Wherefore thus soared that structure? sculptured

stone

Inscription-allegory-here are none

To guide you. Rise; adventurous traveller; climb
That rugged pathway; scale the Bridge sublime;
Hang o'er the vale on the long level height,
Where wild-birds rest, and mock thee in their flight;
There shalt thou mark with an explorer's pride
The long dry channel, nor profound nor wide,
Which arm may fathom-which a child bestride.
Might not conjecture pause ere one should say
'Twas here a living streamlet found a way?
Yet to that channel was such rill consigned :
And art, and fine constructive powers of mind,
Were taxed the costly miracle to frame;
Supply for human wants its single aim.

Rome, who inherited the World, lies dead:
Yet do her pomps, cares, triumphs, overspread
The Nations, in distinct memorials wrought
For all time; or, as here, in Relics fraught
With usefulness made glorious. Now that rill,
Emancipate by time, flows down its native hill;
Where it shall freely slacken or run o'er
When, with her ruins, Rome shall be no more.

Nismes, November 2, 1843.

SHADOWS.-A FRAGMENT.

SUGGESTED BY A SEA-VIEW ON THE COAST

OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.

FROM this tall cliff

We look with bird's-eye view on clearest sea,
Of depth we vaguely guess at; and the waves,
Lucid as amethyst, appear to furrow

The sunken rocks, sea-weeds, and golden sands
Far down, with fleeting bands of shade, with light,
Soft light, between !

Thus not alone do things

Opake and rigid, but transparent things,

Endowed with perfect laxity of atoms,

Fling shadows from them. 'Tis the same with things
Of half-material mould, and subtlest texture-
Fumes, exhalations, and scarce visible clouds;
Hairs, fibres, gossamer, and thistle-down:
Nay, in broad sunshine, minute holes and pores
Arrest the flow of light, and from them breaks
A surf and foam of light, developed in
Capricious forms and hues, hard to define;

And so we cannot choose but call them shadows.
And because spirits may be gross compared
With light, they may have shadows; and because
They may be good or evil, it is plain

The wholesome or unwholesome shade they cast
Upon the dial of existence here,

May work much good or evil upon earth.

Oneglia, November, 1843.

GENOA.

EXTRACT FROM MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL.

E were quite prepared beforehand to be pleased

WE

with Genoa, and were not disappointed. The impressions as to general effect which that city conveys are of a singularly novel and forcible character. Genoa has in profusion its marble palaces, whose walls are arrayed in all their ancient solid and costly magnificence; but I would chiefly dwell upon the perpetual intervention of variously coloured architectural views, painted in close juxtaposition with, and even upon, these same marble walls: so that you may really pause in the streets, and imagine you are gazing at the scenery of a theatre: yet from the effects of proportion, aided by the rich tone of the climate, there results truth and harmony from that which, elsewhere, would only suggest the idea of a ludicrous attempt at deception. The streets are narrow and sombre, but they are not gloomy; and you may see overhead a strip of blue sky broken by the palace cornices; whilst

in the side lanes the sunshine streams from above, as through an absolute slit. But when the sky is overcast, the want of illumination destroys all the singularity and beauty of these effects. The prevailing idea is still that of the scenery of a theatre; but of a theatre as seen by an insufficient light.

Again, the dimensions of the great hall of the ducal palace are truly noble; but for the most part the ornaments which it contains are the veriest trash imaginable. The statues in the niches (if they deserve the name of statues) are merely counterfeits, made up of plaster, rags, and paper; but it is quite surprising how fine is the effect thus demonstrated to be attainable by the force of proportion and colouring alone.

Genoa, November, 1843.