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“Art thou arrived to maturity of life? Look back and thou shalt see the frailty of thy youth, the folly of thy childhood, and the senseless dissipation of thy infancy!—Look forward and thou shalt behold the insincerity of the world and cares of life, the diseases of thy body and the troubles of thy mind.” Anon. Vet.

“In this world death is every-where, grief every-where, and desolation every-where. The world flieth us, and yet we follow it: It falleth, and we adhere to it, fall with it, and attempt to enjoy it falling.” St. Gregor. Hom.

It is remarked, that birds adorned with rich plumage, as peacocks, parrots, &c. have, generally speaking, un-musical voices.

The bella-donna lily, or deadly night-shade. [Atropa Linnæi.]

Amomum Plinii.

Actæa; Herb Christopher.

The Passion-Flower.

See Homer's Odyssey L. IX, v 94, &c.

The Baron De Bottoni.

This alludes to a well-known fact in the dutchy of Carniola, where the present Ode was written.

About the year 1675, a nobleman was riding at night upon a road which goes near the edge of the precipice here mentioned. Mistaking his way (and that for a few steps only) his horse stopped short, and refused to go on; upon which the rider, who in all probability was heated with liquor, (otherwise he ought to have known the precipice better, it being not far from his own castle) lost both his temper and prudence, and spurred the horse with great anger; upon which the poor beast took a desperate leap, intending, as was imagined, to have reached another angle of the precipice on the same side which the road lay. The horse fell directly into the torrent, two or three hundred feet beneath, and was hurried away with such rapidity that the body was never found. The nobleman was discovered next day in an opening of the rock, about half-way down, where a few bushes grew; and, as the saddle was found not far from him, it was supposed that the horse, by the violence of the effort he made, burst the saddle-girths. The rider lived many years after this wonderful escape, and, out of gratitude to God, erected a beautiful chapple on the edge of the precipice, dedicated (if I mistake not) to St. Anthony of Padua.

I made a drawing of the chapple, precipice, torrent, and nobleman's castle; of which a copy was taken afterwards by the celebrated draftsman Visentini, at Venice, in 1750: It makes the vignette, or ornamental copper-plate prefixed to this Poem.

Moly. Homer's Odyssey L. XI, v 305.

After Atticus, or [purple Italian] Star-wort. Georg. IV, v 271.

Alluding to that particular species of green called by the French pomme-verte, or apple-green.

“My heart is a vain and wandering heart, whenever it is led by its own determinations. It is busy to no purpose, and occupied to to no end, whenever it is not guided by divine influence: It seeketh rest and findeth none: It agreeth not with itself: It alters resolutions, changeth judgement, frames new thoughts, and suppresses old ones; pulls down every thing, and re-buildeth nothing; in short, it never continueth in the same state.” St. Bernard. Meditat.

“Seest thou the luminary of the greater world in the highest pitch of meridian glory; where it continueth not, but descends in the same proportion as it ascended? Look next and consider if the light of this lower world is more permanent? Continuance is the child of Eternity, and not of Time.” Ex. Vet. Ascet.

Tobit Ch. iii, v 17.

“All vices wax old by age: Covetousness (and Ambition) alone grow young.” Ex. Vet. Ascet.

“Why are earth and ashes proud? There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man: for such an one setteth his own soul to sale, because, while he liveth, he casteth away his bowels;” i.e. is a stranger to compassion. Ecclus. Ch. x, v 9.

“All vices wax old by age: Covetousness (and Ambition) alone grow young.” Ex. Vet. Ascet.

“Why are earth and ashes proud? There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man: for such an one setteth his own soul to sale, because, while he liveth, he casteth away his bowels;” i.e. is a stranger to compassion. Ecclus. Ch. x, v 9.

ΠΑΡΑΚΛΗΤΟΣ: The Comforter; The Holy Spirit. John Ch. xiv, v 16–26. Dryden first introduced the word Paraclete into the English language, in his translation of the Hymn Veni Creator Spiritus: As also in his Britannia Rediviva:

Rom. Ch. viii, v 39.