Dryden, in his Abfalom and Achitophel :

Take then my tears: (with that he wip'd his eyes) 'Tis all the aid my present power supplies.

Ver. 49. Then share thy pain

She fays in her first letter: "Ancillulas ipfius et tuas de "his, in quibus adhùc fluctuas, naufragiis certificare dig"neris; ut nos faltèm, quæ tibi folæ remanfimus, doloris "vel gaudii participes habeas."

Ver. 58. And waft a figh from Indus to the pole. Otway's tranflation of Phædra to Hippolytus : Thus fecrets fafe to farthest shores may move: By letters foes converfe, and learn to love.

Ver. 62. Some emanation of th' all-beauteous mind:

that is, the Divinity himself, denominated in the Effay on Man, ii. 24. in conformity to the fame Platonic speculation,

-the firft good, first perfect, and first fair:

where fee my remark.

Ver. 66. And truths divine came mended from that tongue.

Mrs. Rowe's elegy:

For he could talk-'Twas exftacy to hear;
'Twas joy! 'twas harmony to every ear.
Eternal mufic dwelt upon his tongue,
Soft and tranfporting as the Mufes' fong.

Ver. 62. Back through the paths of pleafing fenfe I ran,
Nor wish'd an angel whom I lov’d a man.

"Thy holy precepts and the fanctity of thy character "had made me conceive of thee as of a being more ve"nerable than man, and approaching the nature of su

<< perior existences. But thy perfonal allurements foon "infpired thofe tender feelings, which gradually con"ducted me from a veneration of the angel to a lefs pure "and dignified fenfation, love for the man." I esteem this paragraph, so happily defcriptive of a most delicate operation of the mind, among the very noblest efforts of English poetry.

Ver. 75. Love, free as air, at fight of human ties,

Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.

So in Dryden's Aureng-Zebe :

'Tis true, of marriage bands I'm weary grown, Love fcorns all ties but thofe that are his own. S.

Ver. 87. Not Cæfar's emprefs would I deign to prove. This is the paltry ftile of an inferior writer. So, to give a fingle inftance, Mrs. Wharton in her Penelope to Ulyffes :

The homely duties of a wife I prove,

But never knew to fix a wand'ring love.

The thoughts themfelves are in Heloifa's firft letter: "Si me Auguftus, univerfo præfidens mundo, matrimonii "honore dignaretur, charius mihi et dignius videretur, "tua dici meretrix, quàm illius imperatrix.-Et fi uxoris "nomen fanctius et validius videtur, dulcius mihi fempèr "extitit amicæ vocabulum; aut, fi non indigneris, con"cubinæ, vel fcorti."

Ver. 99. Alas! how chang'd! what fudden horrors rife ! A naked lover bound and bleeding lies.

Mrs. Rowe, in her elegy, with equal sensibility :

The fmiling vifion takes its hafty flight,
And fcenes of horror fwim before my fight
Grief and defpair in all their terrors rife ;
A dying lover pale and gafping lies!

Ver. 100.

Ver. 100. Then came originally the following couplet: Cut from the roots my perish'd joys I fee,

And love's warm tide for ever stopp'd in thee.

Ver. 104. The crime was common, common be the pain. Like a verse of Drummond's under his article in the Biographia; as Mr. Steevens alfo obferved :

The grief was common, common were the cries.

And, fays Mr. White, careless readers may mifapprehend the fenfe. Pain here means punishment, pæna.

Ver. 106. Let tears and burning blushes fpeak the rest.

Lady Montague's Eclogue, Wednesday :

When I with burning blushes own I love. Eufden's tranflation of Mufæus :

And fighs and dying murmurs told the reft. Creech's Lucretia, from Ovid's Faft. ii.

-her blushes Spoke the rest.

Mrs. Behn's verfion of none to Paris:

Whilft fighs, and looks all dying, spoke the rest. Let me be permitted to quote here Mrs. Cockburn's most beautiful and tender fonnet, entitled Caution, for the admonition of "all that chears and foftens life," my readers of the fair fex:

I.

Soft kiffes may be innocent;

But ah! too eafy maid! beware, Though that is all thy kindness meant, 'Tis Love's delufive, fatal fnare.

II.

No virgin e'er at first design'd

Through all the maze of love to stray : But each new path allures her mind; 'Till, wand'ring on, she lose her way.

III.

'Tis easy, e'er fet out, to stay;
But who the useful art can teach,
When fliding down a sleepy way,
To stop before the end we reach ?
IV.

Keep ever fomething in thy power,
Beyond what would thy honour stain :

He will not dare to aim at more,

Who for fmall favors fighs in vain.

Ver. 122. Still drink delicious poison from thy eye,
Concanen's Match at Football, Canto iii.
Till once our leader chanc'd the nymph to spy,
And drank in poifon from her lovely eye.

Lady Montague's Eclogue, Tuesday :

Drinking delicious paifon from her face,

Ogilby, Virg. Æn. iv,

Defires to hear Troy's war once more, then fips
Again fweet poyfon from th' inchanter's lips.

Mr. Steevens quotes Shakspeare's Anthony and Cleopatra,
Act i. Scene 5,

Now I feed myself

With most delicious poifon.

Ver. 129. Ah! think at least thy flock deferves thy care; Plants of thy hand, and children of thy pray'r.

"If thou can't forget me, think at leaft upon thy flock." To her for five long years he had not written a single line. Berington's Hiftory, p. 213. The fimile itfelf is found in her first letter: "Tua itaque, verè tua, hæc eft "propriè novella plantatio; cujus adhuc teneris maximè "plantis frequens, ut proficiant, neceffaria eft irrigatio

Ver. 132.

Ver. 132. By thee to mountains, wilds, and deferts led. You rais'd thefe hallow'd walls.

"It was a fmall fequeftered vale, fays Mr. Berington, "furrounded by a wood, not far distant from Nogent fur "Seine; and a rivulet ran near its fide. It did not ap"6 pear, that the foot of any mortal had hitherto disturbed "its folitude."

As the word wild recurs in ver. 134, and for variety, our poet should have written:

By thee to mountains, woods, and deserts led. Again Mr. Berington. "Without lofs of time, Abeillard "then and his companion planned the new building, and "with the fame hands began to erect it. Having com"pleted what they called their oratory, they constructed

a fecond building, which was to be their own dwelling." She fays in her first letter: In ipfis cubilibus ferarum, in ipfis latibulis latronum, divinum erexifti tabernaculum: "You erected the divine tabernacle in the very dens of wild beasts, and the lurking places of robbers."

Ver. 136. Our shrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors. Milton's Comus, ver. 732.

th' unfought diamonds.

Would fo imblaze the forehead of the deep.

Rowe's Lucan, ix. 884.

Yet no proud domes are rais'd, no gems are seen
To blaze upon his shrines with costly sheen;

But plain and poor

"Nihil ad hoc ædificandum ex regum vel principum "opibus intulifti, cùm plurima poffes et maxima; ut quicquid fieret, tibi foli poflet afcribi." Heloifa's firft letter.

Ver. 140. And only vocal with the maker's praife. That is, "only one founder and benefactor was cele"brated

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