Ecquid ago precibus? pectufne agrefte movetur ? 245 Gods! can no pray'rs, no fighs, no numbers move O launch thy bark, fecure of profp'rous gales; If you will fly - (yet ah! what cause can be, Too cruel youth, that you should fly from me?) 255 If not from Phaon I must hope for ease, A ARGUMENT. BELARD and Eloïfa flourished in the twelfth Century; they were two of the most distinguished perfons of their age in learning and beauty, but for nothing more famous than for their unfortunate paffion. After a long courfe of calamities, they retired each to a several Convent, and confecrated the remainder of their days to religion. It was many years after this feparation, that a letter of Abelard's to a Friend, which contained the hiftory of his misfortune, fell into the hands of Eloïfa. This awakening all her tenderness, occafioned thofe celebrated letters (out of which the following is partly extracted) which give fo lively a picture of the struggles of grace and nature, virtue and paffion. P. |