocky grotto near Macao, and in 

 the Moluccas. Although I would not venture to assume that 

 my opinion could serve as a confirmation of the bold expres- 

 sion of Friedrich Schlegel, that " the Lusiad of Camoens far 

 surpasses Ariosto in richness of colour and luxuriance of 

 fancy,"! I may be permitted to add, as an observer of nature, 

 that in the descriptive portions of the work, the enthusiasm 

 of the poet, the ornaments of diction, and the sweet tones 

 of melancholy never impede the accurate representation of 

 physical phenomena, but rather, as i always the case where 

 art draws from a pure source, heighten the animated impres- 

 sion of the greatness and truth of the delineations. Camoens 

 abounds in inimitable descriptions of the never-ceasing con- 

 nection between the air and sea between the varying form 

 of the cloudy canopy, its meteorological processes, and the 

 different conditions of the surface of the ocean. He describes 

 this surface when, curled by gentle breezes, the short waves 

 flash beneath the play of the reflected beams of light; arid 

 again, when the ships of Coelho and Paul de Gama contend 

 in a fearful storm against the wildly-agitated elements 4 



* Tasso, cantoxvi. stanze 9-18. 



t See Friedrich Schlegel's Sdmmtl. Werke, bd. ii. s. 96 ; and on the 

 disturbing mythological dualism, and the mixture of antique fable with 

 Christian contemplations, see bd. x. s. 54. Camoens has tried, in 

 stanzas 82-84, which have not met with sufficient admiration, to justify 

 this mythological dualism. Tethys avows, in a naive manner, but in 

 verses inspired by the noblest conception of poetry, " that she herself, 

 Saturn, Jupiter, and all the host of gods, are vain fables, created by the 

 blind delusion of mortals, and serving only to lend a charm to song 

 A Sancta Providencia que em Jupiter aqui se representa." 



$ Os Lusiadas de Camoes, canto i. est 19; canto vi. est. 71 32. See 

 also the comparison in the description of a tempest raging in a forest, 

 canto i. est, 35. 



