should also recollect, that it is perpetually renewed in
other forms by the same materials, and thus the sum total of
the happiness of the world continues undiminished; and that a
philosopher may thus smile again on turning his eyes from the
coffins of nature to her cradles.]

SHRIN'D in the midst majestic NATURE stands,
Extends o'er earth and sea her hundred hands; 130
Tower upon tower her beamy forehead crests,
And births unnumber'd milk her hundred breasts;
Drawn round her brows a lucid veil depends,
O'er her fine waist the purfled woof descends;
Her stately limbs the gather'd folds surround,
And spread their golden selvage on the ground.

[Footnote: _Fam'd Eleusis stole_, l. 137. The Eleusinian
mysteries were invented in Egypt, and afterwards transferred
into Greece along with most of the other early arts and
religions of Europe. They seem to have consisted of scenical
representations of the philosophy and religion of those
times, which had previously been painted in hieroglyphic
figures to perpetuate them before the discovery of letters;
and are well explained in Dr. Warburton's divine legation of
Moses; who believes with great probability, that Virgil in
the sixth book of the AEneid has described a part of these
mysteries in his account of the Elysian fields.

In the first part of this scenery was represented Death, and
the destruction of all things; as mentioned in the note on
the Portland Vase in the Botanic Garden. Next the marriage of
Cupid and Psyche seems to have shown the reproduction of
living nature; and afterwards the procession of torches,
which is said to have constituted a part of the mysteries,
probably signified the return of light, and the resuscitation
of all things.

Lastly, the histories of illustrious persons of the early
ages seem to have been enacted; who were first represented by
hieroglyphic figures, and afterwards became the gods and
goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Might not such a
dignified pantomime be contrived, even in this age, as might
strike the spectators with awe, and at the same time explain
many philosophical truths by adapted imagery, and thus both
amuse