Allur’d to brighter worlds. Cf. Tickell on Addison—‘Saints who taught and led the way to Heaven.’ And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray. Prior compares the opening lines of Dryden’s _Britannia Rediviva_:— Our vows are heard betimes, and heaven takes care To grant, before we can conclude the prayer; Preventing angels met it half the way, And sent us back to praise, who came to pray. As some tall cliff, etc. Lucan, Statius, and Claudian have been supposed to have helped Goldsmith to this fine and deservedly popular simile. But, considering his obvious familiarity with French literature, and the rarity of his ‘obligations to the ancients,’ it is not unlikely that, as suggested by a writer in the _Academy_ for Oct. 30, 1886, his source of suggestion is to be found in the following passage of an Ode addressed by Chapelain (1595–1674) to Richelieu:— Dans un paisible mouvement Tu t’élèves au firmament, Et laisses contre toi murmurer cette terre; Ainsi le haut Olympe, à son pied sablonneux, Laisse fumer la foudre et gronder le tonnerre, Et garde son sommet tranquille et lumineux. Or another French model—indicated by Mr. Forster (_Life_, 1871, ii. 115–16) by the late Lord Lytton—may have been these lines from a poem by the Abbé de Chaulieu (1639–1720):— Au milieu cependant de ces peines cruelles De notre triste hiver, compagnes trop fidèles, Je suis tranquille et gai. Quel bien plus précieux Puis-je espérer jamais de la bonté des dieux! Tel qu’un rocher dont la tête, Égalant le Mont Athos, Voit à ses pieds la tempête Troubler le calme des flots, La mer autour bruit et gronde; Malgré ses emotions, Sur son front élevé règne une paix profonde, Que tant d’agitations Et que ses fureurs de l’onde Respectent à l’égal du nid des alcyons. On the other hand, Goldsmith may have gone no further than Young’s _Complaint: Night the Second_, 1742, p. 42, where, as Mitford points out, occur these lines:— As some tall Tow’r, or lofty Mountain’s Brow, Detains the Sun, Illustrious from its Height, While rising Vapours, and descending Shades, With Damps, and Darkness drown the Spatious Vale: Undampt by Doubt, Undarken’d by Despair, _Philander_, thus, augustly rears his Head. Prior also (_Life_, 1837, ii. 252) prints a passage from _Animated Nature_, 1774, i. 145, derived from Ulloa, which perhaps served as the raw material of the simile.