I have examined few pair of that hue);
Blue as the garters which serenely lie
Round the Patrician left-legs, which adorn
The festal midnight, and the levee morn.

CXI.

1.(1)

Yet some of you are most seraphic creatures-
But times are alter'd since, a rhyming lover,
features:
You read my stanzas, and I read your

And-but no matter, all those things are over; Still I have no dislike to learned natures,

For sometimes such a world of virtues cover;
I knew one woman of that purple school,
The loveliest, chastest, best, but-quite a fool.

CXII.

Humboldt," the first of travellers," but not
The last, if late accounts be accurate,
Invented, by some name I have forgot,
As well as the sublime discovery's date,
An airy instrument, with which he sought
To ascertain the atmospheric state,
By measuring the intensity of blue:" (2)
Oh, Lady Daphne! let me measure you! (3)

(1) [MS." Not having look'd at many of that hue,

Nor garters-save those of the honi soit' —
Round the Patrician legs which walk about,
The ornaments of levee and of rout."]

which lie

(2) [The cyanometer- an instrument invented for ascertaining the intensity of the blue colour of the sky. On the summit of high mountains, elevated above the grosser portions of the atmosphere, it might be curious to compare experiments with those made with the same kind of instrument by M. Saussure on the Alps; but it is mere ostentation to talk, as M. de Humboldt does, of such experiments made at sea with a view of being asetul to navigation. We prefer, as more simple and more correct, that

CXVI.

But for the destiny of this young troop,

How some were bought by pachas, some by Jews, How some to burdens were obliged to stoop, And others rose to the command of crews As renegadoes; while in hapless group,

Hoping no very old vizier might choose, The females stood, as one by one they pick'd 'em, To make a mistress, or fourth wife, or victim :(1)

CXVII.

All this must be reserved for further song;
Also our hero's lot, howe'er unpleasant
(Because this Canto has become too long),

Must be postponed discreetly for the present; I'm sensible redundancy is wrong,

But could not for the muse of me put less in 't: And now delay the progress of Don Juan, Till what is call'd in Ossian the fifth Duan.

(1) [MS.-"The females stood, till chosen each as victim To the soft oath of 'Ana seing Siktum!""

CXIV.

Some went off dearly; fifteen hundred dollars
For one Circassian, a sweet girl, were given,
Warranted virgin; beauty's brightest colours

Had deck'd her out in all the hues of heaven:
Her sale sent home some disappointed bawlers,
Who bade on till the hundreds reach'd eleven ; (')
But when the offer went beyond, they knew
'Twas for the Sultan, and at once withdrew.

CXV.

Twelve negresses from Nubia brought a price
Which the West Indian market scarce would bring;
Though Wilberforce, at last, has made it twice
What 'twas ere Abolition; and the thing
Need not seem very wonderful, for vice

Is always much more splendid than a king:
The virtues, even the most exalted, Charity,
Are saving-vice spares nothing for a rarity.

(1) [The manner of purchasing slaves is thus described in the plain and unaffected narrative of a German merchant, "which," says Mr. Thornton, "as I have been able to ascertain its general authenticity, may be relied upon as correct." The girls were introduced to me one after another. A Circassian maiden, eighteen years old, was the first who presented herself: she was well-dressed, and her face was covered with a veil. She advanced towards me, bowed down and kissed my hand: by order of her master she walked backwards and forwards, to show her shape and the easiness of her gait and carriage. When she took off her veil, she displayed a bust of the most attractive beauty: she rubbed her cheeks with a wet napkin, to prove that she had not used art to heighten her complexion; and she opened her inviting lips, to show a regular set of teeth of pearly whiteness. I was permitted to feel her pulse, that I might be convinced of the good state of her health and constitution. She was then ordered to retire while we deliberated upon the bargain. The price of this beautiful girl was four thousand piastres."- See Voyage de N. E. Kleeman, and also Thornton's Turkey, vol. ii. p. 289.]

CXVI.

But for the destiny of this young troop,

How some were bought by pachas, some by Jews, How some to burdens were obliged to stoop,

And others rose to the command of crews As renegadoes; while in hapless group,

Hoping no very old vizier might choose,

The females stood, as one by one they pick'd 'em, To make a mistress, or fourth wife, or victim :(1)

CXVII.

All this must be reserved for further song;
Also our hero's lot, howe'er unpleasant
(Because this Canto has become too long),

Must be postponed discreetly for the present;
I'm sensible redundancy is wrong,

But could not for the muse of me put less in 't: And now delay the progress of Don Juan, Till what is call'd in Ossian the fifth Duan.

(1) [MS." The females stood, till chosen each as victim To the soft oath of Ana seing Siktum!'"