Shell, according to a fashion common with the poets of the first half of the 18th century, stands for lyre.  The Latin word testudo, a shell is often so used.

Possessed beyond the Muse’s painting = enthralled beyond what poetry can describe.

His own expressive power, i.e., his power to express his own feelings.

In lightnings owned his secret stings = in lightning-like touches confessed the hidden fury which inspired him.

Veering song.  The ever-changeful song.

Her wild sequestered seat.  Sequestered properly is used of something which, being in dispute, is deposited in a third person’s hands:  hence of something set apart or in retirement.

Round a holy calm diffusing = diffusing around a holy calm.

Buskin.  A boot reaching above the ankle. Gemmed = sparkling as with gems.

Faun and Dryad_.  Creatures with whom ancient mythology peopled the woods.

Their chaste-eyed Queen = Diana.

Brown exercise.  Exercise is here personified and represented as brown and sunburnt.

Viol.  A stringed musical instrument.

In Tempe’s vale.  In Thessaly, especially connected with the worship of Apollo, the god of poetry and music.

Sphere-descended maid.  A metaphor common with the poets, and taken from a Greek fancy most elaborately described in Plato’s ‘Republic,’ where the system of the universe is pictured as a series of whorls linked in harmony.

Thy mimic soul.  Thy soul apt to imitate.

Devote = devoted.  A form more close to that of the Latin participle, from which it is derived.

Thy recording Sister = the Muse of History.

Cecilia’s mingled world of sound = the organ.  So St. Cecilia is called in Dryden’s Ode, “Inventress of the vocal frame.”

The just designs = the well-conceived, artistic designs.]

* * * * *

“A WHALE HUNT.”

A tide of unusual height had carried the whale over a large bar of sand, into the voe or creek in which he was now lying.  So soon as he found the water ebbing, he became sensible of his danger, and had made desperate efforts to get over the shallow water, where the waves broke on the bar but hitherto he had rather injured than mended his condition, having got himself partly aground, and lying therefore particularly exposed to the meditated attack.  At this moment the enemy came down upon him.  The front ranks consisted of the young and hardy, armed in the miscellaneous manner we have described; while, to witness and animate their efforts, the young women, and the elderly persons of both sexes, took their place among the rocks, which overhung the scene of action.

As the boats had to double a little headland, ere they opened the mouth of the voe, those who came by land to the shores of the inlet had time to make the necessary reconnaissances upon the force and situation of the enemy, on whom they were about to commence a simultaneous attack by land and sea.