132 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



51) ; " the air still, gloomy and sultry "; " the hurricane comes 

 on roaring "; " terrified . . . murmurs and groans " (p. 386) ; 

 " the skies appear streaked with blood . . . whilst the heavy 

 thunder kept the earth in a constant tremor . . . the high forests 

 . . . bent to the blast " (p. l4l) ; " instantly the lightning . . . 

 darted with inconceivable rapidity on the trunks of a large pine- 

 tree, . . . and set it in a blaze " (p. 13). One cannot expect, 

 of course, that Coleridge's storm, as it came out of what Pro- 

 fessor Lowes calls " the deep well " of impressions retained 

 from his reading, would repeat Bartram's identical words in all 

 cases. The parallel between the elements that constitute the 

 storm in Osorio and in Bartram is so striking, however, even 

 to the tree " set in a blaze " or "' newly-scath'd " by lightning, 

 that the addition of this passage to those of Osorio already 

 shown to have a Bartram influence seems justified. 



The fact is that Osorio is as full of echoes from Bartram as 

 Wordsworth's "Ruth," a poem "saturated with Bartram."" 

 Everywhere in Osorio one stumbles upon parallels and reminis- 

 cences of Bartram's phraseology and sentiment. In addition to 

 the passages already cited the following lines are suggestive: 



... It is a small green dale 

 Built all around with high off-sloping hills, 



There's a lake in the midst, 

 And round its banks tall wood, that branches over 

 And makes a kind of faery forest grow 

 Down in the water. At the further end 

 A puny cataract falls on the lake; 

 And there (a curious sight) you see its shadow (II, 148-156). 



One recalls the village of Augusta 



situated on a rich and fertile plain, on the Savanna river ; the buildings 

 are near its banks, and extend ... up to the cataracts, . . . which are 

 formed by the first chain of rocky hills. . . . When the river is low, . . . 

 the cataracts are four or five feet in height across the river . . . 

 (pp. 33-34). 



One also recalls: 



Meditating on the marvellous scenes of primitive nature, ... I gently 



^^ Athenaeum, August 12, 1893, p. 219. 



