BEAUTY'S CASTLE. O stupenda opra, O Dedalo architetto; ARIOSTO, Canto 34, stanza 53. I. By opal battlements engirt appear, In workmanship as chaste as in design, Of diamond framed and gold high gates that near The castle built by Taste for Beauty shine; On earth inimitable, work-divine; Rich with a thousand rooms, that multiplied By crystal mirrors, deepen like a mine Exhaustless and illumed, a circle wide: Pillars of emerald grace the hall in column'd pride. II. Here Beauty smiles ineffably enthroned; Her smile diffusive is as solar light; Her voice is musical as harp fine-toned, Conveying to the senses such delight As the world feels when sunrise chases night Away. Her robe is as the upper sky, If there one milky-way o'erpower the sight, Brilliant; angelic shapes around her fly; The loveliest maids with these fine spirits cannot vie! III. Diversely splendid, as o'er foliage glow IV. Theirs is undying loveliness; while years Flow on they are the same; nor grief nor pain Stain or impair their charms! They have no fears, No unavailing chase of pleasures vain ; No love that withering, seldom blooms again! On Beauty, fairer than the fairest train Of virgins that adorn a monarch's state; Or fays that bright as stars inventive bards create. V. Such seraphs are; they may idealized Be, but no sculptors e'er their forms have wrought In marble; no, nor painters highly prized Ever on canvas have their features caught, Though by such art the poesy of thought Is bodied forth; no poet can reveal (His mind with treasured imagery fraught) Those superhuman beings that the zeal Of Fancy would disclose, but Nature will conceal. VI. The glories of the fane well harmonize Of living pictures an unending show Here Fancy brightens with unwearied wing; Tides of celestial music onward flow For ever! voices sweeter than in spring Philomel's notes, in praise of Beauty ever sing! ON UVEDALE PRICE'S "ESSAY ON THE PICTURESQUE.' "Uvedale Price's Essay on the Picturesque, the most finished composition in the English language."-Dr. Parr. A MASTER mind, that Taste and Genius grace, How light, where stands a tree of beauty plays, |