ARGONAUT A. 135 



prose and poetry by classical and modern authors: including in 

 the former Aristotle. .Elian, Oppian, Athenians. Pliny and 

 among modern poets, Pope and Byron. 



Learn of the little Nautilus to sail, 



Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. 



POPE. 



Light as a flake of foam upon the wind, 

 Keel upwards from the deep emerged a shell, 

 Shaped like the moon ere half her orb is filled ; 

 Fraught with young, life, it righted as it rose, 

 And moved at will along the yielding water. 

 The native pilot of this little bark, 

 Put out a tier of oars on either side, 

 Spread to the wafting breeze a twofold sail, 

 And mounted up and glided down the billow 

 In happy freedom, pleased to feel the air, 

 And wander in the luxury of light. 



Pelican Island. 



The tender Nautilus who steers his prow 



The sea-born sailor of this shell canoe, 



The Ocean-Mai), the fairy of the sea 



Seems far more fragile, and, alas, more free ; 



He, when the lightning-winged tornadoes sweep 



The surf, is free, his post is in the deep, 



And triumphs o'er the armadas of mankind, 



Which shake the world, yet crumble in the wind. 



BYRON. 



"Once as a sailor-shell I sported o'er 

 The azure wave : but now on Smyrna's shore, 

 Cypris, I grace thy shrine the darling toy 

 Of fair Selene and her childhood's joy. 

 If wandering winds breathed soft, my tiny sail 

 Was duly spread to catch the summer gale : 

 If golden calm upon the waters came 

 My nimble feet were oars ; and hence my name : 

 I cast myself on Julis' shore, that thou 

 Mightst glory, Cypris, in the maiden's vow. 

 No radiant Halcyon now with azure crest 

 AVill seek my chambers for its sunny nest. 

 Thank fair Selene, then, whose virtues grace 

 The city of her proud ^Eolian race." 



C ALLIMACHUS. * 



* The above translation is from the Narrative of the Voyage of the 

 Samarang, ii, 526, and is from the pen of Ernest Adams. In explanation 

 of the subject it is stated that it was the custom of the Greek girls, on 

 arriving at years of discretion, to consecrate to Venus the playthings of 

 their childhood. 



