DANTE AS A NATUBALIST. 375 



must have inspired Shelley in his lines on the Euganean 



Hills :— 



" I stood and listened to the Paean 

 With wliich the legioned Books did hail 

 The sun's uprise niajestical. 

 Gathering round with wings all hoar, 

 Through the dewy mists they soar, 

 Like grey shades, till the Eastern heaven 

 Bursts ; and then as clouds of even, 

 Flecked with fire and azure lie 

 In the unfathomable sky, 

 So their plumes of purple grain. 

 Starred with drops of golden rain. 

 Gleam above the sunlit woods." 



