By the young Trojan to his gilded bark
With fond reluctance, yielding modesty,
And oft reverted eye, as if she knew not
Whether she fear'd, or wish'd to be pursued.

196

HYMN TO IGNORANCE.

A FRAGMENT.

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 75. Supposed to be written about the year 1742, when Gray returned to Cambridge.]

HAIL, horrors, hail! ye ever gloomy bowers,
Ye gothic fanes, and antiquated towers,
Where rushy Camus' slowly-winding flood
Perpetual draws his humid train of mud:

Manasses, in his Annales," (see Meursii Opera, vol. vii. p. 390):

Δειρὴ μακρὰ κάταλευκος, ὅθεν ἐμυθουργήθη

Κυκνογενῆ τὴν εὐόπτον Ελένην χρημάτιζειν.

And so also in the Antehomerica of Tzetzes, ed. Jacobs. p. 115 (though the passage is corrupted).

"That soft cheek springing to the marble neck,
Which bends aside in vain."

Akenside. Pl. of Imag. b. i. p. 112. ed. Park.

V. 197. See Milton. Par. L. iv. 310:

"Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
And sweet, reluctant amorous delay.

Luke.

V. 1. " Hail, horrors, hail!" Milton. Par. L. i. 205. V. 3. "Jam nec arundiferum mihi cura revisere Camum,” Miltoni Eleg. i. 11. and 89. "juncosas Cami remeare paludes." Luke.

Glad I revisit thy neglected reign,

Oh take me to thy peaceful shade again.

5

10

Butchiefly thee, whose influence breathed from high
Augments the native darkness of the sky;
Ah, ignorance! soft salutary power!
Prostrate with filial reverence I adore.
Thrice hath Hyperion roll'd his annual race,
Since weeping I forsook thy fond embrace.
Oh say, successful dost thou still oppose
Thy leaden ægis 'gainst our ancient foes?
Still stretch, tenacious of thy right divine,
The massy sceptre o'er thy slumb'ring line?
And dews Lethean through the land dispense
To steep in slumbers each benighted sense?
If any spark of wit's delusive ray
Break out, and flash a momentary day,
With damp, cold touch forbid it to aspire,
And huddle up in fogs the dang'rous fire.

15

Oh say—she hears me not, but, careless grown, Lethargic nods upon her ebon throne.

Where rivers now

Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train."

Milton. Par. Lost, vii. 310.

V. 14. "To hatch a new Saturnian age of lead."

Pope. Dunciad, i. 28. And so in the speech of Ignorance in " Henry and Minerva," by I. B. 1729 (one among the poetical pieces bound up by Pope in his library, and now in my possession): Myself behind this ample shield of lead,

Will to the field my daring squadrons head." V. 17. "Let Fancy still my sense in Lethe steep." Shakesp. T. Night. act iv. sc. 1. Luke. V. 22. "Here Ignorance in steel was arm'd, and there Cloath'd in a cowl, dissembled fast and pray'r;

Goddess! awake, arise! alas, my fears!
Can powers immortal feel the force of years?
Not thus of old, with ensigns wide unfurl'd,
She rode triumphant o'er the vanquish'd world;
Fierce nations own'd her unresisted might,
And all was ignorance, and all' was night.

25

30

Oh! sacred age! Oh! times for ever lost! (The schoolman's glory, and the churchman's boast.) For ever gone-yet still to fancy new, Her rapid wings the transient scene pursue, And bring the buried ages back to view. High on her car, behold the grandam ride Like old Sesostris with barbaric pride;

a team of harness'd monarchs bend

35

Against my sway her pious hand stretch'd out,
And fenc'd with double fogs her idiot rout."
Henry and Minerva.

And so in the Dunciad, b. i. ver. 80:

"All these, and more, the cloud-compelling queen Beholds thro' fogs that magnify the scene.'

V. 25.

66

Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen!"
Milt. P. L. i. 330. Luke.

V. 37. "Sesostris-like, such charioteers as these

May drive six harness'd monarchs if they please." Young. Love of Fame, Sat. v. High on his car, Sesostris struck my view, Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew." Pope. T. of Fame. Luke.

And so S. Philips. Blenheim, v. 16:

"As curst Sesostris, proud Egyptian king,
That monarchs harness'd to his chariot yok'd."

THE ALLIANCE OF

EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT.

A FRAGMENT.*

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 99 ; and Musæ Etonenses, vol. ii. p. 152.]

ESSAY I.

Πόταγ ̓, ὦ 'γαθέ· τὰν γὰρ ἀοιδὰν
Οὔτι πα εἰς Αΐδαν γε τὸν ἐκλελάθοντα φυλαξεις.

Theocritus, Id. I. 63.

As sickly plants betray a niggard earth,
Whose barren bosom starves her generous birth,
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains,
Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins :
And as in climes, where winter holds his reign, 5
The soil, though fertile, will not teem in vain,
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies:

Var. V. 2. Barren] Flinty. Ms.

* In a note to his Roman History, Gibbon says: "Instead of compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the philosophic poem of which he has left such an exquisite specimen ?" Vol. iii. p. 248. 4to.-Would it not have been more philosophical in Gibbon to have lamented the situation in which Gray was placed; which was not only not favourable to the cultivation of poetry, but which naturally directed his thoughts to those learned inquiries, that formed the amusement or business of all around him?

10

So draw mankind in vain the vital airs,
Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares,
That health and vigour to the soul impart, [heart:
Spread the young thought, and warm the opening
So fond instruction on the growing powers
Of nature idly lavishes her stores,

If equal justice with unclouded face
Smile not indulgent on the rising race,

And scatter with a free, though frugal hand,
Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land:
But tyranny has fix'd her empire there,

15

To check their tender hopes with chilling fear, 20 And blast the blooming promise of the year.

This spacious animated scene survey,

From where the rolling orb, that gives the day,
His sable sons with nearer course surrounds
To either pole, and life's remotest bounds,
How rude so e'er th' exterior form we find,
Howe'er opinion tinge the varied mind,
Alike to all, the kind, impartial heav'n

Var. V. 19. But tyranny has] Gloomy sway have. мs.
V. 21. Blooming] Vernal. Ms.

25

V. 9. "Vitales auras carpis," Virg. Æn. i. 387. Luke. V. 14. And lavish nature laughs and throws her stores around," Dryden. Virgil, vii. 76. Luke.

V. 21.

Luke.

Destroy the promise of the youthful year," Pope. Vert. and Pomona, 108. "On mutual wants, build mutual happiness." Pope. Ep. iii. 112. V. 47. "Bellica nubes," Claudiani Laus Seren. 196.

V. 36.

Luke.

66 Cim

V. 48. So Claudian calls it, Bell. Getico, 641, brica tempestas." Pope. Hom. Od. 5, 303, "And next a