1 of the time, place, and qualities of this kind of iris, the reader will see a short account, in a note to Manfred. The fall looks so much like "the hell of waters," that Addison thought the descent alluded toby the gulf in which Alecto plunged into the infernal regions. It is singular enough, that two of the finest cascades in Europe should be artificialthis of the Velino, and the one at Tivoli. The traveller is strongly recommended to trace the Velino, at least as high as the little lake, called Pie' di Lup. The Reatine territory was the Italian Tempe (Cicer. Epist. ad Attic. xv. lib. iv.), and the ancient naturalists (Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ii. cap. Ixii.), amongst other beautiful varieties, remarked the daily rain. bows of the lake Velinus. A scholar of great name has devoted a treatise to this district alone. See Ald. Manut. de Reatina Urbe Agroque, ap. Sallengre, Thesaur. tom. i. p. 773. 2 In the greater part of Switzerland, the avalanches are known by the name of lauwine.

3 These stanzas may probably remind the reader of Ensign Northerton's remarks: "D-n Homo," &c. ; but the reasons for our dislike are not exactly the same. I wish to express, that we become tired of the task before we can comprehend the beauty; that we learn by rote before we can get by heart; that the freshness is worn away, and the future pleasure and advantage deadened and destroyed, by the didactic anticipation, at an age when we can neither feel nor understand the power of compositions which it requires an acquaintance with life, as well as Latin and Greek, to relish, or to reason проп. For the same reason, we never can be aware of the fulness of some of the finest passages of Shakspeare ("To be, or not to be," for instance), from the habit of having them hammered into us at eight years old, as an exercise, not of mind, but of memory: so that when we are old enough to enjoy them, the taste is gone, and the appetite palled. In some parts of the continent, young persons are taught from more common authors, and do not read the best classics till their

LXXVI.

Aught that recalls the daily drug which t My sickening memory; and, though Ti My mind to meditate what then it learn'd, Yet such the fix'd inveteracy wrought By the impatience of my early thought, That, with the freshness wearing out befo My mind could relish what it might have If free to choose, I cannot now restore Its health; but what it then detested, still a LXXVII.

Then farewell, Horace; whom I hated so, Not for thy faults, but mine; it is a curse To understand, not feel thy lyric flow, To comprehend, but never love thy verse. Although no deeper Moralist rehearse Our little life, nor Bard prescribe his art, Nor livelier Satirist the conscience pierce, Awakening without wounding the touch' Yet fare thee well-upon Soracte's ridge w

maturity. I certainly do not speak on this poin pique or aversion towards the place of my educat not a slow, though an idle boy; and I believe no or can be, more attached to Harrow than I have al and with reason; a part of the time passed th happiest of my life; and my preceptor, the Rev. Drury, was the best and worthiest friend I ever whose warnings I have remembered but too well, late when I have erred, and whose counsels followed when I have done well or wisely. If ev perfect record of my feelings towards him shoul eyes, let it remind him of one who never thinks with gratitude and veneration of one who v gladly boast of having been his pupil, if, by more lowing his injunctions, he could reflect any hono instructor.

4 [Lord Byron's prepossession against Horace is a parallel. It was not till released from the duty Virgil as a task, that Gray could feel himself ca joying the beauties of that poet. - MOORE.]

at

["I have been some days in Rome the Wond delighted with Rome. As a whole- ancient and it beats Greece, Constantinople, every thing have ever seen. But I can't describe, because pressions are always strong and confused, and selects and reduces them to order, like distance scape, and blends them better, although they distinct. I have been on horseback most of the since my arrival. 1 have been to Albano, its 1 the top of the Alban Mount, and to Frescati, Ari for the Coliseum, Pantheon, St. Peter's, the Vatic &c. &c. they are quite inconceivable, and must Byron Letters, May, 1817.]

6 For a comment on this and the two follow the reader may consult "Historical Illustrations

toutes mes idées de la façon dont je vous vois agir. Je croyais que vous aviez de l'ambition, mais aucune amour pour la gloire je voyais bien que votre áme était haute; mais je ne soupçonnais pas qu'elle fut grande."- Dialogues de Sylla et d'Eucrate.]

3 On the 3d of September Cromwell gained the victory of Dunbar a year afterwards he obtained "his crowning mercy" of Worcester; and a few years after, on the same day, which he had ever esteemed the most fortunate for him, died.

4,5 See Appendix, "Historical Notes," Nos. XXIV. XXV.

Ένα πολύ σιν, ἀποθνησκει νέες

***** morgen, àad' airyção Fantiv.

- Brinck. Poetæ Gnomici, p. 231. ed. 1784. Đều mu? navy titials, compose the whole of the whatever was its ancient position, is now * towering sepulchre: CECILLE, Q. CRECRASSI. It is more likely to have been eam of Cran is, which raised so superb a wtse name is not mentioned in history, yed by be that lady whose intimacy with → we're tɔ Tulla, the daughter of Cicero ; edhe Lentulus Spinther; or she, per. jero, from whose ear the son of Esopus procuras jewel to enrich his daughter. - HOB

zen me man of ruins, particularly on the - Car Mat.mns The very soil is formed Nothing has been told, nothing can •hel off ant but a Roman antiquary. raturas" p. 95- The voice of Marius "dep and solemn among the ruined

* Larksage thum the strains of the Pilgrim amid the

broken shrines and fallen statues of her subduer."- SIR WALTER SCOTT.]

4 The author of the Life of Cicero, speaking of the opinion entertained of Britain by that orator and his cotemporary Romans, has the following eloquent passage:-" From their railleries of this kind, on the barbarity and misery of our island, one cannot help reflecting on the surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms; how Rome, once the mistress of the world, the seat of arts, empire, and glory, now lies sunk in sloth, ignorance, and poverty, enslaved to the most cruel as well as to the most contemptible of tyrants, superstition and religious imposture: while this remote country, anciently the jest and contempt of the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of liberty, plenty, and letters; flourishing in all the arts and refinements of civil life; yet running perhaps the same course which Rome itself had run before it, from virtuous industry to wealth; from wealth to luxury; from luxury to an impatience of discipline, and corruption of morals: till, by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it fall a prey at last to some hardy oppressor, and, with the loss of liberty, losing every thing that is valuable, sinks gradually again into its original ɓarbarism.” (See History of the Life of M. Tullius Cicero, sect. vi. vol. ii. p. 102)

Trajan was proverbially the best of the Roman princes (Eutrop. I. viii. c. 5.); and it would be easier to find a sovereign uniting exactly the opposite characteristics, than one possessed of all the happy qualities ascribed to this emperor. "When he mounted the throne," says the historian Dion, "he was strong in body, he was vigorous in mind; age had impaired none of his faculties; he was altogether free from envy and from detraction; he honoured all the good, and he advanced them; and on this account they could not be the

CXV.

Egeria sweet creation of some heart4 Which found no mortal resting-place so f As thine ideal breast; whate'er thou art Or wert,- -a young Aurora of the air, The nympholepsy of some fond despair; Or, it might be, a beauty of the earth, Who found a more than common votary Too much adoring; whatsoe'er thy birth Thou wert a beautiful thought, and soft forth.

CXVI.

The mosses of thy fountain still are sprin With thine Elysian water-drops; the fac Of thy cave-guarded spring, with years un Reflects the meek-eyed genius of the plac Whose green, wild margin now no more Art's works; nor must the delicate water Prison'd in marble, bubbling from the ba Of the cleft statue, with a gentle leap The rill runs o'er, and round, fern, flowers, creep,

CXVII. Fantastically tangled: the green hills Are clothed with early blossoms, through The quick-eyed lizard rustles, and the bi Of summer-birds sing welcome as ye pas Flowers fresh in hue, and many in their Implore the pausing step, and with their Dance in the soft breeze in a fairy mass The sweetness of the violet's deep blue e Kiss'd by the breath of heaven, seems colo skies.

CXVIII.

Here didst thou dwell, in this enchanted Egeria thy all heavenly bosom beating For the far footsteps of thy mortal lover The purple Midnight veil'd that mystic With her most starry canopy, and seatin Thyself by thine adorer, what befel? This cave was surely shaped out for the Of an enamour'd Goddess, and the cell Haunted by holy Love-the earliest oracl

CXIX.

And didst thou not, thy breast to his re Blend a celestial with a human heart; And Love, which dies as it was born, in Share with immortal transports? could Make them indeed immortal, and impa The purity of heaven to earthly joys, Expel the venom and not blunt the dar The dull satiety which all destroys — And root from out the soul the deadly cloys ?

objects of his fear, or of his hate; he never li formers; he gave not way to his anger; he abst from unfair exactions and unjust punishments; be loved as a man than honoured as a sovere affable with his people, respectful to the senate sally beloved by both; he inspired none with d enemies of his country."-Hist. Rom. 1. Ixiii. e 3 The name and exploits of Rienzi must be fa reader of Gibbon. Some details and unedited relative to this unhappy hero, will be seen in the Illustrations of the Fourth Canto," p. 248.

4 See Appendix, "Historical Notes," No. xx