Ormond bore the loss with patience and dignity: though he ever
retained a pleasing, however melancholy, sense of the signal merit of
Ossory. “I would not exchange my dead son,” said he, “for any living
son in Christendom.” HUME, vi. 340. The same sentiment is inscribed
on Miss Dolman’s urn at the Leasowes.
Heu, quanto minus est cum reliquis versari, quam tui meminisse!
[26]
_High on exulting wing the heath-cock rose_.
This bird is remarkable for his exultation during the spring.
Brit, Zoology, 266.
[27]
_Derwent’s clear mirror_
Keswick Lake in Cumberland.
[28]
_Down by St Herbert’s consecrated grove_.
A small island covered with trees, among which were formerly the
ruins of a religious house.
[29]
_When lo! a sudden blast the vessel blew_.
In a lake surrounded with mountains, the agitations are often violent
and momentary. The winds blow in gusts and eddies; and the water no
sooner swells, than it subsides.
See BOURN’S Hist, of Westmorland.
[30]
_To what pure beings, in a nobler sphere_,
The several degrees of angels may probably have larger views, and
some of them he endowed with capacities able to retain together, and
constantly set before them, as in one picture, all their past
knowledge at once.
LOCKE on Human Understanding, b. ii, c. x. g.
AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND.
Villula,……….et pauper agelle,
Me tibi, et hos unâ mecum, et quos semper amavi,
Commendo.
PREFACE.
Every reader turns with pleasure to those passages of Horace, and
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 solum
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 Cincin-natus; 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 embellished his garden and grotto with great industry
and success. But to these alone he solicits our notice. On the
ornaments of his house he is silent; and he appears to have reserved
all the minuter touches of his pencil for the library, the chapel,
and the banquetting-room of Timon. ‘Le savoir de notre siècle,’ says
Rousseau, ‘tend beaucoup plus à détruire qu’à edifier. On censure
d’un ton de maitre; pour proposer, il en faut prendre un autre.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account