From golden vials pour'd, by elder hands! NOTES AND ALLUSIONS. Page 52. ALONG thy borders, Scheld Thus Virgil: Cœlum & terram camposque liquentes, That he means God by Spirit, appears from another place. -Deum ire per omnes See Lactantius, B. vii. c. 3. and Dioge- P. 54. Moving the waters saw thee o'er their face, &c. Cicero tells us that it was Thales's opinion that God was the Spirit which created all things from the water. "Thales aquam dixit esse initium rerum, Deum autem esse, mentem quæ ex aqua cuncta fingeret." De Nat. Deor. 1. i. Vix ea fatus eram, tremere omnia visa repentè This was written at the time of the siege of Liminaque laurusque Dei, totusque moveri Tournay. Plato could meditate. P. 53. Far be it from me to speak with disrespect of this pagan philosopher. For my part, 1 could almost declare my admiration of Plato's beautiful descriptions, &c. in the words of B. Jonson on Shakspeare: "To justify," says he, "my own candour, I honour his memory (on this side idolatry) as much as any." See his Discoveries, vol II. fol. of his works. Page 98. I only here would observe how falsely, not to say impiously, some modern writers seem to take pains to recommend Plato's ideal morality in opposition to the glorious doctrines so fully revealed in the holy scriptures. Alluding to 2. Sectanus's admirable Satires; who introduces much such another character under By Mons. Blainville in his curious Travels, is Nos etenim (puto jàm nosti) docti sumus, & quos P. 54. See 2. Sectani Satyr. 4to. vol. I. Sat. 1. Soul of the universe. Mons circum. Eneis. lib. 3. P. 54. -Thou from the morning-womb, &c. Psalm cx. 3. This is a noble metaphor to exSo that" from the womb of the morning" in the press the beauties and graces of the Holy Spirit. Psalmist, signifies this: From the heavenly light of the Gospel, which is the wing or beam whereby the Sun of Righteousness revealeth himself, and breaketh out upon the world, the people shall adorn themselves from the first forming of Christ in them, with the dews of grace, and the gifts and emanations of the Holy Ghost: which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, Gal. v. 22. &c. When the spirit of Christ bloweth thus upon us, Rev. v. 8. The four-and-twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints; that is, the prayers of good men are as grateful to God as incense from the tabernacle. So David, Ps. xiv. 2. Let my The heathens frequently give the appellation of prayer be directed to thee as incense. Soul or Spirit to God. P. 55. Beneath thy olive-brauck, &c. Alluding to the two olive-branches in Zecharia, c. iv. v. 11 and 12. which empty the golden oil out of themselves. Amongst other expositions of which words, Junius and Tarnovius interpret them, to mean the various gifts and effusions of the Holy Spirit, which are, by Christ, derived upon the church. For Christ is called the Messiah, on account of his being anointed with the oil of gladness; Ps. xiv. 8. And St. John speaketh thus, of the Holy Ghost: Ye have an unction from the Holy One. 1 John ii. 20. The anointing which ye received from him, abideth in you. John c. ii. v. 27. To conclude; a recovery from the small-pox a few years ago, gave occasion to the preceding poem. only at first (in gratitude to the Great Physician of souls and bodies) designed to have published this hymn to the Trinity upon a recovery from sickness. But the subject being very extensive, and capable of admitting serious reflections on the frail state of humanity, I expatiated farther upon it. It cannot be supposed that I should treat upon sickness in a medicinal, but only in a descriptive, a moral, and religious manner: the versification is varied accordingly: the descriptive parts being more poetical; the moral, more plain; and the religious, for the most part, drawn from the Holy Scriptures. I have just taken such notice of the progress of the smallpox, as may give the reader some small idea of it, without offending his imagination. These few notes are not intended for the learned reader, but added to assist those who may not be so well acquainted with the classical and other allusions. I do not remember to have seen any other poem on the same subject to lead me on the way, and therefore, it is to be hoped, the good-natured reader will more readily excuse its blemishes. I have here added, by way of conclusion to the notes, a short hymn written (when very young) in the great epidemical cold in 1732. AN HYMN IN SICKNESS. O LORD! to thee I lift my soul, To thee direct my eyes, While fate in every vapour rolls, And sick'ning Nature sighs. E'en air, the vehicle of life, The soft recess of breath, Is made the harbinger of Fate, And poison'd dart of Death. No gentle strains relieve my ears: No lovely prospect meets my eye, My sins, wide-staring in my face In ghastly guise alarm; The pleasing sins of wanton youth, In many a fatal charm. SHALL foreign lands for Pomfret wake the lyre, The living laurel wreath, to bind her hair. Hail, fair exemplar of the good and great, Behold our youth, transported at the sight; If praise be guilt, ye laurels, cease to grow, Oxford to sing, and seraphims to glow. No altars to an idol-power we raise, Nor consecrate the worthless with our praise, To merit only and to goodness just, We rear the arch-triumphal and the bust. Sprung from the Pembroke1 race, their nation's Allied by science, as by blood allied, [pride, The Pembroke family have been remarkable for genius. Mary, countess of Pembroke, sister to sir Philip Sidney, for whose entertainment he wrote his Arcadia, published a tragedy called Antonius. Ann, countess of Pembroke, had Daniel for her tutor, and erected to Spenser the monument in Westminster Abbey. William, earl Illustrious race! sure to protect or please Here safely we behold fierce Marius frown, smart. "T is false! I feel his arrows in my heart." of Pembroke, printed a volume of poems. Shakspeare's and Fletcher's works, in their first editions, are dedicated to the earl of Pembroke: and Thomas, who ought particularly to be mentioned on this occasion, made the largest and finest collection of statues of any nobleman in Europe. His heart, whom such a prospect cannot move, The bright contagion of Hesperian skies, Tho' Virtue may with moral lustre charm, To charm the present, brighten future days; 2.Oxford, THE LIFE OF ROBERT BLAIR. BY MR. CHALMERS. ROBERT BLAIR was the eldest son of the rev. David Blair, one of the ministers of dinburgh, and chaplain to the king. His grandfather was the rev. Robert Blair, ometime minister of the gospel at Bangor, in Ireland, and afterward at Saint Andrews, Scotland. Of this gentleman, some Memoirs partly taken from his manuscript iaries, were published at Edinburgh in 1754. He was celebrated for his piety, and, by hose of his persuasion, for his inflexible adherence to presbyterianism in opposition to he endeavours made in his time to establish episcopacy in Scotland: it is recorded also at he wrote some poems. His grandson, the object of the present article, was born in the year 1699, and after e usual preparatory studies was ordained minister of Athelstaneford, in the county of ast Lothian, where he resided until his death, Feb. 4, 1747. One of his sons now olds the office of solicitor-general to his majesty for Scotland. The late celebrated r. Hugh Blair, professor of rhetoric and belles lettres, was his cousin. Such are the only particulars handed down to us respecting the writer of The Grave: is but lately that the poem was honoured with much attention, and it appears to ave made its way very slowly into general notice. The pious and congenial Hervey as among the first who praised it. Mr. Pinkerton, in his Letters of Literature, pubshed under the name of Heron, endeavoured to raise it far above the level of common roductions, and I should suppose he has succeeded. It has of late years been freuently reprinted, but it may be questioned whether it will bear a critical examination : has no regular plan, nor are the reflections on mortality embellished by any superior races. It is perhaps a stronger objection that they are interrupted by strokes of feeble tire at the expence of physicians and undertakers. His expressions are often mean, nd his epithets ill-chosen and degrading—“ Supernumerary horrour; new-made idow; sooty blackbird; strong-lunged cherub; lame kindness, &c. &c.; solder of ciety; by stronger arm belaboured; great gluts of people, &c." are vulgarisms which annot be pardoned in so short a production. |