incoln's-Inn-Fields. Mr. Addison, in the Spectator, Numb. 405,
speaking of the just applause given this opera, by Signior Nicolini
(who he says was the greatest performer in dramatic music, that
perhaps ever appeared upon a stage) has these words,

'The town is highly obliged to that excellent artist, for having shewn
us the Italian music in its perfection, as well as for that generous
approbation he gave to an Opera of our own country, in which Mr.
Galliard the composer endeavoured to do justice to the beauty of the
words, by following that noble example which has been set him by the
greatest foreign masters of that art.'

The Ode to the Creator of the World, occasioned by the fragments of
Orpheus, was printed in the year 1713, at the particular instance of
Mr. Addison; and is mentioned with applause in the Spectator. This,
and the Extasy, (published since the death of the author) are justly
esteemed two of the noblest Odes in our language. The seventh Stanza
of the last mentioned piece, is so sublimely excellent, that it would
be denying ourselves, and our poetical readers, a pleasure not to
transcribe it. The whole of this Ode is beautifully heightened, and
poetically conceived. It furnished a hint to a living Poet to write
what he entitles the Excursion, which tho' it has very great merit,
yet falls infinitely short of this animated Ode of Mr. Hughes.

After having represented the natural and artificial calamities to
which man is doomed, he proceeds,

But why do I delay my flight?
Or on such gloomy objects gaze?
I go to realms serene, with ever-living light.
Haste, clouds and whirlwinds, haste a raptured bard to raise;
Mount me sublime along the shining way,
Where planets, in pure streams of Aether driven,
Swim thro' the blue expanse of heav'n.
And lo! th' obsequious clouds and winds obey!
And lo! again the nations downward fly;
And wide-stretch'd kingdoms perish from my eye.
Heav'n! what bright visions now arise!
What op'ning worlds my ravish'd sense surprize!
I pass Cerulian gulphs, and now behold
New solid globes; their weight self-ballanc'd, bear
Unprop'd amidst the fluid air,
And all, around the central Sun, incircling eddies roll'd.
Unequal in their course, see they advance
And form the planetary dance!
Here the pale Moon, whom the same laws ordain
T' obey the earth, and rule the main;
Here spots no