ANALYSIS OF PART II. APOSTROPHE to the power of Love-its intimate connection with generous and social Sensibility-allusionto that beautiful passage in the beginning of the Book of Genesis, which represents the happiness of Paradise itself incomplete, till love was superadded to its other blessings-the dreams of future felicity which a lively imagination is apt to cherish, when Hope is animated by refined attachment-this disposition to combine, in one imaginary scene of residence, all that is pleasing in our estimate of happiness, compared to the skill of the great artist who personified perfect beauty, in the picture of Venus, by an assemblage of the most beautiful features he could find-a summer and winter evening described, as they may be supposed to arise in the mind of one who wishes, with enthusiasm, for the union of friendship and retirement. Hope and Imagination inseparable agents-even in those contemplative moments when our imagination wanders beyond the boundaries of this world, our minds are not unattended with an impression that we shall some day have a wider and more distinct prospect of the universe, instead of the partial glimpse we now enjoy. The last and most sublime influence of Hope is the concluding topic of the poem-the predominance of a belief in a future state over the terrors attendant on dissolution-the baneful influence of that sceptical philosophy which bars us from such comforts-allusion to the fate of a suicide-episode of Conrad and Ellenore-conclusion. PLEASURES OF HOPE. PART II. IN joyous youth, what soul hath never known Ask'd from his heart the homage of a sigh? There be, perhaps, who barren hearts avow, Without the smile from partial beauty won, But can the noble mind for ever brood, And cloud young Genius brightening into day?— Shame to the coward thought that e'er betray'd One trophy sacred to thy future days, Scorn the dull crowd that haunt the gloomy shrine, [miss Of hopeless love to murmur and repine! Each look that charm'd him in the fair of Greece. And as he sojourn'd on the Ægean isles, Woo'd all their love, and treasured all their smiles; Then glow'd the tints, pure, precious, and refined, And mortal charms seem'd heavenly when combined! Love on the picture smiled! Expression pour'd Her mingling spirit there-and Greece adored! So thy fair hand, enamour'd Fancy! gleans The treasured pictures of a thousand scenes; Thy pencil traces on the lover's thought Some cottage-home, from towns and toil remote, Where love and lore may claim alternate hours, With Peace embosom'd in Idalian bowers! Remote from busy Life's bewilder'd way, O'er all his heart shall Taste and Beauty sway! Free on the sunny slope, or winding shore, With hermit steps to wander and adore! There shall he love, when genial morn appears, Like pensive Beauty smiling in her tears, To watch the brightening roses of the sky, And muse on Nature with a poet's eye!— And when the sun's last splendour lights the deep, The woods and waves, and murmuring winds asleep, When fairy harps th' Hesperian planet hail, |