96, 97. Cf. Milton, _P. L._ vii. 12:
"Up led by thee,
Into the heaven of heavens I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air."
98. _The flaming bounds_, etc. Gray quotes Lucretius, i. 74:
"Flammantia moenia mundi." Cf. also Horace, _Epist._ i. 14, 9: "amat
spatiis obstantia rumpere claustra."
99. Gray quotes _Ezekiel_ i. 20, 26, 28. See also Milton, _At a
Solemn Music_, 7: "Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne;" _Il
Pens._ 53: "the fiery-wheeled throne;" _P. L._ vi. 758:
"Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure
Amber, and colours of the showery arch;"
and _id._ vi. 771:
"He on the wings of cherub rode sublime,
On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned."
101. _Blasted with excess of light_. Cf. _P. L._ iii. 380: "Dark with
excessive bright thy skirts appear."
102. Cf. Virgil, _Æn._ x. 746: "in aeternam clauduntur lumina
noctem," which Dryden translates, "And closed her lids at last in
endless night." Gray quotes Homer, _Od._ viii. 64:
[Greek: Ophthalmôn men amerses, didou d' hêdeian aoidên.]
103. Gray, according to Mason, "admired Dryden almost beyond
bounds."[3]
[Footnote 3: In a journey through Scotland in 1765, Gray became
acquainted with Beattie, to whom he commended the study of Dryden,
adding that "if there was any excellence in his own numbers, he had
learned it wholly from the great poet."]
105. "Meant to express the stately march and sounding energy of
Dryden's rhymes" (Gray). Cf. Pope, _Imit. of Hor. Ep._ ii. 1, 267:
"Waller was smooth: but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full-resounding line,
The long majestic march, and energy divine."
106. Gray quotes _Job_ xxxix. 19: "Hast thou clothed his neck with
thunder?"