II. 2.

In climes beyond the solar road q, Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam,

The Muse has broke the twilight-gloom

To cheer the shiv'ring Native's dull abode.

And oft, beneath the od'rous shade

Of Chili's boundless forests laid,

She deigns to hear the savage Youth repeat
In loose numbers wildly sweet

Their feather-cinctur'd Chiefs, and dusky Loves.
Her track, where'er the Goddess roves,
Glory pursue, and generous Shame,

Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame.

q In climes beyond the solar road.

Extensive influence of poetic genius over the remotest and most uncivilized nations: its connection with liberty, and the virtues that naturally attend on it. [See the Erse, Norwegian, and Welsh Fragments, the Lapland and American songs, từc.]

" Extra anni solisque vias-"

Virgil.

"Tutta lontana dal camin del sole."

Petrarch, Canzon. 2.

II. 3.

Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep r,

Isles that crown th' Ægean deep,
Fields, that cool Illissus laves,
Or where Mæander's amber waves
In lingering lab'rinths creep,

How do your tuneful Echoes languish,
Mute, but to the voice of Anguish!

Where each old poetic Mountain
Inspiration breath'd around;
Ev'ry shade and hallow'd Fountain
Murmur'd deep a solemn sound:
Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour,
Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains.
Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power,
And coward Vice, that revels in her chains.
When Latium had her lofty spirit lost,

They sought, oh Albion! next, thy sea-encircled coast.

r Woods that wave o'er Delphi's steep. Progress of Poetry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to England. Chaucer was not unacquainted with the writings of Dante or of Petrarch, The Earl of Surry and Sir Thomas Wyatt had travelled in Italy, and formed their taste there. Spenser imitated the Italian writers, and Milton improved on them: but this school expired soon after the Restoration, and a new one arose on the French model, which has subsisted ever since. III. 1 [8].

Far from the sun and summer-gale,
In thy green lap was Nature's Darling & laid,
What time, where lucid Avon stray'd,

To him the mighty Mother did unveil
Her awful face: The dauntless Child
Stretch'd forth his little arms, and smil'd.

[8] An ingenious person (as Mr. Mason tells us) who sent Mr. Gray his remarks anonymously on this and the following Ode soon after they were published, gives this stanza and the following a very just and well-expressed eulogy: "A Poet is perhaps never " more conciliating than when he praises favourite " predecessors in his art. Milton is not more the pride "than Shakespeare the love of their country: It is "therefore equally judicious to diffuse a tenderness " and a grace through the praise of Shakespeare, as "to extol in a strain more elevated and sonorous the "boundless soarings of Milton's epic imagination." The critic has here well noted the beauty of contrast which results from the two descriptions; ons; yet it is further to be observed, to the honour of our Poet's judgment, that the tenderness and grace in the former does not prevent it from strongly characterizing the three capital perfections of Shakespeare's genius; and when he describes his power of exciting terror (a species of the sublime) he ceases to be diffuse, and becomes, as he ought to be, concise and energetical.

This pencil take (she said), whose colours clear
Richly paint the vernal year:

Thine too these golden keys, immortal Boy!

This can unlock the gates of Joy;

Of Horror that, and thrilling Fears,

Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic Tears.

III. 2.

Nor second He, that rode sublime t

Upon the seraph-wings of Ecstasy,
The secrets of th' Abyss to spy.

He pass'd the flaming bounds of Place and Time x:

The living Throne, the sapphire-blaze x,
Where Angels tremble while they gaze,

t Nor second he, that rode sublime,

Milton.

u He pass'd the flaming bounds of Place and Time.

flammantia mœnia mundi."

Lucretius.

x The living throne, the sapphire blaze.

For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And above the firmament that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. This was the appearance of the glory of the Lord.

Ezekiel i. 20, 26 28.

He saw; but, blasted with excess of light [8],
Clos'd his eyes in endless night.

Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car

Wide o'er the fields of Glory bear

Two Coursers of ethereal race y,

With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-resounding

pace z.

III. 3.

Hark, his hands the lyre explore !

Bright-ey'd Fancy, hovering o'er,
Scatters from her pictur'd urn

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn a.

[8] Johnson allows this account of Milton's blindness to be "happily imagined."

y Two coursers of ethereal race. Meant to express the stately march and sounding energy of Dryden's rhymes.

z Withnecks in thunder cloth'd, and long resounding pace.

Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Job.

a Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. Words that weep, and tears that speak.

Cowley.

Mr. Gray, perhaps, had also an eye to the following line:

In strains that sigh, and words that weep.

Mallet's Funeral Hymn.