For as old Memnon's image, long renown'd By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch Of Titan's ray, with each repulsive string Consenting, sounded through the warbling air Unbidden strains; even so did nature's hand, &c. It is remarkable that the same image, which does not appear obvious enough to have been the common inheritance of poets, is precisely used by old Regnier, the first French satirist, in the dedication of his Satires to the French king. Louis XIV. supplies the place of nature to the courtly satirist. These are his words:--"On lit qu'en Ethiope il y avoit une statue qui rendoit un son harmonieux, toutes les fois que le soleil levant la regardoit. Ce même miracle, Sire, avez vous fait en moi, qui touché de l'astre de Votre Majesté, ai reçu la voix et la parole." In that sublime passage in "Pope's Essay on Man," Epist. i. v. 237, beginning, Vast chain of being! which from God began, and proceeds to From nature's chain whatever link you strike, Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. Pope seems to have caught the idea and image from Waller, whose last verse is as fine as any in the "Essay on Man:"-- The chain that's fixed to the throne of Jove, On which the fabric of our world depends, One link dissolv'd, the whole creation ends. _Of the Danger his Majesty escaped_, &c. v. 168. It has been observed by Thyer, that Milton borrowed the expression _imbrowned_ and _brown_, which he applies to the evening shade, from the Italian. See Thyer's elegant note in B. iv., v. 246: ----And where the unpierced shade _Imbrowned_ the noon tide bowers. And B. ix., v. 1086: ---- Where highest Woods impenetrable To sun or star-light, spread their umbrage broad, And _brown as evening_. _Fa l'imbruno_ is an expression used by the Italians to denote the approach of the evening. Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso, have made a very picturesque use of this term, noticed by Thyer. I doubt if it be applicable to our colder climate; but Thomson appears to have been struck by the fine effect it produces in poetical landscape; for he has ----With quickened step _Brown night_ retires. _Summer_, v. 51. If the epithet be true, it cannot be more appropriately applied than in the season he describes, which most resembles the genial clime with the deep serenity of an Italian heaven. Milton in Italy had experienced the _brown evening_, but it may be suspected that Thomson only recollected the language of the poet. The same observation may be made on two other poetical epithets. I shall notice the epithet "LAUGHING" applied to inanimate objects; and "PURPLE" to beautiful objects." The natives of Italy and the softer climates receive emotions from the view of their WATERS in the SPRING not equally experienced in the British roughness of our skies. The fluency and softness of the water are thus described by Lucretius:--