XII.

"Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.

the

The pride of greatness should not disdain poor; for it is probable that genius and vir-tue lie buried in obscurity, only for want of cultivation, or of an opportunity of exerting themselves.

Wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.-The lyre is used metaphorically for poetry: true poetry represents human passions and feelings as they exist in the living foul of man-In such poetry "they live, they breathe, they speak*, excite every gradation of sentiment, from despair to ecstasy.

XIII.

and

"But knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unrol;
Chill penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of their soul

Rage, in the third line, is used metaphorically, and means ardour, enthusiasm. We speak of raging pain, of a raging torrent ; indeed, in this last year of the century, even the fashion of a cap is the rage.

Pape.

Genial means whatever is creative. We say, the genial spring, the genial rays of the sun, genial warmth, &c.

Current of the soul-is also metaphorical; and penury (poverty) is supposed to freeze or repress the energy of their minds, and prevent their talents and understandings from exerting themselves as they might have done. in other circumstances.

XIV,

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear ;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste it's sweetness on the desert air.

Ray serene. Why serene? Undisturbed is one meaning of serene; clear, because undisturbed. -But perhaps this epithet was chosen rather for the convenience of it's rhyme than for it's peculiar propriety.

The beauty of the two last lines of this stanza has rendered them very popular. The meaning of the whole stanza is so very obvious, that I fear to offend my young readers by pointing it out. Genius and virtue sometimes lie buried and unseen, like gems or jewels in the ocean, or like flowers in a forest..

XV.

"Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood;

Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest;
Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood.

The lives of Hampden, Milton, and Cromwell. are to be met with in every history of England. In Butler's Arithmetic, p. 94, 2d edition, my young readers will find an account of a village Hampden, who, within these few years, withstood an act of public oppression, and had it redressed.

XVI.

"Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their history in a nation's eyes,

XVII.

"Their lot forbade; nor circumscrib'd alone
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind;

And read their history in a nation's eyes.-This line is very beautiful. A great man, who has been useful to his country, reads the grateful sentiments of his countrymen in their pleased countenances. And that is also the meaning of "Smiling land."-It is not the land which ap

pears cheerful, but the inhabitants, who have received plenty, and enjoy prosperity.

Their lot forbade.-These three words complete the sense of the stanza which precedes them, and mean that the humble lot of these villagers prevented them from shining in the senate, either by their oratory, wisdom, or virtue and the sense of the remaining part of the stanza, that their obscurity not only circumscribed or confined the extent of their virtues, but also prevented their committing such great crimes as are the consequences of ambition.

Shut the gates of mercy on mankind. In the scriptures, opening and shutting the gates of Heaven, is an expression used to denote the admission or rejection of the claims of mankind. to the favour of the Divinity. Shutting the gates of mercy, is not a classical allusion; that is to say, it is not an allusion taken from those Greek or Latin authors that are called classical.

To shut the gates' of the temple of Janus, among the Romans, was an emblem of universal peace; and an allusion to this would be called classical. Allusions, however, to the sacred writings are often highly beautiful and impressive. The sublimity of Isaiah, Ezekiel,

Job, and the Psalms, is pointed out with judg~ ment and taste in the Spectators

XVIII.

a

"The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame ;
Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride
With incense kindled at the muses' flame.

The sense in this stanza is also carried on from that which is before it; and the poet continues to enumerate the errours and mean conduct of those, who seek for power by concealing their own sense of right and wrong, and by flattering the great.

Shrine, an enclosure, containing the figure of some object of worship. Heaping the shrine of luxury with incense kindled at the muses' flame, means, metaphorically, the flattery which poets offer to those who live in splendour.

XIX.

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool, sequester'd vale of life,
They kept the noiseless tenour of their way.

Ignoble. The poet justly calls the ufual pursuits of ambition and avarice ignoble; that is, mean and base. And he calls those pursuits the "ignoble strife," or mean competition of the