ON THE NIGHTINGALE'S SONG. 69 



follow that they should be, therefore, sprightly. If we 

 judge of the sounds emitted by birds from the effect whicb 

 such sounds have upon ourselves, and we do, I believe, 

 generally thus judge of them, I think there is certainly no 

 impropriety in calling the Nightingale's a pensive, if not a 

 melancholy strain. 



" Lone Philomela tnn'd the silent grove, 



With pensive pleasure listened wakeful love." 



Savage. 

 Sir William Jones has also an elegant stanza concerning 

 the Nightingale, the opportunity of quoting which I cannot 

 resist ; 



" Quand le Rossignol, par son chant 

 Si rempli de tendresse, 

 Pour saluer le doux printemps 

 Au point du jour s'empresse." 



Odes d' Hafiz, iv. 



While I am not disposed to echo the opinions of others 

 without examination, and should consider the authority of 

 both Virgil and Milton as nothing against fact, yet I 

 cannot think Mr. Coleridge in accordance with nature 

 when he writes, "The merry nightingale." The merry lark 

 would, I presume, be more readily admitted ; this bird's 

 song having, according to my apprehension, much hilarity 

 about it ; so thought Sir John Davies : 



"Early, cheerful, mounting lark, 

 Light's gentle usher, morning's clerk, 

 In merry notes delighting." 



Hymns to Astrea. 

 Having controverted Mr. Coleridge's opinion, injustice 

 to him it ought to be stated that he does not stand alone 

 in it. Chaucer has 



"The Nightingale with so mery a note." 



The Floure and the Leaf. 



