_The Word "Oasis"_ (Vol. v., p. 465.).--I beg to inclose MR. TEMPLE an
instance of the use of the above word in English poetry, it will be found
in a poem entitled _Hopes of Matrimony_, by John Holland, author of
_Sheffield Park_, published by Francis Westley, 1822, and now lies before
me.
"Is there a manly bosom can enfold,
A human heart, so withered, dead, and cold,
As not to feel, or never to have felt,
At genial Love's approach, its ices melt?
No--in the desert of the dreariest breast,
Some verdant spot, its presence have contest;
Though parch'd and bloomless, and as wild as bare,
A rill of nature once meander'd there;
E'en where Arabia's arid waste entombs
Whole caravans, the green oasis blooms."
O[)a]sis will be found also in Lemprière's _Classical Dictionary_, but not
in the same sense as above.