[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.
And the Argive, in the heat of battle,
Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos.
[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.
[15] Why great NAVARRE, &c.
That amiable and accomplished monarch, Henry the Fourth of France, made an excursion from his camp, during the long siege of Laon, to dine at a house in the forest of Folambray; where he had often been regaled, when a boy, with fruit, milk, and new cheese; and in revisiting which he promised himself great pleasure. Mém. de SULLY, ii. 381.
[16] When DIOCLETIAN’S self-corrected mind
Diocletian retired into his native province, and there amused himself with building, planting, and gardening. His answer to Maximian is deservedly celebrated. He was solicited by that restless old man to re-assume the reins of government, and the Imperial purple. He rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing, “that if he could shew Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power.” GIBBON, ii. 175.