Transcriber’s Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
The following are possible misspellings:
Chapter IX is missing in the numbering sequence.
“beaten tract” should possibly be “beaten track”
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN,
1816.
London: Printed by Schulze and Dean,
13, Poland Street.
Disperato dolor, che il cor mi preme
Gía pur pensando, pria che ne favelle.
In the town of Belfont, in Ireland, liveda learned physician of the name of EverardSt. Clare. He had a brother, who,misled by a fine but wild imagination,which raised him too far above the interestsof common life, had squanderedaway his small inheritance; and hadlong roved through the world, rapt inpoetic visions, foretelling, as he pretended,to those who would hear him, that whichfuturity would more fully develop.—Camioliwas the name he had assumed.
It was many years since Sir Everardlast beheld his brother, when one nightCamioli, bearing in his arms Elinor hischild, about five years of age, returned,4after his long absence to his native town,and knocked at Sir Everard’s door. Thedoctor was at the castle hard by, and hislady refused admittance to the mean-lookingstranger. Without informingher of his name, Camioli departed, andresolved to seek his sister the Abbess ofGlenaa. The way to the convent waslong and dreary: he climbed, therefore,with his lovely burthen to the topmostheights of Inis Tara, and sought temporaryshelter in a cleft of the mountain knownby the name of the “Wizzard’s Glen.”Bright shone the stars that night, and tothe exalted imagination of the aged seer,it seemed in sleep, that the spirits of departedheroes and countrymen, freedfrom the bonds of mortality, were ascendingin solemn grandeur before hiseyes;—the song of the Banshees, mourningfor the sorrows of their country,broke upon the silence of night;—alambent flame distinguished the souls ofheroes, and, pointing upwards, formed a5path of light before them;—the air resoundedwith the quivering of wings, aswith one accord innumerable spiritsarose, fanning the breeze with theirextended plumes, and ascending like aflight of birds toward the heavens.
Then, for the first time, Camioli beheld,in one comprehensive view, theuniversal plan of nature—unnumberedsystems performing their various butdistinct courses, unclouded by mists,and unbounded by horizon—endlessvariety in infinite space! Then first heseemed to hear the full harmonious cadencesof the angelic choirs—ce