(1) _Wandered malignant o'er the erring earth._
This passage and, indeed the whole poem, is founded on a belief,
prevalent in the earlier ages of christianity, that all nations,
except the descendents of Abraham, were abandoned by the Almighty, and
subjected to the power of daemons or evil spirits. Fontenelle in his
_"Histoire des Oracles"_ makes the following extract from the works
of the Pagan philosopher Porphyry.
"Auguste deja vieux and songeant a se choisir un successeur, alla
consulter l'oracle de Delphes. L'oracle ne repondoit point, quiqu
'Auguste n'epargnat pas de sacrifices. A la fin, cependant, il en
tira cette reponse. L'enfant Hebreu a qui tous les Dieux obeissent,
me chasse d'ici, and me ronvoie dans les Enfers. Sors de ce temple
sans parler."
(2) _While friendly shades the sacred rites enshroud._
The captive Jews, though they sometimes outwardly conformed to the
religion of their oppressors, were accustomed to practice their own
in secret.
(3) _When fiercer spirits howled, he but complained._
So Milton. Others more mild retreated to a silent valley singing,
With notes angelical, to many a harp,
Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall.
(4) _Weary he fainted thro' the toilsome hours,
And then his mystic nature he sustained
On steam of sacrifices, breath of flowers._
Eusebe dans sa "Preparation Evangelique" raporte quantite de
passages de Porphyre, ou ce philosophe Payen assure que les mauvais
demons sont les auteurs des enchantemens, des philtres, et des
malefices; que le mensonge est essentiel a leur nature; qu'ils ne
font que tromper nos yeux par des spectres et par des fautomes;
qu'ils excitent en nous la plupart de nos passions; qu'ils ont
l'ambition de vouloir passer pour des dieux; que leurs corps _aeriens
se nourissent_ de _fumigations de sand repandu et de la graisse des
sacrifices;_ qu'il n'y a qu'eux qui se melent de rendre des oracles,
et a qui cette fonction pleine de tromperic soit tombee en partage.
_Fontenelle, Historie des Oracles._
_Still true
To one dear theme, my full soul flowing o'er
Would find no room for thought of what it knew
(5) Nor picturing forfeit transport curse me more._
Si l'homme (says a modern writer) constant dans ses affections,
pouvoit saus cesse fournir a un sentiment renouvele sans cesse, sans
doute la solitude and l'amour l'egaleroient a Dieu meme; car ce sont
la les deux eternel plaisirs du gran Etre.
A celebrated female, (Saint Theresa) used to describe Satan as an
unhappy being, who never could know what it was to love.
(6) _And o'er her sense as when the fond night bird
Woos the full rose o'erpowering fragrance stole._
This allusion must be familiar to every general reader of poetry.
"The nightingale if he sees the rose becomes intoxicated; he lets
go from his hand the reins prudence."
_Fable of the Gardener and Nightingale._
Lady Montague also translates a song, if my memory does not deceive
me, thus,
"The nightingale now hovers amid the flowers, her passion is to
seek roses."
And from the poet Hafiz,
"When the roses wither and the bower loses its sweetness, you have
no longer the tale of the nightingale."
Indeed the rose, in Oriental poetry, is seldom mentioned without her
paramour the nightingale, which gives reason to suppose that this
bird, in those countries where it was first celebrated, had really
some natural fondness for the rose; or perhaps for some insect which
took shelter in it. In Sir W. Jones' translation of the Persian
fable, of "The Gardener and Nightingale" we meet with the following
distich.
_"I know not what the rose says under his lips, that he brings
back the helpless Nightingales with their mournful notes.
One day the Gardener, according to his established custom, went to
view the roses; he saw a plaintive nightingale rubbing his head on
the leaves of the roses and tearing asunder, with his sharp bill,
that volume adorned with gold."_
And Gelaleddin Ruzbehar,
_"While the nightingale sings thy praises with a loud voice, I am
all ear like the stalk of the rosetree."_
Pliny, however, in his delightful description of this bird, says
nothing, I believe, about the rose.
(7) Les Perses semblent etre les premiers hommes connus de nous qui
parlerent des anges comme d'huissiers celestes, et de porteurs
d'ordres.
_Voltaire, Essai sur les moeurs et l'esprit des nations._
In composing this ode, which was done four years ago, the writer had
not the most remote idea, of complimenting any one. Without the
slightest pretensions to "connoiseurship" she has only described the
absolute effect of the pictures alluded to, on an individual, and
would only be considered in the light of an insent warming itself in
the sun, and grateful for his pervasive influence.