CANTO in. PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 103 



" Where mouldering columns mark the lingering wreck 

 Of Thebes, Palmyra, Babylon, Balbeej 

 The prostrate obelisk, or shatter'd dome,. 

 Uprooted pedestal, and yawning tomb, 

 On loitering steps reflective TASTE surveys* 

 With folded arms and sympathetic gaze; 

 Charm'd with poetic Melancholy treads 

 O'er ruin'd towns and desolated meads; 



i 



Or rides sublime on Time's expanded wings* 



And views the fate of ever-changing things* 240 



( 



When Beauty's streaming eyes her woes express, 

 Or Virtue braves unmerited distress; 



terrific, tragic, melancholic, artless, &c. while novelty superinduces 

 a charm upon them all. See Additional Note XIII. 



Poetic melancholy treads, 1. 237. The pleasure arising from the con- 

 templation of the ruins of ancient grandeur or of ancient happiness, 

 and here termed poetic melancholy, arises from a combination of 

 the painful idea of sorrow with the pleasurable idea of the grandeur or 

 happiness of past times; and becomes very interesting to us by fixing 

 our attention more strongly on that grandeur and happiness, as the 

 passion of Pity mentioned in the succeeding note is a combination of 

 the painful idea of sorrow with the pleasurable one of beauty, or of 

 virtue. 



