Among all nations the mixture of joy and pain, of exquisite delight and intense misery in the present state, has led the imagination to the conception of regions of unmixed bliss destined for the repose of the good after the toils of this life, and of climes where happiness prevails, the abode of beings superior to man. The imagination of the Hindoo paints his Swergas as 'profuse of bliss,' and all the joys of sense are collected into the Paradise of the Mussulman. The Persian lavished the riches of his fancy in raising the Cities of Jewels and of Amber that adorn the realms of Jinnestân; the romancer erected castles and palaces filled with knights and ladies in Avalon and in the land of Faerie; while the Hellenic bards, unused to pomp and glare, filled the Elysian Fields and the Island of the Blest with tepid gales and brilliant flowers. We shall quote without apology two beautiful passages from Homer and Pindar, that our readers may at one view satisfy themselves of the essential difference between classic and romantic imagination. In Homer, Proteus tells Menelaus that, because he had had the honour of being the son-in-law of Zeus, he should not die in "horse-feeding Argos." But thee the ever-living gods will send Unto the Elysian plain and distant bounds Of Earth, where dwelleth fair-hair'd Rhadamanthus. There life is easiest unto men; no snow, Or wintry storm, or rain, at any time, Is there; but evermore the Ocean sends Soft-breathing airs of Zephyr to refresh The habitants.--_Od._ iv. 563. This passage is finely imitated by Pindar, and connected with that noble tone of pensive morality, so akin to the Oriental spirit, and by which the 'Dircæan Swan' is distinguished from all his fellows. They speed their way To Kronos' palace, where around The Island of the Blest, the airs Of Ocean breathe, and golden flowers Blaze; some on land From shining trees, and other kinds The water feeds. Of these Garlands and bracelets round their arms they bind, Beneath the righteous sway Of Rhadamanthus.--_Ol._ ii. 126. Lucretius has transferred these fortunate fields to the superior regions, to form the abode of his _fainéans_, gods; and Virgil has placed them, with additional poetic splendour, in the bosom of the earth. Widely different from these calm and peaceful abodes of parted warriors are the Faeries of the minstrels and romancers. In their eyes, and in those of their auditors, nothing was beautiful or good divested of the pomp and pride of chivalry; and chivalry has, accordingly, entered deeply into the composition of their pictures of these ideal realms.