ODE TO FANCY. "O Parent of each heavenly muse, Fancy is here called the parent of the Muses, because all true poetry is full of images taken from the imagination or the fancy. In the heathen mythology, the Muses were said to be daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne or Memory. For an account of them see Lempriere's Dictionary. To offer at thy turf-built shrine By the arrangement of the words in this sentence the poet might be supposed to say, that he would offer in golden cups wine that is not costly,whereas he means to say, that he will not offer costly wine, nor make his offering in golden cups. Waving in thy snowy hand, Magic.-Formerly when mankind were more ignorant than they are at present, it was believed that there were persons, who had power to do supernatural things, or things out of the common course of nature, and which no other men can perform. These persons were called magicians or sorcerers ; and it was supposed that they were assisted by wicked spirits or devils. All these notions were not only confused and indistinct, but utterly false: this very indistinctness and confusion, however, raised a kind of fear and awe in the minds of the vulgar, which inclined them to believe whatever was said to them by these magicians or sor cerers. At present there is no part of the civilized world where such idle stories are believed. Why these magicians are represented as carrying a wand, and why that wand was supposed to have secret powers of assisting magicians in their incantations or magic songs is not known. The rods of the Egyptian magicians are the first magic wands that are read of. A great number of the prodigies or wonders performed by persons who called themselves magicians were in reality effected by skill in chemistry and natural philosophy, and as the art of printing has spread the knowledge of these sciences among mankind, the pretenders to magic have fallen into neglect and disrepute. Whose rapid wings thy flight convey. This is not very exact-wings cannot convey a flight-a horse cannot convey a ride. Conspicuous. This is not a poetical expression. Dales.-Johnson says that a dałe is a low place between hills. A dale is much the same as a valley. There is a proverbial boast of the inhabitants of Holmes' dale that leaves the meanings of vale and dale in much confusion; it is, however an cient. "This winding vale "Of Holmes' dale "Was never won nor never shall." Dale is also used by discriminately with vale. of this description of the sort of Fancy is beautiful. Spencer in The whole retired re Haunted stream.-Poets feign or pretend that they are inspired by the Muses and other imaginary personages in thick groves, and on the banks of fountains. When we are at a distance from the common occupations of men, and retired from whatever may distract our attention, fancy is more at liberty to form images of its own, and to delineate the impressions which it receives from the |