least, this distinction to boast,
that it has preserved its liberty longer than any other state, ancient
or modern, having, without any revolution, retained its present mode of
government near fourteen hundred years. Moreover the patron saint who
founded it, and from whom it takes its name, deserves this poetical
record, as he is, perhaps, the only saint that ever contributed to the
establishment of freedom.

"Nor e'er her former pride relate
To sad Liguria's bleeding state."

In these lines the poet alludes to those ravages in the state of Genoa,
occasioned by the unhappy divisions of the Guelphs and Gibelines.

"----When the favour'd of thy choice,
The daring archer heard thy voice."

For an account of the celebrated event referred to in these verses, see
Voltaire's Epistle to the King of Prussia.

"Those whom the rod of Alva bruised,
Whose crown a British queen refused!"

The Flemings were so dreadfully oppressed by this sanguinary general of
Philip the Second, that they offered their sovereignty to Elizabeth;
but, happily for her subjects, she had policy and magnanimity enough to
refuse it. Desormeaux, in his Abrege Chronologique de l'Histoire
d'Espagne, thus describes the sufferings of the Flemings: "Le duc d'Albe
achevoit de reduire les Flamands au desespoir. Apres avoir inonde les
echafauds du sang le plus noble et le plus precieux, il faisoit
construire des citadelles en divers endroits, et vouloit etablir
l'Alcavala, ce tribute onereux qui avoit ete longtems en usage parmi les
Espagnols."--_Abreg. Chron. tom. iv._

"------Mona,
Where thousand elfin shapes abide."

Mona is properly the Roman name of the Isle of Anglesey, anciently so
famous for its Druids; but sometimes, as in this place, it is given to
the Isle of Man. Both these isles still retain much of the genius of
superstition, and are now the only places where there is the least
chance of finding a fairy.

ODE TO A LADY,

ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL ROSS, IN THE ACTION OF FONTENOY.

The iambic kind of numbers in which this ode is conceived seems as well
calculated for tender and plaintive subjects, as for those where
strength or rapidity is required.--This, perhaps, is owing to the
repetition of the strain in the same stanza; for sorrow rejects variety,
and affects a uniformity of complaint. It is needless to observe, that
this ode is replete with harmony, spirit, and pathos; and there surely
appears no rea