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"Nec meus hic sermo est."

HORACE.-Sat: Lib: ii., Sat: 2.

"Ego vero fateor, me his studiis esse deditum: cæteros pudeat, si qui ita se literis abdiderunt, ut nihil possint ex his neque ad communem afferre fructum, neque in adspectum lucemque proferre.......... ..Quare quis tandem me reprehendat, aut quis mihi jure succenseat, si, quantum cæteris ad suas res obeundas, quantum ad alias voluptates, et ad ipsam requiem animi et corporis conceditur temporis, tantum mihi egomet ad hæc studia recolenda sumpsero ?"

CICERO.-pro ARCHIA.

"Saltem daretur in sacris literis tranquillè consenescere!"

ERASMUS.-Epist.

"Let them be considered as the desultory productions of a man sedulously employed

upon better things."

SOUTHEY.

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PSALM THE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH,

PSALM THE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND,
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TO THE REVEREND JOHN ELY,

MINISTER OF EAST-PARADE CHAPEL, LEEDS.

MY DEAREST FRIEND,

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Accept the Dedication of this Volume. I wish its Inscription to testify my sense of Worth and Integrity which I have rarely known equalled, and have never found surpassed. We began life together. We chose our Profession with a distinct understanding of the disadvantages which we must endure. There were other paths that we might have followed,-those of lettered fame and scientific investigation, but our principles excluded us. The learned leisure which we should have coveted for its own sake, the opportunity of cultivating polite literature the charms of which were early felt by both, our present active requirements forbid. But we have not, for a moment, rued our Youthful Vow. Even these poor Flowers,wildings,-plucked in haste,-I should loathe and trample, could I think that any duty of the Holy Office had been neglected while I gathered them. I have no confidence that to the most partial kindness they can present any bloom, or breathe any fragrance, save for a few short days: their chief value to me is that they enable me to bind a little Wreath,-though they wither in the offering,-in token and in memory of a Friendship, which has survived the course, and sustained the proof, of Thirty Years.

Believe me, Dear Ely,

Your ever attached and faithful Friend,

Leeds, April 5th, 1841.

THE AUTHOR.

64 Λαμπασιν ακταίς,

Ου ποτνίαι σεμναι τίθη

νούνται τελη

Θνατοισιν : ων και χρυσία

Κληίς επι γλωσσα βέβακεν

Προσπόλων Ευμολπιδᾶν.”

SOPHOCLES. Edip: Colon: Lin: 1101.

"Considera denique sacra ipsa, et ipsa mysteria, invenies exitus tristes, fata, et funera, et luctus, atque planctus miserorum deorum. Isis perditum filium cum Cynocephalo suo et calvis sacerdotibus luget, plangit, inquirit: et Isiaci miseri cædunt pectora, et dolorem infelicissimæ matris imitantur: mox, invento parvulo, gaudet Isis, exultant sacerdotes, Cynocephalus inventor gloriatur: nec desinunt annis omnibus vel perdere quod inveniunt, vel invenire quod perdunt. Nonne ridiculum est, vel lugere quod colas, vel colere quod lugeas? Hæc tamen sacra Ægyptia. Ceres facibus accensis, et serpente circumdata, errore subreptam et corruptam liberam anxia et sollicita vestigat.

Hæc sunt Eleusinia."

MINUCIUS FELIX.-Octavius.

"And mooned Ashtaroth,

Heaven's queen and mother both,

Now sits not girt with taper's holy shine.

Nor is Osiris seen

In Memphian grove or green:

Nor can he be at rest

Within his sacred chest."

MILTON. Morning of Christ's Nativity.

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