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and their oars, as they cut the glittering waters, appearing to flash like meteors. All were loaded with votaries, bearing offerings of statues, pictures, and costly presents, or with visitants from various parts, hurrying to witness this magnificent festival. The Ionians were there with their wives and children, the natives of Thessaly, Boeotia, Arcadia, and Argolis; and even the remote Hyperboreans had freighted a bark with the tribute of their first fruits.

But that which excited most attention was the splendid deputation of the Athenians, in five handsome vessels, headed by the sacred galley called Paralus, which was said to have been preserved from the times of Theseus, and during whose absence from Athens no criminal could be executed. Crowding with other inhabitants to the beach, I saw the Deliastes descend from it, followed by the four priests of the family of the Ceryces, who claimed Mercury for their ancestor ; the priestesses called Deliades, all crowned with laurel; and lastly, the dancing-girls, attended by Philammon, whom Plutarch mentions as the inventor of the sacred dances used at Delphi. As it was customary to rehearse their performance beforehand, they danced, as soon as they landed, the Geranon, intended by its figure to represent the turns and intricacies of the Labyrinth.

By the time this was concluded, a thin grey light had stolen over the deep blue of the eastern heavens, which, gradually assuming a rosy hue, deepened at last into those golden flushes which fly up the sky to announce the coming of the god of day. At this sight

the multitude, with the priests and priestesses, the officers of the sanctuary, and all those who were to figure in the ceremonies, arranged themselves in order in front of the Temple, anxiously gazing towards the quarter whence their deity was to arise; and as soon as the upper surface of his fiery orb became visible above the horizon, the whole assembled people sunk upon one knee, and stretching their right hands to the east, shouted out simultaneously-"Apollo! Apollo ! Apollo !" leaving a short interval between each exclamation. The seas and islands, and the blue concave of the air, reverberated the sound, and as I contemplated the illuminated countenances and glistening eyes of this vast assemblage, and, upon turning to the east, beheld the sun's disk now fully developed, I could not help imagining that he had quickened his uprising at this triumphant summons, and that he cast a complacent smile upon this crowd of kneeling votaries, assembled in the island which his rays had first vivified after the great Ogygian deluge.

Musical instruments now sounded a solemn prelude, and the whole body of the priests and choristers united their voices in the following chaunt :

"Hail to Apollo, the magnificent, the beautiful,
Glorious God of Creation;

Celebrate his jubilee with sacrifices dutiful,

And hymns of devout adoration;"

which was followed by an animated Pæan from the Priestesses:

"God of the Earth!-God of the Earth!

Our praises we pour from the place of thy birth

:

May our Pæans and cries, with our Holocausts, rise To thy dwelling on high, O thou Lord of the skies!" The sacred band now falling back on either side to the sound of the dulcimer, tabret, lute, the silver cythern, and the Phrygian pipe, I perceived in the centre her whom I had ordered to be summoned-the poetess Sappho; the cincture that bound her white garments fastened by a golden sun, and her black hair and laurel wreath attached by a similar clasp. Of low stature, dark complexion, and features far from beautiful, there was yet something indescribably interesting, and even fascinating, in her appearance. It exhibited nothing wanton or immodest, and though her burning blood seemed to flush through her face and every part of her naked throat and arms, a high and holy intelligence sate with such a redeeming virtue upon her brow, that I pronounced her to be a mental, rather than a sensual voluptuary. As a votaress of Venus, love was her religion; as an exalted poetess herself, she reverenced intellect in others: and when these feelings combined to produce an intense excitement of all her ideas and sensations, both of heaven and earth, I easily imagined that she could abandon herself to their beatitudes with a passionate enthusiasm both of the head and heart, of the senses and affections, which might well terminate in that deliquium and ecstasy she has so eloquently described in her ode. In modern times she would have been a devotee—a fanatic —perhaps a maniac or a mártyr; but she would have been cold and chaste, for the same reason that she was susceptible and amorous-because her religion en

joined it. Her modest and dignified rebuke of Alcæus, preserved by Aristotle, and her unalterable constancy to Phaon, for whom she finally sacrificed her life, confirm this view of her character, and seem to refute every imputation of gross or promiscuous attachment.

A dead silence pervaded the whole multitude as she stepped forward a few paces and made a graceful reverence to the sun. Methought her languid eyes at first justified her own phrase of the Όψεων υπολείψεις, but she had no sooner swept the golden lyre she held in her hand, than they became animated with a holy rapture; she then extended both arms to the god of day, and in a voice of surpassing sweetness began"Twin-born of Dian!"-when, lo! the envious curtain suddenly fell, and I found myself alone with the Enchantress of the Cave!

"By all that is beautiful and mysterious!" I passionately exclaimed, "disappoint me not thus!" and I was rushing forward to tear down the drapery that robbed me of this glorious vision, when she cried in an authoritative voice" Rash man, forbear! you have seen my power; provoke not its exercise against yourself. You demanded to see, not to hear, the poetess;-have you not been gratified?"-"O fully, most fully! And if this enchanting pageant must no more be seen, I have only to submit with gratitude, and depart; trusting that ere I quit this vicinity I may again be allowed to visit your abode, and witness some new display of your inexplicable power."-" That is unnecessary; you may summon me to your presence

whenever you think fit.”—Startled at an announcement which suggested to my mind that I might be associating myself with some of the manifold incarnations of the arch-fiend, I replied with some hesitation

<< By what name shall I invoke you, and how shall I obtain dominion over your magical incantations?”"You yourself," said the female with a playful smile, 'can best judge of your implicit power over me and my enchantments, when I inform you that my name is-IMAGINATION."

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PETER PINDARICS.

The Fat Actor and the Rustic.

CARDINAL Wolsey was a man

Of an unbounded stomach, Shakspeare says,
Meaning (in metaphor) for ever puffing

To swell beyond his size and span;

But had he seen a player of our days

Enacting Falstaff without stuffing,

He would have own'd that Wolsey's bulk ideal
Equall'd not that within the bounds

This actor's belt surrounds,

Which is, moreover, all alive and real.

This player, when the peace enabled shoals

Of our odd fishes

To visit every clime between the poles,

Swam with the stream, a histrionic Kraken,

Although his wishes

Must not in this proceeding be mistaken,

For he went out professionally-bent

To see how money might be made, not spent.

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