[9] _And watch and weep in ELOISA’S cell_.
The Paraclete, founded by Abelard, in Champagne.
[10] _’Twas ever thus. As now at VIRGIL’S tomb_
Vows and pilgrimages are not peculiar to the religious enthusiast. Silius Italicus performed annual ceremonies on the mountain of Posilippo; and it was there that Boccaccio, quasi da un divino estro inspirato, re-solved to dedicate his life to the muses.
[11] _So TULLY paus’d amid the wrecks of Time_.
When Cicero was quæstor in Sicily, he discovered the tomb of Archimedes by its mathematical inscription. Tusc. Quæst. v. 3.
[12] _Say why the pensive widow loves to weep_.
The influence of the associating principle is finely exemplified in the faithful Penelope, when she sheds tears over the bow of Ulysses. Od. xxi. 55.
[13] _If chance he hears the song so sweetly wild_
The celebrated Ranz des Vaches; cet air si chéri des Suisses qu’il fut défendu sous peine de mort de la jouer dans leurs troupes, parce qu’il faisoit fondre en larmes, deserter Ou mourir ceux qui l’entendoient, tant il excitoit en eux l’ardent désir de revoir leur pays. ROUSSEAU. The _maladie de pays_ is as old as the human heart. JUVENAL’S little cup-bearer,
Suspirat longo non visam tempore matrem, Et casulam, et notes tristis desiderat hædos.
[14] _Say why VESPASIAN lov’d his Saline farm_.
This emperor, according to Suetonius, constantly passed the summer in a small villa near Reate, where he was born, and to which he would never add any embellishment; _ne quid scilicet oculorum consuetudini deperiret_. SUET. in Vit. Vesp. cap. ii. A similar instance occurs in the life of the venerable Pertinax, as related by J. Capitolinus. Posteaquam in Liguriam venit, multis agris coemptis, tabernam pater-nam, _manente formâ priore_, infinitis ædificiis circun-dedit.—Hist. August. 54. And it is said of Cardinal Richelieu, that, when he built his magnificent palace on the site of the old family chateau at Richelieu, he sacrificed its symmetry to preserve the room in which he was born. Mém. de Mlle, de Montpensier, i. 27. An attachment of this nature is generally the characteristic of a benevolent mind; and a long acquaintance with the world cannot always extinguish it. “To a friend,” says John Duke of Buckingham, “I will expose my weakness: I am oftener missing a pretty gallery in the old house I pulled down, than pleased with a saloon which I built in its stead, though a thousand times better in all respects.” See his Letter to the D. of Sh. Such were Diderot’s _Regrets sur sa vieille Robe de Chambre_. “Pourquoi ne avoir pas gardée? Elle étoit faite a moi; j’etois fait a elle.—Mes amis, gardez vos vieux amis.” This is the language of the heart; and will remind the reader of that good-humoured remark in one of Pope’s letters—“I should hardly care to have an old post pulled up, that I remembered ever since I was a child.” POPE’S Works, viii. 151. Nor did the Poet feel the charm more forcibly than his Editor. See HURD’S Life of Warburton, 51, 99. The elegant author of Telemachus has illustrated this subject, with equal fancy and feeling, in the story of Alibée, Persan.