237 



" Night, more than day, desiring lovers hail, 

 " For tliat withdraws, but this bestows the veil. 



" Conceal'd by night, she gives her griefs to flow, 

 " And seeks in solitude relief from woe. 



" In youth's gay garden, like a flower she rose, 

 " Pure and unruffled, as life's water flows : 



" Giv'n to the winds, away her peace is flown ; 

 " Upon her bed unnumber'd thorns are strown." 



Respecting the virtues of the ointment prepared by the ex- 

 perienced matron, such charms are generally credited in India : 

 many allusions to them are found in oriental stories; the "oint- 

 ment poured forth/' and similar expressions in Solomon's Song, 

 have probably the same tendency. The ancient poets abound 

 with philtres, charms, and medicaments, to excite the tender pas- 

 sion. Unguents, bones of snakes, blood of doves, and a variety 

 of potions are mentioned by the Greek and Roman writers; espe- 

 cially the Arcadian plant called hippomanes. Many appropriate 

 passages might be quoted from Homer, Virgil, and Proper tius. 

 One from Horace, where Canidia seems to have been be placed in 

 a similar situation with Zeida, will suffice. 



Atque nee herba, nee latens in asperis 



Radix fefellit me locis. 

 Indormit unctis omnium cubilibus 



Oblivione pellicucum. 

 Ah, ah, solutus nmbulat veneficae 



Scientioris carmine. 



