only until he could obtain the means of returning to Gibraltar; but the advantages of climate, of cheapness of living, and the reception he met with from the English authorities, induced him to continue there, until his stay at length extended to five years' residence.
Fortunately for him, there happened then to be residing at Malta Mr. J. H. Frere, formerly British Minister at Madrid, who, in addition to a highly cultivated taste and great general knowledge, was well conversant with the Spanish language and literature also in particular. With this gentleman Saavedra soon entered into terms of intimate friendship, and was taught by him to turn his thoughts from the tame class of poetry he had copied from the French school, and elevate his mind to the high tone of the older poets of Spain, as well as to the study of English literature. These lessons he followed, and thus proved another instance of the remark of Plutarch, that the Muses often suggest the best and most approved productions of genius, taking exile as their means to aid them: Καί γύρ τοίς παλαιοίς (ώς έοικεν) αί Μούσαι τά κάλλιστα τών συνταγμάτων και δοκμώτατα, φυγήν λάβουσαι σύνεργον, έπετέλεσαν.
At first Saavedra continued his former style of writing, but after a short time his mind seemed suddenly to expand, and to act under the influence of another genius. He finished, after his arrival at Malta, his poem of 'Florinda', and wrote there several plays, of the same character as those he had formerly written, but at the same time showed that a change was coming over his mind, by an ' Ode to the Lighthouse at Malta,' known to the reader by Mr. Frere's translation of it, which for spirit and range of thought proved itself the offspring of another and truer inspiration. The expectations thus raised were destined to be fully realized, and the poem he then began, and published subsequently, the 'Moro
