Note 11. Page 322.

Thus Argo plough'd the Euxine's virgin foam.

Argo, the vessel in which Jason embarked in quest of the Golden Fleece.

Note 12. Page 323.

How pleasant were the songs of Toobonai.

The first three sections are taken from an actual song of the Tonga Islanders, of which a prose translation is given in "Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands." Toobonai is not however one of them; but was one of those where Christian and the mutineers took refuge. I have altered and added, but have retained as much as possible of the original.

George Stewart. the Orkneys."

Note 13. Page 326.

And who is he? the blue-eyed northern child.

"He was," says Bligh, "a young man of creditable parents in

Note 14. Page 327.

As Ishmael, wafted on his desert-ship.

The "ship of the desert" is the oriental figure for the camel or dromedary; and they deserve the metaphor well,-the former for his endurance, the latter for his swiftness.

Note 15. Page 327.

Beyond itself, and must retrace its way.
"Lucullus, when frugality could charm,
Had roasted turnips in the Sabine farm."-POPE.

Note 16. Page 327.

The consul Nero, who made the unequalled march which deceived Hannibal, and defeated Asdrubal; thereby accomplishing an achievement almost unrivalled in military annals. The first intelligence of his return to Hannibal, was the sight of Asdrubal's head thrown into his camp. When Hannibal saw this, he exclaimed with a sigh, that "Rome would now be the mistress of the world." And yet to this victory of Nero's it might be owing that his imperial namesake reigned at all. But the infamy of the one has eclipsed the glory of the other. When the name of "Nero" is heard, who thinks of the consul?-But such are human things.

Note 17. Page 329.

And Loch-na-garr with Ida look'd o'er Troy.

When very young, about eight years of age, after an attack of the scarlet fever at Aberdeen, I was removed by medical advice into the Highlands. Here I passed occasionally some summers, and from this period I date my love of mountainous countries. I can never forget the effect, a few years afterwards, in England, of the only thing I had long seen, even in miniature, of a mountain, in the Malvern Hills. After I returned to Cheltenham, I used to watch them every afternoon, at sunset, with a sensation which I cannot describe. This was boyish enough; but I was then only thirteen years of age, and it was in the holidays.

Note 18. Page 331.

Sung sweetly to the rose the day's farewell.

The now well-known story of the loves of the nightingale and rose need not be more than alluded to, being sufficiently familiar to the Western as to the Eastern reader.

Note 19. Page 332.

Than breathes his mimic murmurer in the shell.

If the reader will apply to his ear the sea-shell on his chimney-piece, he will be aware of what is alluded to. If the text should appear obscure, he will find in "Gebir" the same idea better expressed in two lines. The poem I never read, but have heard the lines quoted by a more recondite reader-who seems to be of a different opinion from the editor of the Quarterly Review, who qualified it, in his answer to the Critical Reviewer of his Juvenal, as trash of the worst and most insane description. It is to Mr. Landor, the author of "Gebir," so qualified, and of some Latin poems, which vie with Martial of Catullus in obscenity, that the immaculate Mr. Southey addresses his declamation against impurity !

Note 20. Page 333.

But deem him sailor or philosopher.

Hobbes, the father of Locke's and other philosophy, was an inveterate smoker, even to pipes beyond computation.

Note 21. Page 333.

Flock o'er the deck, in Neptune's borrow'd car.

This rough but jovial ceremony, used in crossing the Line, has been so often and so well described, that it need not be more than alluded to.

Note 22. Page 335.

That will do for the marines.

"That will do for the marines, but the sailors won't believe it," is an old saying; and one of the few fragments of former jealousies which still survive (in jest only) between these gallant services.

Note 23. Page 336.

No less of human bravery than the brave.

Archidamus, king of Sparta, and son of Agesilaus, when he saw a machine invented for the casting of stones and darts, exclaimed that it was the "grave of valour." The same story has been told of some knights on the first application of gunpowder; but the original anecdote is in Plutarch.

Note 24. Page 341.

Whose only portal was the keyless wave.

Of this cave (which is no fiction) the original will be found in the ninth chapter of "Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands." I have taken the poetical liberty to transplant it to Toobonai, the last island where any distinct account is left of Christian and his comrades.

Note 25. Page 342.

The fretted pinnacle, the aisle, the nave

This may seem too minute for the general outline (in Mariner's Account) from which it is taken. But few men have travelled without seeing something of the kind -on land, that is. Without adverting to Ellora, in Mungo Park's last journal, be mentions having met with a rock or mountain so exactly resembling a gothic cathedral, that only minute inspection could convince him that it was a work of nature. Note 26. Page 343.

With each new being born or to be born.

The reader will recollect the epigram of the Greek anthology, or its translation nto most of the modern languages:

"Whoe'er thou art, thy master see

He was, or is, or is to be."

Note 27. Page 344.

The kindling ashes to his kindled breast.

The tradition is attached to the story of Eloisa, that when her body was lowered into the grave of Abelard (who had been buried twenty years), he opened his arms to receive her.

Note 28. Page 348.

He tore the topmost button off his vest.

In Thibault's account of Frederic the Second of Prussia, there is a singular relation of a young Frenchman, who with his mistress appeared to be of some rank. He enlisted and deserted at Schweidnitz; and after a desperate resistance was retaken, having killed an officer, who attempted to seize him after he was wounded, by the discharge of his musket loaded with a button of his uniform. Some circumstances on his court-martial raised a great interest amongst his judges, who wished to discover his real situation in life, which he offered to disclose, but to the king only, to whom he requested permission to write. This was refused, and Frederic was filled with the greatest indignation, from baffled curiosity or some other motive, when he understood that his request had been denied.

THE

PRISONER OF CHILLON;

A FABLE.

Lord Byron wrote this beautiful poem at a small inn, in the little village of Ouchy, near Lausanne, where he happened, in June, 1816, to be detained two days by stress of weather; "thereby adding," says Moore, one more deathless association to the already immortalised localities of the Lake."-R.

2

SONNET ON CHILLON.

.

Eternal spirit of the chainless mind !
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art,
For there thy habitation is the heart—
The heart which love of thee alone can bind:
And when thy sons to fetters are consign'd-
To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,
Their country conquers with their martyrdom,
And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.
Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,

And thy sad floor an altar-for 't was trod.
Until his very steps have left a trace,
Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod,
By Bonnivard! -May none those marks efface!
For they appeal from tyranny to God.