Nulla ubi vox avium, pelagi strepit undique murmur,
Cœlum etiam largâ desuper urget aquâ.
Flat Boreas, dubiusque Notus, flat frigidus Eurus,
Felices Zephyri nil ubi juris habent.
Proque tuis ubi carminibus, Philomena canora,
Turpis in obscœnâ rana coaxat aquâ."
Varro.
The King's Messengers, by the Rev. W. Adams.—Ought it not to be remarked, in future editions of this charming and highly poetical book (which has lately been translated into Swedish), that it is grounded on one of the "examples" occurring in Barlaam and Josaphat?"
In the third or fourth century, an Indian prince names Josaphat was converted to Christianity by a holy hermit called Barlaam. This subject was afterwards treated of by some Alexandrian priest, probably in the sixth century, in a beautiful tale, legend, or spiritual romance, in Greek, and in a style of great ease, beauty, warmth, and colouring. The work was afterwards attributed to Johannes Damascenus, who died in 760. In this half-Asiatic Christian prose epic, Barlaam employs a number of even then ancient folk-tales and fables, spiritually interpreted, in Josaphat's conversion. It is on the fifth of these "examples" that Mr. Adams has built his richly-glittering fairy palace.
Barlaam and Josaphat was translated into almost