3991 
 f\\T%
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 ^V^'^^' /^^-^ ^~-/-f^yy^/^'y^~ 
 
 Poems.
 
 POEMS: 
 
 CONTAlumc 
 
 THE AGE, 
 
 LIBERTY, 
 
 THE CONQUEROR, 
 
 AND ETNA. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADItLT. 
 
 MDCCCXV.
 
 C. WOOD, Printer, 
 Poppin's Court, Fleet Street.
 
 PR, 
 3 7 '7/ 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 THE Poems now offered to the public are of 
 different descriptions : the three first are moral, 
 the last of a local nature. The first, entitled 
 The Age, seemed to be called for, by that 
 universal disorder, which seemed to have over- 
 spread the region of morality, as well as that of 
 taste. The second. Liberty, was written to 
 correct that derangement, as far as it affected 
 government and ideas of rational liberty. The 
 the third, viz. The CoNauEROR, was suggested 
 by more exan)ples than one of the fatal effects 
 
 862151
 
 Tl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of an insatiable ambition laying waste the 
 world, and sacrificing the whole human race 
 to it's views. The last, namely, Etna, was 
 written many years ago, when the Author was 
 upon the spot, and demands no other apology, 
 than the stupendous beauties of the place 
 itself, and the sensations they left upon the 
 Author's mind.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Age 1 
 
 Notes upon the Age 19 
 
 Liberty 45 
 
 Notes upon Liberty ... 65 
 
 nie Conqueror 79 
 
 Notes upon the Conqueror 101 
 
 Etna 117 
 
 Notes upon Etna ] 3 1
 
 ^tt ^0e.
 
 THE AGE. 
 
 WHAT novel fancy now shall next engage 
 And charm the fleeting humour of the age ? 
 Shall ears or eyes our reason most seduce 
 And lead to understanding's worst ahuse ? 
 Sliall ghosts in nurses' tales their fears convey ^ 
 And make us children twice with wild dismay ? 
 Or theatres with cavalry be crown'd 
 And tragic boards with horses' hoofs resound ? 
 No, peace to such! Far deeper lies the ill. 
 Which calls the caustic of satyric skill ; 
 Deeper the poison, that affects the heart, 
 Distill'd by Vice's more than Folly's art ! 
 b2
 
 THE AGE. 
 
 Wlio first contriv'd the wise, the wond'rous plan, 
 'Bove God the source, to raise the sense of man ', 
 Cancell'd religion ; nature set at ease ; 
 Made reason rule, instead of God's decrees ; 
 Let passion loose, to leap o'er duty's bound. 
 Till nature, helpless, no foundation found ; 
 And conscience roll'd into despair's black flood : 
 It's only comfort t'have forgot it's God ! 
 
 Oh, ye philosophers, whose wonted name 
 Serves only now to propagate your shame ! 
 Whose hellish falsehoods, vanity their food. 
 Live only now in nations' tears and blood ! 
 In whom Vice and Absurdity had strife 
 Wliich most should copy Folly to the life ! 
 Look on the world ! What have your fables done. 
 But a poor web of guilt and mis'ry spun ? 
 Which, now unravell'd, leaves it's only light 
 To show the horror of the former night. ^ 
 
 Ye Humes, Rousseaus, ye Condorcets, Voltaires, 
 What now remains preserv'd of all your snares,
 
 THE AGE. 
 
 Which folly, madness, profligacy spread 
 To catch our passions, or to turn our head : 
 And German plays, which, bold in Virtue's cause,* 
 Could more than Vice's courage break her laws ? 
 
 Say, first, on Morals how they spent their force, 
 And through disorder took their rapid course ? 
 No God to guide them with his sacred word. 
 Reason must straight become their sov'reign lord. 
 Then that by passion has his place supplied. 
 With all the pleasures in it's troop descried ; 
 For, if God's holy word could not restrain. 
 Much less the idle rev'ries of their brain. 
 And then, what efforts to exalt it's skill. 
 Make Nature's self magnanimous in ill ; * 
 As if old Satan wish'd to pay his court. 
 And of Religion's self to make a sport ; 
 Employ her holiest ties to veil his crimes. 
 Make wickedness the order of the times -, 
 Founding the very vi'lence of her laws 
 Upon the greatness that should serve her cause :
 
 THE AGE. 
 
 Thus making moral principle a name^ 
 Religion's holy self an airy dream. 
 Oh, blest excesses ! Ravishing delights ! -A 
 
 Where Virtue 'gainst herself so nobly fights. 
 
 See, next, in Politics, how they disclose 
 The utmost bound of sublunary woes ; \ 
 
 Destin'd to soften down the ills of fate. 
 Mankind by settling in a civil state. 
 By curbing vi'lence and restraining crimes. 
 Recalling Order to herself betimes. 
 The mischiefs Polity was meant to cure 
 It made mankind more cruelly endure. 
 
 Oh, hapless France ! " Thepovir, that camefromHeav'n, 
 
 To every single individual giv'n" 
 
 No matter skill to manage it or not. 
 
 To each descending by a separate lot j 
 
 The principle on which it went unseen. 
 
 That end it was not, only made a mean. 
 
 Just as in ships, each passenger has right 
 
 And native to his goods to hold them tight ;
 
 THE AGE. 
 
 )5ut pilot not to be, or steer the bark, 
 Lest he should lose his comrades in the dark. 
 So pow'r was made for 'property and lives^ 
 And from preserving title whole derives ; 
 Collective this, but that a single claim, 
 Made to promote an individual name. 
 And so they far'd : for, first, came loud misrule. 
 In twenty difTrent guises play'ng the fool ; 
 Till, at the last, their folly's self ran mad 
 Upon the very principles they had ; 
 And the convention, in a fatal hour. 
 Denied the people that same right to pow'r, 
 If exercised, themselves to re-elect. 
 Thus kindly killing with a false respect; 
 As o'erfond nurses often, we remark 
 To overlay their children in the dark : 
 For sure more right the people had to give, ^ 
 More title that convention to receive. 
 But boots not how the horse endur'd the switch, 
 Unfoal'd they had not rode into the ditch : 
 And now the thing was done Of Gallic lore 
 VVhatc'er was in the nobles went before :
 
 8 THE AGE. 
 
 If best of people, then, were turn'd away. 
 
 What could it come to, but the rabble's sway ? 
 
 And so appear'd again ; for in a trice 
 
 The greatest villain had the throw of dice. ^ 
 
 And so 'twill ever be, by the world's rules. 
 
 That knaves must have the management of fools ; 
 
 And the mob's reign is but another name 
 
 The greatest scoundrel sov'reign to proclaim. 
 
 Out of this hotbed came the despot's sway, ^ 
 
 By quick succession houses brought away; ^^ 
 
 For so the worst of tyrants ever spring, 
 
 " Mob the first dung that breeds the venom sting." 
 
 So Europe feels till now a gleam of light 
 
 Bursts with enam'ring beauty on the sight. 
 
 And real Reason joys to see unfurl'd 
 
 Her sister Freedom's banners o'er the world. 
 
 But see false Reason, what it did, employ'd 
 
 To raise it's vapours 'gainst it's God defi'd. 
 
 Nought fix'd nor solid Man was left to trace '^ 
 
 His line of duty in blank Nature's face, 
 
 Which, lighting passion with a noxious ray. 
 
 Left him no other standard to obey;
 
 THE AGE. 
 
 And morals fast extinguishing, confCss'd 
 Their quickest ruin serv'd the tyrant best. 
 
 For if we meditate on Europe's woe. 
 And real cause and spring of all would know, 
 T'was, that it's heads fear'd neither God nor Devil, 
 To hurt their interest the only evil. 
 The kings, seduced with promise of domain. 
 Marshals and envoys with a lesser gain ; 
 While, through the whole, the deadly poison ran. 
 And tainted all corrupted to a man. 
 Sole wisdom this, to see their purse well stor'd ; '^ 
 Sole folly that, the fearing of the Lord ; 
 For what so well, could make the bribe go down. 
 As that sole sov'reign Mammon they would own ? 
 Or what betray their country and their friends, 
 As the belief that all with this world ends ? 
 For speak Napoleon's flatt'rers as they will, 
 We find enough amid his triumphs still 
 To say, though clever, such he had not got, 
 Had fools and traitors never help'd his lot.
 
 10 THE AGE. 
 
 Oh, Principle, wliat, is't we owe to thee ; 
 Planted in us by Hcav'ns High Majesty ! 
 Doom'd to recede from nought of mortal mould ! 
 Destin'd 'gainst all of human force to hold ! 
 In meek humility, to peril blind. 
 In pious tmst, to God of Heav'n resign'd ; 
 Oh, little, little do the wordlings know, 
 How little they can make 'gainst such a foe ! 
 What care they for your cannon or it's world 
 Who, fix'd on God, would see it's ruin hurl'd ! 
 
 Nor is the Christian sole in Heav'ns design, 
 To all most pitying to all benign. 
 For we are told, that Gentiles have their lot, " 
 Nor in Almighty mercy's scale forgot j 
 Then why refuse a tribute to the fame 
 Of any Roman, any Spartan name. 
 Wherever, with heroic courage lent, 
 Their lives in aid of principle were spent ! 
 
 Then, oh, Thermopylae, we shed o'er thee 
 A parting tear of mournful victory;
 
 THE AGE. 11 
 
 But mournful why, if Persia's shock withstood, 
 Your glories drown'd her in your countiy's blood ? ^* 
 For drown'd she was she could not more advance- 
 Oh, so may Britain stem invading France, 
 If Heav'n so deem; and, if she cannot save 
 Her ravaged bosom, in it find a grave ! 
 
 And if these sophists with their treach'rous light 
 Have from the view of virtue turn'd our sight. 
 Nor less in walks of taste they've led astray, 
 Surprising sober sense with wild dismay. 
 What comes of all these spectres, witches, ghosts. 
 These corporations dread of Folly's hosts ; 
 King Earth, King Air, King Water, and King Fire, '* 
 And ev'ry King, but what the heav'ns desire ? 
 And then, these punishments no guilt incurr'd ; 
 These horrid mysteries no light conferr'd. 
 As if the object whole of Heav'n's delight, '^ 
 To plague with pains or puzzle with affright. 
 
 For in man's hist'ry it will e'er be true, 
 Taste must the steps of principle pursue.
 
 12 THE AGE. 
 
 And, if she sicken, seek no better sign 
 Of morals wasting in a like decline. 
 Of this, full evidence if you'd assume. 
 Take an example in decaying Rome ; 
 Where drooping Art accompanied the times. 
 And Beauty's self expir'd amid her crimes. 
 What was't that made the ancient Grecia know 
 To put poetic wreaths on Homer's brow ; 
 But that her heroes did the feats he sung ? 
 He told the glories that their struggles wrung. 
 Who's he will show a fortunate defect- 
 Vice ris'n into Parnassus' sons' respect ? 
 Or that the world with admiration gaze 
 On what a real littleness betrays? 
 'Tis thus we like to look at what we love. 
 And learn to imitate what we approve. 
 This very learning is the taste we tell. 
 And dying is itself a passing bell. 
 
 For sense of beauty came into the mind ''' 
 From sense of right, by Nature's hand refin'd ; 
 Thus Music tells how Virtue is admir'd. 
 And that again how Music is desir'd.
 
 THE AGE. 13 
 
 For, though a finer nerve may sometimes feign, 
 And steal the tears sincerity should gain. 
 The loftier man will show the higher art. 
 And get a quicker passage to the heart. 
 In taste an image thus we e'er behold, 
 Which from the age's merit takes it's mould ; 
 And, faithful, in it's features we can trace 
 A more exalted or degraded face. 
 
 Far be't from us to check the bold design 
 That in it's leap surpasses limit's line : 
 But why abandon'd should the Muses be. 
 Wild and distracted to the mountains flee ; 
 Like frantic Bachanalians seek the wood 
 And speak the inspiration of it's God ? 
 It must be France's Revolution fell, 
 Ending with social order's fun'ral knell ; 
 Which ever passion brings in reason's place, 
 Condemning sober sense to foul disgrace : 
 As if what mad descended straight from Heav'n, 
 Like Delphic oracles in frenzy giv'n, 
 No God on whom to rest our firm belief 
 A gulph of horror made the souls relief. '*
 
 14 THE AGE. 
 
 Tis thence An or n in his rapt'rous swells, 
 And B r n on his gloomy picture dwells : 2 
 'Tis thence the Syren Pleasure leads away. 
 And Atheism storms us with his wild dismay. 
 Tis thence the wall of conduct is o'erthrown. 
 And principle, it's first foundation atone. 
 'Tis thence that comes this mass of woe and care, ^' 
 Killing youth's gayest smiles with black despair. 
 Remorse, fear, hate, grief, horror, anguish, all 
 That comfort most can in man's heart enthral 
 Just as old Mtna. flings it's pests on high, 
 Rages i'th' beam, and maddens in the sky, 
 Or noon eclipses quench the midday light. 
 And with their sorrows shed a transient night. 
 
 Oh, transient may it be, and, speedy joy 
 Restoring radiant, show the mind's blue sky : 
 Genius and life with kindred ardour burn. 
 And brighter to their native homes return ! 
 
 But, curb'd the horror of the Muse's flight. 
 Why should she more in idleness delight ?
 
 THK AGE. 15 
 
 Debauch'd by sense, ne'er think on aught but flow'rs. 
 Consume her time in Pleasure's wanton bow'rs ? 
 A minstrel e'er our memory regale 
 With the known relish of a feodal tale; 
 As if antiquity itself were good, 
 And merit only of the former blood j 
 Wiiile robbers' feats, and ev'ning rays explain,^* 
 One half Salvator, t'other Claude Ix)rrain ; -^ 
 And past'ral beauties strive with feodal gloom 
 Which shall the empire absolute assume. 
 Description, too, more plenty than does good, 
 The poem loaded with exceeding blood. 
 
 Oh, Poetry, where Helicon's sweet flood ? 
 Where the green wand'rings of your sacred wood ? 
 Where Arethusa now? Oh, let us dream-* 
 By the sweet murmurs of Alphcus* stream, 
 Your sever'd love ! Oh, if old Greece have charms. 
 Who'll tear your struggles from your parents' arms ? 
 Twas thus Musaeus, Bion, Moschus, drew 
 The living pictures that they had from you. 
 While ev'ry tear their darling lovers shed " 
 Flows still from fountains that are never dead :
 
 l6 THE AGE. 
 
 And Homer sung the feats their fathers fir'd, 
 
 Stirr'd with your flame, with all your fumes inspired ! 
 
 And shall such models now neglected be, 
 
 Assum'd the parchments of old chivalry ? 
 
 Forbid it taste, forbid the simple grace .*" 
 
 That loves unmix'd to sit in Nature's face ! 
 
 But hold Curee on the cold neglectful art 
 
 That scoffs at charms where'er they play their part. 
 
 And shall we Beauty in her seat arraign. 
 
 And Poetry with rules of art profane ? 
 
 But hold, again ! If Candour this control, 
 
 So Justice balances the other pole. 
 
 Who shall, in vain pretending, try to show 
 
 That Virtue can a shackle vile bestow ? 
 
 Or glorious rivalry e'er low'r the line 
 
 That noble striving renders more divine ? 
 
 What, shall the sons of Vice in Virtue's room 
 
 All the great strainings to themselves assume. 
 
 Swindle our merits, strength monopolize. 
 
 And call't their effort when the hero dies ? 
 
 No, Principle inins with as true a heart, *^ 
 
 And gains the laurel witji a better art.
 
 THE AG. 17 
 
 Then Heav*!! forbid again, nor thus at Vice 
 Railing, wherever found, proclaim us nice : 
 For it is Vice, if Poetry combine, 
 Without a useful purpose, her design ; 
 And, if vain Pleasure be no fault, we ask. 
 Where was the merit of th' Herculean task, 
 When Prodicus made him the gifts refuse -' 
 Of Pleasure oflfer'd to his tempted views ? 
 Or how, more foolish, Hannibal reraain'd 
 At luscious Capua than Rome's empire gain'd ? 
 But is it so ? No, if true reason hold 
 The greatest, striving glorious, e'er behold : 
 And 'tis in Poetry as other things. 
 It's real greatness from religion springs, 
 And principle Alas, the fated age 
 With pleasure has debauch'd the poet's page ! 
 For, if true principle not passion please, ** 
 Why such admiring at the Eloise ? 
 And, if our Poetry be pleasure-fraught, 
 *Tis not the Author's but the Age's fault. 
 But is't a reason why we should desert, 
 For Virtue's interests be less alert, 
 c
 
 18 THE AGE. 
 
 Or ev'n, himself to benefit, deny 
 
 The beauties that securer ends supply ? 
 
 No Poets, then, to virtue bend your line. 
 
 To good, to principle, entire resign. 
 
 Shame, that in Greece 'twas worth alone inspir'd^ 
 
 And that with Christians less should be desir'd ! 
 
 Then Heav'n again forbid! Inspiring thought 
 
 Will best by studied principle be taught. 
 
 'Tis not a feodal or a Grecian tale. 
 
 But whether vice or virtue most prevail. 
 
 *Tis this will raise and animate your line, 
 
 Inspire your fancy, blazon your design. 
 
 But if you grovel in your abject thought. 
 
 As soon your sinking Muse will be in fault j 
 
 The small defect expose the low desire. 
 
 And Poetry, annihilate, expire !
 
 i^otes upon tfte ^gr. 
 
 c2
 
 NOTES. 
 
 1. 
 
 Shall ghosts in nurses* tales their fears convey 
 And make iis children twice with wild dismay ? 
 Or theatres with cavalry he croivn'd 
 
 Page 3, lines 5, 6, and 7* 
 
 IT was the custom a few years ago to revive all the 
 stories concerning ghosts, spirits, apparitions, witches, &c. 
 with which children are amused and frightened in their 
 infancy; seriously stating them to the public, and com- 
 posing whole volumes for the purpose, in so much, that it 
 seemed a contest who should be most absurd. Of later 
 years, they have introduced entertainments upon the stage.
 
 22 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 m which horses may be said to be the principal characters; 
 a kind of equestrian puppet show, to the great annoyance 
 of the lovers of the real drama, who certainly would have 
 preferred a play of Congreve or Farquhar. We have for- 
 got, however, that the favourers of the former have a 
 great authority to sanction their taste in the Bourgeois 
 Gentilhomrae of Mollere, who, probably, would have 
 been much delighted with these representations. It is the 
 same personage, who, in talking of music, mentions the 
 speaking trumpet as his favourite instrument, " Mon in- 
 strument favore.'' See Bourgeois Gentilhomme. 
 
 Which most should copy folly to tJie life I 
 
 Page 4, line 14. 
 
 See refutation of Hume by Beattie, in his Treatise on the 
 Immutability of Truth, from page 118 to page 121, and 
 from page 482 to page 486.
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 23 
 
 8. 
 
 To shmv the horror of the former night. 
 
 Page 4, line 18. 
 V 
 See the History of France since the revolution. The 
 point alluded to here is the total profligacy, abandonment, 
 and looseness of their philosophers, setting human reason 
 above their God ; the direct consequence of w^hich was to 
 fall into the gulph of immorality, for the reasons after 
 stated. 
 
 For, if God's holy word could not restrain. 
 
 Page 5, line 1 1 . 
 
 And this exaltation of their intellect was as fatal to their 
 politics as to their religion, for it began by considering 
 nature as every thing, from which they inferred certain 
 rights to be absolute and unconditional, " which, if they had 
 traced up to the Author of their existence they would have consi- 
 dered at qualified by the purposes for which they were intended." 
 Of this kind exactly was their right to power universal
 
 24 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 i.e. without any regard to the ability to manage it the 
 source of all their misfortunes, mob government, Robes- 
 pierre, Bonaparte, &c. &c. If they had considered it, 
 viz. power, as a moral attribute instead of a natural thing ; 
 that is, to be ruled " by the purposes for which it was intend- 
 ed" they would have inquired (those who could inquire at 
 all, and who misled the rest) how far every body having it 
 would contribute to these purposes; in other words, about the 
 ability to manage it. But they took it blind and absolute, na- 
 tural, unconditional, and indefeasible, like life, property, and 
 freedom of action, which are natural, and so they went 
 wrong; obviously by having set up nature against the 
 Divinity. 
 
 4. 
 
 -. which, bold in Virtue^ s cause^ 
 
 Could more than Vice^s courage break her laws ? 
 
 Page 5, lines 3 and 4. 
 
 See Mrs. Haller in the play of the Stranger ; see also the 
 Robbers, another German play. The constant struggle of
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 25 
 
 these licentious writers is, to join the most dazzling and 
 most generally admired virtues, in their characters, with 
 certain vices, the latter predominating in such a way, and 
 occasioning actions so radically vicious, that though the 
 authors profess to advocate the cause of virtue, and to re- 
 commend its interests, the effect is directly the reverse. 
 
 5. 
 
 Make Nature's self magyianimous in ill j 
 
 Page 5, line 14. 
 
 See Nouvelle Eloise, her letter to St. Preux, giving him 
 the first assignation in her father's house. The whole story 
 is that of an illicit amour, in which the noblest energies of 
 human nature are introduced to support and bolster up the 
 actions of vice. For which reason it was once very well 
 saitl, that it {the story) founded virtue on vice*. We leave 
 
 * More properly, what is apparently virtue; for, as every effort 
 in a good cause becomes more noble, in a bad it becomes more 
 vicious and depraved.
 
 26 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 to the reader to judge how far this has a good tendency for 
 morals. We are afraid, that mankind are ready enough to 
 be led astray by vice, without furnishing it with additional 
 attractions. If the horrid pictures that have been drawn of 
 it by the most able writers, both as to it's essence and con- 
 sequences, the certain ruin and disgrace, which it leads to 
 in this world, and the infallible perdition it entails in the 
 next, have not been suflficient to deter men from pursuing 
 it, what must we expect from all the charms, that passion 
 and imagination can bestow upon it ? Upon this precise 
 ground it was, that, at one time, the representation of the 
 Beggars' Opera was almost prohibited in London. Sir 
 John Fielding, a most active magistrate, was heard to say, 
 that it never tvas represented, that it did not increase the 
 number of highwaymen and pickpockets. The character 
 of Macheath is by far too amiable, and contrary to the 
 rules of dramatic as well as municipal justice. Guilt and 
 criminality are made to triumph in the catastrophej 
 
 " The wretch of to day may be happy to morrow.** 
 
 See the words of the song, which he sings on receiving bis 
 reprieve, with which air and dance the piece concludes.
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 127 
 
 6. 
 
 Denied the people that same right to pow^r. 
 If exercised, themselves to re'clect. 
 
 Page 7j lines 12 and 13. 
 
 That is. 
 
 Thej^mv'r, that came from Heavn^ 
 
 To every single individual givn. 
 
 Page 6, lines 13 and 14. 
 
 See the decree of the first French convention forbidding 
 the people to re-elect them, which brought the immediate 
 exercise of power to the mob ; the nobility having been 
 expelled before, and the best of the commonalty now. 
 Of course, first came demagogues, and then, after a suc- 
 cession of events, tyrants j that is, Robespierre, Bonaparte, 
 &c., in the usual train. See upon this Polybius, where he 
 describes the nation as tired of disorders, and relapsing of 
 itself into despotism. There is a wonderful coincidence 
 between this decree of the convention and the self-denying
 
 28 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 ordinance of the long parliament, and a still more wonder- 
 ful in the whole train of events from the beginning of the 
 French revolution with the English affairs j ciz. execution 
 of a king, and other effects of a mob government : so won- 
 derfully do natural causes push on to their effects. See on 
 this " Principles of the Constitation of Governments," 
 chap, xxxiii, page 118. 
 
 7. 
 
 For sure more right the people had to give^ 
 More title that convention to receive. 
 
 Page 7> lines 17 and 18, 
 
 Most assuredly. The convention passed the decree just 
 alluded to, " that none of the members of the present con- 
 vention should be returned, or elected, to the next," upon 
 the precise ground, that it was interfering with the people's 
 right to povDCVy for themselves, the present convention, or 
 any of them, to hold it over again. But they forgot that 
 this very decree was a worse interference, and that the 
 Tfiore right the people had to power, the better right they
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 29 
 
 had to re-elect them, or any one else. Wherefore it is said, 
 see text a little above, that they ran mad upon their own 
 principles, 
 
 their folly's self ran mad 
 
 Upon the very principles they had ; 
 
 But if they had never had any thing to do with this false 
 right to power taken absolutely or naturally, this would not 
 have happened : 
 
 UnfoaVd they had not rode (the horse) into the ditch : 
 
 See as follows. We have been the more particular upon 
 this right to power, and the uses they made of it, as it was the 
 real, absolute, radical, and undeniable source of all their 
 mitfortunes, by bringing the power to the people, or at least 
 mob, as ever must be. See the experience of history mo- 
 dern and ancient, and if there were any more to bear wit- 
 ness for us, the causes are founded in nature. It is (to give 
 power to the people or mob) joining folly and power tO' 
 getlier, than which nothing can be more foolish.
 
 30 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 8. 
 
 The greatest villain had the throw of dice. 
 
 Page 8, line 4. 
 
 Robespierre. 
 
 9. 
 
 Out of this hothed came the despot's swat/. 
 
 Page 8, line ^. 
 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 10. 
 
 JDi/ quick succession houses brought away; 
 
 Page 8, line 10. 
 
 The Directory.
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 31 
 
 11. 
 
 Man was left to trace 
 
 His line of duty in blank Nature's face, 
 
 Page 8, lines 19 and 20, 
 
 See the history of France through the whole revolution : 
 almost the species of engagements with which they con- 
 tracted their marriages, and the decrees with which they 
 dissolved them. One would have supposed, that there had 
 been no such thing as the Christian religion in the world. 
 This was excellently ridiculed, in a publication called the 
 Modern Philosophers, in which a female personage is in- 
 troduced called the Goddess of Reason. It is a precise 
 picture of the follies and wretchedness which they exhibited 
 in deifying and personifying every thing, after the mode of 
 the Pagan mythology.
 
 32 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 12. 
 
 Sole wisdom thiSf to see their purse well stor'd; 
 Sole folly that, the fearing of the Lord; 
 
 Page 9, lines 11 and 12. 
 
 Whoever may have been at Vienna or Berlin, twenty or 
 thirty years ago, and recollects the conversations of 
 Austrian and Prussian generals, in which all belief in 
 religion was ridiculed as imbecility, and pure principle 
 very often treated as romantic, cannot be surprised at what 
 has happened in Europe. When the king of Prussia, that 
 great head of infidelity, began his will in these words, " Je 
 donne mon corps a la terre, et mon esprit a I'air," " I 
 give my body to the earth, and my spirit to the air," what 
 could we expect ? The malady became general. Want of 
 religion and want of principle, it's sure consequence, ran 
 down and became almost universal. Accordingly, Bona- 
 parte told an officer, " that the ambassadors of the Euro- 
 pean courts had cost him more than his army."
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 33 
 
 13. 
 
 For we are told, that Gentiles have their lot, 
 Nor in Almighty mercy's scale forgot ; 
 
 Page 10, lines 13 and 14. 
 
 " Then Peter opened his mouth and said. Of a truth I 
 perceive, that God is no respecter of persons : but, in 
 every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteous- 
 ness, is accepted with him." Acts, chap, x, ver. S^, 35. 
 
 14. 
 
 Your glories drown' d her in your country's blood f 
 
 Page 11, line 2. 
 
 The Spartans died, tired out with vanquishing, and ab- 
 solutely breathed their last in the arms of victory and 
 duty; at once saving their country, and laying themselves 
 down on the soil that gave them birth. It effectually stopped 
 the Persians. There was no more heard of them. 
 
 D
 
 34 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 15. 
 
 King Earth, King Air, King Water, and King Fire, 
 
 Page 11, line 13. 
 
 See the Castle Spectre. The personification of these 
 elements, as beings governing the universe, is surely- 
 profane. 
 
 16. 
 
 As if the object whole of Heav'ns delight. 
 To plague with pains or puzzle with affright. 
 
 Page 11, lines 17 and 18. 
 
 See Southey's story of the Boat and Swan. A swan is 
 there described as a beautiful enticing creature, with a 
 charming ring encircling it's neck. It captivates some 
 persons in a boat, to whom it swims up, and prevails 
 with them to enchain themselves to it. Thereupon com- 
 mences a party of pleasure, like Antony and Cleopa-
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 35 
 
 tra's upon the Cy dnus ; but, before they have proceeded 
 far, the swan conducts them to a place, compared to 
 the horror of which Acheron and the Styx, and the 
 whole of Pluto's dominions, would be a kind of Elysian 
 fields, with this difference only to the reader, that, in 
 cases of an enthusiastic imagination, there may be no 
 Lethe for him. 
 
 17. 
 
 For sense of beauty came into the mind 
 From sense of right, hij Nature's hand rejin'd 
 
 Page 12, lines 19 and 20. 
 
 The late bishop of London, Dr. Randolph, formerly 
 of Christ Church, Oxford, used to say, that a " Taste, 
 in the fine arts, gave a sensation of what was right" 
 
 n 2
 
 36 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 18. 
 
 A gulph of horror made the souVs relief. 
 
 Page 13, last line. 
 
 See Lord B r n : 
 
 " But silence spreads the couch of ever welcome rest." 
 
 Childe Harolde, canto ii, stanza 7. 
 
 II). 
 
 *Tis thence An cr n in his rapfrous swells, 
 
 Page 14, line 1. 
 
 An cr n M re.
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 3/ 
 
 20. 
 
 ^nd J5 r n on his gloomy picture dwells: 
 
 Page 14, line 2. 
 
 See if it be not so in Childe Harolde. 
 
 21. 
 
 this mass of woe and care. 
 
 Killing youtKs gayest smiles with black despair. 
 Remorse, fear, hate, grief, horror, anguish, all 
 Page 14, lines 7, 8, and 9. 
 
 The very last line here quoted from the text is not 
 unlike one of Lord B r n's, in the Bride of Abydos, 
 though the former was written by the author before the 
 latter was read by him. The verse alluded to is, 
 
 " Of absence* shame, pride, hate, revenge, remorse." 
 
 Bride of Abydos, page 50*
 
 38 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 22. 
 
 While robbers^ feats and evejiing rays explain j 
 One half Salvator, 
 
 Page 15, lines 7 and 8. 
 
 Salvator Rosa was a famous painter, who was so fond of 
 delineating the scenes in which robbers are engaged, and 
 the feats attending their achievements, that he absolutely 
 enrolled himself in their society, accompanied them in 
 their expeditions, and ran the risk of being brought to 
 public punishment along with them, in order to make him- 
 self perfectly master of those subjects. How far any 
 person might have been anxious to extend their connection 
 with him, beyond the admiration of his pictures, we leave 
 the reader to judge; but this is most certain, that such 'a 
 line of conduct showed a degree of devotion to his pro- 
 fession, and enthusiasm in following up it's pursuits, of 
 xvhich we have hardly any idea.
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 39 
 
 23. 
 
 Vother Claude Lorrain ; 
 
 Page 15, line 8. 
 
 Claude Lorrain was another famous painter, particularly 
 distinguished for his Eastern and Western lights, by which 
 he is characterized in the descriptions given of him. " Ori- 
 entales et Occidentales luces." 
 
 24. 
 
 TVIiere Arethusa now ? Oh, let us dream 
 By the sweet murmurs of Alpheus^ stream. 
 Your sever d love ! 
 
 Page 15, lines 15, 16, and 17. 
 
 He was so enamoured of her, that he stole under the sea, 
 which separated them, to join her in Sicily, and fold her 
 in his arms.
 
 40 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 25. 
 
 While ev'ry tear their darling lovers shed 
 Plows still from fountains that are never dead: 
 
 Page 15, lines 21 and 22. 
 
 i See the celebrated fitory of Hero and Leander, told by 
 Musaeus. It is well known, that Leander lived at Abydos, 
 and Hero at Sestos, the opposite shore, being priestess of 
 Venus, at one of whose festivals Leander had seen and 
 fallen in love with her. " Such graces shone from her," 
 ATrfXajM-TTfiTo Kaprjs- Her limbs AE<ju,wva poffocuiVt a " meadow 
 of roses." See description of her. She told him, Ta;^' a/ 
 xaj Tterpav Ofivais, "You would move even a stone,'* she 
 was so touched with his words, when he followed her to a 
 secret recess of the temple, and addressed her apart from 
 the multitude.
 
 KOTES UPON THE AGE 41 
 
 2G. 
 
 Noy Principle runs with as true a heart. 
 
 Page 16, line 21. 
 
 An expression taken from race horses, denoting the high 
 resolution with which they persevere, it being known that 
 they will rather die than give up. 
 
 27. 
 
 fflien Prodiciis made him the gifts refuse 
 Of Pleasure offer' d to his tempted views ? 
 
 Page 1 7, lines 7 and S. 
 
 Two goddesses. Virtue and Pleasure, are represented in 
 this story as soliciting the affections of Hercules, and en- 
 deavouring to engage his devotions. Pleasure, who runs 
 eagerly before the other to anticipate her, is described as 
 a fine woman, but swollen in her person with the in- 
 dulgences of luxury. The other, of a far more heavenl}-
 
 42 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 
 
 and divine beauty, being evidently braced with the elasti- 
 city of effort and exertion, and glowing with that fine 
 loveliness, that can proceed from temperance, health, zeal, 
 happiness, and satisfaction of mind alone. The offers and 
 promises, which they hold forth, are as different as their 
 persons. Pleasure sets up to his view the indulgence of 
 all his appetites, the unlimited gratification of the senses; 
 soft beds, rich tables, downy couches, splendid banquets, 
 festive boards and societies, every thing, that can give enjoy -< 
 ment and delight. The other, nothing but active exertion, 
 unceasing effort, never ending labour, toils, and tasks ; but, 
 at the same time, unchangeable glory and immortal hap- 
 piness. It is needless to say which he prefers. It is called 
 the Choice of Hercules, and it's author, the divine Pro- 
 dicus, for having invented it.
 
 NOTES UPON THE AGE. 43 
 
 28. 
 
 JFoTf if true principle not passion please^ 
 Why such admiring at the Eloise ? 
 
 Page 17, lines 17 and 18. 
 
 Nouvelle Eloise, quoted before. It is sufficient to 
 recal to the reader's recollection the nature of the story. 
 When we consider, that, upon the woman's part, it is the 
 violation of the first principle, that can animate the female 
 character, that is chastity, and upon the man's the first 
 that ought to regulate him, which is a regard for it, we 
 cannot pronounce otherwise.
 
 ^ibtvtU'
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 NOW, what is Liberty? A vapour vain, 
 
 With mock reality, that cheats the brain j 
 
 An igiiis fatimSf that surpasses night, 
 
 And, worse than it's worst shadow, shows it's light; 
 
 Like a false friend, affording trcach'rous aid, 
 
 Who wounds more fatal tiian a foe display'd? 
 
 Or, is it a true beam, of Reason born. 
 
 That cheers night's labour with a coming morn j 
 
 Sustains our duty, fainting in tlie wild. 
 
 With the sweet prospect of reward beguil'd ; 
 
 And, 'midst the horrors of a parching sand, 
 
 khows the green promise of Palmyra's land ?
 
 48 LIBERTY. 
 
 Ah, green indeed j for, to the travelling eye. 
 Such is the joy, it's turrets to descry. 
 When drooping in the waste the camel burns. 
 As when the dawn of liberty returns. 
 And shows the blessings closed within it's span 
 To weary, worn, and desolated man ! 
 
 Then say. Oh Liberty ! where art thou born ? 
 In the refulgent residence of morn ? ' 
 Or in the Western Ocean's cooler light 
 Where the sun settles into meeker night ? 
 
 Oh, strange to tell, 'tis where the climate brave. 
 Where all luxuriant man is most a slave ; 
 Else, why in Persia, mid her sweetest flow'rs. 
 Rise the black horrors of her grated tow'rs ? 
 Why stalks th' imperious eunuch through the grove. 
 Dreadful in death, but impotent in love ? <& 
 
 *Tis this No perfect happiness to man ; 
 All must be mingled in th' Almighty plan.
 
 LIBERTY. 49 
 
 In rocky regions Liberty must smile, 
 And Tyrants, in the paradise, despoil ! 
 
 What then the comforts where fair Freedom reigns ? 
 And what the blessing that inspires her plains ? 
 Tlie arts must prosper where reward is sure ; 
 For that alone we cheerfully endure. 
 The noble prince may pay an effort well, 
 But of his bounty lasting, who can tell ? 
 No; Freedom's the Cordelia of the land. 
 In promise sparing, rend'ring with sure hand; 
 While monarchs, giving by caprice's law. 
 Like Gonerils and Regans, may withdraw. * 
 
 But speaks not Energy itself to man. 
 That nerve alone from Freedom issue can ? 
 What gives the strong idea all it's force. 
 But freely flowing from a noble source ? 
 What the attempt it's loftiness of flight. 
 But greatly trying to attain the height ? 
 Now, when the tyrant terrifies, who'll rise. 
 Or, with a glorious effort, shall surprise ?
 
 50 LIBERTY. ' 
 
 No, where all servile, see the mind a slave : 
 Under a despot nothing can be brave. 
 And, if the arts e'er flourish'd under such 
 'Twas Heav'ns bounty, not the prince so much. 
 So Louis, pensioning the poet's rhymes, ' 
 And Leo, making painters praise his times, * 
 But show us, that the models of old Greece 
 Guided the pencil, and inflam'd the piece. 
 Who, but old Phidias, could impart his fire ? 
 Who, but old Homer, with his song inspire ? 
 
 Away then with these visions of the brain. 
 That nature's gifts by aught but nature gain ; 
 True greatness is an offspring of the mind. 
 In very generation unconfin'dj 
 Got by fine Reason on fair Freedom's soil, 
 Rear'd from her breast, and nourish'd with her smile ; 
 But show her Tyranny the birth expires, 
 As water terminates the torch's fires ! 
 
 'Tis thus that liberty true effort brings. 
 As hardest rocks produce the clearest springs.
 
 LIBERTY. 51 
 
 In commerce, manufactures, arts, and all. 
 That prosp'rous most a people can befal ; 
 Tis thus it's fountains, emptied from it's brow, * 
 Run to unite in one great flood below. 
 Collect their majesty upon the plain, , 
 And roll a happy nation to the main ! 
 
 Oh, strange to tell, that men in vain pursue 
 Such splendid blessings ofter'd to their view; 
 And, like Apollo forcing Daphne's charms. 
 By very vi'lence lose her from their arms. 
 For as the one to budding laurel grew. 
 So t'other lost by license' lawless crew. 
 Who, when they push her to indulgence most, 
 See from their arms most desperately lost. 
 
 Oh, say, what is the baleful poison spring. 
 That can such quick, such dire destruction bring ? . 
 'Tis wild enthusiasm ; a mistaken fire, 
 Meant not to choose a purpose, but t* inspire: 
 For sober judgment is repos'd in man. 
 Of his first action to suggest the plan ; 
 E2
 
 52 LIBERTY. 
 
 Then, fix'd his purpose, with reflected aim 
 Come all the warmer sympathies t' inflame. 
 But he, who prior feels, inverts the rule. 
 Of his own ardor makes himself the fool. 
 Like him, who 'd fire a musket in the dark. 
 And by his powder flash select the mark. 
 
 Just so the mob, *tis ever on their brains. 
 To fury heated, that the folly gains ; 
 And those to manage them, who would aspire. 
 Must take the friendly succour of the fire. 
 As casters never touch the metal cold. 
 But constant melt it e'er they try to mould ; 
 Just so their framers. But is't here alone 
 The mob of many that this fury own ? 
 Or is there not another mob of few. 
 Who with a fellow rage their ends pursue ? 
 Aye that there is ; for, if a folly vain 
 Destroy the cool decision of the brain. 
 No matter what importance it assume, 
 Self calling wisdom, other folly doom ;
 
 LIBERTY. 53 
 
 If falsehood fix it's bottom, all the same 
 Whether from sage or demagogue it's name, 
 'Tis error all, and error only can 
 Work to the woe of desolated man ! 
 
 Oh, mask infernal ! To fair Freedom's face. 
 License at once it's copy and disgrace. 
 Embattling all the passions in thy train. 
 And taking thus her sacred name in vain ! 
 For freedom sure is violence debarr'd. 
 Of a right government the firm reward ; 
 But if fell licence eat it's joints away, 
 And make it fall into it's pristine clay. 
 Sure then we well may needless trouble call 
 T' ave ever made a government at all ! 
 
 But this the charm, if freedom lawless grow, 
 Or, wanting law, no more it's essence know, 
 Worse mischiefs then from government must spring 
 Than if there never had been such a thing. 
 Just as in batter'd ships the cannon maim 
 Worse with the splinters than their lawful aim ;
 
 54 LIBERTY. 
 
 Or earthquakes rolling houses of defence. 
 E'er with their ruin scatter worse offence. 
 Oh, mobj how well you imitate the devil, 
 The name of freedom all in you that's civil ! 
 
 But farther Freedom is bad will restraln'd, 
 While happy licence ev'ry will obtain'd j 
 Now here it is, for in this single word 
 You have of licence the whole ill incurr'd. 
 For this is the delusion of their dreams. 
 E'er for perfection to have form'd their schemes ; 
 Had we been angels, that would best befal, 
 Or angels, why a government at all ? 
 No, we, to fit us, want a mortal plan, 
 Not spirits to indulge but meet the man ; 
 And, if we're faulty in our devious thought, 
 A corresponding fetter must be brought. 
 For who for curves would regulate straight lines. 
 Or make for angles circular designs ? 
 
 Say, then, Chimera springing, whence you grew, ' 
 Your earliest essence, first existence drew ?
 
 LIBERTY. 65 
 
 'Twas Folly hatch'd you in the sage's brain, 
 
 That mobs deceiv'd might afterwards complain ; 
 
 For in Pandora's box who'll find an ill. 
 
 That human mis'ry can so well fulfil 
 
 As licence, got on speculation's frame ? 
 
 'Tis Folly working on the passions' flame. 
 
 And so contriving ev'ry ill for man, 
 
 That human mischiefs' catalogue can scan. 
 
 Thus Luxury, in the dread court of Death, ^ 
 
 Midst the disorders, cheating man of breath. 
 
 Proudly superior stalking o'er we see, 
 
 'Cause she their fount and dire epitome. 
 
 Why should she court them in the gloomy hall ? 
 
 She is their mistress and commands them all! 
 
 If licence then so fatal, what the aim ? 
 Seek the sad refuge of the tyrant's name ? 
 If this the evil, that the wicked fill 
 Each crooked purpose of their devious will, 
 Is that the cure, that none their wish obtain, 
 All fashion'd solely for the monarch's gain ?
 
 56 
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 Because we won't to ev'ry will agree 
 Must all be fetter'd and no action free ? 
 Is there no medium *twixt the solar glow 
 And the sad hoiTors of the Scythian snow ? 
 If we refuse in fever's flames to burn 
 Must we in frozen regions ever mourn ? 
 Bound in the rigours of a despot's chain, 
 Tools of his pow'r and slaves of his domain. 
 Like Wolga's streams, which icy horrors sway 
 And no dominion but the frost obey ? 
 Is liberty a Phoenix of the morn 
 Living in death and but in ashes born. 
 Like the Arabian Beauty's mournful charms. 
 Distant most lovely, dead in lovers' arms ? 
 Is it the speaking bird, the singing tree. 
 And yellow fount of eastern chivalry ? ^ 
 A fainting rainbow, which we e'er pursue. 
 The more we toil the farther from our view ? 
 Or is't a real charm, a genuine thing, 
 Which effort true and happy toil may bring ?
 
 LIBERTY. 57 
 
 Oh, sure, in human history, we find, 
 That, in his bounty, God is never blind j 
 That, giving certain benefits to man. 
 He, of preserving also, grants the plan. 
 Then, if intended, life, and lawful will. 
 And property, should be our portion still, '' 
 Persuaded rest, there is some method sure. 
 By which these given blessings shall endure ! 
 
 That mean is liberty ! But how pursue 
 This object fled so oft from human view ? 
 That with it's tender shade eludes our sight. 
 And seems to shun us in a sister light ? 
 Or e'en an opposite, for mediums turn'd " 
 Are oft in flatter contraries discern'd. 
 Just as a nation passing frontier lines 
 Feels more acute the enemy's designs. 
 So if, refusing Freedom's nicer skill. 
 We would of passion take a wider fill, 
 As soon we are in licence' ocean lost 
 By the dread tempest of our passions tost.
 
 58 LIBERTY. 
 
 But see the nonsense of the sager crew; 
 What despots on their throne must never do. 
 That's liberty, if by a crowd attain'd; 
 Most certain freedom, if they never reign'd. 
 Of polity thus making blind man's buff, '^ 
 And from disguise receiving many a cuflf, 
 Which frankly oflFer'd with an open look 
 They'd never for a single moment brook. 
 No, Liberty's the child of moral right. 
 By government deliver'd to the light ; 
 And he, who makes it other, damns it's cause. 
 Seek he king, noble, or the mob's applause ! 
 
 Say, then, how would you catch the slipp'ry plan. 
 And how adjust it's benefits to man ? 
 Oh, no adjusting, 'tis an av'rage true " 
 Of all that common sense for us can do ; 
 For, in proportion as you more refine. 
 You farther wander from true wisdom's line. 
 And faster Freedom that you seem to hold. 
 The quicker she escapes, with eel like mould.
 
 LIBERTY. 59 
 
 Just as some fairs their favours ne'er bestow 
 On those the public for their lovers know ; 
 But e'er reserve them for some happier spark, 
 Who courts his consolation in the dark. '* 
 So government we never can define, 
 Tis not a thing of mathematic line ; 
 But principles most practically pois'd. 
 The public by the consequence rejoic'd ; 
 While none attempting to divine the cause, 
 All find their profit in the good it draws. 
 
 Then of this Helicon what is the source, 
 That sends it's waters up with such a force. 
 That makes it's smiling borders ever green, 
 A second fountain in their freshness seen ? 
 'Tis balance all, for in the human plan 
 Three interests divide the lot of man ; 
 King, noble, people, each of whom have sway'd, 
 And each in turn seen tyranny obey'd. '* 
 Ask history ; where they have abs'lute been 
 Has aught but tyranny been ever seen ?
 
 60 LIBERTY. 
 
 What matter to us, who devours our right. 
 
 Or who oppresses with o'ercoming might ? 
 
 Then, if a single biass will not do. 
 
 What can you next but take your choice of two ? 
 
 Will that then suit, or won't they rather fight. 
 
 And thus keep harmony e'er out of sight ; 
 
 Changing oppression for confusion's wrong, 
 
 Return'd the ills that haunt the savage throng ? 
 
 What do you next ? Then take your chance of three. 
 
 For three so bitterly can't disagree ; 
 
 But mutual appeasing other's edge 
 
 A mellow'd balance of the whole will pledge. 
 
 That's liberty, when all confess one will. 
 The joint result of warring wishes still ; 
 That is the fruit, and none but this we have. 
 From human cradle trying to the grave : 
 For who e'er perfect from the human got. 
 But mixing duly imperfection's lot; 
 In second merit not so over nice 
 But getting virtue out of balanc'd vice.
 
 LIBERTY. 61 
 
 What can you do but this, until you show 
 Perfect to be the lot of man below ? 
 Or that, imperfect, he will self control, 
 Like magnet moved without a calling pole. 
 What will you, can you do, then, but oppose 
 And mellowing opposition all compose. 
 
 Then hail fair Freedom, 'tis to thee we own 
 All that in human pray'r to God is gone ; 
 All that we call secure, our only pledge 
 That nought the gifts of Heaven shall abridge : 
 Wives, children, all, all that can sooth the plan 
 Of happiness mark'd out for mortal man. 
 For what of any can be e'er enjoy'd. 
 That may by tyrants be as soon destroy'd ; 
 The manner how, we say, of no avail. 
 King, noble, people, ever same dull tale. 
 And see how tyranny itself declines. 
 And quick consuming to it's fate inclines ; 
 In hectic conquest scarce delays it's breath. 
 And in it's very flourish shows it's death.
 
 62 
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 While beauteous Liberty, free got, free born. 
 
 Looks to the sun erect, it's genial morn ; 
 
 The more repress'd the stronger ever grows. 
 
 And 'gainst oppression greater vigour shows. 
 
 Just as old Caesar's bridge more firmness knew 
 
 The more the pressure from the torrent grew. ' 
 
 Tlien stand to Liberty, make 't light your land. 
 
 Men ask for other blessings, this command. 
 
 Erect in duty, look unto your God, 
 
 And thus your path succeeding will be trod ; 
 
 The true asylum in this world of care, 
 
 The sweet retirement of our wishes here ! 
 
 The earthly paradise, where murm'ring streams 
 
 Lull labour's sorrows and sweet pleasure's dreams ! 
 
 Where all, in golden age of bliss reclin'd. 
 
 Pursue the inn'cent purpose of their mind ! 
 
 Where none have prompting to commit an ill, 
 
 All self contented with their blessing still ; 
 
 And but the loving strife, the struggle know. 
 
 To share each other's joys and sooth their mutual woe !
 
 LIBERTY. 63 
 
 Nor Is this all Where'er a freeborn land 
 It must the happ'ness of the rest command ; 
 For should one tyrant lord it o'er the world, 
 Under his rod, in common ruin hurl'd. 
 Half cheated, frighten'd, bullied, or cajol'd, 
 But all combining in one fate, control'd, 
 It calls the latent spirit from the dark, 
 Fosters and cherishes, and feeds the spark, 
 Till, bursting, a volcano it proclaims. 
 And hurries off the tyrant in the flames. '' 
 
 Then, once more. Liberty, thy blessings hail ! 
 Let thy bright ray o'er all the world prevail ! 
 Speed to the farthest cave where ocean rolls. 
 Flash in the gloom and lighten at the poles ! 
 Enthusiasm bear it's good where Chaos dwells, 
 And bind Disorder in it's magic spells ! 
 Oh, who could bear to vegetate in vain, 
 And spin dull life beneath a tyrant's chain ; " 
 Look up to Heav'n and blush to get the ligiit. 
 More worthy own'd to linger in the night ;
 
 6*4 LIBERTY. 
 
 Feel he has nothing that he ought pursu'd. 
 The last dire contest gain'd, the soul subdu'd. 
 Then, oh, reflect, e'er you to yield resign, 
 The horrors 'gainst you that such ills combine, 
 Wives, children, country, all accusing stand. 
 And pour their cries, you have betray'd their land : 
 Betray'd to hostile arms, who trusted you. 
 For ever fled to slav'ry, from your view ! 
 While you, poor shadow ! left, drop in the tomb, 
 The last dull emblem of your country's doom ! !
 
 litotes upon aiirrtg.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 1. 
 
 In the refulgent residence of mom ? 
 
 Page 48, line 8. 
 
 EtT* fr^v Hw. 
 
 Herodotus. 
 
 2. 
 
 Like Gonerils and Regansy may withdraw. 
 
 Page '10, line 12. 
 
 See Shakespeare, King Lear. 
 F 2
 
 68 NOTES UPON LIBERTY. 
 
 3. 
 
 So LouiSf pensioning the poet's rhymes, 
 
 Page 50, line 5. 
 
 Louis XIV, generous to Corneille, Racine, Moliere, 
 Boileau, &c. 
 
 4. 
 
 And Leo, making painters praise his times, 
 
 Page 50, line 6. 
 
 Pope Leo X, lavish on painters. Michael Angelo, 
 Raphael, Annibal Caracci, &c.
 
 NOTES UPON LIBERTY. 69 
 
 'Tis thus if s fountains, emptied from it's brow, 
 
 Page 51, line 3. 
 
 " The mountain nymph sweet Liberty.'* 
 
 Milton. 
 
 Saj/, then, Chimera springing, whence you grew, 
 Tour earliest essence, first existence drew ? 
 'Twas Folly hatched you in the sage's brain. 
 That mobs deceived might afterwards complain ; 
 For in Pandora's box who'll find an ill. 
 That human mis'ry can so well fulfil 
 As licence, got on speculation's frame ? 
 'Tis Folly working on the passions' Jlaine, 
 
 Page 54, lines ID and 20 j and page 55, line 1 to 6 
 
 " The most formidable circumstance was, that chimerical 
 ideas and real passions every where produced the same de-
 
 70 NOTES UPON LIUERTV. 
 
 lirium, whenever they, for the first time, obtained free 
 vent.'* See a pamphlet entitled, " The Continental 
 System, and it's Relations with Sweden,'* published 1813, 
 page 20 : read the whole of the passage. It alludes to the 
 wild tenets of the French philosophers, Rousseau, Con- 
 dorcet, and others, before and at the revolution, of which 
 notice is taken in note 6 upon the Age, and which, fol- 
 lowed by the excesses of the mob, produced all their 
 misfortunes, Robespierre, the Directory, and Bonaparte, 
 as there mentioned. See, after reading the whole para- 
 graph in the pamphlet, page 52 of this poem. 
 
 7. 
 
 Thus Luxury, in the dread court of Death, 
 
 Page 55, line 9. 
 
 See Gay's Fables, the Court of Death, Fable 47.^ 
 
 *' Let, then, Intemp' ranee take the wand. 
 Who fills with gold their zealous hand*. 
 
 * Physicians.
 
 NOTES UPON LIBERTY. 7t 
 
 You, Fever, Gout, and all the rest. 
 Whom wary man as foes detest. 
 Forego your claim, no more pretend. 
 Intemperance is esteem'd di friend; 
 He shares their mirth, tJieir social joys. 
 And, as a courted guest, destroys : 
 The charge* on him must justly fall. 
 Who finds employment for you all. 
 
 See also Dodsley's Fables. 
 
 8. 
 
 Distant most lovely ^ dead in lovers* arms ? 
 
 Page 56", line 14, 
 
 See, in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, the story of 
 a beauteous woman fainting as often as her lover ap- 
 proached her. 
 
 Prime Minister.
 
 72 NOTES UrON LIBERTY. 
 
 9. 
 
 Is it the speaking bird, the singing tree, 
 And yellow fount of eastern chivalry ? 
 
 Page 56, lines 15 and 16. 
 
 See the story of the Speaking Bird, Singing Tree, and 
 Yellow Water, quoted in the World, paper N 72, where 
 a beautiful princess is described as living quite happy in 
 a fine palace, till an old woman came to her one day and 
 told her, that all the things she saw were very noble, but 
 that she, the princess, had nothing till she got the Speak- 
 ing Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Yellow Water. The 
 princess fell into a profound reverie, and, when her 
 brothers retuined from hunting, told them what the old 
 woman had said, adding, that she could never be happy 
 till she possessed the Speaking Bird, the Singing Tree, 
 and the Yellow Water. Her brothers went immediately 
 in pursuit of these things, but could never attain them, 
 all perishing in the attempt, being successively turned 
 into stone.
 
 NOTES UPON LIBERTY. 7^ 
 
 10. 
 
 Then, if intended, life, and lawful ivill. 
 And property, should he our portion still. 
 
 Page 57, lines 5 and 6. 
 
 See Principles of the Constitution of Governments, Life, 
 Property, and Free Agency, Book I, chap. iii. 
 
 11. 
 
 for mediums ttirn'd 
 
 Are oft in flatter contraries discern' d. 
 
 Page 57, lines 13 and 14. 
 
 See Aristotle's curious illustration of the consequences 
 of passing the line of liberty, that you get immediately 
 into it's opposite, tyranny ; " Just," says he, " as the 
 extreme jlatness or sharpness of the nose produce equally 
 snire/Z/n^- in speaking: " Aptjxvrrj; or Tpvitorr.s, as he calls 
 them. The idea is, that transgressing extending mediums 
 leads to opposites.
 
 74 NOTES UPON LIBERTY. 
 
 12. 
 
 Of polity thus making blind man^s huff'. 
 And from disguise receiving many a cuff. 
 Which frankly offer' d with an open look 
 They'd never for a single moment brook. 
 
 Page 58, line 5 to 8. 
 
 See again Gay's Fables, Court of Death, quoted be- 
 fore, where disguise is made the principal feature of luxury, 
 to which licence is very aptly compared j for, if men 
 saw it coming openly against them, like absolute mo- 
 narchy or aristocracy, they would be upon their guard 
 against it ; but, coming in the shape of liberty, it deceives 
 and destroys them. 
 
 13. 
 
 Ohf no adjustingy 'tis an average true 
 
 Page 58, line 15. 
 
 This is only said against gimcrack principles, which are
 
 NOTES UPON LIBERTY. 75 
 
 shadows and resemblances of principles, taken against their sub- 
 stance and reality; mere fictions, for all comes to prin- 
 ciple, and good practice is only principle realized. See, on 
 this subject, " Principles of the Constitution of Govern- 
 ments/' Book IIj ead of chap. v. 
 
 14. 
 
 IVho courts his consolation in the dark. 
 
 Page 59, line 4, 
 
 " Tout de suite sucle qu' il est premier il tombe en 
 second," said a German count, very truly, of some of the 
 cavalieri servanti, or ostensible attendants upon the ladies, 
 at Venice. It was not always those, who appeared in public 
 with them, who were the favoured lovers.
 
 76 NOTES UPON LIBERTY. 
 
 15. 
 
 And each in turn seen tyranny obey'd. 
 
 Page 59, line 18. 
 
 See " Principles of the Constitution of Governments,'* 
 Book IV, chap, xxv, xxvi, xxvii. 
 
 " But what is the idea of tyranny, or a tyrannous govern- 
 ment, in it's single and best sense ? Is it not absolute or 
 uncontroled government, the uncontroled government of 
 one person, that person acting upon other persons accord- 
 ing to his own will, without a balance from the will of any 
 other ? Now, take either monarchy, aristocracy, or demo- 
 cracy, have not they all been proved to be one person in the 
 idea of sympathetic and congenial orders loithin themselves^ 
 never separating fvom the members of their own body ? "
 
 NOTES UPON LIBERTY. 77 
 
 16. 
 
 ^lust as old CcBsar's bridge morejirmness knew 
 The mare the pressure from the torrent grew. 
 
 Page 62, lines 5 and 6. 
 
 Caesar's bridge over the Rhine. It was constructed in 
 such a manner, that, with how much the heavier force the 
 waters came upon it, with so much the greater strength the 
 timbers held together. 
 
 17. 
 
 And hurries off the tyrant in theflam.es. 
 
 Page 63, line 10. 
 
 See the Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1814. " She (the 
 British nation) kept alive the Vestal spark, which Russia 
 fanned into a flame, and which has at last blazed upon the 
 benighted world." Words quoted from an American news- 
 paper in the Courier, 1814.
 
 78 NOTES VPON LIBERTY. 
 
 18. 
 
 And spin dull life beneath a tyranVs chain ; 
 
 Page 63, line 18. 
 
 Bioy 
 
 PiNDAB. 
 
 See also how Mahomet encourages his followers to glory- 
 by representing to them the disgrace of sitting at home 
 ' not having any hurt." Paley's Evidences of Christianity, 
 irol. ii, p, 26.
 
 Zftt Utontiutvov.
 
 THE 
 
 CONQUEROR. 
 
 OCTAVIUS PYTHIAS. 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 PRONOUNCE, my Pythias, what supreme desire 
 Should wake our efforts and our toil inspire ? 
 With best affection should attach our view, 
 And destine most devoted to pursue ? 
 Reward most richly all our troubles past, 
 And settle far as settled here at last ? 
 
 G
 
 82 THE CONaUEROR. 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 'TIs glory, sure : for can a brighter flame 
 Provoke our struggles than the love of fame ? 
 Pure ev'ry passion, int'rest far away. 
 It leaves dull night and lives in endless day. 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 Name, then, true glory. 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 Tis the conqu'ror's fame, 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 Alas, my Pythias ! *tis a fatal name ? 
 Look round the world Who's he, since time begun, 
 Since earth, revolving, circled round the sun, 
 Has wrought man's mischief most ? The conqu'ror's souh 
 It's longing limited by neither pole ; 
 It's tears but shed because the world is done, ^ 
 'Cause the last thread of misery is spun : 
 That is it's throe. What, then, his essence call, 
 Whose brightest hope is the despair of all ?
 
 THE CONftUEROR. 83 
 
 Pythias. 
 What, then, Sesostris, Cyrus ? Must we view 
 All bad alike, who all alike subdue ? 
 Is glory nought ? 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 In the Almighty plan 
 There is no glory, that oppresses man ! 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 Tis short, Octavius See the flag unfurl'd. 
 Of conquest, flying o'er a vanquish'd world ; 
 Then tell us, if the hero's high command 
 Deck not the lustre of his native land ? 
 
 Octavius. 
 Regard him closer ! See the race he's run ! 
 Mark, e'er he there attain'd, what he has done ! 
 How many orphans many widows made ! 
 Sons from their sires, and sires from sons conveyed I 
 Then see the glories of his nodding plumes, 
 Suddea convert to spectres and to tombs ! 
 
 q2
 
 84 THE CONaUEROR. 
 
 Pythias. 
 We should not look so closely. 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 Why not view 
 The object nearer, if we see more true ? 
 See all those conqu'rors, who have plagu'd the world. 
 And round it's orb their wide confusion hurl'd. 
 See Ninus, first, from Babylonian land. 
 Diffuse the terrors of his dire command. 
 Sesostris next, with his sad bays return. 
 While in his chariot yok'd the monarchs mourn. - 
 Through Asia Cyrus, spreading his alarms. 
 To Sardis bear the triumph of his arms. 
 Extending Crcssus on a fun'ral pile 
 While Solon's words did but his fate beguile.' 
 Philip's great son attempt the Granic flood. 
 Soon to immerge in greater seas of blood. 
 Rome's fell republic first infest mankind ; 
 It's empire next not to the race more kind. 
 His dreadful vengeance Attila pursue, 
 To mercy false, to punishment most true.
 
 THE CONaUEROR. 85 
 
 New worlds supplied, poor Guatimozin broil, 
 Lest hidden gold Spain's avarice should foil. * 
 His pyramid of heads see Nadir rear, 
 And human nature with the spect'cle fear. 
 Then, say, if mischief's 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 But the scenes you draw. 
 Perhaps, from fancy, more than hist'ry's law. 
 Leave matters on the foot they e'er have been. 
 Wherever good, a fellow evil seen j 
 And, when we struggle for a noble prize, 
 Small objects should not damp our enterprize. 
 Conquest, if splendid equally secui'e. 
 Will make the lustre of the gold endure ; 
 And, wide extending o'er the world it's arms, 
 A nation 's safer from domestic harms. 
 Fenc'd in the rich abundance of it's lot. 
 In fear it finds it's injuries forgot ; * 
 And, if from terror thus the greatness come, 
 A hero 's the foundation of the dome.
 
 8^ THE CONGIUEROR. 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 Pythias, once more. In God's eternal plan. 
 No real good from moral ill you scan. 
 Conduct the axis, that our fate controls, 
 Directs our destiny between the poles, 
 As up we to the prosp'rous zenith go. 
 Or to the adverse nadir sink below. 
 The real gravitations right and wrong. 
 Which to the corresponding poles belong ; 
 For though our prospects, wavering, may move. 
 They, like the needle, will but little rove : 
 And, like that needle, to the magnet true. 
 In happiness our virtue e'er pursue. 
 Nor will the steady rule reverse it's laws. 
 More in a public than a private cause. 
 The nation's greatness then, you prize so high. 
 Will prove it's own most mortal enemy ; 
 And in the vengeance, that it's wrongs entail, 
 Will make dire ruin o'er it's lot prevail. 
 Besides that conquest drains a nation's strength. 
 And starves it's thickness to maintain it's length
 
 THE CONaUEROR. 87 
 
 Just as in crowded woods the sapling 's found. 
 With sad prosperity, to seek the ground. 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 But granting still, Octavius, the rule 
 Of all our actions from the moral school ; 
 And granting, too, a nation may be strain'd 
 With the same efforts that have vict'ry gain'd 
 Yet still the conqu'ror, useful in liis way. 
 And profiting humanity, survey ; 
 For he will stop a devastation's course. 
 And supersede it with a greater force. 
 Just as the eagle checks the falcon's flight. 
 And ends his terrors with a greater might. 
 Who Bajazet could ever have o'ertlu^own 
 But Tamerlane, and Tamerlane alone ? * 
 
 Octavius. 
 
 And is this all the comfort you can give > 
 Sole 'scape from woe in misery to live ? 
 Or flying from the terror of the flood 
 In mightier waters to detect our good ?
 
 SS THE CONaUEROR. 
 
 No, Pythias. Moral wisdom, e'er the same. 
 Must uniform it's rule of prudence frame ; 
 And ne'er from case particular conclude, 
 That, push'd to universal, 't will do good. 
 If tempests sometimes clear the troubled sky, 
 Must we our hope in hurricanes descry ? 
 Or, if a flame subdue the plague^s dread fume. 
 Sudden invoke th' incendiary to come ? 
 So, if th' Almighty ruler, with just cause. 
 Should seem to alter when he guides his laws ; 
 And conqu'rors send to clarify the world, 
 The tools of vengeance, soon to ruin hurl'd. 
 Are we, for that, to take God's rule in hand. 
 And summon conqu'rors at our own command ? 
 Arming with full commission to destroy 
 And calling safety when they most annoy ? 
 It cannot be 
 
 Pythias. 
 And must we take farewel 
 Of all that e'er could conquer or excel ? ^
 
 THE CONaUEROR. 89 
 
 To glory bid a last and long adieu. 
 Forswearing honour, never to pursue ? 
 Seek, like a dervise, some sequester'd spot, 
 There, in obscurity, ignobly rot? 
 For combats timid, but for desarts brave. 
 Coward o' th' field, but hero of the cave ? 
 Oh, farewel, farewel ! children of the sun. 
 No more on high be your great progress run ! 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 Or be it run ; and, if too hot you glow. 
 Like Phaeton, go quench you in the Po ! 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 See Mithridates with his crowns adorn'd 
 
 Of thirty kings, ne'er by proud beauty scorn'd ; 
 
 As if his glory sat upon his brow. 
 
 And, like an eagle, laugh'd at ages snow : * 
 
 Courting his consorts with his very fame. 
 
 And conqu'ring all, last vanquish with his name. 
 
 See Cleopatra, lovely, on the Nile ' 
 
 Pay Ant'ny's glory with rewarding smile ;
 
 )0 THE CONaUEROR. 
 
 See love of fame expire in beauty's amis. 
 
 And save the world thus ransom'd by her charms. 
 
 Where see you such a scene ? 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 When Paris' joy 
 Bore Helen off, and WTought the wreck of Troy. 
 If such you quote, see Scythia's sturdy queen 
 Bring haughty Cyrus to liis suram'ry scene ; 
 Toss his high head into the bag of blood. 
 And add, insulting, " Quench thee with the flood ! 
 Quench thee with that thou ever hast desir'd 
 With thirst unceasing, as insatiate fir'd !" " 
 See Pynhus die, when planning the world's spoil, 
 Vanquish'd himself, the conquest of a tile. '* 
 That is ambition 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 Aye, but this the flaw, 
 That ever sins 'gainst reasoning's fair law. 
 We never can, from the perverse abuse. 
 Conclude a motive 'gainst the lawful use.
 
 THE CONftUEROR. 91 
 
 Nay rather by just consequence iufer, 
 Aband'ning truth the fault by which we err j 
 Adhering closer, that the way alone. 
 To mend our fault and better fortune own. 
 Now see, Octavius, what you 've ever done. 
 In all the course of reasoning you 've run ; 
 Or virtue, wisdom, public good, or fame, 
 Whate'er the object, and whate'er the aim. 
 You 've ever ta'en the worst that you could find. 
 And for the faults of one condemn'd the kind. 
 Spectres and tombs first strike our jealous eais. 
 Then paralytic nations wake our fears. 
 Next comes no benefit by tempests got. 
 And last, miscarriage, folly's fated lot. 
 But all this nought your apophthegm to prove. 
 That conqu'rors must our reprobation move. 
 For who inform'd you, all, like Khouli Kan, " 
 Must death-head banners carry in their van ? 
 Who, that a conqu'ring nation's mighty wrongs 
 Must scare the ua' verse with a thousand tongues ? 
 Who, that, again, if villains fright the world, 
 They must by greater be to vengeance hurl'd ?
 
 92 THE CONaUEROR. 
 
 And, lastly, who, all must to Scythia flee. 
 
 And their last punishment from Tom'ris see ? 
 
 No, no ! Inquire, you '11 find another sense 
 
 Has laid of conquering the just pretence. 
 
 If robbers first infested ev'ry soil. 
 
 The hero's hand arrested their foul spoil. 
 
 That was his conquest, that his fair renown. 
 
 And virtue thus fought under valour's crown. 
 
 What Hercules, what Theseus, but employ'd 
 
 To curb the pests, that their fair land annoy'd ? * 
 
 And, from the time that Argo took it's freight 
 
 To the last tourn'ment of la Mancha's knight, 
 
 'Twas glory all, for grand, great glory fir'd. 
 
 Built on fair virtue, only these desir'd, ** 
 
 From smaller actions, thus, to great they grew. 
 
 And then their conqu'ring glory the world knew. 
 
 E'en mid these conquests, which you most condemn, 
 
 Where most have fallen of their fellow men. 
 
 E'en there, see Abradates get his fair 
 
 From Cyrus' hand, redeeming from despair ; 
 
 See Alexander give, with lavish hand, 
 
 Darius kingdoms, of a wide command ;
 
 THE CONaUEROR. 9^ 
 
 Then say, if conqu'rors cannot deck the smile 
 Of virtue's cheek, if error don't beguile. 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 Alas, my Pythias ! 'tis a mournful tale. 
 To solve the sophistry of your detail ; 
 Which only issues from a love of fame. 
 But not abandoning fair virtue's name. 
 If such all conquerors, as you describe, 
 We ne'er had put a censure on the tribe. 
 These patriot champions for a happy land. 
 Whom the Almighty in his mercy plann'd ; 
 The other robbers, conqu'rors not, you see. 
 From glory drawn by bastard pedigree. 
 If Cyrus gave, he first had ta'en the spoil, 
 Panthcia, which made Abradates smile j '^ 
 If Alexander gave to Asia's lord, 
 'Twas but a little of the robb'd restor'd ; 
 And so we say of all their scatter'd boons, 
 A hundredth paid not of their wasting moons. 
 The world first wither'd, then it's fools beguil'd, 
 With any gaudy flow'r, that decks the wild.
 
 94 THE CONftUEROR. 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 Then why, If conquest such a foul pretence. 
 Have we of glory so acute a sense ? 
 ^ Twill never leave us to repose resign'd. 
 But pushes on the wishes of our mind. 
 Why this within us do we ever feel. 
 If Providence had not affix'd it's seal. 
 And planted in us, tliat we might improve 
 The pledge it gives us of it's higher love ? 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 Know this, like other biases, conferr'd 
 To be to rule of duty e'er referr'd ; 
 Right is the boundary, which must control 
 And regulate each ardour of the soul. 
 Nor can we reason from the lawful use. 
 To reach the purposes of foul abuse. 
 If so, each passion, that inflames the breast, 
 Would go to mischief by the fatal test. 
 That with what we by Providence imbu'd. 
 Must to excess be wantonly pursu'd.
 
 THE CONftUEROR. 95 
 
 But, Pythias, here You '11 sure not 'ppose the rule, 
 
 That moral right must make all else it's tool ; 
 
 If so, let's take at once the shortest test 
 
 To set for e'er this question at it's rest. 
 
 If this your conqu'ror, public good his aim, 
 
 Take only secondary following fame ; 
 
 Care not if reputation come or not. 
 
 The welfare of mankind secur'd and got, 
 
 These his intentions, such a man I'll grant 
 
 The pink of principle and all you want. 
 
 But, if like int'rests ne'er affect his brain, 
 
 His object sole a character to gain, 
 
 Tlien I '11 just ask you, how you praise the man, 
 
 Tliat of morality in his poor plan ; 
 
 Of all his strainings makes his pretty self 
 
 The object sole ; and if this sorry elf 
 
 Can only thrive, cares not, if the whole lot 
 
 Of man were boil'd in Pluto's hottest pot. 
 
 Is this fair virtue ?
 
 9^ THE CONaUEROR. 
 
 Pythias. 
 No, I own the aim 
 Must seal the merit and decide the fame. 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 So true, my Pythias, that, in vice's cause. 
 
 All energy it's nobleness withdraws. 
 
 If force be e'er in virtue's cause display'd, 
 
 'Tis straight a magnanimity convey'd; 
 
 But if it make for vice a foul defence. 
 
 Then wickedness 'tis, only more intense. 
 
 'Tis thus that Providence works by it's Ia\\'s, 
 
 And makes the merit follow e'er the cause. 
 
 These noble forces, by th' Almighty giv'n. 
 
 The greatest, grandest, proudest boons of Heav'n, 
 
 If exercis'd their purpose to promote. 
 
 Which, so employ'd, their excellence denote; 
 
 But, if to wicked objects misapplied. 
 
 Are curses then, all eulogy denied. 
 
 Like forces from their gravitation flung, 
 
 From the strong orbit of attraction sprung.
 
 THE CONaUEROR. 9f 
 
 Which now, so miserably that they swerve, 
 Must kill the system they were meant to serve. 
 
 Pythias. 
 
 'Tis well. 
 
 OCTAVIUS. 
 
 And, if you mean to follow through 
 To private life, and common scenes pursue. 
 You'll find, it ever comes, all changes past, 
 To homely, and to principled at last. 
 'Tis this, that ever rules, in fashion's spite, 
 A moral empire of a greater might. 
 Nor boots it whether in a king displayed. 
 Or in a humbler citizen pourtray'd. 
 He, who, enchanted with the world's vain show, 
 Shall seek the glare it's glitterings bestow, 
 While famish'd children weep their lot at home, 
 Would, if a conqueror, more widely roam. 
 And so, again, had Peter private been, '^ 
 Nor Russia seen him in her splendid scene, 
 
 II
 
 98 THE CONftUEROR. 
 
 Still equal praise his virtue had inspir'd. 
 
 And in it's narrow'r circle been adrair'd. 
 
 Ask Pultow's plains where patriot glory call'd, '* 
 
 And Charles's insolence for e'er enthrall'd. 
 
 Thus for defence, best pretext, taking arms, . 
 
 For safety's purpose only bringing harms. 
 
 Like Dion and Timoleon, who reliev'd 
 
 The hapless Syracuse when tyrants griev'd. 
 
 If you would take it on a larger scale. 
 
 Embracing all benevolence's pale. 
 
 See Titus weep 'cause he had lost a day; '" 
 
 No good conferr'd it's period could display ; 
 
 Or Antoninus tell the world, a king " 
 
 No greater lustre to his crown could bring, 
 
 Than teaching virtue to the human race, 
 
 And wickedness expelling from it's face. 
 
 These the sole cares, that sov'reigns should employ, 
 
 Not learning e'er the practice to destroy. 
 
 ^Tis thus benevolence, the light most true. 
 
 Will, like God's sun, his ordinance pursue. 
 
 Then follow e'er
 
 THE CONaUEROR. 99 
 
 PVTHIAS. 
 
 Aye, you have vanquish'd now. 
 And from my gloomy cares reliev'd my brow, 
 Quench'd the false glow of irrhation's flame, 
 And settled in the love of honest fame. 
 Octavlus, yes, great principle's the thing, 
 That glory, comfort, real joy can bring. 
 He the great conqueror, when duty calls, 
 Who ev'ry lower interest inthrals ; 
 Flies to his country or his fellow's aid. 
 The social ever more than selfish made ; 
 Who, when a famish'd fam'ly's wants desire. 
 Will give the food which his own calls require; 
 Who will not feed his joy with other's tears. 
 But cheerfully his own affliction bears ; 
 Who will not laugh while others weep the while, 
 But rather give his grief to make them smile ; 
 His God and neighbour ever equal lov'd, 
 Thus the full circle of his duty prov'd ; 
 Who does not let life's vain attractions draw 
 His sliding footstep from his Author's law; 
 
 H 2
 
 100 THE CONaUEROR. 
 
 But holding constant on his steady course, 
 With fix'd regard and adamantine force, 
 Displays, the moral hero of his time, 
 Bays free of slain and laurels pure of crime : 
 This is the conquest, this the brilliant part. 
 The pride of feeling, glory of the heart ! 
 The best of triumphs when the world is gone, 
 That God is gratifi'd and duty done !"
 
 jaioteg upon tbt oniinetor.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 1. 
 
 It's tears hut shed because the world is done. 
 
 Page 82, line 12. 
 
 Alexander wept, because there were no more worlds to 
 conquer. 
 
 2. 
 
 Tfhile in his chariot- y ok* d the monarchs mourn. 
 
 Page 84, line 9. 
 
 Sec the story of Sesostris drawn by four captive kings. 
 
 Herodotus.
 
 104 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. 
 
 3. 
 
 While Solaris ivords did hut his fate beguile. 
 
 Page 84 J line 13. 
 
 When Solon was at the court of Sardis, in the time of 
 Croesus' prosperity, they had a long dialogue upon the hap- 
 piness of man, in the course of which Croesus asked Solon, 
 If he did not think him (Croesus) the happiest of mortals ? 
 Solon answered, that, to determine that question, they 
 must see his death. These words occurred to Croesus* 
 mind in his misfortunes, that is, at the very moment 
 he was going to be burnt. On his repeating them, Cyrus 
 had him taken down from the pile, inquired the cause, 
 and gave him his life. 
 
 Herodotu?.
 
 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. 105 
 
 4. 
 
 ^ew worlds supplied^ "poor Guatbnozin broil. 
 Lest hidden gold Spain's avarice should foil. 
 
 Page 85, lines 1 and 2. 
 
 When the Spaniards took Mexico, under Hernando Cor-, 
 tez, they extended the emperor Guatimozin, along with the 
 bishop of that city, upon live coals, to make them reveal 
 the treasures, which they supposed they had hid. The 
 bishop could not refrain from lamenting himself in the 
 middle of his torments; when the emperor asked him, 
 " Do you think I lie here on roses ? '* 
 
 See History of the Conquest of Mexico. 
 
 In fear it finds it's injuries forgot ; 
 
 Page 85, line 17. 
 
 See the conference between the Athenians and Meleans,
 
 106 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. 
 
 in Thucydides, where the precise ground, taken by the 
 former, is what the French call the raison du plus fort ; 
 that is, the " right of the stronger to oppress the weaker.'* 
 The Athenians had the effrontery to tell them in plain 
 terms, that because they were weaker they must submit. 
 
 End of book iv. 
 
 6. 
 
 But Tamerlane, and Tamerlane alone ? 
 
 Page 87, line 14. 
 
 It is well known, that when Bajazet had overrun the 
 East with his conquests, Tamerlane stopped and overthrew 
 him. He took him prisoner, and, when brought before 
 him, asked him, how he, Bajazet, would have treated him, 
 if he had got him into his power ? " I would have put 
 thee into an iron cage," said he, " carried thee about, and 
 shown thee as a monster." Upon which Tamerlane re- 
 plied, "That fate shall be thine j" and realized his 
 words.
 
 NOTES UPON THE CONaUEROR. 107 
 
 7. 
 
 Of all that e'er could conquer or excel ? 
 
 Page 88, last line. 
 
 Ajev apia-tsvsiy xxt r^ox'o; siva* aita.v'fwv. 
 
 HOMEB. 
 
 Ever to excel and to be distinguished above all. 
 
 8. 
 
 No more on high be your great progress run I 
 
 Page 89, line 8. 
 
 The children of the sun were at once the most illustrious 
 and most unfortunate race among the ancients, from the 
 first adventures of Phaeton, who asked his father's horses, 
 et the world on fire, and fell into the Po, to those of
 
 108 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. 
 
 Phaedra, who fell in love with her son,' Hippolitus, and 
 was the immediate cause of his destruction and her 
 own. 
 
 9. 
 
 Andy like an eagle, laugh* d at ages snow : 
 
 Page 89, line U, 
 
 This monarch is described, in Racine, as saying, that 
 if his hairs were hoary they were adorned with thirty 
 crowns. 
 
 '' Jusqu' ici la fortune et la victoire memes 
 Cachoient mes cheveux blancs sous trente diademes 
 Mais ce tems la n'est plus Je regnois et je fuis 
 Mes ans se sont accrus : mes honneurs sont detruits" 
 
 See the whole of the passage in Mithridate.
 
 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. IO9 
 
 10. 
 See Cleopatra, lovely j on the Nile 
 
 Page 89, line 17. 
 
 The Cydnus is here changed for the Nile. The oars 
 were of silver, the sails of purple silk. 
 
 See Plutarch^ Life of Antony. 
 
 11. 
 
 Quench thee with the flood i 
 
 Quench thee with that thou ever hast desired 
 With thirst unceasing, as insatiate flr'd ! " 
 
 Page 90, lines 9, 10, and 11. 
 
 When Cyrus Invaded Scythia, queen Tomyris retired in 
 the usual way, till she had engaged him in difficulties, then 
 defeated and killed him. She threw his head into a bag
 
 no NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR* 
 
 of blood, pronouncing these memorable words : " Satia te, 
 sanguine, quem semper sitisti, et cujus insatiabilis semper 
 fuisti." Satiate thee with the blood, which thou always 
 hast thirsted after, and of which thou hast been ever in- 
 satiable. 
 
 See Justin. 
 
 12. 
 
 See Pyrrhus die, when planning the world's spoil. 
 Vanquished himself, the conquest of a tile. 
 
 Page 90, lines 12 and 13. 
 
 Pyrrhus fell a victim to a tile, in the full career of his 
 conquests. He was passing through the streets of a town, 
 when a woman flung one from the top of a house, and 
 killed him. 
 
 See Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus,
 
 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. Ill 
 
 13. 
 
 For who informed you, all, like KhouU Kan, 
 Must death-head banners carry in their van ? 
 
 Page 9], lines 1 7 and 18. 
 
 He had death- heads painted on his banners. 
 
 See the History of the Conquests of 
 Shaw Nadir Khouli Kan. 
 
 14. 
 
 JVhat Hercules, what Theseus, hut employ d 
 To curb the pests, that their fair land annoy d ? 
 
 Page 92, lines 9 and 10. 
 
 Hercules and Theseus freed Greece from robbers.
 
 112 NOTES UPON THE CONaUEROft, 
 
 15. 
 
 Built on fair virtue, only these desir'cL 
 
 Page 92, line 14. 
 
 It is to be observed here, that there is ever some master 
 passion, which prevails in the world and devours all the 
 rest. The earliest instance of a love of glory was that of 
 the Argonauts, which may be considered as the chivalry of 
 the ancients. They went in search of adventures; and at 
 this day the knights of the golden fleece, which is a Ger- 
 man order, toison d' or, bear testimony to it's being the 
 spirit of chivalry. Then came the crusades, or chivalry 
 itself; upon the spirit of which, that is, searching adven- 
 tures, Don Quixote was a satire.
 
 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. US 
 
 16. 
 
 Paniheia, which made Abradates smile. 
 
 Page 93, line 14. 
 
 Abradates was a man in great power, at the Assyrian 
 court, whose wife, Pantheia, was taken prisoner by Cyrus 
 in a battle. Being a lady of exquisite beauty, Cyrus 
 treated her with great distinction and respect, in so much, 
 that, so far from attempting to violate her chastity, he be" 
 came the defender of it. She was so captivated with his be- 
 haviour, that she wrote to her husband to detach him from 
 the service of the king of Assyria, and engage him in that 
 of Cyrus, in which she succeeded. Afterwards, upon going 
 out to a battle, she recommended him to distinguish him- 
 self in Cyrus* service; the consequence of which was, that 
 he became entirely blind to his own safety, drove his 
 chariot so far into the enemy's ranks, that there was no re- 
 treat for him, and he was killed. 
 
 Xenophon. 
 I 
 
 ir K
 
 114 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. 
 
 17. 
 
 And so, again, had Peter private been. 
 
 Page 97, line 16. 
 
 Peter the Great was as remarkable for the domestic 
 virtues as he was for those which adorn a throne. 
 
 18. 
 
 Ask Pultow's plains where patriot glory calVd, 
 
 Page 98, line 3. 
 
 The battle of Pultowa, which ended the pretensions 
 of Charles XII to universal conquest, and brought on his 
 final ruin.
 
 NOTES UPON THE CONftUEROR. 115 
 
 19. 
 
 See Titus weep 'cause he had lost a day ; 
 
 Page 98, line 11. 
 
 Titus Vespasian : he is said to have shed tears, one even- 
 ing, because he had lost a day ; he had done no good 
 act in the course of it. How different this is from Alex- 
 ander, who wept because there were no more worlds ta 
 conquer no more misery to occasion! 
 
 20. 
 
 Or Antoninus tell the world, a king 
 
 Page 98, line 13. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, emperor of Rome, wha 
 wrote a set of moral precepts, which are called his Reflec- 
 tions. 
 
 I 2
 
 ^tna.
 
 ETNA. 
 
 WHAT poet, Etna, shall thy wonders sing ? 
 In such a flight, what Muse can trust her wing ? 
 Alike thy vineyards and thy clifts explore, ' 
 Sport on thy side, or to thy summit soar ? 
 
 Well might three regions in one mountain join'd, 
 See from their mass a name to Jove assign'd ; * 
 Three regions, which no common likeness show. 
 Their climes as various as the fruits that grow.
 
 120 ETNA. 
 
 When from the plain the trav'ller takes his way, 
 What objects rise in wild variety ! 
 See gloomy horror and green beauty join, 
 The shaggy lava and the curling vine. 
 Here, palaces, far as the eye extend. 
 Where priests and princes in vain pomp contend j 
 On lava founded, there, the garden grows. 
 Where other seats and other convents rose. ' 
 
 'Tis in this region, that the gen'rous soil. 
 To bless the husbandman, scarce asks his toil j 
 For here the lava, as it spread it's wave. 
 The seeds of future vegetation gave. * 
 111 fated country, whose capricious doom 
 Devotes the tree to make the blossoms come ! 
 Where nature, never vig'rous till she dies. 
 Must, like the Phoenix, from her ashes rise ! 
 
 Here let us pause and turn the wond'ring eye 
 On beauties, that securer soils deny ; 
 Mark how the foliage and the fruit combine 
 To give luxuriance to the loaded vine :
 
 fiTNA. 121 
 
 Or see the cultivated field appear 
 Green with the second promise of the year. 
 Nor think that Nature, to the rest unkind. 
 Has here her favours to one spot confin'd : 
 Tlie mingled vineyards far extended lie, 
 In rich confusion, lost upon the eye ; 
 And provinces, self vegetating, wear 
 The smiling aspect of a garden's care. 
 
 Soon as the traveller attains the line 
 Where the first region and the middle join, 
 The changing soil another scene supplies. 
 No villas smile, but mounts of ashes rise ; * 
 No vineyards here their lively green display, 
 But old volcanoes guide the lonely way ; 
 While vegetation, seen In ev'ry stage. 
 With various verdure, indicates tlieir age. * 
 
 Tliough in this region desolation reigns. 
 Yet Natute still her energy retains : 
 Tlie goat, that wanders o'er the gloomy waste, 
 From scatter'd herbage gleans a rich repast.
 
 122 ETNA. 
 
 While, in the banquet of a juicy bladc_, 
 He feels the labour of his search repaid. 
 
 See yonder forest shoot into the skies ! ' 
 Go mourn the majesty with which it dies ! 
 See the proud tops, that desolation spar'd, 
 Grey with their glory, by their age impair'd ! 
 No idle plant disturbs their calm repose. 
 No bramble vegetates, no brushwood grows ; 
 Each uneclips'd, and such as we survey 
 The monarch of a village^ in decay. 
 
 Should some lone trav'ller, shaded by their boughs. 
 Pursue his journey, when the world repose. 
 No murmur rises on the list'ning ear, 
 Tlie moon reigns mistress of the silent air ; 
 Save that, intruding on her sacred light, 
 His footsteps wake the echoes of the night. * 
 
 Long through the mazes of the lonely wood, 
 The winding way is in it's track pursu'd.
 
 ETNA. 123 
 
 Till, bursting from the foliage of the grove. 
 In fields of air we breathe a purer Jove ; 
 Till other regions bring another clime. 
 And savage nature changes to sublime. 
 
 'Tis here the azure mantle of the night 
 With larger spangles satisfies the sight, ''' 
 No object near to regulate the eye, 
 The cold informs us, that a summit's nigh, 
 While heated fancy fain would fly away, 
 Tir'd of dull toil and eager to survey. 
 
 And shall I, Etna, e'er forget the night. 
 When, seated on the summit of thy height, 
 I gaz'd on darkness from thy lofty brow. 
 Expecting day to light the world below ! 
 Long had the boundless desarts of the sky, 
 In gloomy chaos, met the baffled eye. 
 When figures so equivocal were seen, 
 That fancy might in double mode explain. 
 A forest here display 'd it's azure head, " 
 There, dimly seen, the misty vineyards spread ;
 
 124 ETNA. 
 
 But soon the morning clias'd the clouds away. 
 Of idle forms dispers'd the mock array, 
 Swept the vain phantoms from the mountain's brow. 
 And show'd the real objects far below. 
 
 The falcon now, that since the dawn of day '* 
 Had soar'd on Etna's side in quest of prey. 
 Flew off, when the complexion of the sky, 
 Down to the east, assum'd a warmer dye ; 
 And streaks of colour vivid as the light. 
 With glowing beauty gratifi'd the sight. 
 Each tint inflam'd, till, lifting up his head, 
 Apollo slowly rose from Thetis' bed ; 
 When, now, his orb from the horizon free, 
 Regarded mankind with full majesty. 
 How great the scene, that from the chaos grew ! 
 How quick it's objects crowded on the view ! 
 Town, island, ocean, city, village, vine, 
 Wood, waste, volcano, in one prospect join ! 
 See here the forest round the hill extend. 
 Where mountain nymphs to meet the wood descend ; "
 
 ETNA. 125 
 
 Seek with their sisters a congenial noon. 
 And wanton in the shadows of the moon. 
 See there volcanoes vary in their green. 
 Date with their verdure desolation's reign ; 
 And count, in the gradation of their dyes, 
 A long succession of calamities. 
 See here the vines, where Bacchus us'd to rove 
 With wanton Circe, and enjoy her love ; '* 
 There, seas of lava, in whose spreading gloom 
 You view a city's, or a nation's tomb. 
 
 King of volcanoes, whose tremendous light 
 Creates a sun amid the gloom of night ; 
 Whose show'rs of ashes cloud the brow of day, 
 And quench the lustre of the solar ray ; 
 Whose eager stream of unresisted fire 
 Melts the firm wall and makes the sea retire : 
 Can lame description, in hef lukewarm page 
 Convey a full idea of thy rage ? 
 
 Long have the murmurs of the mountain's womb 
 Peclar'd the hour of desolation come !
 
 126 ETNA; 
 
 Long has the smoke, in gloomy volumes spread. 
 And show'ring ashes cast a dismal shade ; 
 When, at the midnight hour, the troubled fire 
 Bursts the stout prison that confines it's ire ; 
 Rends the tough mountain, darts into the skies. 
 And forms a column as it's furies rise. 
 With wild caprice the busy lightnings gleam; 
 From founts of fire the lava pours it's stream j 
 While flaming fragments from the crater fly. 
 By the fell furnace flung into the sky. 
 Now down the hill the lava takes it's way. 
 And destines vegetation for it's prey : 
 The wither'd tree anticipates it's doom, ** 
 And nature dies ere devastation come- 
 Should some poor village hear the torrent roar. 
 Too near a neighbour of it's fatal pow'r, 
 Who can describe the hurry of the night, 
 Or paint the horrors of a headlong flight ? 
 Here age is left, by weight of years opprest. 
 Or fear forgets the infant at the breast. 
 Nor think the fugitives are sure to find 
 A milder fate than those they left behind j
 
 ETNA. 127 
 
 How many victims, stifled as they fly, 
 Though less imprudent, may, like Pliny, die ; "^ 
 From streams of lava, when Pompeia fled, *'' 
 From show'rs of ashes could she save her head ? 
 
 Turn from this scene, and view yon point of land, 
 Where half a city rises on the strand j 
 Small as it seems, 'twas once a place of fame ; 
 Once Syracuse, and still retains the name. 
 There science ever an asylum knew. 
 When driven from the soil on which it grew; 
 There Hiero's immortal virtues sprung. 
 By Rome respected as by Pindar sung ; 
 There Archimedes' comprehensive mind. 
 The secrets of geometry combin'd ; 
 There Arethusa pours it's limpid stream, 
 Once Virgil's inspiration as his theme ; 
 And there Alpheus, whose unsullied wave 
 It's lov'd papyrus to the Muses gave. 
 
 What vulgar eye can unconcem'd survey 
 The sad memorial of a state's decay ?
 
 128 ETNA. 
 
 What noble mind, with love of science fir*d. 
 
 Mourns not the plains where Attica expir'd? ^' 
 
 E'en now, from Syracusa's walls, I see 
 
 The wreck of Athens take their hopeless way : 
 
 I see them, lost in dreams of sorrow, tread 
 
 Through scatter'd thousands of unburied dead ; 
 
 Till, in the crowd, some features that they know 
 
 Awake to keener agonies of woe : 
 
 I see the victims, that their wounds detain. 
 
 Conjure their flying comrades to remain, 
 
 Who, to their own calamities resign'd. 
 
 Lament the ills of those they leave behind. 
 
 And in suspended resolution stand. 
 
 Loath to depart, though from a hostile land. 
 
 Fatal ambition, since the world began. 
 How often hast thou wrought the woe of man ? 
 By such examples warn'd, let states beware 
 And fly the syren when she lays the snare : 
 More apprehensive, if their pow'r be great ; 
 For envy will accelerate their fate.
 
 ETNA. 129 
 
 Still, as we turn, some city meets the eye. 
 And mournful changes food for thought supply ; 
 While on each roof of surface, that we view. 
 Rights were decided, or republics grew. 
 Shall Britons look where liberty has been, 
 Nor feel a motive to partake the scene ? 
 Britannia, no ! Where'er thy children stray. 
 Though unadmonish'd they shall think of thee; 
 And should some straggling feature, that they find, 
 Recal thy choicer blessings to their mind, 
 'Tis then their blood in busy haste shall flow, 
 Their swelling breast with fond affection glow, 
 Pant to return, and, prostrate on thy shore, 
 Vow to desert thy happy climes no more.
 
 jaiotes xipon ^tna. 
 
 K 2
 
 \
 
 NOTES. 
 
 1. 
 
 Alike thy vineyards and thy clifts explorey 
 
 Page 119, line 3, 
 
 Etna is fertile towards the bottom, wild and barren at 
 the top. 
 
 2. 
 
 See from their mass a name to Jove assigned; 
 
 Page 119, line 6, 
 
 Aitvaios (Etnsean) was one of Jupiter's epithets.
 
 134 NOTES UPON ETNA. 
 
 3. 
 
 Where other seats and other convents rose. 
 
 Page 120, line S. 
 
 The ground is cultivated in many places where villages 
 lie buried. 
 
 4. 
 
 For hei'e the lava, as it spread it's wave, 
 The seeds of future vegetation gave. 
 
 Page 120, lines 11 and 12. 
 
 The lava, after a certain time, vegetates with greater 
 luxuriance than any other soil.
 
 NOTES UPON ETNA. 135 
 
 5. 
 
 No villas smile, hut mounts of ashes rise ; 
 
 Page 121, line 12. 
 
 Here the country consists chiefly of volcanoes. Large 
 fields of ashes surround the most recent of them, which are 
 mere mountains of cinders. 
 
 G. 
 
 Wkile vegetation, seen in ev'ry stage, 
 IFith various verdure, indicates their age. 
 
 Page 121, lines 15 and \G. 
 
 The oldest volcanoes are the greenest, all having more 
 or less verdure in proportion to their age.
 
 136 NOTES UPON ETNA. 
 
 7. 
 
 See yonder forest shoot into the skies ! 
 
 Page 122, line S. 
 
 This is a very tall forest, which divides the woody or 
 wild region from the sublime or barren. The trees are 
 each individually fine, as here described, but decaying 
 daily. There is no rubbish, or brushwood, among them. 
 
 8. 
 
 His footsteps wake the echoes of the night. 
 
 Page 122, line IC. 
 
 This very scene the author saw. It's solemnity, solitude, 
 and silence are indescribable.
 
 KOTES UPON ETNA. 137 
 
 9. 
 
 Xn fields of air we breathe a purer Jove ; 
 
 Page 123, line 2. 
 
 malusque 
 
 Jupiter urget. 
 An expression ot" Horace. 
 
 10. 
 
 JVith larger spangles satisfies the sight, 
 
 Page 123, line 6. 
 
 When the traveller leaves the forest, the hemisphere 
 appears under him, and the stars larger.
 
 138 NOTES UPON ETNA. 
 
 n. 
 
 A forest here displayed it's azure head, 
 
 77iere, dimly seen, the misty vineyards spread ; 
 
 Page 123, lines 19 and 20. 
 
 This is a common effect before the dawn : clouds seem 
 trees, if in such a situation as to be mistaken for them. 
 
 1?. 
 
 The falcon now, that since the dawn of day 
 Had soar'd on Etna's side in quest of prey, 
 
 Page 124, lines 5 and 6. 
 
 Nothing can give a more stupendous idea of the height 
 of this mountain : the falcon soars on the side of Etna, 
 under the traveller, though above the rest of the world.
 
 NOTES UPON ETNA. 139 
 
 13. 
 
 Ifliere mountain nymphs to ineet the wood descend; 
 
 Page 124, last line. 
 
 The scenes are exactly analogous to the personages here 
 quoted. 
 
 H. 
 
 With IV ant on Circe, and enjoy her love ; 
 
 Page 125, line 8. 
 
 See the Comus of Milton.
 
 140 NOTES UPON ETNA. 
 
 15. 
 
 The withered tree anticipates ifs doom, 
 
 Page 12n, line 13. 
 
 Before the lava arrives, the trees, in it*s course, wither 
 and die, their roots being burnt up. 
 
 \G. 
 
 Tliough less imprudent J maijt like Plini/f die; 
 
 Page 1 27, line 2, 
 
 Pliny went too near to examine and make observations, 
 the consequence of which proved fatal to him.
 
 NOTES UPON ETNA. 141 
 
 ir. 
 
 Fro7n streams of lava when Pompeiajtedy 
 
 Page 1 27, line 3. 
 
 The inhabitants of Pompeia were, many of them, over- 
 whelmed in their flight. It at present exhibits a curious 
 specimen of destruction working the work of preservation. 
 For, if that very thing had not taken place, the old Pompeia, 
 at least, would have been now no more ; instead of which 
 a traveller can now walk in it's streets as well as those of 
 London, and the houses were apparently as perfect, when 
 the author saw them, with the exception only, that the 
 roofs were off, the apartments being equally fresh in co- 
 lour and every thing, as if inhabited yesterday.
 
 142 NOTES UPON ETNA. 
 
 18. 
 
 Mourns not the plains where Attica expir'd ? 
 
 Page 128, line 2. 
 
 The Athenians suffered many misfortunes in Sicily, at the 
 siege of Syracuse; an instance of the ambition here re-^ 
 presented. The Spartans compelled them to leave it at 
 least. See a fine description of their departure in Thu* 
 cydides, of which the chief circumstances are here taken, 
 and not extremely different from the veiy words. Athens 
 never recovered the blow.
 
 CHARLES WOOD, Printer, 
 Poppin's Court, Fleet Street, London.
 
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