NOTES.

NOTE a. Page 67.

AN allusion to the sacrifice of Iphigenia.

NOTE b. Page 68.

Quæ caput a cœli regionibus ostendebat,
Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans.

LUCRETIUS, 1. i. v. 65.

NOTE c. Page 69.

When we were ready to set out, our host muttered some words in the ears of our cattle.

See a Voyage to the North of Europe in 1653.

NOTE d. Page 69.

The Bramins voluntarily expose their bodies to the intense heat of the sun.

NOTE e. Page 69.

Ridens moriar. The conclusion of an old Runic ode, preserved by Olaus Wormius.

NOTE f Page 69.

In the Bedas, or sacred writings of the Hindoos, is this pas sage: She who dies with her husband, shall live for ever with him in heaven.'

NOTE g. Page 69.

The fates of the northern Mythology. See MALLET'S Antiquities.

NOTE h. Page 70.

An allusion to the Second Sight.

NOTE i. Page 70.

See that fine description of the sudden animation of the Palladium in the second book of the Æneid.

NOTE k. Page 71.
The bull, Apis.

NOTE 1. Page 71.

The Crocodile.

NOTE m. Page 71.

So numerous were the deities of Egypt, that, according to an ancient proverb, it was in that country less difficult to find a god than a man.

NOTE n. Page 71.

The Hieroglyphics.

NOTE o. Page 71.

The Catacombs, in which the bodies of the earliest generations yet remain without corruption, by virtue of the gums that embalmed them.

NOTE p. Page 71.

The Persians,' says Herodotus, 'reject the use of temples, altars, and statues. The tops of the highest mountains are the places chosen for sacrifices.' i. 131. The elements, and more particularly fire, were the objects of their religious reverence.

NOTE q. Page 72.

An imitation of some wonderful lines in the sixth book of the Æneid.

NOTE г. Page 73.
See Tacitus, 1. xiv. c. 29.

H

NOTE s. Page 73.

This remarkable event happened at the siege and sack of Jerusalem, in the last year of the eleventh century, when the triumphant croises, after every enemy was subdued and slaughtered, immediately turned themselves, with sentiments of humiliation and contrition, towards the holy sepulchre. They threw

aside their arms, still streaming with blood: they advanced with reclined bodies, and naked feet and head, to that sacred monument: they sung anthems to their Saviour who had purchased their salvation by his death and agony: and their devotion, enlivened by the presence of the place where he had suffered, so overcame their fury, that they dissolved in tears, and bore the appearance of every soft and tender sentiment.

HUME, i. 221.

AN

EPISTLE

TO

A FRIEND.

Vilula,

et pauper agelle,

Me tibi, et hos una mecum, quos semper amavi,

Commendo.

PREFACE.

EVERY reader turns with pleasure to those passages of Horace, Pope, and Boileau, which describe how they lived and where they dwelt; and which, being interspersed among their satirical writings, derive a secret and irresistible grace from the contrast, and are admirable examples of what in painting is termed repose.

We have admittance to Horace at all hours. We enjoy the company and conversation at his table; and his suppers, like Plato's, 'non soulum in præsentia, sed etiam postero die jucundæ sunt.' But, when we look round as we sit there, we find ourselves in a Sabine farm, and not in a Roman villa. His windows have every charm of prospect; but his furniture might have descended from Cincinnatus; and gems, and pictures, and old marbles, are mentioned by him more than once with a seeming indifference.

His English imitator thought and felt, perhaps, more correctly on the subject; and einbellished his garden and grotto with great industry and success. But to these alone he solicits our notice: