Saxum, aut procellis, vel globosos turbines
Existere ictos, undis concursantibus?
Num quas terrestres pontus strages conciet;
Aut forte Triton fuscinâ evertens specus,
Subter radices penitus undanti in freto
Molem ex profundo saxeam ad cœlum vomit?”
With this early specimen of Latin verse, it may be agreeable to compare a corresponding passage in one of our most ancient English poets. A shepherd, in Spenser’s Epilogue to the Shepherd’s Calendar, thus describes his astonishment at the sight of a ship:—
“For as we stood there waiting on the strand,
Behold a huge great vessel to us came,
Dancing upon the waters back to land,