Metastasio, in writing the ninth scene of the second act of his _Olympiad_, found himself suddenly moved--shedding tears.

The imagined sorrows had inspired real tears; and they afterwards proved contagious.

Had our poet not perpetuated his surprise by an interesting sonnet, the circumstance had passed away with the emotion, as many such have.

Pope could never read Priam's speech for the loss of his son without tears, and frequently has been observed to weep over tender and melancholy passages.

ALFIERI, the most energetic poet of modern times, having composed, without a pause, the whole of an act, noted in the margin--"Written under a paroxysm of enthusiasm, and while shedding a flood of tears." The impressions which the frame experiences in this state, leave deeper traces behind them than those of reverie.