In the clear mirror of his moral page
We trace the manners of a purer age.
His soul, with thirst of genuine glory fraught,
Scorned the false lustre of licentious thought.
-One fair asylum from the world he knew,
One chosen seat, that charms with various view!
Who boasts of more (believe the serious strain)
Sighs for a home, and sighs, alas! in vain.
Through each he roves, the tenant of a day,
And, with the swallow, wings the year away!""

NOTES.

(1) COSMO of Medicis took most pleasure in his Apennine villa, because all that he commanded from its windows was exclusively his own. How unlike the wise Athenian, who, when he had a farm to sell, directed the crier to proclaim, as its best recommendation, that it had a good neighborhood!-Plut. in Vit. Themist.

(2) Well situated is the house, "longos quæ prospicit agros." Distant views contain the greatest variety, both in themselves and in their accidental variations.

养 (3) Many a great man, in passing through the apartments of his palace, has made the melancholy reflection of the venerable Cosmo: "Questa è troppo gran casa à si poca famiglia."-Mach. Ist Fior. lib. vii.

"Parva, sed apta mihi," was Ariosto's inscription over his door in Ferrara; and who can wish to say more? "I confess," says Cowley, "I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company, and a very little feast." -Essay vi.

-

When Socrates was asked why he had built for himself so small a house, "Small as it is," he replied, "I wish I could fill it with friends."-Phædrus, iii. 9.

These indeed are all that a wise man can desire to assemble; "for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."

(4) By these means, when all nature wears a lowering countenance, I withdraw myself Into the visionary worlds of art; where I meet with shining landscapes, gilded triumphs, beautiful faces, and all those other objects that fill the mind with gay ideas. Addison.

It is remarkable that Antony, in his adversity, passed some time in a small but splendid retreat, which he called his Timonium, and from which might originate the idea of the Parisian boudoir, that favorite apartment, où l'on se retire pour être seul, mais où l'on ne boude point. — Strabo, 1. xvii. Plut. in Vit. Anton.

(5) Alluding to his celebrated fresco in the Rospigliosi Palace, at Rome.

(6) The dining-room is dedicated to Conviviality; or, as Cicero somewhere expresses it, "Communitati vitæ atque victûs." There we wish most for the society of our friends and, perhaps, in their absence, most require their portraits.

The moral advantages of this furniture may be illustrated by the story of an Athenian courtesan, who, in the midst of a riotous banquet with her lovers, accidentally cast her eye on the portrait of a philosopher, that hung opposite to her seat; the happy character of wisdom and virtue struck her with so lively an image of her own unworthiness, that she instantly left the room, and, retiring home, became ever afterwards an example of temperance, as she had been before of debauchery.

(7) "A long table and a square table," says Bacon, "seem things of form, but are things of substance; for at a long table a few at the upper end, in effect, sway all the business." Perhaps Arthur was right when he instituted the order of the round table. In the town-house of Aix-la-Chapelle is still to be seen the round table which may almost literally be said to have given peace to Europe in 1748. Nor is it only at a congress of plenipotentiaries that place gives precedence.

Before I begin to write, says Bossuet, I always read a little of Homer; for I love to light my lamp at the sun.

The reader will here remember that passage of Horace, Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno, &c., which was inscribed by Lord Chesterfield on the frieze of his library.

(10) Siquidem non solum ex auro argentove, aut certe ex ære in bibliothecis dicantur illi, quorum immortales animæ in iisdem locis ibi loquuntur: quinimo etiam quæ non sunt, finguntur, pariuntque desideria non traditi vultus, sicut in Homero evenit. Quo majus (ut equidem arbitror) nullum est felicitatis specimen, quam semper omnes scire cupere, qualis fuerit aliquis. -- Plin. Nat. Hist.

Cicero, in the dialogue entitled Brutus, represents Brutus and Atticus as sitting down with him in his garden at Rome by the statue of Plato; and with what delight does he speak of a little seat under Aristotle in the library of Atticus! "Literis sustentor et recreor; maloque in illa tua sedecula, quam habes sub imagine Aristotelis, sedere, quàm in istorum sella curuli!"- Ep. ad Att. iv. 10.

Nor should we forget that Dryden drew inspiration from the "majestic face" of Shakspeare; and that a portrait of Newton was the only ornament of the closet of Buffon. Ep. to Kneller. Voyage à Montbart.

(11) Postea verò quàm Tyrannio mihi libros disposuit, mens addita videtur meis ædibus. -Cic.

(12) Quis tantis non gaudeat et glorietur hospitibus, exclaims Petrarch. - Spectare, etsi nihil aliud, certè juvat. — Homerus apud me mutus, imò verò ego apud illum surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel aspectú solo, et sæpe illum amplexus ac suspirans dico: O magne vir, &c.-Epist. Var. lib. 20.

(13) After this line, in a former edition,

But hence away! yon rocky cave beware!

A sullen captive broods in silence there!

There, though the dog-star flame, condemned to dwell

In the dark centre of its inmost cell,

Wild Winter ministers his dread control

To cool and crystallize the nectared bowl.

His faded form an awful grace retains ;

Stern, though subdued, majestic, though in chains!

(14) Your bed-chamber, and also your library, says Vitruvius, should have an eastern aspect; usus enim matutinum postulat lumen. Not so the picture-gallery: which

requires a north light, uti colores in ope, propter constantiam luminis, immutata permaneant qualitate. This disposition accords with his plan of a Grecian house.

(16) See the Legend of the Seven Sleepers. - Gibbon, c. 33.

(17) Milton "was up and stirring, ere the sound of any bell awaked men to labor or to devotion ;" and it is related of two students in a suburb of Paris, who were opposite neighbors, and were called the morning-star and the evening-star, the former appearing just as the latter withdrew, that the morning star continued to shine on, when the evening star was gone out forever.

(18) Mr. Pope delights in enumerating his illustrious guests. Nor is this an exclusive privilege of the poet. The Medici Palace at Florence exhibits a long and imposing catalogue. "Semper hi parietes columnæque eruditis vocibus resonuerunt."

(19) Fallacem circum, vespertinumque pererro

Sæpe forum. - Hor.

(20) Tantôt, un livre en main, errant dans les préries.

-Boileau.

(21) At a Roman supper statues were sometimes employed to hold the lamps.

-aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædes.
Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris.

A fashion as old as Homer ! - Odyss. vii. 100.

Lucr. ii. 24.

On the proper degree and distribution of light we may consult a great master of effect. Il lume grande, ed alto, e non troppo potente, sarà quello, che renderà le particole de' corpi molto grate. - Tratt. della Pittura di Lionardo da Vinci, c. xli.

Hence every artist requires a broad and high light. Michael Angelo used to work with a candle fixed in his hat. — Condivi. Vita di Michelagnolo. Hence also, in a banquetscene, the most picturesque of all poets has thrown his light from the ceiling.— Æn. i. 726.

And hence the "starry lamps" of Milton, that

. . from the arched roof Pendent by subtle magic,

... yielded light

As from a sky.

(22) Dapes inemtas,

-Hor.

(23) At the petits soupés of Choisy were first introduced those admirable pieces of mechanism, afterwards carried to perfection by Loriot, the Confidente and the Servante; a table and a side-board, which descended, and rose again covered with viands and wines. And thus the most luxurious court in Europe, after all its boasted refinements, was glad to return at last, by this singular contrivance, to the quiet and privacy of humble life. — Vie privée de Louis XV. ii. 43.

Between this and the next line were these lines, since omitted:

Hail, sweet Society! in crowds unknown,

Though the vain world would claim thee for its own.

Still where thy small and cheerful converse flows,
Be mine to enter, ere the circle close.

When in retreat Fox lays his thunder by,
And wit and taste their mingled charms supply;
When SIDDONS, born to melt and freeze the heart,
Performs at home her more endearing part;
When he, who best interprets to mankind
The wingéd messengers from mind to mind,
Leans on his spade, and, playful as profound,
His genius sheds its evening sunshine round,
Be mine to listen; pleased yet not elate,
Ever too modest or too proud to rate
Myself by my companions.

These were written in 1796.

(24) An allusion to the floating bee-house, which is seen in some parts of France and Piedmont.

(25) After this line, in the MS.

Groves that Belinda's star illumines still,
And ancient courts and faded splendors fill.

(26) Innocuas amo delicias doctamqué quietem.

See the Rape of the Lock, Canto V.

(27) It was the boast of Lucullus that he changed his climate with the birds of passage. How often must he have felt the truth here inculcated, that the master of many houses has no home!