soul, that this denial of criminals, at the hour of death, arises from the desire of lessening the disgrace which is to attach to their memories, and to their own families. "Nonne videmus, uti convictus criminis, ipso “Limine sub mortis, culpam tamen abneget omnem, Mendax, ut sibi constet honos atque integra fama ? "Indicia, obscurasque notas; hinc sollicita est mens "De se posteritas quid sentiat." Lib. 1, v. 148. I may add to this, that there is nothing extraordinary that a man, who has been guilty of any atrocious crime, should feel no hesitation, especially if he is impenitent, to persist in falsehood to the last. And view the scene of last eventful morn.-3. p. 5. Mrs. Gilbert expired between eight and nine o'clock in the morning of April 8, 1818. Th' ethereal spark is gone up whence it came.-4. p. 5. Ecclesiastes. xii, 7. And crowns with vict'ry, since to God it leads.-5. p. 6. 1. Cor. xv, 57. Not with more joy the captive leaves behind.-6. P. 6. I am indebted for this idea to the following beautiful terzetto of Petrarch, in his Triumph of Death. "Che'n tutto quel mio passo er 'io più lieta Che qual d' esilio al dolce albergo riede; "Se non che mi stringea sol di te pieta." Capitolo II. v, 73. Knows he is free, and that to die, is gain.—7. p.6. Philippians, 1. 21. For I am grateful, and as man I feel.-8. r. 7. It is the unrivalled merit of some, which excites the envy of others, who find themselves eclipsed on comparison; or as Horace expresses himself, in Francis' translation, "For he, who soars to an unwonted height, "The arts beneath him." Book 11. Ep. 1. Should any persons of that description have been thus affected. towards Mrs. Gilbert, let us, by not answering them, refuse to associate their names with her pious memory, which ought never to be mentioned but in the language of regret and veneration. While at the heart the genial current flows.-9. P. 9. "Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos reget artus." Long as this hand can trace a measur'd line.-10. P. 9. From Raleigh's patriot fount his gentle blood.-11. P. 10. The family are descended from Sir Walter Raleigh; but the excellent Lady, here celebrated, had a much higher claim to respect than that of having been related either to a hero or a patriot. Within the circle of his little span.-12. P. 11. Psalm xxxix. 6. A boon in its attainment hard and rare.-13. P. 11. Psalm xc, 10. Near to the limits of the farthest space.-14. P. 11. Mrs. Gilbert was in her 75th year at the time of her death. Was like a garment thread-bare in its webb.-15. p. 12. Applied here rather differently from what it is in Psalm cii, v. 26." Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed." and presses to the mark Of its high calling.-16. P. 14. Philippians iii, 14. For grace abundant heals the broken heart.-17. P. 14. Luke iv, 18. 'Twould rise on Seraph wings to be with Christ.-18. p. 15. Philippians i, 23. What can compensate for a soul thus lost 2-19. p. 16. Matthew xvi, 26. And ev'n in age retain'd the piercing eye.-20. p. 16. A friend of the author saw the Great Frederic, at Berlin, about 1780; he was then an old man, and had nothing remarkable in his person, except the brilliancy of his eyes. At a like age, and thro' the same decay-21. r. 17. Frederic was born in 1712, and died in 1786, of a marasmus, or general decay of nature. Would rather muse o'er Kosciusko's grace,-22. p. 18. The illustrious Kosciusko died an exile in Swisserland, whence his remains have lately been removed, and deposited among the tombs of the Kings of Poland, at Cracow. Which, while their eyes are darken'd with the shade Terrestrial, is deny'd in health to men.-23. p. 19. All poets, and even many divines, have supposed that persons at the point of death can see more clearly into futurity, than while they were in health. "Namque ubi torpescunt artus, jam morte propinquâ, H. Browne, De Imm. Anim., lib. 1, v. 239. How long sleep lasted ere it clos'd in death.-24. p. 19. This is a fact. After a restless night this excellent person fell asleep; she waked no more, but so easy was her departure, that her attendants could scarcely ascertain the precise moment when the breath forsook her. Petrarch describes the death of Laura to have happened in the same manner. Surely this is the death of the righteous. "Parea posar, come persona stanca. "Quasi un dolce dormir ne' suoi begli occhi, Trionfo Della Morte, Capitolo 1, v. 170. NOTES TO CANTO II. Grief loves that weeping, whose indulgence brings "He excited the desire of lamentation," is the strong and emphatical language of Homer on similar occasions. The passage begins at verse 507 of the last book of the Iliad, but Pope's translation of it is very free. What if I see thee in that fav'rite room.-2. p. 26. These, and the following nine stanzas, allude to some of her little, but striking and amiable peculiarities. The facts mentioned must be well known to every one who had the honour of her acquaintance. Nothing more evidently showed her partiality, than when she desired any person to draw his chair by her; and when it was one whom she favoured, she generally contrived that he should sit by her at table. The remaining stanzas contain a description of her sitting room, a spot endeared by her former conversation, and now sacred to memory and to grief. The author will not conceal, that the first time he entered it after her decease, he was powerfully affected, and that he has never been there since without feeling a vacuity, which nothing could supply, and without the excitement of recollections, which are necessarily painful. And with Platonic rapture still grow warm.-3. p. 29. She is said to have been handsome in her youth. The animation that was all thine own. -4. P. 31. This and the next stanza are an attempt to describe the appearance of that accomplished woman, in her old age. Her friends will acknowledge that the description is rather below than above the truth; and strangers will admire a person, who, notwithstanding the loss of personal beauty, at her advanced period of life, had retained the rare secret of being interesting and appearing amiable to the young. Thine was the radiance of those darting eyes.-5. 31. It is almost impossible to do justice to the brightness of her eyes; for never did finer or more expressive add to the beauty and attractions of any female. "Questi son que' begli occhi che mi stanno 66 Sempre nel cor con le faville accese; "Perch' io di lor parlando non mi stanco." Il Petrarca, Sonetto LV. Tho' to the height of poet's frenzy wrought.-6. P. 32. "Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to heav'n ; The form of things unknown, the Poet's pen "Turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing "A local habitation and a name. When at first sight thy kindness beam'd on me.-7. p. 33. "Vive faville uscian de' duo bei lumi "Qual' ora à quel di torno ripensando.” Sonetto ccxx, From that time, till her death, her eyes never looked on me but with kindness. That chasten'd elegance of dying bloom.-8. r. 34. The lustre of her eyes remained unimpaired to the last, and appeared even more elegant and interesting, when contrasted with the increasing debility of her bodily frame. There was something, so mild, placid, and resigned in her expression, that it could not but forcibly remind one, with what ease and happiness the Christian can exchange time for eternity, and, when on the brink of the grave, already enjoy a foretaste of the joys of glorified Spirits. That grief is impious, when a friend is lost,—9. p. 34. This alludes to the beautiful Collect in our Burial Service, which is borrowed from St. Paul. Thess. iv, 13, 14. Had eyes more sparkling, tho' in Tuscan Song With wreaths immortal by her Petrarch crown'd.-10. p. 34. The Poems of Petrarch abound in descriptions of the sparkling eyes of Laura. "Ogni loco m' attrista, ov' io non veggio |