ature was replete with
feeling that compassed and enthralled me? On the surface of the
lake at eventide, there lay how sweet a sadness! Hope visited
me from the blue hills. There was perpetual revelry of thought
amidst the clouds, and in the wide cope of heaven. This passion
of the poet came to me, not knowing what it was. It came the
gift of tranquil skies, and was breathed by playful zephyrs,
and fell on me, with many a serene influence from the bright
and silent stars.

"I saw others pursuing and enjoying the varied prosperity of
life--I felt no envy at their success, and no participation in
their desires. I could not call in and limit my mind to the
concerns of a personal welfare. I had leaned my ear unto the
earth, and heard the beating of her mighty heart, and the
murmur of her mysteries, and my spirit lost its fitness for any
selfish aim or narrow purpose. I stood forth to be the
interpreter of his own word to man. Alas! I myself am but
one--the poorest--of the restless and craving multitude.

"Gone! gone for ever! is the pleasant hope that danced before
me on my path, with feet that never wearied, and timbrel that
never paused! Oh, gay illusion! whither hast thou led me? and
to what desolation has the music of thy course conducted? I am
laden, as it were, with the fruitage of cultivated affections,
but I myself am forlorn and disregarded. I kindle with
innumerable sympathies, but am shut out for ever from social
endearments--from the sweet relationships that make happy the
homes of other men. I am faint with love of the beautiful, and
my heart pants with an unclaimed devotion--but who may love the
poet in his poverty?"

The disappointed bard, who, I should mention, was an Italian, resolves
to quit Rome, and books, and meditations; he goes to a seaport town,
becomes a mariner, and is soon advanced to the rank of captain of a
small trading vessel. The same friend to whom he had poured out the
lamentation I have already transcribed, encounters him in this new
character, and he then gives the following account of himself:--

"I worked hard with the men, and studied diligently with the
captain. One voyage to the Levant was speedily followed by a
second; I gained experience; I have earned promotion--go to--I
have earned money! Here I am, master of this ves