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How calm on yonder stream the moonlight sleeps,
Fair image, woman, of thy maiden breast
Untouch'd by love-anon some vagrant breath
Ruffles its surface, and its pure pale light
In tremulous pulses heaves;-brighter perchance
That feverish glitter, but its rest is o'er!—
Fresh falls the dewy air upon my cheek,
As if some spirit cloth'd in 'ts infl'ence, came
Upon my soul, with one heaven-given drop
To cool its torment.-Would that I might bind
Thine incorporeal essence, I would chain thee
Here to my heart.-Benev'lent visitor,
Whether from yon bright sphere to mortals sent
On moonbeams gliding, fairy, gnome, or sylph,
Whate'er thy name-or from earth's glistening caves,
Or from the forest-coralled deep, thou com'st
In these moist drops that stud my dew-hung hair,
Its every braid impearling,-fly me not,

I charge thee, gentle spirit-(Music at a distance.)
Hark!--he comes.-I thank thee-

(The Music approaches towards the Terrace.) A voice!--I'll hear thy words-breathe not too loud, Ye winds

SONG.

Lady, list to me,

Thy gentle spirit I'll be,

The fire is my garment, the flood is my bed,
And I paint the first cloud with the sun-beam red
That rolls o'er the broad blue sea.

Lady, list to me,

To the mountain-top I flee,

There I watch the first wave that comes laden with light,
And I seize the soft hue of that billow so bright,
With its beam I enkindle each heaven-peering height
And the morn's radiant canopy—

(The voice ceases and the music gradually retires.) Hermione.-Oh fly not,-bear me on thy wing,-from earth, Why this shudder?-Save me, spirit of air,

From

Or earth, or sea,-tear me but hence,—and yet

I cannot part! Oh why, in mercy, once

Was I conceiv'd, and not to nothing crush'd

Ere the first feeble pulse, unconscious crept
Around this viewless form?-Why was I kept

Unharm'd through infinite perils,-spar'd, but doom'd
To writhe unpitied, succourless, alone,

Beneath one cruel, one remorseless curse?
From hope shut out, from common sympathy
And all communion of sorrow, e'en

To the veriest wretch upon thy bosom, earth,
Ne'er yet withheld,-this boon I dare not ask!--
Wither'd, consum'd, companionless, uncheer'd,
I meet mine hastening doom.-Yet clad in smiles,
A flower-wreath'd sacrifice, I gaily bound
With gambols playful as the inn'cent lamb,
To the devouring altar-The knife is bar'd,
Uplifted,―glittering,-still I woo thee, tyrant,
And, aw'd, embrace my chain. -This night the feast
I sudden left, arm'd, then I proudly thought,
With such resolve, as on this moonlit terrace,

Where my soul, freed awhile from earth's low influence,
Would my thrall'd heart unchain for ever!

(She takes a billet from her bosom.)

I vow'd to snatch thee from my breast,
To tear thee hence, and to the winds unseen,
Commit thy perishing fragments, e'en as now
This unoffending page I rend, far scatt'ring
Its frail memorial on the wanton air.-

(She makes an effort to tear the paper.) Some power withholds me,-what!—for this thou yearnest, Weak foolish heart, some other hour, thou say'st,

Better thou canst resign this flutt'ring relic

Of thy-hope, whisperest thou?

Nay folly, madness, call it but aright,

Thou throbbing fool, and I will give thee back
Thy doated bauble-

(Returns it to her bosom.)

There,—there!-watch o'er it—
Brood on thy minion,-cherish and pamper it,
Until it mock thee,-prey on thy young blood,
Poison each spring of natural affection
And all the sympathies that flesh inherits;—
Then wilt thou curse thine idol,-impotent rage-
It will deride thee, and will fiercely cling
To thine undoing for ever!-Fare thee well,
Thou star-hung canopy! Far-smiling orb,
Farewel!-No more sweet influences ye fling,
As ye were wont, around my des'late heart.-
I cannot bear your stillness.-Earthquake, storm,
The mighty war of the vex'd elements,
Would best comport with my disquiet-now
On thy calm face I dare not look again!—

(Exit.)

182

PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY
INTELLIGENCE.

The Zodiac.-That grand monument of antiquity, the Zodiac, from Dendera, has arrived in France, and in order that the great expenses already incurred by the removal of this precious relique may not be increased, the administration of the customs, with a liberality which reflects the highest honour on that department, has given directions that its introduction into France shall be exempt from the usual duties; and the Institute intends to apply to Count Simeon to cause the expenses of its transport to Paris to be paid out of the public treasury. This precious relique, which has been skilfully detached from the vaults of the ancient temple of Tentyra, is no less interesting to the history of the arts in general, than useful to that of astronomy, and of geography in particular. Besides this monument, M. Lelorrain has sent some boxes of mummies, and a great number of those objects of antiquity with which Egypt abounds, and which its climate preserves in such an astonishing manner.

Ancient Cave, at Kirkdale.-Last autumn, through the activity of Mr. Harrison, of Kirby-moorside, an horizontal cave or opening was discovered in working a stone-quarry a little below Kirkdale church, in Yorkshire. On the 2d of August, it was explored to the extent of 100 yards or more in length, from two to seven feet in height, and from four to twenty feet in width, but contracting and expanding its dimensions as it advanced eastward under an adjacent and incumbent field. The present opening is estimated to be about four yards below the surface of the ground, on the side of a sloping bank; and the cap or covering is principally rock. On the floor of this cave, or opening, was found a considerable quantity of loose earth, principally calcareous, amongst which were animal remains, much decayed. Several bones of immense magnitude, teeth, horns, stalactites, &c. were collected, which appear to have been those of the bear, the rhinoceros, the stag, &c. &c. Whether these remains, are to be referred to the antediluvian world, or to the subsequent resort of the above animals to the cave, if they ever existed in this island, is a point for geologists to determine. An account of them has since been communicated to the Royal Society, in a very curious paper, by Mr. Buckland, from which we extract the following particulars: The den is a natural fissure, or cavern, in ootlitic limestone, extending 300 feet into the body of the solid rock; and varying from two to five feet in height and breadth. Its mouth was closed with rubbish, and overgrown with grass and bushes, and was accidentally intersected by the working of a stone-quarry. It is on the slope of a hill about 100 feet above the level of a small river, which, during great part of the year, is engulphed. The bottom of the cavern is nearly horizontal, and is entirely covered, to the depth of about a foot, with a sediment of mud deposited by the diluvian waters. The surface of this mud was in some parts entirely covered with a crust of stalagmite; on the greater part of it there was no stalagmite. At the bottom of this mud, the floor of the cave was covered, from one

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end to the other, with teeth and fragments of bone of the following animals: hyæna, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, two or three species of deer, bear, fox, water-rat, and birds. The bones are for the most part broken and gnawed to pieces, and the teeth lie loose among the fragments of the bones; a very few teeth still remain fixed in broken fragments of the jaws. The hyæna bones are broken to pieces as much as those of the other animals. No bone or tooth has been rolled, or in the least acted on by water, nor are there any pebbles mixed with them. The bones are not at all mineralized, and retain nearly the whole of their animal gelatin, and owe their high state of preservation to the mud in which they have been imbedded. The teeth of hyænas are most abundant; and of these the greater part are worn down almost to the stumps, as if by the operation of gnawing bones. Some of the bones have marks of the teeth on them; and portions of the foecal matter of the hyenas are found also in the den. Five examples are adduced, of bones of the same animals discovered in similar caverns in other parts of this country, viz. at CrawleyRocks, near Swansea, in the Mendip-Hills, at Clifton, at Wirksworth in Derbyshire, and at Oreston near Plymouth. In the German caves, the bones are nearly in the same state of preservation as in the English, and are not in entire skeletons, but dispersed as in a charnel-house. They are scattered all over the caves, sometimes loose, sometimes adhering together by stalagmite, and forming beds of many feet in thickness. They are of all parts of the body, and of animals of all ages; but are never rolled. With them is found a quantity of black earth, derived from the decay of animal flesh; and also in the newly-discovered caverns, we find descriptions of a bed of mud. The latter is probably the same diluvian sediment which we find at Kirkdale. The unbroken condition of the bones, and presence of black animal earth, are consistent with the habit of bears, as being rather addicted to vegetable than animal food, and in this case, not devouring the dead individuals of their own species. In the hyæna's cave, on the other hand, where both flesh and bones were devoured, we have no black earth; but instead of it we find, in the album græcum, evidence of the fate that has attended the carcases and lost portions of the bones whose fragments still remain. Three-fourths of the total number of bones in the German caves belong to two extinct species of bear, and two-thirds of the remainder to the extinct hyæna of Kirkdale. There are also bones of an animal of the cat kind, (resembling the jaguar or spotted panther of South America,) and of the wolf, fox, and polecat, and rarely of the elephant and rhinoceros. The bears and hyænas of all these caverns, as well as the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, belong to the same extinct species that occur also fossil in the diluvian gravel, whence it follows that the period in which they inhabited these regions was that immediately preceding the formation of this gravel by that transient and universal inundation which has left traces of its ravages, committed at no very distant period, over the surface of the whole globe, and since which, no important or general physical changes appear to have affected it."

Egyptian Antiquities.-The Vatican Library at Rome, has lately received a considerable addition of Egyptian antiquities. Amongst them are ten epitaphs, one of which is of the seventh or eighth century. A more modern and very interesting one of the twelfth, contains a genealogy, probably unique in its kind, of seventeen ancestors of

the deceased in a direct ascending line. The most remarkable works of sculpture, are, 1st, Three large sarcophagi of black basalt, bordered with hieroglyphics. This very hard stone is wrought with almost incredible skill, both with respect to the design, and the precision of the chisel. The sarcophagi were the outside coverings of three coffins of sycamore wood, in which the bodies of eminent persons were preserved. None of the kind have hitherto been seen at Rome. 2d. The colossal head of a man, cut out of red granite, covered with the usual sacred veil, resembling the Isis of the Capitol, with ornaments in good preservation, painted in different colours. It is part of an entire figure, intended for the lid of a coffin. 3d. The figure of a priest, clothed in a robe, and sitting on the ground, of whitish alabaster. 4th. The torso of an Egyptian divinity, of an unknown and very beautiful kind of marble, the workmanship in a very elegant style, and well preserved. 5th. One of the large entire colossuses which stood at the gate of a temple at Cannae, near Thebes, ornamented with a number of hieroglyphics, eighteen palms high. This is mentioned in the great work of the French Institute upon Egypt.

Roman Eagle.-It is well known to the studious in classical history and antiquities, that at the defeat of the Roman legions in Franconia, in the days of Augustus, one of their ensign bearers, (Aquilifer,) buried the eagle that was confided to his charge in a ditch, lest it should fall into the enemy's hands; and that afterwards, when the victors were compelled to resign their trophies, one of the captured eagles could not be procured. Time and chance has at length brought it to light, Count Francis of Erbach, who has a country-seat at Eulhach, and who has formed a magnificent collection of Roman antiquities, has found, in the vicinity of his residence, a Roman Eagle, in a good state of preservation. It was discovered in a ditch, not far from some remains of a Roman entrenchment. It is of bronze, 13 inches in height, and weighs 7 pounds. It is not very easy to say that this is the very eagle formerly missing, but the presumption is strong in its favour, and, therefore, it may now be appropriated to the 22d, or the Britannic Legion, which was stationed in the lines of the Forest of Odenwald.

Theban Sarcophagus.-The alabaster sarcophagus, found in the new tomb at Thebes, has been deposited in the British Museum, by order of Henry Salt, Esq. his Majesty's Consul-General in Egypt, and Mr. Belzoni.

M. Tedenat's Discoveries of Antiquities.-M. Tedenat, son of the French Consul at Alexandria, well known for his discoveries in Upper Egypt, has just landed at Marseilles, with a valuable collection of antiquities from that celebrated region. He ascended to the first cataracts of the Nile, and visited the famous city with a hundred gates. He has caused excavations to be made in the granite mountain, in the vicinity of the ruins of that place, which is situated in the front of the great temple. He found remarkably fine mummies and manuscripts on papyrus of exquisite brightness, and in perfect preservation. It is supposed that finer specimens of the kind are not to be seen in any collection in the world. It was on the mountain of Gourna that he procured the most precious relics. He had the singular good fortune to discover a thick rope (cable) made of the fibrous substance of the palm-tree, which had been used for the purpose of lowering into a pit the bodies of the rich, which were afterwards deposited in catacombs hewn out of the granite side of the

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