Dec. 13. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



467 



same length in the English language, how does he 

 sing ? 



" AVith eyes upraised, as one inspired, 

 Pale Melancholy sate retired ; 

 And, from her wild sequestei'd seat, 

 In notes, by distance made more sweet, 

 Pour'd thro' the mellow horn her pensive soul : 

 And, dashing soft from rocks around. 

 Bubbling runnels join'd the sound ; 

 Through glades and glooms the mingled measure 



stole. 

 Or o'er some haunted stream with fond delay, 

 Round a holy calm diffusing. 

 Love of peace, and lonely musing, 

 In hollow murmurs died away." 



Ode on the Passions, 



This is the concentrated essence of poetry. 

 Surely Gray had forgotten Collins when he penned 

 the beautiful lines : 

 " But not to one in this benighted age, 

 Is that diviner inspiration given. 

 That burus in Shakspeare's or in Milton's page, 



The pomp and prodigality of heaven. 

 As when conspiring in the diamond's blaze, 



The meaner gems, that singly charm the sight, 

 Together dart their intermingled rays. 

 And dazzle with a luxury of light," 



Stanzas to Mr. Bentley. 



From a memorandum made by Gray himself, 

 it is evident that he once had contemplated 

 placing his "Bard" in a sitting posture; but I 

 cannot but rejoice that he altered his mind, for 

 such breath-taking words could never have been 

 uttered in so composed and contented a posture. 

 I give part of it from jNIr. Mason's edition : 



" The army of Edward I., as they marched through 

 a deep valley, are suddenly stopped by the appearance 

 of a venerable figure, seated on the summit of an in- 

 accessible rock ; who, witli a voice more than human, 

 reproaches the king with all the misery and desolation 

 he had brought on his country, &c., &c. His song 

 ended, he precipitates iiimself from the mountain, and 

 is swallowed up by the river that rolls at its foot." — 

 Vol. i. p. 1^. Lond. 1 807. 



The last two lines of the passage before us — 



" And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire. 

 Struck t/ie deep sorrows of his lyre " — 



remind us in some degree of Cowley : 



" Sic cecinit sanctus vates, digitosque volantes 

 Innumeris per fila modis trci)idantla movit, 

 Intimaque elicait Medici miruciilu plectri." 



Davideidos, lib. i. p. 13. 



Again : 



" Dead as the light that visits these sad eyes." 



Gray, TIte Bard. 



" Namqiie oculis plus ilia suia, plus lumine cceli 

 Dilexit." 



Davideidos, lib. i. p. 14. 



And — 



" The Attick warbler pours her throat." 



Ode to Spring. 



" Tum magnum tenui ccc'mcrimt gutture Numen." 

 Davideidos, lib. i. p. 20. 



Also — 



" The hues of bliss more brightly glow, 

 Chastisd by sabled lints of woe ; 

 And blended form with artful strife. 

 The strength and harmony of life." 



Gray, On the Pleasure arising from 

 Vicissitude. 



The word chastised is similarly used by Cowley : 



" From Saul his growth, and manly strength he took. 

 Chastised by bright Ahinoam's gentler look." 



Davideidos, lib. iv. p. 133. 



The idea of the whole passage may be found in 

 Pope: 

 " Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure's smiling train ; 

 Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain ; 

 These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd. 

 Make and maintain the balance of the mind ; 

 The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife. 

 Gives all the strength and colour of our life." 



Essay on Man, Epist. II. 



Again : 



" Amazement in his van with Flight combin'd. 

 And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind." 



Gray, The Bard. 



" V^ictorious arms thro' Ammon's land it bore, 

 Iluin behind, and terror march'd before." 



Davideidos, lib. iv. p. 135. 



Wakefield mentions some parallel passages, but 

 omits the best of all : 



" A fire devoureth before them ; and behind them a 

 flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden be- 

 fore them, and behind them a desolate wilderness ; 

 Yea, and notliing shall escape them." — Joel, ii. 3. 



In the " Ode on the Installation" Gray says : 



" Their tears, their little triumphs o'er. 

 Their liuman passions now no more." 



AVakefield dwells enraptured on the expression 

 human passions. Cowley speaks of " humana quies" 

 {Davideidos, lib. i. p. 3.). Horace says : 



" Carminibus qua; versant atque venenis 



Humanos animos." — Sat. viii. 19. lib. i. 



Human passions is not, however, a creation of 

 Gray's ; for, if r.ot anywhere else, he miirht have 

 found the words very often in the writings of 

 William Law, as vigorous a prose writer as England 

 can boast of since the days of Dr. South. See his 

 answer to Dr. Trapp's Not liighteotis overmuch, 

 p. ()2., Lond. 1741 ; and his Serious Call, cap. xii. 

 p. 137., and cap. xxi. p. 293., Lond. I81G. 



To mention its use by modern writers would 

 be endless. I selected these icw passages on 



