Hæret et aspectu tota caterva tuo. Jam flexi, regale decus, per colla capilli, Jam decet ardenti fuscus in ore color!

Commendat frontis generosa modestia formam, 35 Seque cupit laudi surripuisse suæ.

Prima genas tenui signat vix flore juventas,

Et dextræ soli credimus esse virum.

Dum faciles gradiens oculos per singula jactas,
(Seu rexit casus lumina, sive Venus)

In me (vel certè visum est) conversa morari
Sensi; virgineus perculit ora pudor.
Nescio quid vultum molle spirare tuendo,
Credideramque tuos lentius ire pedes.
Quærebam, juxta æqualis si dignior esset,
Quæ poterat visus detinuisse tuos:
Nulla fuit circum æqualis quæ dignior esset,

40

45

V. 34. "" Et enim fusco grata colore Venus," Ov. Amor. ii. 440. And Propert. El. ii. xix. 78.

V. 35. Ov. Medicam. ver. 1. "Quæ faciem commendat cura." And ad Liv. 259.

V. 37. 66 Ora puer prima signans intonsa juventa," Virg. Æn. ix. 181. Also Ovid. Met. xiii. 754. Virg. Æn. vii. 162. viii. 160.

V. 39. "Facilesque oculos fert omnia circum," Virg. En. viii. 310.

V. 40. "Ad fratrem casu lumina flexa tulit," Ov. Trist. iii. ix. 22.

V. 43. Gray has in this instance preserved a metrical canon, which has been broken through by many of the modern Latin poets:-repeatedly by Milton, Addison, Buchanan, and T. Warton. See the Classical Journal, 1.71. 283, xxi. 174. xxii. 364. and Barthius and Burman on Nemesian Eclog. ii. 32. see Poet. Lat. Minor. vol. i. p. 570. and Dawes. Misc. Crit. ed. Kidd, p. 3.

V. 46. " Sæpe oculos etiam detinuisse tuos," Ov. Trist.

ii. 520.

Asseruitque decus conscia forma suum. Pompa finis erat. Totâ vix nocte quievi, Sin premat invitæ lumina victa sopor, Somnus habet pompas, eademque recursat imago; Atque iterum hesterno munere victor ades.†

50

DIDACTIC POEM UNFINISHED:

ENTITLED,

DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI.

LIBER PRIMUS. AD FAVONIUM.

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 55.]

UNDE Animus scire incipiat; quibus inchoet orsa Principiis seriem rerum, tenuemque catenam Mnemosyne Ratio unde rudi sub pectore tardum Augeat imperium; et primum mortalibus ægris

V. 49. "Infelix, totâ quicumque quiescere nocte," Ovid. Amor. ii. 9. 39,

V. 50. "Lumina cum placido victa sopore jacent," Ov. Ep. xvi. 100.

Ellis, in his Historical Sketch of English Poetry, (p. 224,) thinks that the description of the entry of Troilus into Troy, in Chaucer's romance of Troilus and Creseida, suggested to Gray some very beautiful lines in this Epistle : Jam flexi, regale decus," &c. (See Chaucer, b. xi. st. 83. fol. 151. ed. 1602.)

"

"This Troilus sat on his baye steed,

All armed, save his head, full richely," &c. V. 4. Virg. Georg. i. 237, "Mortalibus ægris," and Lucret. vi. 1. Luke.

5

ira, Dolor, Metus, et Curæ nascantur inanes,
Hinc canere aggredior. Nec dedignare canentem,
O decus! Angliacæ certe O lux altera gentis !
Si quà primus iter monstras, vestigia conor
Signare incertâ, tremulâque insistere plantâ.
Quin potius duc ipse (potes namque omnia) sanctum
Ad limen (si ritè adeo, si pectore puro,)
Obscura reserans Naturæ ingentia claustra.
Tu cæcas rerum causas, fontemque severum
Pande, Pater; tibi enim, tibi, veri magne Sacerdos,
Corda patent hominum, atque altæ penetralia

Mentis.

11

15

Tuque aures adhibe vacuas, facilesque, Faronî, (Quod tibi crescit opus) simplex nec despice carmen, Nec vatem non illa leves primordia motus, Quanquam parva, dabunt. Lætum vel amabile

quicquid

[auras, Usquam oritur, trahit hinc ortum; nec surgit ad Quin ea conspirent simul, eventusque secundent.

V. 5. Virg. Georg. iv. 345, “Curam Clymene narrabat inanem." Luke.

V. 7. "Magnæ spes altera Romæ," Virg. Æn. xii. 168. This apostrophe is addressed to 'Locke.'

V. 9. "Tremulis possunt insistere plantis," Juv. Sat. vi. 96.

V. 12. Naturæ primus portarum claustra cupiret," Lucret. i. 72. "Cacas causas," Ibid. iii. 317. Virg. Æn. vii. 15, "portarum ingentia claustra." Luke.

V. 13. "Amnemque severum," Virg. Æn. vi. 374. And Georg. iii. 7; Amnemque severum Cocyti metuet."

V. 15. "Mentis penetralia nudat," Claud. Rap. Pros. i. 213.

V. 16. "Faciles habuit aures," Quintil. Inst. Orat. vi. v. p, 576. "Vacuas aures adhibe," Lucret. i. 45.

66

V. 21. Eventusque secundet," Virg. Georg. iv. 397.

26

Hinc variæ vitaï artes, ac mollior usus,
Dulce et amicitiæ vinclum : Sapientia dia
Hinc roseum accendit lumen, vultuque sereno
Humanas aperit mentes, nova gaudia monstrans
Deformesque fugat curas, vanosque timores :
Scilicet et rerum crescit pulcherrima Virtus.
Illa etiam, quæ te (mirùm) noctesque diesque
Assiduè fovet inspirans, linguamque sequentem
Temperat in numeros, atque horas mulcet inertes;
Aurea non aliâ se jactat origine Musa.

Principio, ut magnum fœdus Natura creatrix
Firmavit, tardis jussitque inolescere membris
Sublimes animas; tenebroso in carcerè partem
Noluit ætheream longo torpere veterno:
Nec per se proprium passa exercere vigorem est,
Ne sociæ molis conjunctos sperneret artus,
Ponderis oblita, et cœlestis conscia flammæ.

$1

35

V. 24. "Rubens accendit lumina Vesper," Virg. Georg. i. 251.

V. 26. Hor. Epod. xiii. 18, “Deformis ægrimoniæ.”

Luke.

V. 27. “Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma,” Georg. ii. 534.

V. 31. "At non Venus aurea contra," Virg. Æn. x. 16. "Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea," Hor. Öd. i. v. 9.

V. 32. "Rerum natura creatrix," Lucret. i. 623.

V. 33. See note at p. 176, on the position of "que," and Burman on Antholog. Lat. vol. i. p. 607.

V. 35. "Nec torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno,” Virg. Georg. i. 124.

V. 45. "Sequenti concita plaga," Lucret. iv. 189. "Externis plagis," Ibid. ii. 1140.

Stetit unus in arcem

Erectus capitis." Manil. Astron. iv. 905.
Penitusque supremum,
Claud. xviii. 52.

In cerebrum."

40

Idcircò innumero ductu tremere undique fibras
Nervorum instituit: tum toto corpore miscens
Implicuit latè ramos, et sensile textum,
Implevitque humore suo (seu lympha vocanda,
Sive aura est) tenuis certè, atque levissima quædam
Vis versatur agens, parvosque infusa canales
Perfluit; assiduè externis quæ concita plagis, 45
Mobilis, incussique fidelis nuntia motûs,
Hinc indè accensâ contage relabitur usque
Ad superas hominis sedes, arcemque cerebri.
Namque illic posuit solium, et sua templa sacravit
Mens animi: hanc circum coëunt, densoque feruntur
Agmine notitiæ, simulacraque tenuia rerum :
Ecce autem naturæ ingens aperitur imago
Immensæ, variique patent commercia mundi.

Ac uti longinquis descendunt montibus amnes

v. Macrob. S. Scipionis, i. p. 46. v. Gronovii Not. Apuleii Apolog. "Verticem hominis velat arcem et regiam." Coripp. de Laud. Justini. ii. 190. Claudiani Cons. Honor, iv. "Summa capitis pendavit in arce.' Sid. Apoll. v. 239, "Arce cerebri." Prudent. Ham. 312, "Mediaque ex arce cerebri," and many other examples. Roscommon has the "Caverns of the Brain," on Poetry, v. 27, and see Sprat. Plague of Athens, st. 11.

-Tum vapor ipsam,

Corporis arcem flammis urit." Senecæ Edip. 185.
And his pure brain,

See also Shakespeare:

66

Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house."

And see ver. 135 of this poem.

V. 51. So Lucret. iii. 244:

K. John, act v. sc. 7.

Qua nec mobilius quidquam neque tenuius exstat.” And Virg. Georg. i. 398:

66

"Tenuia nec lanæ per cœlum vellera ferri."

V. 51. "Rerum simulachra ferantur," Lucret. iv. 165
Geminoque facis commercia mundo,” Claud. xxxiii. 91.