[3] The poets of antiquity were thought to receive inspired dreams by sleeping on the poetic mountains.—Wakefield.
[4] The pause and words are evidently from Dryden, a greater harmonist, if I may say so, than Pope:
The lovely shrubs and trees that shade the plain,
Delight not all.—Bowles.
[5] Alluding to Isaiah vi. 6, 7. "Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo! this hath touched thy lips." Milton had already made the same allusion to Isaiah, at the close of his Hymn on the Nativity:
And join thy voice unto the angel quire,
From out his sacred altar touched with hallowed fire.—Wakefield.
[6] Rapt, that is, carried forwards from the present scene of things into a distant period, from the Latin rapio.—Wakefield.
[7] The poet wrongly uses "begun," instead of the past, began.—Wakefield.
[8] Virg. Ecl. iv. 6:
Jam redit et Virge, redeunt Saturnia regna;
Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto.—
Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri,
Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras.—
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem.
"Now the Virgin returns, now the kingdom of Saturn returns, now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven. By means of thee, whatever reliques of our crimes remain, shall be wiped away, and free the world from perpetual fears. He shall govern the earth in peace, with the virtues of his father."