"They came, but a new spirit their hearts possest, Scattering a _sacred calm_ through every breast." _Davideis_, lib. i. ad finem. "All earth-bred fears and sorrows take their flight; In rushes joy divine, and hope, and rest; A _sacred calm_ shines through his peaceful breast." _Davideis_, lib. ii. ad finem. Again, does not Mr. Gray's _Ode to Spring_-- "Methinks I hear," &c. remind one a little of Cowley's "Anacreontic to the Grasshopper?" "To thee of all things upon earth, Life is no longer than thy mirth. Happy insect, happy thou, _Dost neither age nor winter know_. But when thou'st drunk, and danc'd, and sung Thy fill, the flowery leaves among (Voluptuous and wise withal, Epicurean animal!) Sated with thy summer feast Thou retir'st to endless rest." or the following lines "Their raptures now that wildly flow, _No yesterday nor morrow know_; Tis man alone that joy descries With forward, and reverted eyes." Gray's _Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude_. In his notes to "Spring," Wakefield gets quite pathetic at the words-- "Poor moralist, and what art thou? A solitary fly," &c. I have always believed that Gray was imitating Bishop Jeremy Taylor: "Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities, and churches, and heaven itself. _Celibate, like the fly in the heart of an apple_, dwells in a perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined and dies in singularity."--Sermon XVII. _The Marriage Ring_, Part I. If these random notes be interesting to any of your readers, they are only a portion out of many I could send; and any one who doubts Gray's partiality for Cowley may compare his second verse of the "Ode to Spring" with Cowley's lines on "Solitude," found amongst his _Essays_, especially verses 4. and 5.: "Here let me careless and unthoughtful lying Hear the soft winds above me flying, With all their wanton boughs dispute, And the more tuneful birds to both replying, Nor be my self too mute. "A silver stream shall roll his waters near; Gilt with the sunbeams here and there, On whose enamel'd bank I'll walk, And see how prettily they smile, and hear How prettily they talk." And-- "Soft-footed winds with tuneful voices there Dance through the perfumed air, There silver rivers through enamel'd meadows glide, And golden trees enrich their side." _Translation of Pindar's Second Olympic Ode._ Or let him compare Gray's Latin and English verses upon the death of his friend Mr. West with Cowley's upon the death of Mr. William Harvey and Mr. Crashaw: "Hail, Bard Triumphant! and some care bestow On us the Poets Militant below," &c. Cowley _on Mr. Crashaw_. "At Tu, sancta anima, et nostri non indiga luctus," &c.