mate of this country may really have been finer in the times of our ancestors, and more resembling, for instance, what it was last year. Either this must have been the case, or they must have been an infinitely robuster people from their outof-door-habits, and not so sensitive to early chills; otherwise they could not have agreed with one accord to go forth as they used to do on May mornings, and encounter the dewy leaves. Hear what is said by the most rural of our lyric poets, who passed his life like a bird in singing and making love : stances. Get up, get up! for shame; the blooming morn The dew bespangling herb and tree; Each flow'r has wept, and bow'd towards the east Nay, not so much as out of bed, When all the birds have matins said, And sung their thankful hymns; 'tis sin, Nay, profanation to keep in ; When as a thousand virgins on this day Spring sooner than the lark, to fetch in May! The poets of Elizabeth's time abound with similar inThe door-keeper in Shakspeare's Henry the VIII. at the christening of Elizabeth, says of his inability to keep out the crowd, 'Tis as much impossible, (Unless we sweep them from the door with cannons) Alas! the honest porter knew nothing of what would become of his country's sportiveness. Bank notes and sordid cares are not to be found in the fields; and so the personification of May-day is left to the chimney-sweeper, like the smoke on the lamps, after the bright festival is over. However, now that our poetry is come back, something like a love of nature must return with it; and every one who contributes a word of admiration towards it, helps to restore England its generosity, health, and enjoyment. Milton, by a happy allegory, makes fresh air and the love of nature, the parents of cheerfulness, Some, he tells her, say that your parents were Venus and Bacchus, or Love and Wine; but, As some sager sing, The frolic wind that breathes the spring, Here love is made too; but it is the consequence of health and rural enjoyment, not the partner of intemperance. The reader should recollect then that May does not properly commence till the day marked in the calendar as Old May Day. This throws the latter part of the month into June, and singularly warrants the ideal season chosen by Thomson as the proper one for his Castle of Indolence. A season atween June and May, Half prank'd with spring, with summer half embrown'd. Towards the end of the month, indeed, as it stands at present, if a very great blight does not occur, the treasures of summer are almost all laid open. The grass is in its greenest beauty; the young corn has covered the more naked fields; the hedges are powdered with the snowy and sweet-scented blossoms of the hawthorn, as beautiful as myrtle-flowers; the orchards give us trees, and the most lovely flowers at once; and the hedge-banks, woods, and the meadows, are sprinkled in profusion with the cowslip, the wood-roof, the orchis, the blue germander, the white anemone, the lily of the valley, the marsh-marygold, and the children's favourites, daisies and butter-cups, whose colours start in an instant to one's mind. The dragon-fly carries his long purple-shining body along the air; the butterflies enjoy their merry-day; the bees send out their colonies; the birds sing with unwearied love, while their partners are sitting; the later birds of passage arrive; the cattle enjoy the ripe and juicy herbage, and overflow with milk: most of the trees complete their foliage, filling the landscape with clumps and crowning woods, that "bosom" the village steeples; the distance echoes with the cheerful bark of the dog; the ladies are abroad in their Spring dresses; the farmer does little, but leisurely weed his garden, and enjoy the sight of his flowering industry; the sun stops long, and begins to let us feel him warmly; and when the vital sparkle of the day is over, in sight and sound, the nightingale still continues to tell us his joy; and the little glowworm lights up her trusting lamp, to shew her lover where she is. In addition to several flowers of the last month, we have now candy-tuft, Canterbury bells, Venus's catchfly, bachelor's-buttons, American cowslip, feverfew, fox-gloves, fraxinellas, honesty, globe-flower, gentianella, hyacinths, London-pride, (so called from its flourishing in town) lychnideas, monk's hood, narcissus, pinks, poppies, (which get among the corn, like Sleep, Chief nourisher in life's feast,) SHAKSPEARE. The favourite odour of pinks, their rival the scabious, rockets, scarlet lychnis, sea-pink, spiderwort, Solomon's seal with its lovely bells and leaves, sweet-peas that look like butterflies turned to flowers, and tall and fair above them all, The lily, lady of the flow'ring field. SPENSER. Among the trees and shrubs in flower, we have already mentioned the hawthorn, with which our ancestors decorated their houses. Then there is the elder-tree, the delicate jessamine or jasmin, the judas-tree, kalmias, the ledam, the graceful and favourite lilac, the rhododendron with all its purple coronets, the crisp and elegant syringa, the most odorous sweet-briar, the guelder rose with its dropping balls, and lastly, blushing at her own beauty, the queen of flowers, Amorosa, gentil, lodata rosa. The amorous, genteel, applauded rose. ALMANNI. Our ancestors gave themselves up on May-day, and sometimes on other days in the course of the month, to all the healthy intoxication of the season. It was nothing but mirth, flowers, foliage, dancing, masquing, and playing Robin Hood, from the court to the country-villages. Their cordial spirits ran up like the sap in the boughs, and blossomed into joy and love. (To be Resumed.) THE LAST MOMENTS OF DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS. ADDISON, upon being given over by his physicians, sent for a young dissolute nobleman to witness his dissolution; when he entered the chamber, Addison, who was extremely feeble, and whose life hung quivering on his lips, observed a profound silence. The youth, after a long and awful pause, at length said in low and tremulous accents, "Sir, you desired to see me, signify your commands, and be assured they shall be executed with religious fidelity." Addison took him by the hand, and with his expiring breath replied, "Observe with what tranquility a Christian can die." ROUSSEAU, feeling himself about to expire, desired his attendants to place him before his chamber window, that he might once more look upon the flowers, and bid adieu to nature, which had ever afforded him so much delight. EPAMINONDAS, "first and best of men," received his mortal wound at the Battle of Mantinea. In the agonies of dissolution he was solicitous only for his military glory, and the success of his countrymen. "Is my shield safe?-Are the Thebans victors?" were questions that he repeated with the utmost anxiety. His shield was brought to him, and he was at the same time informed, that the Spartans were defeated. A glow of brightness suffused itself over his countenance, even in the moment of death. In the midst of the general affliction, one of his most intimate friends exclaimed, "Oh Epaminondas! you are dying, and we shall lose you entirely, without a hope remaining of seeing you revive in your offspring; you leave us no children behind you." "You are mistaken," replied Epaminondas calmly; "I shall leave behind me two immortal daughters-the victory of Leuctra, and that of Mantinea. He then commanded the javelin, which was rankling in his side, to be extracted, knowing that it would occasion his immediate death, and gently expired in the arms of his surrounding friends, ROSCOMMON, at the moment he expired, with a peculiar energy of voice, uttered two lines of his own version of "Dies Træ." WALLER repeated some lines from Virgil in his last mo ments. CHAUCER," upon his dethe-bede, lying in his grete an guysse," (to use his own remarkable words) composed a balade or moral ode, and thus bade farewell to the vanity of human wishes. CORNELIUS DE WIT, who, as Hume says, "had bravely served his country in war, and who had been invested with the highest dignities" fell a sacrifice to popular prejudice. He was delivered into the hands of the executioner, and while suffering the severest tortures, repeated the 3d ode of the 3d book of Horace. "Justum, et tenacem propositi virum," &c. Of him that's steadfast to his trust, Firm in resolve, th' unshaken soul, No civic rage commanding what's unjust; METATASIO, after having received the sacrament, broke out with all the enthusiasm of religion and poetry into the following stanzas: T'offro il tuo proprio figlio, The philosophical departure of SOCRATES is well known. LUCAN, when the monster Nero ordered his veins to be opened, died while reciting some lines from his own Pharsalia, in which he had described a dying wounded soldier. The Spectator has translated the sonnet which the famous DES BARREUX composed in his parting moments. JEUBERT, a brave French General, who fell, crowned with glory, at the battle of Novi, in the moment of his dissolution cried aloud to his fellow soldiers, "Marchez, marchez, mes enfans; je meure pour ma patrie." The Chevalier BAYARD, for his great valour, obtained the surname of Le bon Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche; he accompanied Charles VIII. into Naples, and performed the most incredible acts of heroism. Being mortally wounded in an action with the Imperialists in Italy, and perceiving his dissolution was at hand, it is said he recommended himself to God in fervent prayer, and then requested to be placed near a tree, with his face towards the enemy, at that time victorious, observing to those around him, "As in life I |