University of Virginia Library

The classical reader will not be sorry to find a conjecture of the learned Gilbert Wakefield, on the passage (Isai, xiv. 12.) whence this metaphor is taken, transcribed from his notes on Virg. Georg. ii. 97. which reflects great credit upon his ingenuity and erudition.

“—Thou that didst subdue the nations!”

—Quâ proprietate de stellâ matutinâ prædicari potest, illam subigere nationes: Nos sanè—quibus Hebræi textûs (præsertim in Prophetis et Hagiographiâ) penè infinitas corruptiones, veterum versiones tractantibus, notare contigit—minimè dubitamus errorem sublatere, ab inverso literarum ordine (ut solet) profluentem; quod minùs illi mirabuntur, qui L. Capelli de his rebus librum evolverunt. Pro voce [HEBREW], quæ nihili est, substituimus [HEBREW] vel [HEBREW], mittens, quæ mittebas; aut etiam [HEBREW], mittebaris. Τους ο emendationis nostræ fautores tibi exhibemus, qui habent ο αποστελλων εις παντα τα εθνη: Hi igitur in exemplaribus suis legisse videntur [HEBREW], qui mittebas per omnes gentes. Ad hunc demum modum totam clausulam libentissimè refingeremus (et harum rerum æquos æstimatores fortiter appellamus; cæteros enim, in Hebræis literis planè hospites, nihil moramur nec nucis vitiosæ facimus) [HEBREW] qui lucem mittebas per omnes gentes. Nihil elegantius, aut quod Hebraicæ poësis concinnitatem pleniùs sapiat: nihil denique Prophetâ maximè sublimi dignius, &c.

—κεκοσμημενον και οφθαλμων υπογραφη και κρωματος εντριψει κ. τ. λ. Xenoph. Κ. Π. α

Ambitiosam hanc ornatûs rationem gentes Orientales, in luxum effusiores, excogitârunt. Ita olim Jezebelem, ut regiam præ se ferret gravitatem, oculos fuco ornâsse legimus, II Reg. ix. 30. Ad quem locum lxxii. habent εστιμμισατο τους οφθαλμους, i. e. stibio depinxit: Hoc enim lapide ideò in pingendis oculis homines decoris nimiùm studiosi utebantur, quòd eos non nigravit tantùm sed etiam dilatavit: &c. (Hutchinson. ad loc.) —“Ob vim nempè astringendi (στυπτικην) contrahebat palpebras, et adeò oculos ipsos dilatabat.” Zeun.

For an account of these hanging gardens, the walls, tower, &c. of Babylon, see Id. ib. pp. 94-105.

Sir Brook Booth by in his Answer to Burke, speaking of the reflections that will suggest themselves upon the view of Versailles in its present condition, has the following fine passage: “The silence “will be disturbed by sounds, that are no longer heard; and the “solitude peopled by the brilliant forms, that shall no longer glide “over its polished floors.”

—“I understand that in this island of Great Britain, at the time “I am now writing, Birth is the first virtue and Money the “second: Some indeed may dispute the precedence; but all will “allow that one or both are sine quâ nons, without which virtue is “not.” Hermsprong, II. p. 205.

The novel whence this description of female interestedness is taken, exhibiting Man as he is not, proceeds from the same pen which about four years ago produced Man as he is: They are both works of extraordinary merit. In this character even their “twenty thousand fair readers” (notwithstanding the above extract) will, I doubt not, feel themselves disposed by the innocent bribery of a more conciliating quotation to concur very cordially:

—“We are, like unhallowed satirists, involving in one promiscuous “censure all the fair daughters of men. Let us be more just. They “are our equals in understanding, our superiors in virtue: They “have foibles, where men have faults; and faults, where men have “crimes: In the gaiety of conversation it may be allowed (and— “the author might have added—in the fervour of poetry, of which “Synecdoche is a principal figure) at least it will be assumed, to put “the whole for a part, perhaps a small part; but it would be wise in “man, when he makes the errors of woman his contemplation, not “to forget his own.” II.p.175.

For the subjoined sonnet on The Corruption of Manners, which seems not inapposite to this place, I am indebted to the friendship of C. Marsh, Esq. of the Temple.