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nishes people to try the fossil unicorn first upon a dog, before it is made use of in medicine, because he thinks it is sometimes of a poisonous nature; which however is never observed in any found in or near Hartz forest.

bold attempt, than that of the Py ramids of Egypt. There is a fair entrance into this subterraneous temple, which is an oblong square, in length about 80 or 90 feet, by 40 broad. The roof is nothing but the rock cut flat at top, and in which I could not discern any thing that did not shew it to be all of one

From Mr. Grosse's voyage to the piece. It is about ten feet high,

East Indies.

Account of a very remarkable island near Bombay in the East Indies. Ver-against the castle of Bom

miles, lies the very small, but famous island of Elephanta. It can at most be but about three miles in compass, and consists of almost all hill; at the foot of which as you land, you see, just above the shore, on your right, an elephant, coarsely cut out in stone, of the natural bigness, and at some little distance not impossible to be taken for a real elephant, from the stone being naturally of the colour of that beast. It stands on a platform of stones of the same colour. On the back of this elephant was placed standing, another young one, appearing to have been all of the same stone, but has been iong broken down. Of the meaning, or history of this image, there is no tradition old enough to give any

account.

Returning then to the foot of the hill, you ascend an easy slant, which about half way up the hill brings you to the opening or portal of a large cavern hewn out of a solid rock, into a magnificent temple for such surely it may be termed, considering the immense workmanship of such an excavation; and seems to me a far more

and supported towards the middle, at equi-distance from the sides, and from one another, with two regu lar rows of pillars of a singular order. They are very massive, short in proportion to their thickness,

blance to a round cushion, pressed by the super-incumbent mountain, with which they are also of one piece. At the further end of this temple are three gigantic figures, the face of one of them is at least five feet in length, and of a proportionable breadth. But these representations have no reference or connection, either to any known history, or the mythology of the Gentoos. They had continued in a tolerable state of preservation and wholeness, considering the remoteness of their antiquity, until the arrival of the Portuguese, who made themselves masters of the place, and in the blind fury of their bigotry, not suffering any idols but their own, they must have been at even some pains to maim and deface them, as they now remain, considering the hardness of the stone. It is said they even brought field-pieces to the demolition of images, which so greatly deserved to be spared for the unequalled curio sity of them. Of this Queen Catherine of Portugal was, it seems, so sensible, that she could not con. ceive that any traveller would return from that side of India, with

Out

out visiting the wonders of this ca vern; of which too the sight ap peared to me to exceed all the de scriptions I had heard of them. About two thirds of the way up this temple, on each side, and front ing each other, are two doors or outlets, into smaller grots or excavations, and freely open to the air. Near and about the door-way, on the right hand, are also several mutilated images, single and in groupes. In one of the last, I remarked a kind of resemblance to the story of Solomon dividing the child, there standing a figure with a drawn sword, holding in one hand an infant with the head downwards, which it appears in act to cleave through the middle. The outlet of the other on the left hand, is into an area of about 20 feet in length, and 12 in breadth, at the upper end of which, as you turn to the right, presents itself a co. lonnade, covered at top, of 10 or 12 feet deep, and in length answering to the breadth of the area; this joins to an apartment of the most regular architecture, an oblong square, with a door in perfect symmetry; and the whole executed in quite a contrary taste and manner from any of the oldest or best Gen. too buildings any where extant. I took particular notice of some paintings round the cornices, not for any thing curious in the design, but for the beauty and freshness of the colouring, which must have lasted some thousands of years, on supposing it, as there is all reason to suppose it, cotemporary with the building itself. The floor of the apartment is generally full of water, its pavement or ground-work not permitting it to be drawn off, or to be soaked up. For it is to be observed, that even the cavern it.

self is not visitable after the rains, until the ground of it has had time to dry into a competent hardness.

The reader, too, will please to observe, that in the dimensions I have ventured to give, I am far from warranting the exactness, any fur. ther than to the best of my gross guess by the eye; and if any one shall hereafter, on a personal sur. vey, or on a competent draught of it, think I have exaggerated its importance, I hope he will only pity my misapprehension, and acquit me of any design of imposing on him, by dealing in the marvel lous, nothing being more certain, than that I have said no more of it, than as it struck me at the sight of it, and still remains on my me. mory.

This place, too, being so near Bombay, affords the English inhabitants, not only an easy opportu nity of gratifying their curiosity, in visiting so remarkable a spot, but occasionally a very agreeable party of pleasure. Sometimes, in their way thither, they dine at Butcher's island, which is two miles nearer to Bombay, on account of the conveniency of the officer's house to receive them, an ensign's guard being kept there. Others again prefer carrying their provi. sions with them, and dine in the cave itself, than which in the very sultriest days of the heats, there cannot be imagined a cooler, pleasanter retreat. For though the air be al most on fire round you, you are no sooner entered the cave, than you are refreshed with a sensible cool. ness; the three openings above. mentioned not only furnishing suffi cient light, but a thorough draught of air, that does not so much convey freshness into the cave, as it receives it from constant temperature, pre

served to it by its impenetrability to the sun, from the thickness of the mountainous mass above it. And even the light that comes into it through the portals, has lost, by the way, all the force of those fiery particles to which it gives so great an activity. For it is observed in India, as well as in all hot countries, that the exclusion of light is in some measure an exclusion of heat, and that but darkening an apartment only, sensibly cools. This rule too admits of no exception, except in places where the soil and situation are of such a nature as to continue the heat even after the actual presence, of the sun is withdrawn; as in Gambroon, on the coast of Persia, for example, where a high massive hill behind it, to which it is a kind of focal point, and the bituminous quality of the earth, are circumstances that do not

allow of the air's cooling between the sun-set and sun-rise.

But, asking pardon for this di gression, and resuming my present subject, I am to observe that, for the rest, this island contains nothing more that is worthy of notice. There are not above two or three huts upon it; which is not sur prizing, considering the little land there is to cultivate, and that there is no water on it but what is saved from the rains. The growth of the hill itself is only underwood, and grass, which in the dry season is often set on fire, and will continue burning for three or four days,; which has this benefit, of fertilizing any cultivable spots on it, and of the salts being washed down by the rains into the lower grounds; a practice that is much followed in all those countries, which they call burning the land.

An Essay on the Quantity or Measure of English Verse. The Examples from Milton.

I. The measure of English Heroics, and of the Iambic.

II. The syllaba Hypercatalectica, or redundant syllable.

III. Of the Trochee.

IV. Of the Spondee.

V. Of the Pyrrhic.

VI. Of very short syllables.

VII. Of the Anapest.

VIII. Of the Dayle.

IX. Of Apheresis.

X. Many like feet in the same verse.

XI. Many different feet in the same verse,

THE

1. The measure of English Heroics, and of the Iambic.

HE English heroic verse is an iambic of five feet, sometimes pure, as,

His only Son, on earth he first běhēld
ǎbout him all the sanctities of heav'n,

VOL. I.

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în heav'n, or earth, or under earth in hell This one, this easy charge of all the trees, &c. Sometimes nearly so, as,

To their defence who hold it, hēre pĕrhāps
Prescrib'd, no bārs of hell, nor all the chains
ǎmong the grōves, the fountains and the flowers
My only Son, and on my hōly hill

Re-enter heav'n, or elsẽ in some mild zōne
His anger, and perhaps thus far remov'd

The dark, unbottom'd infinite ǎbyss.

Outshōne the wealth of ōrmus, and of ind.

From these last instances, where the syllables not marked are by de rivation, nature, or position, long, yet in the sound and measure of the verse are short, I observe that the quantity of English syllables is not 'measured by the rules of Latin and Greek prosody, but by the tone of the voice, or accent, which generally rises at every second syllable, and therefore I call Ing; the intermediate syllables, over which we hasten to come at it, I call short, whatever their quantity may be, with respect to consonants, vowels, or diphthongs; thus,

While smooth adōnis from his native rock,

is a very musical English iambic, though four out of the five short sylla. bles are naturally long; while and tive by the final e, and nis and his long by position. Indeed an English iambic may be just measure, and ye have never a syllable in it short, according to the rules of prosody; as, With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire.

And the prosodeal short syllables may become long in the English measure, as,

Quiet tho sad

By pray'r th' offēnded dēĭtỹ t' ǎppease
Lăment, not ēve, but patiently resign

Our second ādăm in the wilderness

B. II.

11.

II.

II.

II. Of the syllable Hypercatalectica, or redundant syllable.

A redundant syllable is often added at the end of an iambic with grace in blank verse, as,

of heav'n receiv'd us fälling, and the thunder.

In rhyme it grows offensive, or burlesque, as it creates a doub jingle.

Perhaps many Alexandrines may be best accounted for from such redundant syllables. [See VI. of very short syllables.]

III. Of the Trochee.

The most common and musical variation of this measure, is by substi tuting a trochee instead of an iambic.

Imo loco Mystical dance, which yōnder stärry sphere
Cease i to wander where the muses haunt

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Nor is this always accidental, but often by choice, as,

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-that God's own ear

,「

Listens dělightĕd

5.

5.

5.

Wherever a foot ends at the pause, a trochee will follow grace fully, as, zdo loco Thus said, native of heav'n, for other place undēck'd, save with herself, more lovely fair His seēd, when is not sēt, shall bruise my head. in mystic dānce, nōt without sōng, rěsõund Fairest of stars, last in the train of night With the fixt stars, fixt in their ōrb that flies These are thy giōrious works, parent of good Each in their crystal sluice; he ĕre they fell and chōral symphoniēs, day without end

4to

5 to

Now on the po ar winds, now with quick fan
Spoil'd principā ĭties and pow'rs, triumph'd

5.

5.

5.

5.

5.

5.

5.

10.

A trochee is not common in this place in most cases where a word (which in ordinary pronunciation is a trochee) ends the verse, Milton throws the accent on the last syllable, which makes it an iambic ; and indeed I believe it is so in this very verse, for I remember elsewhere he ac cents triumph after the Latin,

5.

A trochee is not so harmonious, if no comma or pause precedes, as, in their triple degrees, rēgions to which Law and edict on us, who without law ănd thōu moōn în the väle of ājălōn

5.

2.

That when fair morning first smiles on the world 5.
Drew after him the third part of heāv’n's hōst.

5.

I meet with a line of Mr. Pope's, in the eighth Odyssey where perhaps it may be allowable, as exemplifying the spring he mention.

None in the leap spring with so strong a bound, v. 103. but then we are forced to stop at leap, where there is no comma.

Imo

IV. Of the Spondee.

This foot is admitted into every one of the five places; as,
Thus they in heav'n; above the starry sphere
Smooth, easy, inoffensive down to hell
account mē mān ĭ fŏr his sāke will leave

zdo

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ǎt such bōld words, vouch'd with ă dẽed sŏ böld
Tastes not well join'd inelegant, but bring
and ye five other wändring fires that move
ǎ cloudy spot, dōwn thither prōne in flight.
and faithful now prōv'd fālse: but think not here
Reserv'd him to more wrath: for now the thought 6.
and rest căn nêvěr dwell, hope never comes
While day ǎrises, that sweet hour of prime
in curls on either cheek play'd, wings he wōre
issuing from me; on your joint vigor now

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