THOMAS CORSER.
Stand Rectory.
[We accept with thanks the offer of our valued correspondent.]
DR. YOUNG'S NARCISSA.
A pamphlet was recently published at Lyons and Paris, by a Monsieur de Terrebasse, intending to prove that the daughter-in-law of Dr. Young, so pathetically lamented by him in the Night Thoughts under the poetical name of "Narcissa," was not clandestinely buried at Montpellier; that Dr. Young did not steal a grave for her from the Roman Catholics of that city; and that consequently the celebrated and touching episode in Night III. is purely imaginary. This opinion of M. de Terrebasse, first given to the world by him in 1832, and now repeated, has been controverted by the writer of an article in the Gazette Médicale of Montpellier. The tomb, it is said, of Elisabeth Lee, Dr. Young's daughter-in-law, was discovered a few years since at Lyons; and M. de Terrebasse endeavours to prove, from that circumstance, and from a comparison of facts and dates, that this Elisabeth Lee was the "Narcissa" of the poet. Not having seen M. de Terrebasse's pamphlet, and being indebted to the Journal des Savants for this brief account of it, it seems difficult to discover from it how M. de Terrebasse can pretend so summarily to invalidate the solemn and touching assertions of the poet, which assuredly are anything but flights of fancy.
"Deny'd the charity of dust to spread
O'er dust! a clarity their dogs enjoy,
What could I do? what succour? what resource?
With pious sacrilege a grave I stole;
With impious piety that grave I wrong'd;
Short in my duty, coward in my grief!