"The _weaving_ of the _winding-sheet_ he borrowed, as he owns, from the Northern Bards; but their texture, however, was very properly the work of female powers, as the act of spinning the thread of life is another mythology. Theft is always dangerous; Gray has made weavers of slaughtered bards by a fiction outrageous and incongruous. They are then called upon to 'Weave the warp, and weave the woof,' perhaps with no great propriety; for it is by crossing the _woof_ with the _warp_ that men weave the _web_ or piece; and the first line was dearly bought by the admission of its wretched correspondent, 'Give ample room and verge enough.' He has, however, no other line as bad. "The third stanza of the second ternary is commended, I think, beyond its merit. The personification is indistinct. _Thirst_ and _Hunger_ are not alike; and their features, to make the imagery perfect, should have been discriminated. We are told, in the same stanza, how 'towers are fed.' But I will no longer look for particular faults; yet let it be observed that the ode might have been concluded with an action of better example; but suicide is always to be had, without expense of thought." [Illustration: "Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame!"] [Illustration: HEAD OF OLYMPIAN JOVE.] HYMN TO ADVERSITY. This poem first appeared in Dodsley's _Collection_, vol. iv., together with the "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." In Mason's and Wakefield's editions it is called an "Ode," but the title given by the author is as above. The motto from Æschylus is not in Dodsley, but appears in the first edition of the poems (1768) in the form given in the text. The best modern editions of Æschylus have the reading, [Greek: ton (some, tôi) pathei mathos]. Keck translates the passage into German thus: "Ihn der uns zur Sinnigkeit leitet, ihn der fest den Satz Stellet, 'Lehre durch das Leid.'" Plumptre puts it into English as follows: "Yea, Zeus, who leadeth men in wisdom's way, And fixeth fast the law Wisdom by pain to gain." Cf. Mrs. Browning's _Vision of Poets_: "Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death." 1. Mitford remarks: "[Greek: Atê], who may be called the goddess of Adversity, is said by Homer to be the daughter of Jupiter (_Il._ [Greek: t.] 91: [Greek: presba Dios thugatêr Atê, hê pantas aatai). Perhaps, however, Gray only alluded to the passage of Æschylus which he quoted, and which describes Affliction as sent by Jupiter for the benefit of man." The latter is the more probable explanation. 2. Mitford quotes Pope, _Dunciad_, i. 163: "Then he: 'Great tamer of all human art.'" 3. _Torturing hour_. Cf. Milton, _P. L._ ii. 90: "The vassals of his anger, when the scourge Inexorable, and the torturing hour, Calls us to penance."