All, as they frowned, unwritten records bore But why the tale prolong?-His only child, Had won his soul; and rapturous Fancy shed But ah! few days had passed, ere the bright vision fled! When evening tinged the lake's ethereal blue, And still the mitred window, richly wreathed, His streaming beard the sport of every wind; And now the moon had dimmed with dewy ray The few fine flushes of departing day. For ever would the fond enthusiast rove, Ah! still he traced her steps along the glade, A charm that soothes the mind, and sweetens too! But, as a landscape meets the eye of day, At once presented to their glad survey! Each scene of bliss revealed, since chaos fled, And dawning light its dazzling glories spread; Each chain of wonders that sublimely glowed, Since first Creation's choral anthem flowed; Each ready flight, at Mercy's call divine, To distant worlds that undiscovered shine; Full on her tablet flings its living rays, And all, combined, with blest effulgence blaze. There thy bright train, immortal Friendship, soar; No more to part, to mingle tears no more! And, as the softening hand of Time endears The joys and sorrows of our infant-years, So there the soul, released from human strife, Smiles at the little cares and ills of life; Its lights and shades, its sunshine and its showers; As at a dream that charmed her vacant hours! Oft may the spirits of the dead descend. To watch the silent slumbers of a friend; To hover round his evening-walk unseen, And hold sweet converse on the dusky green; To hail the spot where first their friendship grew, And heaven and nature opened to their view! Oft, when he trims his cheerful hearth, and sees A smiling circle emulous to please; There may these gentle guests delight to dwell, And bless the scene they loved in life so well! Oh thou! with whom my heart was wont to share From Reason's dawn each pleasure and each care; Hail, MEMORY, hail! in thy exhaustless mine NOTES. PART I. Page 2, col. 1, line 31. How oft, when purple evening tinged the west, VIRGIL, in one of his Eclogues, describes a romantic attachment as conceived in such circumstances; and the description is so true to nature, that we must surely be indebted for it to some early recollection. "You were little when I first saw you. You were with your mother gathering fruit in our orchard, and I was your guide. I was just entering my thirteenth year, and just able to reach the boughs from the ground." So also Zappi, an Italian Poet of the last Century: "When I used to measure myself with my goat and my goat was the tallest, even then I loved Clori." myself, I live in a little town; and I chuse to live there, lest it should become still less."-Vit. Demosth. Page 3, col. 1, line 53. For this young FOSCARI, &c. He was suspected of murder, and at Venice suspicion was good evidence. Neither the interest of the Doge, his father, nor the intrepidity of conscious innocence, which he exhibited in the dungeon and on the rack, could procure his acquittal. He was banished to the island of Candia for life. But here his resolution failed him. At such a distance from home he could not live; and, as it was a criminal offence to solicit the intercession of any foreign prince, in a fit of despair he addressed a letter to the Duke of Milan, and intrusted it to a wretch whose perfidy, he knew, would occasion his being remanded a prisoner to Venice. Page 3, col. 1, line 61. And hence the charm historic scenes impart; "Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona."-JOHNSON. Page 3, col. 1, line 66. And watch and weep in ELOISA's cell. The Paraclete, founded by Abelard, in Champagne. Page 3, col. 1, line 67. 'Twas ever thus. Young AMMON, when he sought Alexander, when he crossed the Hellespont, was in the twenty-second year of his age; and with what feelings must the Scholar of Aristotle have approached the ground described by Homer in that Poem which had been his delight from his childhood, and which records the achievements of Him from whom he claimed his descent ! It was his fancy, if we may believe tradition, to take the tiller from Menatius, and be himself the steersman during the passage. It was his fancy also to be the first to land, and to land full-armed.-ARRIAN, i. 11. Page 3, col. 2, line 5. As now at VIRGIL's tomb Vows and pilgrimages are not peculiar to the religious enthusiast. Silius Italicus performed annual ceremonies on the mountain of Posilipo; and it was there that Boccaccio, quasi da un divino estro inspirato, resolved to dedicate his life to the Muses. Page 3, col. 2, line 7. So TULLY paused, amid the wrecks of Time, When Cicero was quæstor in Sicily, he discovered the tomb of Archimedes by its mathematical inscription.Tusc. Quæst. v. 3. Page 3, col. 2, line 21. Say why the pensive widow loves to weep, The influence of the associating principle is finely exemplified in the faithful Penelope, when she sheds tears over the bow of Ulysses.-Od. xxi. 55. Page 3, col. 2, line 37. If chance he hears the song so sweetly wild The celebrated Ranz des Vaches; "cet air si chéri des Suisses qu'il fut défendu sous peine de mort de le jouer dans leurs troupes, parce qu'il faisoit fondre en larmes, déserter ou mourir ceux qui l'entendoient, tant il excitoit en eux l'ardent désir de revoir leur pays."-ROUSSEAU. The maladie de pays is as old as the human heart. JUVENAL'S little cup-bearer Suspirat longo non visam tempore matrem, Et casulam, et notos tristis desiderat hædos. And the Argive in the heat of battle Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos. Nor is it extinguished by any injuries, however cruel they may be. Ludlow, write as he would over his door at Vevey *, was still anxious to return home; and how striking is the testimony of Camillus, as it is recorded by Livy! "Equidem fatebor vobis," says he in his speech to the Roman people, etsi minus injuriæ vestræ quam meæ calamitatis meminisse juvat; quum abessem, quotiescunque patria in mentem veniret, hæc omnia occurrebant, colles, campique, et Tiberis, et assueta oculis regio, et hoc cœlum, sub quo natus educatusque essem. vos, Quirites, nunc moveant potius caritate sua, ut maneatis in sede vestra, quam postea quum reliqueritis ea, macerent desiderio."-V. 54. Page 3, col. 2, line 42. Quæ Say why VESPASIAN loved his Sabine farm ; This emperor, according to Suetonius, constantly passed the summer in a small villa near Reate, where he was born, and to which he would never add any embellishment; ne quid scilicet oculorum consuetudini deperiret.--SUET. in Vit. Vesp. cap. ii. A similar instance occurs in the life of the venerable Pertinax, as related by J. Capitolinus. "Posteaquam in Liguriam venit, multis agris coemptis, tabernam paternam, manente formâ priore, infinitis ædificiis circumdedit."Hist. August. 54. And it is said of Cardinal Richelieu, that, when he built his magnificent palace on the site of the old family chateau at Richelieu, he sacrificed its symmetry to preserve the room in which he was born.-Mém. de Mlle. de Montpensier, i. 27. An attachment of this nature is generally the characteristic of a benevolent mind; and a long acquaintance with the world cannot always extinguish it. To a friend," says John, Duke of Buckingham, "I will expose my weakness: I am oftener missing a pretty gallery in the old house I pulled down, than pleased with a saloon which I built in its stead, though a thousand times better in all respects."-See his Letter to the D. of Sh. This is the language of the heart, and will remind the reader of that good-humoured remark in one of Pope's letters" I should. hardly care to have an old post pulled up, that I remembered ever since I was a child." The Author of Telemachus has illustrated this subject, with equal fancy and feeling, in the story of Alibée Persan. Sweet bird! thy truth shall Harlem's walls attest, During the siege of Harlem, when that city was reduced to the last extremity, and on the point of opening its gates to a base and barbarous enemy, a design was formed to relieve it; and the intelligence was conveyed to the citizens by a letter which was tied under the wing of a pigeon.— THUANUS, lv. 5. The same messenger was employed at the siege of Mutina, as we are informed by the elder Pliny.-Nat. Hist. x. 37. Page 4, col 1, line 40. Hark! the bee, &c. This little animal, from the extreme convexity of her eye, cannot see many inches before her. PART II. Page 4, col. 2, line 11. They in their glorious course TRUE Glory, says one of the Ancients, is to be acquired by doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read; and by making the world the happier and the better for our having lived in it. Page 4, col. 2, line 15. These still exist, &c. There is a future Existence even in this world, an Existence in the hearts and minds of those who shall live after us. It is in reserve for every man, however obscure; and his portion, if he is diligent, must be equal to his desires. For in whose remembrance can we wish to hold a place, but such as know, and are known by us? These are within the sphere of our influence, and among these and their descendants we may live for evermore. It is a state of rewards and punishments; and, like that revealed to us in the Gospel, has the happiest influence on cur lives. The latter excites us to gain the favour of GOD, the former to gain the love and esteem of wise and good men; and both lead to the same end; for, in framing our conceptions of the DEITY, we only ascribe to Him exalted degrees of Wisdom and Goodness. Page 5, col. 2, line 1. Yet still how sweet the soothings of his art! The astronomer chalking his figures on the wall, in Hogarth's view of Bedlam, is an admirable exemplification of this idea.-See the RAKE'S PROGRESS, plate 8. Page 5, col. 2, line 21. Turns but to start, and gazes but to sigh! The following stanzas are said to have been written on a blank leaf of this Poem. They present so affecting a reverse of the picture, that I cannot resist the opportunity of introducing them here. Pleasures of Memory!--oh! supremely blest, And justly proud beyond a Poet's praise; I greet her as the fiend, to whom belong The vulture's ravening beak, the raven's funeral song. Of hopes too fondly nursed, too rudely crossed, Hast thou thro' Eden's wild-wood vales pursued On the road-side between Penrith and Appleby there stands a small pillar with this inscription: "This pillar was erected in the year 1656, by Ann, Countess Dowager of Pembroke, &c. for a memorial of her last parting, in this place, with her good and pious mother, Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland, on the 2nd of April, 1616; in memory whereof she hath left an annuity of 41. to be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham, every 2nd day of April for ever, upon the stone-table placed hard by. Laus Deo!' The Eden is the principal river of Cumberland, and rises in the wildest part of Westmoreland. Page 6, col. 1, line 2. O'er his dead son the gallant ORMOND sighed. "I would not exchange my dead son," said he, " for any living son in Christendom."-HUME. The same sentiment is inscribed on an urn at the Leasowes. "Heu, quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse! " Page 7, col. 1, line 9. Down by St. Herbert's consecrated grove A small island covered with trees, among which were formerly the ruins of a religious house. Page 7, col. 1, line 26. When lo! a sudden blast the vessel blew, In a mountain-lake the agitations are often violent and momentary. The winds blow in gusts and eddies; and the water no sooner swells, than it subsides.-See BOURN's Hist. of Westmoreland. Page 7, col. 1, line 60. To what pure beings, in a nobler sphere, The several degrees of angels may probably have larger views, and some of them be endowed with capacities able to retain together, and constantly set before them as in one picture, all their past knowledge at once.-LOCKE. ARGUMENT. HUMAN LIFE. Introduction. Ringing of Bells in a neighbouring Village on the Birth of an Heir. - General Reflections on Human Life.-The Subject proposed.-Childhood. Youth.-Manhood.-Love.- Marriage.-Domestic Happi ness and Affliction.-War.-Peace. - Civil Dissension. Retirement from active Life. - Old Age and its Enjoy ments.-Conclusion. THE lark has sung his carol in the sky; The bees have hummed their noon-tide harmony. Still in the vale the village-bells ring round, Still in Llewellyn-hall the jests resound: For now the caudle-cup is circling there, Now, glad at heart, the gossips breathe their prayer, And, crowding, stop the cradle to admire The babe, the sleeping image of his sire. [hail A few short years-and then these sounds shall The day again, and gladness fill the vale; So soon the child a youth, the youth a man, Eager to run the race his fathers ran. Then the huge ox shall yield the broad sir-loin; The ale, now brewed, in floods of amber shine: And, basking in the chimney's ample blaze, 'Mid many a tale told of his boyish days, The nurse shall cry, of all her ills beguiled, "'Twas on these knees he sate so oft and smiled." And soon again shall music swell the breeze; Soon, issuing forth, shall glitter through the trees Vestures of nuptial white; and hymns be sung, And violets scattered round; and old and young, In every cottage-porch with garlands green, Stand still to gaze, and, gazing, bless the scene; While, her dark eyes declining, by his side Moves in her virgin-veil the gentle bride. And once, alas, nor in a distant hour, Another voice shall come from yonder tower; When in dim chambers long black weeds are seen, And weepings heard where only joy has been: As any sung of old in hall or bower To minstrel-harps at midnight's witching hour! Born in a trance, we wake, observe, inquire; And the green earth, the azure sky admire. Of Elfin-size-for ever as we run, And now a charm, and now a grace is won! No eye observes the growth or the decay. And such is Human Life, the general theme. Such forms in Fancy's richest colouring wrought, "Still, could I shun the fatal gulf”—Ah, no, Yet here high passions, high desires unfold, Now, seraph-winged, among the stars we soar ; Now in Thermopyla remain to share Do what he will, he cannot realize Look where he comes! Rejoicing in his birth, But soon 'tis past-the light has died away! The day arrives, the moment wished and feared; Her by her smile how soon the Stranger knows; When rosy Sleep comes on with sweet surprise. Wealth, Pleasure, Ease, all thought of self And, if she can, exhaust a mother's love! resigned, What will not Man encounter for Mankind? Behold him now unbar the prison-door, And, lifting Guilt, Contagion from the floor, To Peace and Health, and Light and Life restore; But soon a nobler task demands her care. |