"Mounted aloft on Contemplation's wings." _G. Wither_, P. 1. vol. i. Ed. 1633. Drummond has given "golden wings" to Fame. On l. 88. (G.):-- Hermes Trismegistus. On l. 100. (G.):-- "Tyrants' bloody gests Of Thebes, Mycenæ, or proud Ilion." _Sylvester's Du Bartas._ * * * * * _Arcades._ On l. 23. (G.):-- "And without respect of odds, Vye renown with Demy-gods." _Wither's Mistresse of Philarete_, Sig. E. 5. Ed. 1633. On l. 27. (G.):-- "But yet, whate'er he do or can devise, Disguised glory shineth in his eyes." _Sylvester's Du Bartas._ On l. 46. (G.):-- "An eastern wind commix'd with _noisome airs_, Shall _blast the plants_ and the _young sapplings_." _Span. Trag. Old Plays_, vol. iii. p. 222. On l. 65. (G.) Compare Drunmond--speech of Endymion before Charles:-- "To tell by me, their herald, coming things, And what each Fate to her stern distaff sings," &c. On l. 84. (M.):-- "And with his beams enamel'd every greene." _Fairfax's Tasso_, b. i. st. 35. On l. 97. (G.):-- "Those brooks with lilies bravely deck't." _Drayton_, 1447. On l. 106. (G.):-- "Pan entertains, this coming night, His paramour, the Syrinx bright." _Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess_, Act i. J.F.M. * * * * * DERIVATION OF EASTER. Southey, in his _Book of the Church_, derives our word _Easter_ from a _Saxon_ source:-- "The worship," he says, "of the goddess _Eostre_ or _Eastre_, which may probably be traced to the Astarte of the Phoenicians, is retained among us in the word _Easter_; her annual festival having been superseded by that sacred day." Should he not rather have given a _British_ origin to the name of our Christian holy day? Southey acknowledges that the "heathenism which the {116} Saxons introduced, bears no [very little?] affinity either to that of the Britons or the Romans;" yet it is certain that the Britons worshipped Baal and _Ashtaroth_, a relic of whose worship appears to be still retained in Cornwall to this day. The Druids, as Southey tells us, "made the people pass through the fire in honour of Baal." But the _festival_ in honour of Baal appears to have been in the _autumn_: for "They made the people," he informs us, "at the beginning of _winter_, extinguish all their fires on one day and kindle them again from the sacred fire of the Druids, which would make the house fortunate for the ensuing year; and, if any man came who had not paid his yearly dues, [Easter offerings, &c., date back as far as this!] they refused to give him a spark, neither durst any of his neighbours relieve him, nor might he himself procure fire by any other means, so that he and his family were deprived of it till he had discharged the uttermost of his debt."