baa 
‘Fo thee, Themira, when I bow, 
For ever in my fpring I glow, 
And in thy years approve thee 5 
Ceuld ito gay fixteen return 
With love more lafting 1 might burn, 
But dearer could not love thee. 
Even beauty and lovelinefs do not always 
expire with the flower of youth ; and nota 
few poets have fung the praifes of autumnal 
‘eharms. This, as we are informed by 
Elian, was the opinion of Euripides, 
that the evening of beauty is frequentiy> 
not lefs delightful and enchanting than its 
dawning ludre. Anacreon makes a very 
poetical and elegant apology for his own 
age in-one of his odes, which I have traaf- 
ated :-— 
Mn fAe puyng pmo. 
Oh fly not, though revolving time 
Has filvei’d o’er Anacreon’s head, 
Nor, glorying inthy flowery prime, 
Be by 4 younger lover led! - 
Think’ thou my winter ill agrees 
With the young charms thy fpring dif- 
clofes.? i 
Remember how thofe garlands pleafe 
Where lilies mingle with the rofes ! 
After all, upon comparing together the 
various fpeciatens I have here prefented, 
¥ think the pofition [ fet out with will ap- 
pear well-founded, refpeéting the diftinc- 
tive marks of the Grecian and Oriental 
and the modern European amatory com- 
poitions.* Like the luxurious fubjetts 
of Alcinoiis, they referred all their enjoy- 
ments to the pleafures of the fenfes :— 
e J F - , 
*Ajsl Y hyety Aais ve pian, uibagic re, yond: Te, 
ee , 23 x as , a r nts ayant 
Eluard + 2EnciGr, Acered Te Tegumd, % EUIat. 
With them wine, beauty, and mufie, 
the graceful motion, the beaming eye, the 
wanton voluptuous air, the melting voice, 
are the fources of the paffion, and the 
abjects of the praife; and if more refined 
fentiments adorn our compofitions, it may 
be a queltion whether our poetry has not 
loft as much of beauty and enchantment 
as it has gained of delicacy and morality 
by the change. 
* Towsrds the conclufion of this effay I 
have-given two or three very firiking ex- 
amples to the contrary ; but the exceptions to 
‘ my afiertion are fo few in- number, that they 
will ratber tend to confirm than to fhake the 
rule, if the fubje&t be properly examined. 
Remarks on Malta and Sicily. 
[Feb. 1, 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
REMARKS 0” MALTA and SICILY. 
[Continued from Vol. xx., p. 516.) 
Vi hoft of the Elephant prides 
himfelf upon his charaéter for civi- 
lity ;,anud keeps a book in which are the 
fignatures of a number of Englith travel- 
lers, certifying their fatisfaction with the 
treatment they had received : one of thefe 
certificates being extremely ill-fpelt, and 
at the fame time ftrongly commending the 
eating provided him, a wag has written 
under it thefe words :—“ It feems this 
gentleman was much better fed than 
taught.” 
Before breakfaft on the morning after 
our ariival we were wait:d upon by the 
Governor of the town, who, though not 
fo polified a man as our friend at Syra- 
cufe, fhewed every inclination to oblige. 
He drove us about to view the country in 
a very elegant landau, and pointed ovt a 
number of grand and beautiful profpects. 
In the evening he introduced us to a coz- 
verfazione, or rather coffee-room, it be- 
ing merely an aflemblage of men filing 
themlelves the nobleffe of the country, but 
who in every refpeét fell far fhort of thofe 
we had left at Syracufe. Here I thought 
T traced the effet of French fraternity- 
Not being a card player, I wandered from 
the coffee-room into the town, till, wifh- 
ing to return, I was obliged toinquire my 
way of a labouring-man to the noble- 
men’s converfazione : be civilly conducted 
me to the {pot, and then left me, with 
this farcaftic remark, “* There is the dif. 
grace of Catania.’ From this place we 
went to the opera, which is much upon a 
par with that at Malta. 
The churches of this town are very nu-_ 
mercus, and many of them handiome, 
and fplendidly decorated. That belong- 
ing tothe Benedictine Friars of the Order 
of Saint Nicholas furpaffes any I have ever 
feen: itis large, airy, and elegant, con- 
tains fome very fuperior paintings, and 
perhaps the fineft organ in the world.— 
There are alfo belonging to the fame or- 
der, and in the monattery, which is very 
large, an extenfive library, and mufeum, 
in both of which are fome excellent paint- 
ings. The mufeum conrains few curiofi- 
ties but fuch as are ufually. met with in 
common collefions. Adjoining the mo+ 
nafiery are feveral large gardens, in the 
laying out of which neither rafte nor nature 
has been confulted.; ‘but contrafted | to 
their inbpid uniformity, 
elatahnal! Migs odd Yq 
and near to csr F 
~O8 wv  @ onthe fe they . 
-* ~Ge 64 
