The Attamen inter se prostrati in gramine molli of the poet, bring strongly to recollection two exquisite morsels in Gray: Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch A broader browner shade, Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech Beside some water's rushy brink, There at the foot of yonder nodding beech Many passages which powerfully appeal to the heart, and which may, indeed, be esteemed very striking instances of the pathetic, Lucretius has interspersed through his poem, and with one or two of these I shall decorate my pages. The lines which follow have been imitated by Spenser in his Fairy Queen. Nec ratione alia Proles cognoscere Matrem, Nec minùs atque homines inter se nota cluere. _ hence alone, Hence the fond mother knows her tender young, The tender young their mother: 'midst the brutes As clear discern'd, as man's sublimer race.— Thus oft, before the sacred shrine, perfum'd With spires of frankincense, th' unweeting calf Pours, o'er the altar, from his breast profound, The purple flood of life: but, wand'ring wild O'er the green sward, the plaintive dam bereft Beats, with her hoof, the deep-indented dale; Each spot exploring, if, perchance, she still May trace her idol: thro' th' umbrageous grove Descriptions of this kind impress us with a very favourable idea of the tenderness and humanity of the poet. What can more deliciously paint the ardours of domestic affection than the ensuing lines: At jam non domus accipiet te læta; neque uxor Lib. iii. 907. They have not escaped the pathetic Virgil: Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati. Geo. ii. 523. and the elegiac Muse of Gray has imbibed the very spirit of the Roman: For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care: No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. Thomson has thus depicted circumstances of a congenial nature: In vain for him the officious wife prepares F Winter, 311. |