Whatever the original cradle of the mysterious Etrurians, scholars, with one or two illustrious exceptions, are pretty well agreed that it must have been _somewhere_ in the East; and the more familiar we become with the remains of their art, the stronger appears the evidence of their early and intimate connection with the Egyptians, though in themselves a race decidedly not Egyptian. See MICALI, _Stor. deg. Antich. Pop._ But in referring to this delightful and learned writer, to whom I am under many obligations in this part of my poem, I must own, with such frankness as respect for so great an authority will permit, that I think many of his assumptions are to be taken with great qualification and reserve. [B] Dryden, with an accurate delicacy of erudition for which one might scarcely give him credit, does not in his translation follow Virgil's quantity, _Porsenna_, but makes the word short, _Porsena_. BOOK IV. ARGUMENT. Invocation to Love--Arthur, AEgle, and the Augur--Dialogue between the Cymrian and the Etrurian--Meanwhile Lancelot gains the sea-shore, where he meets with the Aleman priest and his sons, and hears tidings of Arthur--He tells them the tale of his own infancy--Crosses the sea-- Lands on the coast of Brettannie--And is guided by the crystal ring in quest of Arthur towards the Alps--He finds the King's charger, which Arthur had left without the vaulted passage into the Happy Valley--But the rock-gate being closed, he cannot discover the King; and, winding by the foot of the Alps round the valley, gains a lake and a convent--The story now returns to Arthur and AEgle--Descriptive stanzas--A raven brings Arthur news from Merlin--The King resolves to quit the valley--He seeks and finds the Augur--Dialogue--Parting scene with AEgle--Arthur follows the Augur towards the fane of the funereal god. Hail, thou, the ever young, albeit of Night 1 And of primaeval Chaos eldest born; Thou, at whose birth broke forth the Founts of Light, And o'er Creation flush'd the earliest Morn! Life, in thy life, suffused the conscious whole; And formless matter took the harmonious soul. Hail, Love! the death-defier! age to age 2 Linking, with flowers, in the still heart of man! Dream to the bard, and marvel to the sage, Glory and mystery since the world began. Like the new moon, whose disk of silver sheen But halves the circle Heaven completes unseen. Ghostlike amidst the unfamiliar Past, 3 Dim shadows flit along the streams of Time; Vainly our learning trifles with the vast Unknown of ages!--Like the wizard's rhyme We call the dead, and from the Tartarus 'Tis but the dead that rise to answer us!