The chief portion of the second half of the poem, from the sixth to the tenth canto, is thrown into shade by the first half; and the essential want of a rising interest, weakens the epic character of the whole. But these last five cantos of the Lusiad abound in classically beautiful passages; and that kind of unity at which the poet aimed is on no occasion forgotten. The description of the palace of Neptune and the sea deities in the depths of the ocean is equally charming and novel; though it must be allowed that the portrait of Triton degenerates into the grotesque. In order to omit no opportunity of interweaving into the composition of the Lusiad whatever might shed a poetic lustre on the Portuguese name, Camoens makes Velloso, for the amusement of the ship’s crew, relate the history of the Lusitanian knights, who according to Portuguese tradition, are called _Os doze de Inglaterra_ (the twelve of England.) In the description of the storm which follows, the powerful painting of the dreadful picture once more reveals the poet who had himself passed through like scenes of danger. The same stamp of truth is apparent in the succeeding descriptions of Indian objects, which no great poet, except Camoens, has sketched from nature. The poem is not injured by the long and energetic apostrophe to the European powers, with which the seventh canto commences. According to the view to be taken by a catholic christian, Camoens was justified in extolling the national glory of Portugal above that of other christian nations, on the ground that while the Portuguese by their valour, were extending the dominion of the catholic faith, and had not, for a considerable period waged war against any of the European states, those states were contending against each other, and even in a certain measure against the church of Rome. To strengthen in some degree the poetic probability by a matter of fact, Camoens has introduced, at the period when the intercourse between the Portuguese and the Indian Prince of Calecut commences, a Moor named Monzayde, whose destiny had actually conducted him over land to India. Through this mediator, who speaks Spanish, and who finally becomes a christian, the Indians are made acquainted with the power of the Portuguese and Spanish arms. This Moor is also the interpreter, who, in the eighth canto assists Paulo da Gama in explaining the historical pictures and embroideries to the Indian ambassador. In point of poetic merit, this supplement to the abstract of the history of Portugal is far inferior to the narrative in the third and fifth cantos:--but Camoens could find no other means of accomplishing his purpose; for he was equally reluctant to omit anything which he conceived to belong to his pictures of Portuguese national glory, or to crowd too many of the events of former times into one part of his poem. None of these historical descriptions, which occupy a large portion of the eighth