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P. 125, 1. 8.

Catch the blest accents of the wise and great. Mr. Pope delights in enumerating his illustrious guests. Nor is this an exclusive privilege of the poet. The Medici Palace at Florence exhibits a long and imposing catalogue. "Semper hi parietes columnæque eruditis vocibus resonuerunt."

P. 126, 1. 14.

Sheds, like an evening-star, its ray serene,

At a Roman supper statues were sometimes employed to hold the lamps.

-aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædes,
Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris.

LUCR. ii. 24.

A fashion as old as Homer! Odyss. vii. 100.

On the proper degree and distribution of light we may consult a great master of effect. Il lume grande, ed alto, e non troppo potente, sarà quello, che renderà le particole de' corpi molto grate.

Tratt. della Pittura di LIONARDO DI VINCI, c. xli. Hence every artist requires a broad and high light. Hence also, in a banquet-scene, the most picturesque of all poets has thrown his light from the ceiling.

Æn. i. 726.

And hence the "starry lamps" of Milton, that

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P. 126, 1. 24.

Beyond the triumphs of a Loriot's art.

At the petits soupés of Choisy were first introduced those admirable pieces of mechanism, afterwards carried to perfection by Loriot, the Confidente and the Servante; a table and a side-board, which descended, and rose again covered with viands and wines. And thus the most luxurious Court in Europe, after all its boasted refinements, was glad to return at last, by this singular contrivance, to the quiet and privacy of humble life. Vie privée de Louis XV. ii. 43. Between 1. 24. and 1. 25. were these lines, since omitted: Hail, sweet Society! in crowds unknown,

Though the vain world would claim thee for its own.
Still where thy small and cheerful converse flows,
Be mine to enter, ere the circle close.

When in retreat Fox lays his thunder by,

And Wit and Taste their mingled charms supply;
When SIDDONS, born to melt and freeze the heart,
Performs at home her more endearing part;
When He, who best interprets to mankind
The winged messengers from mind to mind,
Leans on his spade, and, playful as profound,
His genius sheds its evening-sunshine round,
Be mine to listen; pleased yet not elate,
Ever too modest or too proud to rate
Myself by my companions, self-compelled

To earn the station that in life I held.

They were written in 1796.

P. 127, 1. 3.

So thro' the vales of Loire the bee-hives glide,

An allusion to the floating bee-house, which is

seen in some parts of France and Piedmont.

P. 127, 1. 10.

Caught thro' St. James's groves at blush of day;

After 1. 10. in the MS.

Groves that Belinda's star illumines still,
And ancient Courts and faded splendours fill.

P. 128, 1. 8.

And, with the swallow, wings the year away! It was the boast of Lucullus that he changed his climate with the birds of passage.

How often must he have felt the truth here inculcated, that the master of many houses has no home!

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