years ago, in a reign which Blackstone has justly represented as wicked, sanguinary, and turbulent; but such times have always afforded the most signal instances of heroic courage and ardent affection. Great reverses, like theirs, lay open the human heart. They occur indeed but seldom; yet all men are liable to them; all, when they occur to others, make them more or less their own; and, were we to describe our condition to an inhabitant of some other planet, could we omit what forms so striking a circumstance in human life? P. 73, 1. 12. A prisoner, prosecuted for high treason, may now make his defence by counsel. In the reign of William the Third the law was altered; and it was in rising to urge the necessity of an alteration, that Lord Shaftesbury, with such admirable quickness, took advantage of the embarrassment that seized him. "If I," said he, "who rise only to give my opinion of this bill, am so confounded that I cannot say what I intended, what must be the condition of that man, who, without any assistance, is pleading for his life?" P. 73, 1. 17. Like that sweet saint who sate by RUSSELL'S side Under the Judgment-seat. Lord Russell. May I have somebody to write, to assist my memory. Mr. Attorney General. Yes, a Servant. Lord Chief Justice. Any of your servants shall assist you in writing any thing you please for you. Lord Russell. My Wife is here, my Lord, to do it.-STATE TRIALS, II. P. 73, 1. 23. Thrice greeting those who most withdraw their claim, P. 73, 1. 28. Lo, there the Friend. Such as Russell found in Cavendish; and such as many have found. P. 74, 1. 1. And when her dear, dear Father passed along, An allusion to the last interview of Sir Thomas More and his daughter Margaret. "Dear Meg," said he, when afterwards with a coal he wrote to bid her farewell, "I never liked your manner towards me better; for I like when daughterly love and dear charity have no leisure to look to worldly courtesy."-ROPER'S LIFE. P. 74, 1. 14. Her glory now, as ever her delight! Epaminondas, after his victory at Leuctra, rejoiced most of all at the pleasure which it would give his father and mother; and who would not have envied them their feelings? Cornelia was called at Rome the Mother-in-law of Scipio. "When," said she to her sons, "shall I be called the Mother of the Gracchi!" P. 76, 1. 17. Immoveable-for ever there to freeze! She was under all her sails, and looked less like a ship incrusted with ice than ice in the fashion of a ship. See the Voyage of Captain Thomas James, in 1631. P. 76, 1. 23. Of burning sand their everlasting grave! — After 1. 23 in the MS. Now the scene shifts to Cashmere - to a glade Where, with her loved gazelle, the dark-eyed Maid (Her fragrant chamber for awhile resigned, Her lute, by fits discoursing with the wind) Wanders well-pleased, what time the Nightingale Sings to the Rose, rejoicing hill and dale; P. 77, 1. 3. Lo, on his back a Son brings in his Sire, An act of filial piety represented on the coins of Catana, a Greek city, some remains of which are still to be seen at the foot of Mount Etna. The story is told of two brothers, who in this manner saved both their parents. The place from which they escaped, was long called the field of the pious; and public games were annually held there to commemorate the event. P. 77, 1. 7. From lute or organ! What a pleasing picture of domestic life is given to us by Bishop Berkeley in his letters! "The more we have of good instruments, the better for all my children, not excepting my little daughter, learn to play, and are preparing to fill my house with harmony against all events; that, if we have worse times, we may have better spirits." P. 77, 1. 13. And with assurance sweet her soul revive In child-birth See the Alcestis of Euripides, v. 328. P. 77, 1. 19. Who lives not for another. How often, says an excellent writer, do we err in our estimate of happiness! When I hear of a man who has noble parks, splendid palaces, and every luxury in life, I always inquire whom he has to love; and, if I find he has nobody or does not love those he has — in the midst of all his grandeur I pronounce him a being in deep adversity. P. 77, 1. 28. O thou all-eloquent, whose mighty mind Cicero. It is remarkable that, among the comforts of Old Age, he has not mentioned those arising from the society of women and children. Perhaps the husband of Terentia and "the father of Marcus felt something on the subject, of which he was willing to spare himself the recollection." P. 80, 1. 15. And stars are kindling in the firmament, An old writer breaks off in a very lively manner at a later hour of the night. "But the Hyades run low in the heavens, and to keep our eyes open any longer were to act our Antipodes. The Huntsmen are up in America, and they are already past their first sleep in Persia." BEFORE I conclude, I would say something in favour of the oldfashioned triplet, which I have here ventured to use so often. Dryden seems to have delighted in it, and in many of his poems has used it much oftener than I have done, as for instance in the Hind and Panther, and in Theodore and Honoria, where he introduces it three, four, and even five times in succession. If I have erred any where in the structure of my verse from a desire to follow yet earlier and higher examples, I rely on the forgiveness of those in whose ear the music of our old versification is still sounding.† * Pope used to mention this poem as the most correct specimen of Dryden's versification. It was indeed written when he had completely formed his manner, and may be supposed to exhibit, negligence excepted, his deliberate and ultimate scheme of metre. JOHNSON. With regard to trisyllables, as their accent is very rarely on the last, they cannot properly be any rhymes at all: yet nevertheless I highly commend those, who have judiciously and sparingly introduced them, as such.-GRAY. AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND. 1798. Villula, et pauper agelle, Me tibi, et hos unà mecum, quos semper amavi, PREFACE. EVERY reader turns with pleasure to those passages of Horace, and Pope, and Boileau, which describe how they lived and where they dwelt; and which, being interspersed among their satirical writings, derive a secret and irresistible grace from the contrast, and are admirable examples of what in Painting is termed repose. We have admittance to Horace at all hours. We enjoy the company and conversation at his table; and his suppers, like Plato's "non solum in præsentia, sed etiam postero die jucundæ sunt." But, when we look round as we sit there, we find ourselves in a Sabine farm, and not in a Roman villa. His windows have every charm of prospect; but his furniture might have descended from Cincinnatus; and gems, and pictures, and old marbles, are mentioned by him more than once with a seeming indifference. |