NOTES

ON THE FIRST PART.

NOTE I.

Hence o'er the spot, where rest the storied dead, &c.

THE influence of association is thus finely depictured by Akenside.

"Such is the secret union, when we feel

A song, a flower, a name, at once restore

Those long connected scenes, where first they moved The attention; backward thro her mazy walks Guiding the wanton fancy to her scope,

To temples, courts, or fields, with all the band

Of painted forms, of passions and designs

Attendant; whence, if pleasing in itself,

The prospect from that sweet accession gains

Redoubled influence o'er the listening mind."

PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.

NOTE II.

The Granic hero paused to weep and pray.

When Alexander had crossed the Hellespont in his march into Asia, he paused at the tomb of Achilles on the promontory of Sigeum, and after garlanding his tomb with flowers, and paying divine honours to his memory, exclaimed, that he considered Achil les chiefly happy in having a friend, like Patroclus, and a poet, like Homer. Atque iis tamen cum in Sigeo ad Achillis tumulum adstitisset; O! fortunate, inquit, adolescens, qui tuæ virtutis Homerum præconem inveneris ! Et vere, nam nisi Ilias illa extitisset, idem tumulus, qui corpus ejus contexerat, nomen ejus obruisset. Cic. pro Archiâ poetâ-Plut. in Alex.

NOTE III.

Thro CORNEAN portals pass in bright review.

The allusion here to the Cornean gate, and in a

subsequent page to the Ivory gate, is explained in the following lines:

Sunt geminæ somni portæ ; quarum altera fertur

Cornea, quâ veris facilis datur exitus umbris :

Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto;

Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia manes.

ENEID VI. 893.

NOTE IV.

No fine enchantments, raised at WIELAND's call,

Convene her shadowy train to fancy's hall.

Wieland, the darling of the German muse, by turns sweet, affecting, magnificent, sublime, commanding, terrible the favorite of fancy, to whom she unveiled her most beautiful forms, drest in the voluptuous

M

ness of the loves, and the translucent snow of the

graces. His works

-nec Jovis ira, nec ignis,

Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas.

OVID. METAM.

NOTE V.

Ambitious SYLLA roams a restless ghost.

After his abdication of the dictatorship Sylla retired

to a solitary retreat at Puteoli, where he spent the remainder of his life in riot and debauchery. The most vile pimps, and low profligates were the companions of his pleasures; and it is observed of him, that like Marius, he endeavored to destroy the stings of con

science by continual intoxication. His

excesses

brought on the most disgusting distempers, and he

expired a dreadful instance of vice and villany.

PLUT. IN SYLLE VITA.