to which we call it good, is ever acknowledged to be beautiful also. In the characters of men we always join the two denominations together. The beauty of human bodies corresponds, in like manner, with that economy of parts which constitutes them good; and, in every circumstance of life, the same object is constantly accounted both beautiful and good, inasmuch as it answers the purposes for which it was designed."- Xenophont. Memorab. Socrat. 1. iii. c. 8.

Some

This excellent observation has been illustrated and extended by the noble restorer of ancient philosophy; see the Characteristics, vol. ii. pp. 339 and 422, and vol. iii. p. 181. And another ingenious author has particularly shown, that it holds in the general laws of nature, in the works of art, and the conduct of the sciences,- Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, Treat. i. § 8. As to the connection between beauty and truth, there are two opinions concerning it. philosophers assert an independent and invariable law in nature, in consequence of which all rational beings must alike perceive beauty in some certain proportions, and deformity in the contrary. And this necessity being supposed the same with that which commands the assent or dissent of the under. standing, it follows of course that beauty is founded on the universal and unchangeable law of truth.

But others there are who believe beauty to be merely a relative and arbitrary thing; that indeed it was a benevolent provision in nature to annex so delightful a sensation to those objects which are best and most perfect in themselves, that so we might be engaged to the choice of them at once, and without staying to infer their usefulness from their structure and effects; but that it is not impossible, in a physical sense, that two beings, of equal capacities for truth, should perceive, one of them beauty, and the other deformity, in the same proportions. And upon this supposition, by that truth which is always connected with beauty, nothing more can be meant than the conformity of any object to those proportions upon which, after careful examination, the beauty of that species is found to depend. Polycletus, for instance, à famous ancient sculptor, from an accurate mensuration of the several parts of the most perfect human bodies, deduced a canon or system of proportions which was the rule of all succeeding artists. Suppose a statue modelled according to this: a man of mere natural taste, upon looking at it, without entering into its proportions, confesses and admires its beauty; whereas a professor of the art applies his measures to the head, the neck, or the hand, and, without attending to its beauty, pronounces the workmanship to be just and true.

This the Athenians did in a peculiar manner, by the words καλοκαγαθός and καλοκαγαθία.

Ver. 492. As when Brutus rose, &c.] Cicero himself describes this fact: "Cæsare interfecto - statim cruentum alte extollens M. Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nomination exclamavit, atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus." -- Cic. Philipp. ii. 12.

Ver. 548. Where virtue, rising from the awful depth

Of truth's mysterious bosom, &c.] According to the opinion of those who assert moral obligation to be founded on an immutable and universal law, and that which is usually called the moral sense, to be determined by the peculiar temper of the imagination and the earliest associations of ideas. Ver. 591. Lyceum] The school of Aristotle.

Ver. 592. Academus.] The school of Plato.

Ver. 594. Ilissus.] One of the rivers on which Athens was situated. Plato, in some of his finest dialogues, lays the scene of the conversation with Socrates on its banks.

NOTES ON BOOK II.

VER. 19. At last the Muses rose, &c.] About the age of Hugh Capet, founder of the third race of French kings, the poets of Provence were in high reputation; a sort of strolling bards or rhapsodists, who went about the courts of princes and noblemen, entertaining them at festivals with music and poetry. They attempted both the epic, ode, and satire; and abounded in a wild and fantastic vein of fable, partly allegorical, and partly founded on traditionary legends of the Saracen wars. These were the rudiments of Italian poetry. But their taste and composition must have been extremely barbarous, as we may judge by those who followed the turn of their fable in much politer times; such as Boiardo, Bernardo, Tasso, Ari osto, &c.

Ver. 21. Valclusa.] The famous retreat of Francisco Petrarcha, the father of Italian poetry, and his mistress Laura, a lady of Avignon.

Ver. 22. Arno.] The river which runs by Florence, the birth-place of Dante and Boccaccio.

Ver. 23. Parthenope.] Or Naples, the birth place of Sannazaro. The great Torquato Tasso was born at Sorento, in the kingdom of Naples.

Ibid.

the rage

Of dire ambition, &c.] This relates to the cruel wars among the republics of Italy, and abominable politics of its little princes, about the fifteenth century. These, at last, in conjunction with the papal power, entirely extinguished the

spirit of liberty in that country, and established that abuse of the fine arts which has been since propagated over all Europe.

Ver. 30. Thus from their guardians torn, the tender arts, &c.] Nor were they only losers by the separation. For philoso phy itself, to use the words of a noble philosopher, "being thus severed by the sprightly arts and sciences, must consequently grow dronish, insipid, pedantic, useless, and directly opposite to the real knowledge and practice of the world.” Insomuch that "a gentleman," says another excellent writer, "cannot easily bring himself to like so austere and ungainly a form; so greatly is it changed from what was once the delight of the finest gentlemen of antiquity, and their recreation after the hurry of public affairs!" From this condition it cannot be recovered but by uniting it once more with the works of imagination; and we have had the pleasure of observing a very great progress made towards their union in England within these few years. It is hardly possible to conceive them at a greater distance from each other than at the Revolution, when Locke stood at the head of one party, and Dryden of the other. But the general spirit of liberty, which has ever since been growing, naturally invited our men of wit and genius to im prove that influence which the arts of persuasion gave them with the people, by applying them to subjects of importance to society. Thus poetry and eloquence became considerable; and philosophy now of course obliged to borrow of their embellishments, in order even to gain audience with the pub

lic.

Ver. 157. From passion's power alone, &c.] This very mys terious kind of pleasure, which is often found in the exercise of passions generally counted painful, has been taken notice of by several authors. Lucretius resolves it into self-love:

Suave mari magno, &c. lib. ii. 1.

As if a man was never pleased in being moved at the distress of a tragedy, without a cool reflection that though these fictitious personages were so unhappy, yet he himself was perfectly at ease and in safety. The ingenious author of the "Reflections Critiques sur la Poésie et sur la Peinture," accounts for it by the general delight which the mind takes in its own activity, and the abhorrence it feels of an indolent and inattentive state; and this, joined with the moral approbation of its own temper, which attends these emotions when natural and just, is certainly the true foundation of the pleasure, which, as it is the origin and basis of tragedy and epic, deserved a very particular consideration in this poem.

Ver. 304. Inhabitant of earth, &c.] The account of the economy of Providence here introduced, as the most proper to calm and satisfy the mind when under the compunction of private evils, seems to have come originally from the Pytha gorean school; but, of the ancient philosophers, Plato has most

largely insisted upon it, has established it with all the strength of his capacious understanding, and ennobled it with all the magnificence of his divine imagination. He has one passage so full and clear on this head, that I am persuaded the reader will be pleased to see it here, though somewhat long. Addressing himself to such as are not satisfied concerning divine Providence: "The Being who presides over the whole," says he, has disposed and complicated all things for the happiness and virtue of the whole, every part of which, according to the extent of its influence, does and suffers what is fit and proper. One of these parts is yours, O unhappy man, which though in itself most inconsiderable and minute, yet being connected with the universe, ever seeks to co-operate with that supreme order. You in the mean time are ignorant of the very end for which all particular natures are brought into existence, that the all-comprehending nature of the whole may be perfect and happy; existing, as it does, not for your sake, but the cause and reason of your existence, which, as in the symmetry of every artificial work, must of necessity concur with the general design of the artist, and be subservient to the whole, of which it is a part. Your complaint, therefore, is ignorant and groundless; since, according to the various energy of creation and the common laws of nature, there is a constant provision of that which is best at the same time for you and for the whole. For the governing Intelligence, clearly beholding all the actions of animated and self-moving creatures, and that mixture of good and evil which diversifies them, considered first of all by what disposition of things, and by what situation of each individual in the general system, vice might be depressed and subdued, and virtue made secure of victory and happiness with the greatest facility and in the highest degree possible. In this manner he ordered, through the entire circle of being, the internal constitution of every mind, where should be its station in the universal fabric, and through what variety of circumstances it should proceed in the whole tenor of its existence." He goes on in his sublime manner to assert a future state of retribution, "as well for those who, by the exercise of good dispositions being harmonized and assimilated into the divine virtue, are consequently removed to a place of unblemished sanctity and happiness, as of those who by the most flagitious arts have risen from contemptible beginnings to the greatest affluence and power, and whom you therefore look upon as unanswerable mstances of negligence in the gods, because you are ignorant of the purposes to which they are subservient, and in what manner they contribute to that supreme intention of good to the whole."- Plato de Leg. x. 16.

This theory has been delivered of late, especially abroad, in a manner which subverts the freedom of human actions; whereas Plato appears very careful to preserve it, and has been in that respect imitated by the best of his followers.

Ver. 321.

one might rise,

One order, &c.] See the Meditations of Antoninus and the Characteristics, passim.

Ver. 35. The best and fairest, &c.] This opinion is so old, that Timeus Locrus calls the Supreme Being δημιουργὸς τοῦ BEATiovos, the artificer of that which is best; and represents him as resolving in the beginning to produce the most excellent work, and as copying the world most exactly from his own intelligible and essential idea; "so that it yet remains, as it was at first, perfect in beauty, and will never stand in need of any correction or improvement." There can be no room for a caution here, to understand the expressions, not of any particular circumstances of human life separately considered, but of the sun or universal system of life and being. See also the vision at the end of the Theodicée of Leibnitz.

Ver. 350. As flame ascends, &c.] This opinion, though not held by Plato nor any of the ancients, is yet a very natural consequence of his principles. But the disc aisition is too coraplex and extensive to be entered upon here.

Ver. 755. Philip.] The Macedonian.

VER. 18.

NOTES ON BOOK III.

where the powers

Of fancy, &c.] The influence of the imagination on the conduct of life is one of the most important points in moral philosophy. It were easy, by an induction of facts, to prove that the imagination directs almost all the passions, and mixes with almost every circumstance of action or pleasure. Let any man, even of the coldest head and soberest industry, analyse the idea of what he calls his interest; he will find that it consists chiefly of certain degrees of decency, beauty, and order, variously combined into one system, the idol which he seeks to enjoy by labour, hazard, and self-denial. It is on this account of the last consequence to regulate these images by the standard of nature and the general good; otherwise the imagination, by heightening some objects beyond their real excellence and beauty, or by representing others in a more odious or terrible shape than they deserve, may of course engage us in pursuits utterly inconsistent with the moral order of things.

If it be objected that this account of things supposes the Dassions to be merely accidental, whereas there appears in