III. Behold; unbless'd at home, The father of the cheerless household mourns: The night in vain returns, For Love and glad Content at distance roam; While she, in whom his mind Seeks refuge from the day's dull task of cares, To meet him she prepares, Thro' noise and spleen and all the gamester's art, A listless, harass'd heart, Where not one tender thought can welcome find. IV. 'Twas thus, along the shore. Of Thames, Britannia's guardian Genius heard, Of strife and grief the fond invective lore; Like thunder sounding near, Smote the red cross upon her silver shield, And thus her wrath reveal'd. (I watch'd her awful words, and made them mine.) 1 NOTES ON THE TWO BOOKS OF ODES. B. i. Ode xviii. Stanza ii. 2]. Lycurgus, the Lacedæmonian lawgiver, brought into Greece from Asia Minor the first complete copy of Homer's works. At Platea was fought the decisive battle between the Persian army and the united militia of Greece under Pausanias and Aristides. - Cimon the Athenian erected a trophy in Cyprus for two great victories gained on the same day over the Persians by sea and land. Diodorus Siculus has preserved the inscription which the Whenians affixed to the consecrated spoils, after this great Sess, in which it is very remarkable that the greatness of the occasion has raised the manner of expression above the usual simplicity and modesty of all other ancient inscriptions. It is this: ΕΞ. ΟΥ. Γ'. ΕΥΡΩΠΗΝ. ΑΣΙΑΣ. ΔΙΧΑ. ΠΟΝΤΟΣ. ΚΑΙ. ΠΟΛΕΑΣ. ΘΝΗΤΩΝ. ΘΟΥΡΟΣ. ΑΡΗΣ. ΕΠΕΧΕΙ. ΑΝΔΡΩΝ. ΕΡΓΟΝ. ΕΝ. ΗΠΕΙΡΩΙ. ΚΑΙ. ΚΑΤΑ. ΠΟΝΤΟΝ, ΑΜΑ. ΟΙΔΕ. ΓΑΡ. ΕΝ ΚΥΠΡΩΙ. ΜΗΔΟΥΣ. ΠΟΛΛΟΥΣ. ΟΛΕΣΑΝΤΕΣ. ΦΟΙΝΙΚΩΝ. ΕΚΑΤΟΝ. ΝΑΥΣ. ΕΛΟΝ. ΕΝ. ΠΕΛΑΓΕΙ. ΑΝΔΡΩΝ. ΠΛΗΘΟΥΣΑΣ. ΜΕΓΑ. Δ'. ΕΣΤΕΝΕΝ. ΑΣΙΣ. ΥΠ. ΑΥΤΩΝ. Η ΛΗΓΕΙΣ. ΑΜΦΟΤΕΡΑΙΣ. ΧΕΡΣΙ. ΚΡΑΤΕΙ. ΠΟΛΕ[Diod. 1. xi, 62.] ΜΟΥ. The following translation is almost literal: Since first the sea from Asia's hostile coast At once among the waves and on the shore, Stanza i. 3.] Pindar was cotemporary with Aristides and Cimon, in whom the glory of ancient Greece was at its height. When Xerxes invaded Greece, Pindar was true to the cor non interest of his country; though his fellow-citizens, the The bans, had sold themselves to the Persian king. In one of his odes he expresses the great distress and anxiety of his mind, occa sioned by the vast preparations of Xerxes against Gr cece (Isthm. 8.) In another he celebrates the victories of Salin's Platæa, and Himera. (Pyth. 1.) It will be necessary to add two or three other particulars of his life, real or fabulous, order to explain what follows in the text concerning him. First, then, he was thought to be so great a favourite of Apollo, that the priests of that deity allotted him a constant share of their offerings. It was said of him, as of some other illustrious men that at his birth a swarm of bees lighted on his lips, and fei him with their honey. It was also a tradition erning hit, that Pan was heard to recite his poetry, and seen dancing to one of his hymns on the mountains near Thebes. But a rea. historical fact in his life is, that the Thebans imposed a large fine upon him on account of the veneration which he expressed in his poems for that heroic spirit, shown by the people of Athens in defence of the common liberty, which his own fellow-citizens had shamefully betrayed. And, as the argument of this ode implies, that great poetical talents and high scntiments of liberty do reciprocally produce and assist each other, so Pindar is perhaps the most exemplary proof of this connection, which occurs in history. The Thebans were remarkable, in general, for a slavish disposition through all the fortunes of their commonwealth: at the time of its ruin by Philip; and even in its best state, under the administration of Pelopidas and Epaminondas: and every one knows, they were no less remarkable for great dulness, and want of all genius. That Pindar should have equally distinguished himself from the rest of his fellow-citizens, in both these respects, seems som what extraordinary, and is scarce to be accounted for by the preceding observation. Stanza iii. 3. Alluding to his Defence of the People of England against Salmasius. See particularly the manner in which he himself speaks of that undertaking, in the introduction to his reply to Morus. Stanza iv. 3.] Edward the Third; from whom descended Henry Hastings, third Earl of Huntingdon, by the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward the Fourth. Stanza v. 3. At Whittington, a village on the edge of Scarsdale in Derbyshire, the Earls of Devonshire and Danby, with the Lord Delamere, privately concerted the plan of the Revolution. The house in which they met is at present a farmhouse, and the country people distinguish the room where they sat, by the name of the plotting parlour. B. ii. Ode vii. Stanza ii. 1.] Mr. Locke died in 1704, when M Mr. Hoadly was beginning to distinguish himself in the cause of civil and religious liberty; Lord Godolphin in 1712, when the doctrines of the Jacobite faction were chiefly favoured by those in power; Lord Somers in 1716, amid the practices of the nonjuring clergy against the protestant establishment; and Lord Stanhope in 1721, during the controversy with the lower house of convocation. B. ii. Ode x. Stanza v.] During Mr. Pope's war with Theobald, Concanen, and the rest of their tribe, Mr. Warburton, the present Lord Bishop of Gloucester, did with great zeal cultivate their friendship; having been introduced, forsooth, at the meetings of that respectable confederacy; a favour which he afterwards spoke of in very high terms of complacency and thankfulness. At the same time, in his intercourse with them, he treated Mr. Pope in a most contemptuous manner, and as a writer without genius. Of the truth of these assertions his lordship can have no doubt, if he recollects his own correspondence with Concanen; a part of which is still in being, and will probably be remembered as long as any of this prelate's writings. B. ii. Ode xiii. In the year 1751 appeared a very splendid edition, in quarto, of" Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la Maison de Brandebourg, à Berlin et à la Haye;" with a privilege signed Frederic; the same being engraved in imitation of hand-writing. In this edition, mich the third stanza of other extraordinary passages, are the two following, to this ode more particularly refers: "Il se fit une migration (the author is speaking of what happened on the revocation of the edict of Nantes) dont on n'avoit guère vu d'exemples dans l'histoire: un peuple entier sortit du royaume par l'esprit de parti, en haine du pape, et pour recevoir sous un autre ciel la communion sous les deux espèces: quatre cens mille âmes s'expatrièrent ainsi et abandonnèrent tous leurs biens, pour détonner dans d'autres temples les vieux pseaumes de Clément Marot." (p. 163.) "La crainte donna le jour à la crédulité, et l'amour propre intéressa bientot le ciel au destin des hommes." (p. 242.) 382 HYMN TO THE NAIADS. 1746." ARGUMENT. THE Nymphs, who preside over springs and rivulets, are addressed at day break, in honour of their several functions, and of the relations which they bear to the natural and to the moral world. Their origin is deduced from the first allegorical deities, or powers of nature; according to the doctrine of the old mythological poets, concerning the generation of the gods and the rise of things. They are then successively considered, as giving motion to the air, and exciting summer breezes; as nourishing and beautifying the vegetable creation; as contributing to the fulness of navigable rivers, and consequently to the maintenance of commerce; and by that means to the maritime part of military power. Next is represented their favourable influence upon health, when assisted by rural exercise: which introduces their connection with the art of physic, and the happy effects of mineral medicinal springs. Lastly, they are celebrated for the friendship which the Muses bear them, and for the true inspiration which temperance only can receive; in opposition to the enthusiasm of the more licentious poets. O'ER yonder eastern hill the twilight pale |