INTRODUCTION.

THE Golden Age of the Ancients was that portion of Time which immediately succeeded the formation of the world into a habitable abode for Man. It is represented as the most delightful of all periods. Then the sun shone with brightest radiance; and1 zephyrs from the ocean continually cooled the air, causing Perpetual Spring. The earth produced her fruits spontaneously: the rivers flowed with milk and nectar; and honey dropped from the trees. There, Peace waved her olive-branch: Amalthea bore the horn of Plenty: and the Gods descended to mix with mortals. The earliest account of this period is supplied by Hesiod, the father of Greek poetry. His description, and the epitome furnished by Ovid, in his narrative of The Four Ages, suggested a few hints for the first part of the following Sketch;-the construction of which is, however, entirely original.

(1) Homer's beautiful description of the bliss enjoyed in the Elysian Fields is equally applicable to the state of felicity at this period :—

Τη περ ῥηίστη βιοτὴ πέλει ἀνθρώποισιν,

Οὐ νιφετός, οὔτ ̓ ἄρ ̓ χειμὼν πολὺς, οὔτε ποτ ̓ ὄμβρος,

̓Αλλ' αἰεὶ Ζεφύροιο λιγυπνείοντας ἀήτας

Ὠκεανὸς ἀνίησιν ἀναψύχειν ἀνθρώπους.—Odyssey, book IV.

Calm flows the current of man's peaceful life,
Exempt alike from labour and from strife;
No wintry clouds e'er lower, nor tempests rise
O'er that fair landscape, and those azure skies,

But ocean gales, impregned with breath of May,
Round the auspicious shores for ever play.

(2) The Gold, the Silver, the Brass, and the Iron. Hesiod (Lib. I. 155,

&c.) introduces a "Heroic " Age before the Iron.

THE GOLDEN AGE.

ARGUMENT.

THE DESCRIPTION-Episode on Genius-THE DECLINE-Passing allusion to the three following Ages (Silver, Brass, and Iron)-Digression and brief Notice of the Leaden Age: Its fall at the revival of Literature in the 15th and 16th Centuries-References to Erasmus. More, and others as principal ornaments of the latter Epoch-Cursory glance at the Present Era-The Earth still overrun by Vice, War, and other evils-Bright prospects unfolding in the distant future: revealed in Prophecy-Advent of the Prince of Peace, and RESTORATION OF THE GOLDEN AGE ON EARTH-Apostrophe to Britain, as Principal Actress on the Stage of Nations destined to open the glorious scene-Conclusion: Death the common lot of humanity: For the virtuous doomed to die before the consummation of the great auspicious changes, remains one solace, viz. the hope of a GOLDEN AGE IN HEAVEN.

OH! for some influence from on high-
Gales that from tall Parnassus sigh-
Ambrosial drops from Castaly,

Or sacred Helicon;

From those pure Founts, some holy dews

Exhale, and shed, Aonian Muse!

Thine own ethereal self infuse

Into thy meanest son!

That, while he wakes the Grecian shell,
And bids the diapason swell,

Touch'd by thyself, and Sister-Choir,

Such strains may vibrate from the lyre