Ille tuus quondam pastor, tuus ardor Alexis

Flumen erit: tuus in flumen mutatur Alexis.

With an infinite number of these beautiful examples before me, I have endeavoured to indite a few

STANZAS,

IN IMITATION OF THE MOST APPROVED WRITERS

OF LOVE-VERSES.

I' ho d'amara dolcezza il mio cor pieno,
Come amor vuole, e d' un dolce veneno.

Lorenzo de' Medici.

O LOVE! thou source of each delight,
Which mortal bosoms know,

What raptures live within thy sight!
From thee what transports flow!

And yet, too oft the potent dart
From thee envenom'd flies;

Too often, from a tender heart,

The wretched lover dies.

Thus, with my Delia's presence blest,

I feel an anxious care;

And, sighing, seek in vain for rest,
When absent from the fair.

Yet, from thy soul-encircling chain

May I be never free!

But always bear thy pleasing pain,

Thy blissful agony!!

Absurd as all this is, it is very probable that one half of the readers of poetry would consider it as a fine address to the divinity

of Love. I know not what the amatory poets would do without their agonizing bliss and blissful agony, the dolcezze amarissime d'amore, on which they "doleful changes ring" with so much grace and effect; and which is, almost literally, their "meat, fire, and clothes," and "meat, clothes, and fire."

The Italians have an old proverb, somewhat different from the general spirit of their nation, and worse than SHAKSPEARE'S opinion that the lunatick and lover are much alike: Un vero amante è un vero pazzo. And MOLIERE has the same sentiment in his Tartuffe: A vous dire le vrai, les amans sont bien fous! But in some other part of his works he explains this; for he declares, as becomes a Frenchman: Les plus sages sont ceux qui sont les plus fous.

SHAKSPEARE makes Romeo exclaim of

love:

O heavy lightness! serious vanity!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

What is it else?-a madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.

BONEFONIUS, in his Basium beginning Salve melque meum, atque amaritudo, amuses himself with a long strain of antitheses. And, in like manner, BUCHANAN mentions the effects of love:

Sic mentem mala pestis occupavit,
Ut sit nectare suavius venenum,
Vita mors potior, labor quiete,
Sanitate furor, salute morbus.

A PASTORAL LOVE-DITTY.

This is the right Butterwoman's rate to market.

SHAKSPEARE.

WHERE Schuylkill o'er his rocky bed
Roars, like a bull in battle,

In neat log-cabin lives a maid,

Who tends her father's cattle;

With ev'ry charm of form and face,

Young, handsome, gay, and witty,

She weekly rides, with wond'rous grace!

With butter to the city.