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Prima genas tenui signat vix flore juventas,
Et dextræ soli credimus esse virum.
Dum faciles gradiens oculos per singula jactas,
(Seu rexit casus lumina, sive Venus)
In me (vel certè visum est) conversa morari
Sensi; virgineus perculit ora pudor.
Nescio quid vultum molle spirare tuendo,
Credideramque tuos lentius ire pedes.
Quærebam, juxta æqualis si dignior esset,
Quæ poterat visus detinuisse tuos :
Nulla fuit circum æqualis quæ dignior esset,
Asseruitque decus conscia forma suum.
Pompa finis erat. Totâ vix nocte quievi,
Sin premat invitæ lumina victa sopor,
Somnus habet pompas, eademque recursat imago;
Atque iterum hesterno munere victor ades.†

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50

V. 37. "Ora puer prima signans intonsa juventa,” Virg. En. ix. 181. Also Ovid. Met. xiii. 754. Virg. Æn. vii. 162. viii. 160.

V. 39" Facilesque oculos fert omnia circum," Virg. Æn. viii. 310!

V. 40. "Ad fratrem casu lumina flexa tulit," Ov. Trist. iii. ix. 22.

V. 43. Gray has in this instance preserved a metrical canon, which has been broken through by many of the modern Latin poets; repeatedly by Milton, Addison, Buchanan, and T. Warton. See the Classical Journal, 1. 71. 283, xxi. 174. xxii. 364. and Barthius and Burman on Nemesian Eclog. ii. 32. see Poet. Lat. Minor. vol. i. p. 570. and Dawes. Misc. Crit. ed. Kidd. p. 3.

V. 46. "Sæpe oculos etiam detinuisse tuos," Ov. Trist. ii. 520.

V. 49. "Infelix totâ quicumque quiescere nocte," Ovid. Amor. ii. 9. 39.

V. 50. "Lumina cum placido victa sopore jacent," Ov. Ep. xvi. 100.

† Ellis, in his Historical Sketch of English Poetry, (p. 224,)

DIDACTIC POEM UNFINISHED:

ENTITLED

DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI.

LIBER PRIMUS. AD FAVONIUM.

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 55.]

5

UNDE Animus scire incipiat; quibus inchoet orsa
Principiis seriem rerum, tenuemque catenam
Mnemosyne: Ratio unde rudi sub pectore tardum
Augeat imperium; et primum mortalibus ægris
Ira, Dolor, Metus, et Curæ nascantur inanes,
Hinc canere aggredior. Nec dedignare canentem,
O decus! Angliacæ certe O lux altera gentis!
Si quà primus iter monstras, vestigia conor
Signare incertâ, tremulâque insistere plantâ.
Quin potius duc ipse (potes namque omnia) sanc-

tum

Ad limen (si ritè adeo, si pectore puro,)

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thinks that the description of the entry of Troilus into Troy, in Chaucer's Romance of Troilus and Creseida, suggested to Gray some very beautiful lines in this Epistle: "Jam flexi, regale decus," &c. (See Chaucer, b. xi. st. 83. fol. 151. ed. 1602.)

"This Troilus sat on his baye steed,

All armed, save his head, full richely," &c.

V. 4. Virg. Georg. i. 237, "Mortalibus ægris," and Lucret. vi. 1. Luke.

V. 5. Virg. Georg. iv. 345, "Curam Clymene narrabat inanem." Luke.

V. 7. "Magnæ spes altera Romæ," Virg. Æn. xii. 168. This apostrophe is addressed to 'Locke.'

V. 9. "Tremulis possunt insistere plantis," Juv. Sat. vi. 96.

Obscuræ reserans Naturæ ingentia claustra.
Tu cæcas rerum causas, fontemque severum
Pande, Pater; tibi enim, tibi, veri magne Sacerdos,
Corda patent hominum, atque altæ penetralia
Mentis.

15

Tuque aures adhibe vacuas, facilesque, Favonî, (Quod tibi crescit opus) simplex nec despice car

men,

Nec vatem: non illa leves primordia motus,
Quanquam parva, dabunt.

quicquid

Lætum vel amabile

[auras,

22

Usquam oritur, trahit hinc ortum; nec surgit ad
Quin ea conspirent simul, eventusque secundent.
Hinc variæ vitaï artes, ac mollior usus,
Dulce et amicitiæ vinclum: Sapientia dia
Hinc roseum accendit lumen, vultuque sereno
Humanas aperit mentes, nova gaudia monstrans,
Deformesque fugat curas, vanosque timores:
Scilicet et rerum crescit pulcherrima Virtus.
Illa etiam, quæ te (mirùm) noctesque diesque

26

V. 12. Naturæ primus portarum claustra cupiret," Lucret. i. 72. "Cæcas causas, "Ibid. iii. 317. Virg. Æn. vii. 15. "portarum ingentia claustra." Luke.

V. 13. "Amnemque severum," Virg. Æn. vi. 374. And Georg. iii. 7: Amnemque severum Cocyti metuet.

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V. 15. "Mentis penetralia nudat," Claud. Rap. Pros. i. 213. V. 16. "Faciles habuit aures," Quintil. Inst. Orat. vi. v. "Vacuas aures adhibe," Lucret. i. 45.

p. 576.

V. 21.

Eventusque secundet," Virg. Georg. iv. 397. V. 24. "Rubens accendit lumina Vesper," Virg. Georg. i. 251.

V. 26. Hor. Epod. xiii. 18, "Deformis ægrimoniæ." Luke. V. 27. Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma," Georg. ii. 534.

Assiduè fovet inspirans, linguamque sequentem Temperat in numeros, atque horas mulcet inertes ; Aurea non aliâ se jactat origine Musa.

31

85

Principio, ut magnum fœdus Natura creatrix Firmavit, tardis jussitque inolescere membris Sublimes animas; tenebroso in carcere partem Noluit ætheream longo torpere veterno: Nec per se proprium passa exercere vigorem est, Ne sociæ molis conjunctos sperneret artus, Ponderis oblita, et cœlestis conscia flammæ. Idcircò innumero ductu tremere undique fibras Nervorum instituit: tum toto corpore miscens 40 Implicuit latè ramos, et sensile textum,

Implevitque humore suo (seu lympha vocanda, Sive aura est) tenuis certè, atque levissima quædam

Vis versatur agens, parvosque infusa canales
Perfluit; assiduè externis quæ concita plagis, 45
Mobilis, incussique fidelis nuntia motûs,

Hinc indè accensâ contage relabitur usque
Ad superas hominis sedes, arcemque cerebri.

V. 31. "At non Venus aurea contra," Virg. Æn. x. 16. "Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea, " Hor. Od. i. v. 9.

V. 32. Rerum natura creatrix," Lucret. i. 623.

V. 33. See note at p. 176, on the position of "que," and Burman on Antholog. Lat. vol. i. p. 607.

V. 35. "Nec torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno," Virg. Georg. 124.

V. 45. " Sequenti concita plaga," Lucret. iv. 189. ternis plagis," Ibid. ii. 1140.

"Stetit unis in arcem Erectus capitis."

V. 48.

In cerebrum."

Manil. Astron. iv. 905.

"Penitusque supremum,

Claud. xviii. 52.

"Ex

Namque illic posuit solium, et sua templa sacravit Mens animi: hanc circum coëunt, densoque fe

runtur

Agmine notitiæ, simulacraque tenuia rerum:
Ecce autem naturæ ingens aperitur imago
Immensæ, variique patent commercia mundi.

50

55

Ac uti longinquis descendunt montibus amnes Velivolus Tamisis, flaventisque Indus arena, Euphratesque, Tagusque, et opimo flumine Ganges, Undas quisque suas volvens, cursuque sonoro In mare prorumpunt: hos magno acclinis in antro Excipit Oceanus, natorumque ordine longo Dona recognoscit venientûm, ultròque serenat 60

v. Macrob. S. Scipionis, i. p. 46. v. Gronovii Not. Apuleii Apolog. "Verticem hominis velat arcem et regiam." Coripp. de Laud. Justini. ii. 190. Claudiani Cons. Honor, iv. "Summa capitis pendavit in arce." Sid. Apoll. v. 239, "Arce cerebri." Prudent. Ham. 312, "Mediaque ex arce cerebri," and many other examples. Roscommon has the "Caverns of the Brain," on Poetry, v. 27, and see Sprat. Plague of Athens, st. 11.

"Tum vapor ipsam,

Corporis arcem flammis urit." Seneca Edip. 185. "And his pure brain,

See also Shakespeare:

Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house."

And see ver. 135 of this poem.

V. 51. So Lucret. iii. 244:

K. John, act v. sc. 7.

"Qua nec mobilius quidquam neque tenuius exstat." And Virg. Georg. i. 398:

"Tenuia nec lanæ per cœlum vellera ferri."

V. 51. "Rerum simulachra ferantur," Lucret. iv. 165. "Geminoque facis commercia mundo," Claud. xxxiii. 91. Te tuus Oceanus natali gurgite lassum Excipit," Claud. vii. 176.

V. 59.

V. 60. "Dona recognoscit populorum," Virg. Æn. viii. 721.

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