NOTES.
(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.