she had entertained him for some time, and conducted him about the grounds of Coppet, and shewn him whatever else was worthy of attention, he sarcastically observed to her at parting: "Mais, Madame, qui prend soin de vos enfans?"-The attention to domestic concerns is generally the most difficult accomplishment which a learned lady can acquire. NOTES TO CANTO V. To make it feel the ravages of time.-1. p. 84. Hawkins Browne, in his Latin Poem, on the Immortality of the soul, has beautifully described the vigour of the mental powers in old age. See Book 11, v. 271. Her warm description of unwedded love.-2. P. 89. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard is certainly a very beautiful Poem, but its immoral tendency cannot bear to be examined. The celebrated passage, beginning at the 73d verse, is highly objectionable, and ought to be seldom read, and never quoted. Thine were the words that eas'd affliction's stroke.-3. p. 90. This and the following five stanzas are founded on facts. When this amiable woman was nearly past all hopes of recovery, the author remarked, with admiration, her extreme concern for some slight indisposition of her husband, and in which she seemed to forget her own precarious state. That thou should'st first, recall'd to peaceful rest, Sleep in the cold embraces of the grave.-4. P. 92. It had long been the object of her prayers, that Heaven might recal her first. The pious request was granted. It bade the summers rise to thirty five.-5. p. 92. "Thirty-five years of uninterrupted happiness! a long race, during which my husband has never given me one moment's uneasiness," were the words which she used to a friend, on the last anniversary of her wedding day, Death wither'd quickly with malignant frown.-6. r 92. The verses of Lord Byron, on the death of the Princess Charlotte, have been deservedly admired. When lately looking over Delille's Poem on Imagination, I found some lines so strictly applicable to the unfortunate Princess, that if there was not a certainty to the contrary, they would seem to have been written on her death. "L'Epoux pleure une épouse; "Hèlas! de leur bonheur la fortune jalouse, "Meurt avant d'étre né, dans le sein de sa mère ; "Tel le bouton naissant se fane avec la fleur." Chant. vII, p. 150. Her Petrarch wander'd on a distant shore.-7. P. 93. The attachment of Petrarch to Laura has been consecrated by himself in the most elegant and pathetic strains of Tuscan Poetry. There was something particularly romantic in their passion, "Ch'adir, ed a pensar a molti ha dato." For 'tis not all a widow'd Russel's fame,-8. P. 95. Rachel, Lady Russel, was one of the most learned, virtuous, and celebrated women of her time, and yet not less remarkable for her misfortunes, and her fortitude and resignation to the will of HeaShe was the wife of Lord William Russel, who was beheaded in 1683, and her conduct, on that occasion, has fully entitled her name to descend with honour to posterity. ven. The death of a beloved husband was not the only private sorrow she had to encounter, for her only son, the Duke of Bedford, was carried off by the small pox, in the prime of life, and one of her two daughters, the Duchess of Rutland, died in child-bed. She died in 1723, at the advanced age of 87, after having enjoyed the friendship and correspondence of several of the most eminent men of her age. The mind is injur'd when it dwells on those, Who make it callous;-9. p. 97. An acquaintance with the vice and misery of others has a tendency to render men callous to virtue, and suspicious of their fellow creatures. NOTES TO CANTO VI. Nor yet to life has rather fondly clung.—1. p. 110 It is very natural, that those who have much to lose in this world, should feel some reluctance on quitting it. The Christian Religion affords the only rational means, which can subdue this attachment, as it holds out encouragements of higher rewards than any which the world can bestow on its favourites; till the mind of the good man is at length rendered placid and resigned, and he is eager to depart. And cold oblivion o'er thy senses creep 2-2. p. 114. It is remarkable that the best and wisest men, in all ages and countries, have indulged in the pleasing hope of a future state; while, on the other hand, those who have embraced the other side, have generally been wicked and unprincipled in other respects, and, perhaps, only wrote so, because they wished it to be so. After so many great men, it cannot be expected that I should offer much that may be original on the subject. I wish these stanzas to be merely understood as an expression of my opinion and feelings, when I remarked, with admiration, how the vigour of our friend's intellect was perfectly unimpaired, when she was slowly sinking into the grave, and could hardly rise from her chair. Of all the compositions, that have a bearing on this momentous question, I never was more delighted with any, than with Addison's Paper on the Immortality of the Soul, and Mason's Elegy on the death of Lady Coventry. A hallow'd peace with thy departure blends;-3. p. 117. Numbers, xxiii, 10. But spoils without their agitating mind.-4. P. 117. "In costor non hai tu ragione alcuna, Trionfo Della Morte, Cap. 1, v. 50. Which pierc'd chain'd Tityus with rav'nous maw;-5. p. 118. The classical reader will perceive, that this is one of the argu ments of Lucretius against superstition, and which is here retorted upon infidelity itself; as, indeed, the uncertainty and restlessness of the latter are, perhaps, more distressing than the credulity and the terrors of the former. "Sed Tityos nobis hic est; in amore jacentem "Quem volucres lacerant; atque exest anxius angor; Tasso has the same idea about these internal vultures. "Roso gli è il petto e lacerato il core 66 Dagl' interni avoltoj, sdegno e dolore." La Ger Canto x, v. 47. And it is to him that Gray seems to have been indebted for the same thought, in his Ode On a Distant Prospect of Eton College, "These shall the fury passions tear, 66 The vultures of the mind, "Disdainful anger, pallid fear, "And shame that skulks behind." Of the Grim Giant of the cloud-capt Cape.-6. r. 119. "Nam acabava, quando huma figura Os Lusíadas. Canto v, v. 305. Upon thy silent lips the finger lay.-7. P. 120. Job, xl, 4. That union has an end, which death can part.-8. P. 120. "So long as ye both shall live ;" and "till death us do part," are the solemn words of our Church in the Marriage Service. And Heav'n inflicts but what we can endure.-9. p. 121. James v, 11. Thro' tribulations how their course was run.-10. p. 121. Acts xiv, 22. Their load it lighten'd, and it eas'd their yoke.-11. P. 121. Matthew xi, 28, 29, 30. Of sharpest evils for the end propos'd.—12. p. 121. Read how Ezekiel's glowing voice foretold,-13. p. 121. NOTES TO CANTO VII. And none can tell how much his ashes weigh.-1. P. 127. 66 'Expende Annibalem: quot libras in duce summo "Invenies? 66 -Mors sola fatetur, Quantula sint hominum corpuscula.' Juvenal. Sat. x. Quick as the passing shadow, mortals rise.-2. p. 127. Job xiv, 2. That all is vanity beneath the sun.-3. p. 127. Ecclesiastes i, 2. Whose nostrils by th' Almighty's breath were warm'd.-4. p. 127. Genesis ii, 7. But little lower than the Angels form'd.—5. p. 127. Psalm viii, 5. Leaves it to moulder in the certain hope, That promis'd life shall on its slumbers smile.-6. p. 128. Burial Service, "We commit his body to the ground, in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life. P. And plant the tombs with box's evergreen.-7. p. 129. There is something at once affectionate and romantic in this custom of the Welsh. Some years ago, during an excursion into the Principality, the writer of this note observed the graves thus adorned with flowers. It is common with the better sort of people to plant them with box, which they trim into a square, so as to resemble |