adaptations from Beza and other foreign authors. By far his most
popular poem is the "Hermit." In it he tells a tale that had been told
in Arabic, French, and English, for the tenth time; and in that tenth
edition tells it so well, that the public have thanked him for it as
for an original work. Of course, the story not being Parnell's, it is
not his fault that it casts no light upon the dread problems of
Providence it professed to explain. But the incidents are recorded
with ease and liveliness; the characters are rapidly depicted, and
strikingly contrasted; and many touches of true poetry occur.
How vivid this couplet, for instance--

"Slow creaking turns the door with jealous care,
And half he welcomes in the shivering pair!"

How picturesque the following--

"A fresher green the smiling leaves display,
And, _glittering as they tremble_, cheer the day!"

The description of the unveiled angel approaches the
sublime--

"Fair rounds of radiant points invest his hair;
Celestial odours breathe through purpled air;
And wings, whose colours glitter'd on the day,
Wide at his back, their gradual plumes display.
The form ethereal bursts upon his sight,
And moves in all the majesty of light."

A passage of similar brilliance occurs in "Piety, or the
Vision"--

"A sudden splendour seem'd to kindle day;
A breeze came breathing in; a sweet perfume,
_Blown from eternal gardens_, fill'd the room,
And in a void of blue, that clouds invest,
Appear'd a daughter of the realms of rest."

Such passages themselves are enough to prove Parnell a
true poet.

* * * * *

PARNELL'S POEMS.

HESIOD; OR, THE RISE OF WOMAN.

What ancient times, those times we fancy wise,
Have left on long record of woman's rise,
What morals teach it, and what fables hide,
What author wrote it, how that author died,--
All these I sing. In Greece they framed the tale;
(In Greece, 'twas thought a woman might be frail);
Ye modern beauties! where the poet drew
His softest pencil, think he dreamt of you;
And warn'd by him, ye wanton pens, beware
How Heaven's concern'd to vindicate the fair. 10
The case was Hesiod's; he the fable writ--
Some think with meaning--some, with idle wit:
Perhaps 'tis either, as the ladies please;
I waive the contest, and commence the lays.

In days of yore, no matter where or when,
'Twas ere the low creation s