A circumstance accidentally preserved has informed us of the tremors of DRYDEN after having written that ode,[A] which, as he confessed, he had pursued without the power of quitting it; but these tremors were not unusual with him--for in the preface to his "Tales," he tells us, that "in translating Homer he found greater pleasure than in Virgil; but it was not a pleasure without pain; the continual agitation of the spirits must needs be a weakener to any constitution, especially in age, and many pauses are required for refreshment betwixt the heats." [Footnote A: This famous and unparalleled ode was probably afterwards retouched; but Joseph Warton discovered in it the rapidity of the thoughts, and the glow and the expressiveness of the images; which are the certain marks of the _first sketch_ of a master.] We find Metastasio, like others of the brotherhood, susceptible of this state, complaining of his sufferings during the poetical aestus.

"When I apply with attention, the nerves of my sensorium are put into a violent tumult; I grow as red as a drunkard, and am obliged to quit my work." When BUFFON was absorbed on a subject which presented great objections to his opinions, he felt his head burn, and saw his countenance flushed; and this was a warning for him to suspend his attention.

GRAY could never compose voluntarily: his genius resembled the armed apparition in Shakspeare's master-tragedy.

"He would not be commanded." When he wished to compose the Installation Ode, for a considerable time he felt himself without the power to begin it: a friend calling on him, GRAY flung open his door hastily, and in a hurried voice and tone, exclaiming in the first verse of that ode-- Hence, avaunt! 'tis holy ground!-- his friend started at the disordered appearance of the bard, whose orgasm had disturbed his very air and countenance.
Listen to one labouring with all the magic of the spell.

Madame ROLAND has thus powerfully described the ideal presence in her first readings of Telemachus and Tassot:--"My respiration rose, I felt a rapid fire colouring my face, and my voice changing had betrayed my agitation.