My life steals on; (O could it blend with thine!) So thro' the vales of Loire the bee-hives glide, If, when this roof shall know thy friend no more, Some, formed like thee, should once, like thee, explore; Invoke the lares of his loved retreat, And his lone walks imprint with pilgrim-feet; Some grey domestic prompts the partial praise) * Innocuas amo delicias doctamque quietem. His soul, with thirst of genuine glory fraught, NOTES. P. 120, 1. 21. Oft o'er the mead, at pleasing distance, pass 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 neighbourhood! - PLUT. in Vit. Themist. P. 121, 1. 3. And through the various year, the various day, Horace commends the house, "longos quæ prospicit agros." Distant views contain the greatest variety, both in themselves, and in their accidental variations. P. 122, 1. 1. Small change of scene, small space his home requires, 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 S 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." PHEDRUS, 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." P. 122, 1. 4. From every point a ray of genius flows! 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 favourite apartment, où l'on se retire pour être seul, mais où l'on ne boude point. STRABO, 1. xvii. PLUT. in Vit. Anton. P. 122, 1. 20. At GUIDO's call, &c. Alluding to his celebrated fresco in the Rospigliosi Palace at Rome. P. 122, 1. 27. And still the Few best loved and most revered 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 courtezan, 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. 66 P. 122, 1. 28. Rise round the board "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. |