Th' applause of listening senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their history in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone

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Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined; Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of Mercy on mankind,

The struggling pangs of conscious Truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous Shame, 70
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride

With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

thought by some, that in it Mr. Edwards has not done justice to his subject.

67. Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,

And shut the gates of Mercy on mankind.]

"And swam to empire through the purple flood."

Pope's Temple of Fame, 347.

These two verses are a specimen of sublimity of the purest kind, like the simple grandeur of Hebrew poetry; depending solely on the thought, unassisted by epithets and the artificial decorations of expression.

Shakspeare has something of the same idea: "I'll turn my mercy out of doors."-Tempest, act iii. sc. 2.—WAKefield. Also in Henry V. act iii. sc. 2:

"The gates of Mercy shall be all shut up."

And in Henry VI. part iii.

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Open thy gate of Mercy, gracious Lord."

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,

Ver. 73. Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.]

VARIATION.

"The thoughtless world to majesty may bow,
Exalt the brave, and idolize success;

But more to Innocence their safety owe,
Than Power, or Genius, e'er conspired to bless.

And thou, who mindful of the unhonoured dead,
Dost in these notes their artless tale relate,
By Night and lonely Contemplation led
To wander in the gloomy walks of Fate :

Hark! how the sacred calm, that breathes around,
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease;
In still small accents whispering from the ground,
A grateful earnest of eternal peace.

No more, with reason and thyself at strife,
Give anxious cares and endless wishes room;
But through the cool sequestered vale of life
Pursue the silent tenor of thy doom."

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And here the poem was originally intended to conclude, before the happy idea of the hoary-headed swain, &c. suggested itself to him. I cannot help hinting to the reader, that I think the third of these rejected stanzas equal to any in the whole Elegy.-MASON.

Ver. 78. Some frail memorial still erected nigh.] The resem

With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

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Their name, their years, spelt by th' unlettered Muse,

The place of fame and elegy supply:

And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?

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blance of this and the four next lines to the following of Celio Magno, is pointed out in the number of the Edinburgh Review, already referred to:

"Una (one of the muses) di scolpir si sforza

Nel dura marmo, e porvi ad altrui voglia

Breve detto, che'l nome e i merti accoglia."

Ver. 79. With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked.] In Gray's Elegy, is there an image more striking than his "shapeless sculpture?"- -LORD BYRON.

Ver. 87. Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day.] A fine improvement on the original:

"Dias in luminis oras."

Lucret. i. 23.

Ver. 88. Nor cast one longing lingering look behind.] There is a pathetic passage in Euripides, which has a striking resemblance to this admirable stanza:

- Καιπερ σμικρον εμπνεουσ' ετι,
Βλεψαι προς αυγας βουλεται τας ἡλιου,
Ως ουποτ' αυθις, αλλα νυν πανύστατον
Ακτινα κυκλον θ ̓ ἡλιου προσόψεται.”

Alcest. 205.-WAKEFIELD.

On some fond breast the parting soul relies,

Some pious drops the closing eye requires; E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.

Ver. 89. On some fond breast the parting soul relies.] To Mr. Mitford we are indebted for the following from Drayton's Moses :

"It is some comfort to a wretch to die,
(If there be comfort in the way of death,)
To have some friend, or kind alliance by
To be officious at the parting breath."

Vol. iv. p. 1564. ed. 1753.

Ver. 90. Some pious drops the closing eye requires.] Conformable to this sentiment is the wish of Solon:

• Μηδε μοι ακλαυστος θάνατος μολοι αλλα φιλοισι-
Καλλειποιμι θανων αλγεα και στοναχας.”

Ver. 5. ed. Brunck.-WAKEFIELD.

In a similar strain is that pathetic lament:

"No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear
Pleas'd thy pale ghost, or grac'd thy mournful bier."
Pope's Elegy, 81.

Ver. 92. E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.]
"Ch'i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco,
Fredda una lingua, et due begli occhi chiusi
Rimaner doppo noi pien di faville."

Petrarch, Son. 169.-GRAY.

"Yet in our ashen cold, is fire yreken."

Chaucer's Reve's Prol. ver. 3880. p. 186.

"Awake and faithful to her wonted fires."

Thus it stood in the first and some following editions, and I think rather better; for the authority of Petrarch does not destroy the appearance of quaintness in the other: the thought, however, is rather obscurely expressed in both readings. He means to say, in plain prose, that we wish to be remembered by our friends after our death, in the same manner as when alive

For thee, who, mindful of the unhonoured dead,
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;
If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,

Some kindred spirit shall enquire thy fate,

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,
"Oft have we seen him at the peep of Dawn
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn:

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100

we wished to be remembered by them in our absence: this would be expressed clearer, if the metaphorical term fires was rejected, and the line run thus:

"Awake and faithful to her first desires."

I do not put this alteration down for the idle vanity of aiming to amend the passage, but purely to explain it.-MASON.

Mr. Wakefield, in jealousy for his Author's credit, is very angry with Mason's criticism and explanation of the passage, and he substitutes a paraphrase of his own. Whatever be the difference of his interpretation, he lets out the secret, that the words of the Elegy need interpretation; and this itself is a se

vere censure.

Ver. 99. Brushing with hasty steps the dews away.] Much in the same manner Thomson:

"Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields,

Where freshness breathes, and dash the trembling drops

From the bent bush, as through the verdant maze

Of sweet-briar hedges I pursue my walk."

Spring, 103.-Wakefield. Ver. 100. To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.]

"On the high brow of yonder hanging lawn." After which, in his first manuscript, followed this stanza : "Him have we seen the greenwood side along, While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done, Oft as the woodlark piped her farewell song, With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun."