The festive glees of love. With fragrant torch
Blythe Hymen lighted to the bridal bower
The happy Theseus; and beside his bed
Drew close the saffron veil. Alas! how near
Stood by the couch of pleasure Nemesis.
Six days, short days, were given to rejoicings;
The seventh to our embarkment. Tepid gales
Swell'd the white sail, the streaky streamer quiver'd
O'er the smooth sea; our ship long furrows tracing,
Rang with the mingled noise of song and cymbals
That taught and cheer'd the rower's measur'd pull.
At night we saw the flame-capt hill of Naxos
To us unfriendly. On the fiery mountain
Dark storms awaited, lower'd and burst upon us.
The loud winds roar'd, like flames of burning towns,
Between the watery vallies. Lightnings flash'd
Only to shew the rocks toward which we drifted.
'T was much we stranded, much we tow'd our ship
Beyond the billows back-draught, much I lodg'd,
Borne in a state of swoon upon my shoulder,
The ash-pale Ariadne in a temple,

Which overlook'd the climbing waves of foam.
Slowly Poseidon's anger had abated.

First of the stars through the disparting clouds
Shone forth the crown: shouting the sailors hail'd
Its white and welcome ray, foreboding calm;
And soon to their Eolian caves the winds
Were slunk once more-in skies serenely blue
The day-break climb'd aloft, the trickling brine
Ooz'd from the glittering rock, and the still groves
Shining in moisture, woo'd the golden dawn.
During the storm we had thrown overboard
Our store of food. I bade the young men fetch
Out of our ship our bows and arrows, left
All the old men, the rowers, and Konnides,
To guard the vessel and the women, went

To roam the forest, and brought down much game.
It was Lyæus' holiday. The grove,

We hear, to him was sacred.

Monades,

Mad with new wine, their red cheeks smear'd with lees, Hurling in air their ivy-girded spears,

Roaring defiance, came in angry crowds

To punish our profaneness. Wildly savage,

They smote with stones the stragglers of our party;

I pluck'd a branch, and, as beseems the suppliant,
Wav'd it in sign of parley, while my friends
Collected closer. I began to tell

The tale of my distress. Their softening hearts
Like flowers unclosing to the warmer noon,

Appear'd to heed my prayer, when a fierce priest,
His holy garments torn, his face on fire,

Came running toward us breathless. Stone them all,
The miscreants, spare
them not, his anger shriek'd,

The other pirates have profan'd the temple-
Have borne on board the offerings of the people;
Onarus' life is threaten'd-your high-priest.
Anew began the storm of drunken wrath :

Sones flew, clubs clatter'd, glittering spears press'd on:
And the wine-dropping ivy that inwreath'd them
Was stain'd with Grecian blood. Our gather'd band
With slow but backward foosteps to the sea

From thick'ning crowds retreated, with their arrows,
While yet these lasted, staying the rash onset

Of the more forward. Near our ship, now launch'd,
Konnides with some few awaited me.

Soon, I exclaim'd, Athenians, comes our turn.
Take weapons, we'll chastise the barbarous crowd.
Be not so rash, he said, time scarce remains

For flight. Thy friend Pirithous is no more.
He fought for Ariadne until death.

Onarus, the barbarian king or priest,

Came to the temple, saw the beauteous stranger,

With well-armed hundreds forc'd her from our hands

She sank a victim at Lyæus' altar:

Ask not-away-to thee she's lost for ever.

I will have vengeance. "Half thy friends have fallen."

Give me my weapons.

"It were fruitless madness."

The old man won on them to drag their leader
From Naxos unreveng'd: he yet will bear
His living anger to the accursed shore;
On the dear spot, where Ariadne vanish'd,
Slay to her shade a hecatomb of men,
And from the jaws of Hades ask again
The brave Pirithous fallen for his friend.
Pirithous-Ariadne-to the man

Who knew and lost you, joy is ever dead.
Vainly your spirits seem'd to haunt my couch,
Smiling in bloom celestial! Ariadne !
Thee had Lyæus' self with beamy hand
Beckon'd to walk Olympus, press'd for thee
Immortal nectar in the cup of gods,

Girt with a crown of stars thy shining hair,
And on thy lips still should I grudge his prize
And wail with gnashing teeth my robb'd delights.
Such dreams Poseidon sent. Ere we beheld
Emerging dim the lov'd Acropolis,

In sign of mourning the black sail was hoisted:
So with my father Egeus 't was agreed

When we departed hence. Ah me! his love
Thought of no sorrow but a murder'd son.

Ye know that from the rock whence he was gazing
At the sad sight, he fell--

Not caring to survive an only son

On a rash errand, as he thought, to Crete,
Sent for the people.

Chorus. Be our Ægeus thou;

Long live our king, thy father's worthy son,
Sent for the people, for the people sav'd.

Bring here the crown, bind it on Theseus' brow.
Live royal Ægeus' son! live our new king.

Theseus. With a great honour, men of Athens, ye
Propose to adorn me; for the crown adorns
Only the brow, whereon the people place it;

And but conceals the head, which heirs its brilliance,
Alas! how often it conceals a head

Void, feeble, careless of each public duty;
Lewd, or rapacious, brooding long oppressions,
Or stain'd with crime, and dropping human blood.
Whom it encircles a long curse pursue,

If he not holy keep the people's rights.
Laws are the bands of citizens: remain

The laws with strength to bind both king and subject;
He who would climb above them, fall their victim,
And like the robber of the desert, find

No quarter.

Chorus. Prince, be thou our legal monarch. Hail Theseus king!

Theseus. I have not desired the crown;
But I am glad ye thus to me allot it:

More glad than ye suspect; for know, Athenians,
I consecrate this crown henceforth to Jove.
Our only monarch be the king of heaven!
He ever-under him let the free people
Here be the sovereign: theirs to chose the men
Who weigh out justice with impartial hand:
Theirs to bestow each office of the state,
To order war or to conclude on peace.
My arm, my head, my heart, belong to you,
And shall-while the warm blood-drops throb along
These veins while see these eyes, or stir these limbs-
While glows between these lips the breath of heaven.
Should you to me commit the general's sword,
I'll draw it; when, and where, and why you will;
And bright or bloody yield it up again,
Soon as the will of the free people bids.
Though you are launching on an untried water

The ship of freedom, fear not-she will right,

And on the open sea all-glorious glide

In shouting pomp with swelling sails along.
If to the rudder me at times you call,

With Jove's assistance, and your love, unfearing
I'll grasp the helm; but at your nod give place
To any worthier pilot you may find.

Chorus. Hail, Theseus-Theseus guardian god of Athens.

Our only monarch be the king of heaven,

And under him the sovereign people reign!

Theseus. Compare not me with the immortal gods:

What I have done was but the obvious duty
Of any man so stationed. "T is in me
A pleasant sacrifice. Fair lots and foul
Out of the lap of fate on me have fallen;
But none so fair, so welcome to my soul,
None I so thank the gods for, as for this,
To be the founder of Athenian freedom.
How blest who dwells a freeman with the free,
Where each, obedient to the laws of all,
Bends to his equals, ne'er to a superior.
Who feels this pleasure he can ne'er suppose
It more than human to descend a throne
In order among men to be a man.

The king on the Euphrates he would do it;
He on the Nile too-were the veil remov'd
With which the diadem surrounds their eyes.

Chorus. Our only monarch be the king of heaven,
And under him the sovereign people reign!

Hail freedom, like the sky-ascending sun;

The bliss of nations ripens in thy beam:
Safety, the nurse of life,

There rears her branchy tree.

Through thee alone the father-land is dear;
Without thee an unmeaning senseless name,
A less than air, a dream

About the shade of smoke.

O freedom, freedom, music to the ear,
To the heart sunshine-courage at thy call
Kindles, and genius starts

To chase the forms of beauty and of truth.

Norwich.

W. TAYLOR.

SKETCHES.

No. II.-CHILDHOOD.

A leaf from my uncle Philip's book of remembrances.

"I was sitting at a window, the sash of which I had thrown open to enjoy the fragrance and the sunshine of one of July's most luxuriant afternoons. The scene was the most charmingly romantic that ever I remember to have looked upon. That, however, is saying but little-all country scenery is charming and romantic too to me. It is so seldom I can escape from the din and pollution of a city, that when the opportunity is afforded me, my spirits are absolutely at flood.' On the present occasion, however, there was more than enough to justify any transports into which, as a devoted admirer of nature, I might have been betrayed. Before me a dark mass of foliage stood out in broad relief from the brightness of a summer-sky-On my right a spacious river wandered on, dazzling the eye with its golden sheen,' till on the distant horizon it seemed only a meandering line of light: On my left, the green and grain-covered hills presented their curved and graceful outline to the blue beyond :—And over all the pure and ample heavens were spread in their vast and unveiled magnificence.

"Across a field, at about the distance of a hundred yards was the village school-house. Through the opened lattice I could just discern the shining faces and little forms ranged in orderly rows, and conning their appointed tasks. Methought it was a pity that they should not be enjoying their sport in the sunshine; and as I looked upon the loveliness of the landscape, it seemed to say with the poet,

'Come forth O ye children of gladness, come!
Where the violets lie, may be now your home.
Ye of the rose-cheek and dew-bright eye,

And the bounding footstep, to meet me fly,

With the lyre, and the wreath, and the joyous lay:
Come forth to the sunshine, I may not stay.'

It was not long before, as if in obedience to the call, the door was flung open, and out burst a whole shoal of youngsters hur