And then he proceeds, according to my view of the passage, and according to the French translator's view, to point out, that while the shores of the ocean are changed, the action of the ocean continues the same; that it wasted the empires of the ancient world when they were free, and wasted them when they fell under the sway of tyrants: "Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee-- Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they? Thy waters wasted them while they were free, And many a tyrant since their shores obey." Here there seems to be a logical sequence, which is surely not to be found if the semicolon is kept, as MR. CROSSLEY wishes to keep it, after the word "since." "Thy waters wasted them while they were free, And many a tyrant since;" meaning, as he declares, that many a tyrant since has wasted them. There may be grammatical construction here, but what becomes of the meaning? The direct force of the words would surely be, that the ocean was in the habit of ravaging its shores in times of liberty, but that it left off when the tyrants began. I suppose it will be admitted that this is not exactly what the poet wished to convey. To his real meaning it will, I hope, be allowed to be essential that the statement should be made, that the ocean's ravages continue; and if this is not done in the fourth line, it is done nowhere,--the chain of reasoning is left without a link. To say that the ocean wasted empires once, and tyrants did it afterwards, is as little to the purpose as it would have been to say, in the preceding stanza, that the ocean destroyed the Armada, but that Nelson won Trafalgar. The lines become incoherent. I beg pardon for trespassing so long on your attention; but the question seems to have excited some interest, and I think the occasion may plead my excuse. T. W. There is no occasion to say any more on the subject of T. W.'s doubts (Vol. iv., p. 223.) as to the construction of certain lines in the 182nd stanza: but his remarks on the substitution of the word _gush'd_ for _rush'd_, in the 141st stanza, induce me to offer a suggestion, or rather ask a Query, with respect to a word in another stanza (180th) of the same canto, which I shall quote entire. "His steps are not upon thy paths--thy fields Are not a spoil for him,--thou dost arise And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields For earth's destruction thou dost all despise, Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies; And send'st him, shivering in thy playful spray And howling, to his Gods, where haply lies His petty hope in some near port or bay, And dashest him again to earth:--there let him lay."